​Border Board
I attended the Border Board Meeting on Monday. It looks like the state is tying up their housing incentive program. They said it could take a while before it gets approved. Meanwhile some of their grant and loan programs will open at the end of the month and be reviewed at the end of March. One of those could be funding for the Airport Master Plan.

Airport
We had a meeting at the Airport with TVCC. Mayor Riley Hill attended as well as the FBO and President Dana Young from TVCC. We spoke through some of the needs and what we are currently working on with the sewer and fiber extensions.

Budget
I met with the Finance Director and reviewed progress on our budget. Budgets from departments were due last week. We are scheduling meetings with them the week of the 13th through 17th.

SRCI
We spent two hours reviewing the newest iteration of the SRCI contracts for both sewer and water. 

Housing Taskforce
The Malheur United Task Force met Friday morning. We reviewed the Presbyterian property. Amazingly, we have organizations in the community who will be applying for funding for numerous housing units in an upcoming state grant cycle.

Senior Center
I had lunch at the senior center, by invitation. I was able to see the needs first hand that the mayor brought to our attention. Jacobs will have someone help us with an estimate for the grant writer. I had several calls with the grant writer and connected him to a local citizen who has been an advocate with the facility. So, there has been a lot of conversation between the 3 of us this week.

Downtown Plan
I spent a lot of time working on the downtown plan. It may appear that we are implementing this disjointedly, but what we are doing is just biting off chunks of the Downtown Master Plan. We just aren’t doing it all at once. However, you can see that everything we have been doing as a city is from our Downtown Master Plan.

Fire & Rescue
The Chief started off the new year with quite a few meetings.  Transitional housing planning, Rural Fire District, PDACs X 2, Malheur County Emergency Management Team, Malheur County traffic safety board.

On January 7 the crews trained on radio communications. On the 6th of January the crew had a college student ride along for exposure to the department.  On January 9 we hosted a car seat fitting clinic.

Incidents:   12/23   Rescue 1 responded to a garbage truck on fire.  12/28 The crew responded to a cooking fire.  12/29 Rescue 1 responded to some burning trash containers.  1/6 The crew responded to SRCI for a transformer fire. 1/9 The staff responded to a motor vehicle crash that had leaking fluids they had to contain.  

Police
Chief Romero spent a good part of this week developing OPD’s written Standard Operating Procedures for what will become OPD’s new Investigations Unit. This organizational restructuring is intended to improve OPD’s investigative efficiency and effectiveness, improve crime information gathering and dissemination, assist with OPD’s strategic policing initiatives and will provide improved technical skills and training for OPD personnel.

Jan 7th- Chief Romero met with TVCC’s Computer Science department to explore potential data visualization platforms for OPD crime stats and fleet tracking. Chief Romero would like to expand OPD’s public notification of area crime statistics and visual crime mapping. 

Field Services
Jan 6th-Chief Romero and OPD personnel conducted a foot pursuit and search for a known, wanted felony warrant suspect, in the area of Beck Kiwanis Park. Suspect evaded arrest this time, but OPD will continue to seek out his current location.

Jan 7th- OPD patrol personnel conducted directed enforcement in area of 5th Ave and SE 2nd Street due to complaints about excessive slurry waste leakage from commercial transporters.

Jan 8th -OPD officers did a great job apprehending a burglar in the North east part of town, who was reported by a very astute and attentive community member.

Jan 9th- OPD personnel took a few minutes break at the Brookdale Senior Living facility to be recognized by our retired community on National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Great wisdom shared with OPD and a lot of great smiles on our seniors faces.

Public Works
Field Services
CPR/ First aid training was providing for all staff. It was a worthwhile and a good course provided by one of our local fire fighters.

Staff moved gravel piles at the old city shop area in anticipation of homeless shelters soon coming to that location.

Staff addressed a water main break at 4th and Oregon. A defective fitting was the root cause. The repair was made in less than 4 hours and with minimal outage to local customers. Good job staff on addressing and correcting what could have been a real problem.

Sweeping continues as needed.

Water
Meetings were held on our long-term water master plan. It was a positive meeting identifying future goals and milestones for completion.

