The City of Ontario is pleased to announce that Business Oregon awarded an additional $135,000 to the city to support small businesses. These funds will be used to leverage the city’s existing micro-loan program with matching grants for eligible businesses.

Businesses that received PPP and EIDL funds are now eligible to access these funds. Other criteria still apply. Additional information and program applications are available immediately at https://www.ontariooregon.org/businessloanfund.html under the Phase 3 Funding banner. Application must be returned to Kari Ott at 444 SW 4th Street Ontario, OR 97914 or by email at kott@opgcpa.com.
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For questions, please contact Finance Director, Kari Ott at (541) 573-6151 or by email at kott@opgcpa.com.

The Ontario Municipal Airport hereby announces its proposed Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation goal of 1.7% for FAA-funded contracts/agreements. The proposed goal pertains to federal fiscal years 2021 through 2023. A teleconference will be held from 10:30 to 11:30 am MDT on August 25, 2020 for the purpose of consulting with stakeholders to obtain information relevant to the goal-setting process.  The telephone number for this teleconference is 1-877-366-0711 and the participant code is 82074064#.

In June 2020 City Council approved a resolution waiving utility bills for the months of April, May, and June for businesses that closed or had their revenue reduced by more than 50%. Please return application to Kari Ott, 444 SW 4th Street, Ontario, OR 97914 or email kott@opgcpa.com.

Applications are available on the utility billing page or directly here. 

Chip sealing will take place next week on June 17. Public Works provided information regarding the process to residents this week. The process will begin at 6 am on the 16th on SW 9th Street and SW 4th Avenue and head north to Idaho Avenue. They will continue on NW 9th Street to NW 8th Avenue, then they will chip seal from NW 9th Street to North Oregon on NW 8th Avenue. Signs will be placed along the section. A complete map is provided below. 

Map of Chip Seal 6/17

South Oregon Businesses,  
We are still building our database of business owners. Feel free to share this email with your business neighbors, because we want to keep you as informed as possible.  
 
When this was bid, everything was shut down because of COVID-19. The City Council held a special meeting to award the project so that the contractor could get started while you were closed. After that had already been approved, the state announced plans to open. It just so happened that that was the day the contractor was able to get started. We have been working on this project for 3 ½ years and we feel like this will really attract more patrons downtown.  
 
I walked Oregon Street from SW 4th St. to Idaho Avenue last Thursday handing out postcards about how to sign up for alerts and to talk with you regarding the schedule. We also pushed it out on Facebook. If you want to find out the most current information about the project use this link.   Also, to be added to our list serve send an email to soregonproject@ontariooregon.org .
 
We have ordered signs to put at each intersection telling drivers which businesses are on each block. They will be ready today or tomorrow. We have also ordered some parking arrows for downtown to direct shoppers toward available parking.  

The construction didn’t start out as I expected it to. The contractor took the approach of ripping off the band aid, meaning they wanted to get in and get out. We ended up having to intervene Monday and yesterday as we heard from you. We will maintain access to all of the businesses store fronts during the entire construction process. Because of the contractor’s work surge, construction is currently running ahead of schedule.   
 
We went over the schedule this morning and I think this is good news. The contractor will be pouring concrete curbs on Friday for the intersections at 4th Avenue and 3rd Avenue. Oregon will be opened up over the weekend.   They will be pouring sidewalks on Monday and Tuesday. The sidewalks can be walked on the very next day. Following sidewalk repair, they will conduct minor stormwater repairs around 3rd and 4th Avenues. As son as that is done, they will move up to the corners of 1st and 2nd Avenues.
 
While the construction team and the City will work diligently to maintain the schedules below, please be patient if changes occur due to challenges such as inclement weather, unanticipated subsurface conditions, and further COVID 19 restrictions, etc. Please check the website for updates. 
 
Benefits for you and other businesses who had to close
Lastly, I want to tell you about a couple of helps for business owners that had to shut down. First, the City Council asked me to prepare a resolution waiving utility fees for businesses who had to close and for the time period you were closed.  
 
Second, the City started a microloan program of up to $5,000 with a 6 month grace period and then a 24-month payback at 1%. Because we had that program in place, the state allowed us to add funding from them for a matching grant. This is for businesses with less than 24 employees who did not get funding through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). So if we get approved you could get a grant equal to the loan amount. We hope to hear approvals quickly. The state wants their money spent by the end of June. So in other words, you can get the state money for free. We will provide more information.

City of Ontario, Oregon
Adam J. Brown
City Manager

During the past month, the City of Ontario’s wastewater treatment lagoon has experienced odor issues.  The odors are the result of seasonal water temperature changes that bring decomposing biosolid gases to the lagoon surface which are then dispersed by wind.   

City staff are implementing all available mitigation measures to address this issue in the near term and the City has committed funds to remove the biosolids build up later this year. Removal of the biosolids build up should solve the problem going forward. The City appreciates the patience of the community as we remedy this problem.

​For questions, please contact Public Works Director, Cliff Leeper at (541) 889-8572.

The Malheur County Building Department released the following regarding the magnitude 6.5 earthquake which occurred on March 31, 2020 northeast of Boise. The release includes information on reviewing property for damage and earthquake related resources.

​Read here.