Additional sampling continues to meet new permit requirements for the water system.

Staff had to trouble shoot and repair the chlorine generation system. Our current equipment is showing its age, it has been in service since 2004.

Wastewater
Groundwater sampling was completed this week, we have several water monitoring wells that surround the wastewater treatment plant and they must be sampled and analyzed for any potential leakage from out treatment ponds. This is a routine event mandated by permit requirements.

Parks and Cemetery
New tables that were purchased are being put together and will be placed throughout the parks in the spring.

We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process.  This continues as a work in progress.

​Engineering
The engineer is staying busy with SRCI contract negotiations, the Water Master Plan, and preparation for budget meetings to be held next month.

Happy New Year!

Work Session
Thursday is the January work session. It’s the day for the Mayor and Council to make appointees to boards and commissions. If anyone is interested in applying, you can click here to fill out an application.  
 
Gun Surrender 
HB2013 authorized a surrender of guns for persons who have been charged with certain crimes. The Ontario Police Department has chosen not to take on this responsibility. The State Police and Nyssa Police Department will be accepting gun surrenders.
 
Jacobs Meeting
I met with Jacobs senior staff on Monday to catch up on a few projects. It was productive because they are great partners to work with.
 
Transitional Housing 
We are moving forward with the transitional housing project.
 
Community & Economic Development
 Staff is reviewing 8 building applications this week and has issued 4 building permits this past week.
 
Dan with the help of Al Haun from Jacobs constructed and staked the Airport sewer extension project this week and provided the cut sheet for construction which is planned to get started in the next few weeks.
 
Staff is continuing the process of reviewing a subdivision application and construction plan that is planned to be constructed this spring. Dan met with Jacobs staff this week to review construction plans for street and infrastructure development.

Police
Chief Romero spent much of the week with LT. Cooper and Sheri Smith preparing OPD’s 2020-2021 budget proposal. The Chief’s wish (goal) is to enhance staff’s overall professional development and to procure much needed safety equipment for the OPD officers.

Jan 2nd- Chief Romero attended the DA’s Law Enforcement Executive Staff meeting, to discuss current criminal justice issues throughout the county and to discuss goals and objectives for countywide initiatives for 2020.  Chief Romero will be drafting a multi-agency, crime impact initiative plan, that will be submitted to the DA and all Malheur County law enforcement executives. The plan will propose a multi-agency, ‘force multiplying’ approach for strategic policing; the plan seeks to target specific violent crime activity and criminals that are the cause of recurring criminal activity throughout Malheur County.

Dec 30th-Chief Romero attended and conducted a brief “Citizens on Patrol” introduction at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Luncheon. Citizens on Patrol did a great job presenting to the Chamber. What an amazing group of volunteers. They need more help. Anyone interested please pick up an application at city hall.  

Dec 30th- Chief Romero met with the Ontario Boys and Girls Club to discuss the re-launching of the club’s “Great Futures Campaign.” Chief Romero will be serving on the 2020 Board of Directors for the B & G Club.  

OPD officers did a great job maintaining peace and order on New Year’s Eve through a productive and proactive approach. OPD staffed a few extra officers during the peak hours and is glad to report that the City of Ontario did not experience any significant incidents during the holiday. 

Public Works
Field Services
This a continuation from last week; we have approximately 30% of the lines cleared at TVCC and will be working on this task as time allows through the coming month.

Water service line and meter boxes were repaired through town as needed.

Staff continue building 30 new barricades for general use throughout town.

Signs were installed for school zone at Alameda and 18th as per request of the church school located there.

Water
Heinz is offline for winter holiday break.

Additional sampling continues to meet new permit requirements for the water system.

Clarifier #1 and #2 Wes Tech unit off line for cleaning and maintenance.

Wastewater
Additional investigations of SCADA alarms systems at the facility; we are looking at additional options to provide better response time for alarms. This is a work in progress.

Weekly inspections of the equipment and buildings including maintenance and trouble shooting.

Additional samples were taken based on our new NPDES permit.

Review of our sample tracking tool to assure samples are taken and not missed. This is done daily along with weekly and monthly review.

​Parks and Cemetery
We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process.