No council meeting next week
We have no items for a second meeting, so no meeting on Tuesday night. Next one will be on March 5.  

Legislative
We heard word back from Salem that our marijuana bill will likely not be taken up this year. Senator Findley warned us about this since the Cap and Trade dominated so much of the session. 

Community Forum
I met with Eddie Thiel to talk about the next forum which will be on April 29. We came up with three items to present.  

Downtown Revitalization
We want to show the public that all of the things we are doing are part of the downtown plan that was revised and readopted in 2016. I think that may get lost in translation as we do little pieces each year, but they are really all connected and part of a grander vision.

What’s in the Budget
By the time of this forum the budget should be adopted and I’m thinking that one of you could present what was funded for 2020-2021.

Code Enforcement
I thought this would be a good educational opportunity to talk about responsible dog ownership and property care.  

Planning Commission
Met last Monday night. It was a very difficult issue that may come before you if the Old Owyhee Irrigation District appeals the decision. The decision was whether to cover the irrigation ditch at Warrington’s subdivision. If I understand it correctly, if the city makes Warrington cover up the ditch behind the subdivision by Sunset, then the City has to take on maintenance of the ditch. So, the planning commission decided to not require Warrington to cover it. None of the other properties around it have covered their portion.

Public Works Committee
The committee met last Tuesday and reviewed the capital projects plan for the upcoming year. They spent 1 ½ hours going over the projects. Staff took feedback on the projects.  

Projects
The City Engineer and Public Works Director reviewed projects with me last week. I’ve made it a point to track all the projects so that we can be accountable to the budget committee.  

Budget
We spent a lot of time working on the budget and the capital improvement program. Our leadership team met last Wednesday to prioritize each request using the city council’s strategic plan. Kari and Peter have done a great job pulling together everything. We are on target for getting our budget to the budget committee, next Tuesday, two weeks prior to committee meetings.  

Downtown Repaving Project
Peter and I walked downtown from 4th to Idaho and back handing out fliers to businesses for the upcoming information session next Thursday. It was a good opportunity to connect with businesses. The sessions are at 9 AM at Pro-Soul Games and 5:30 PM at Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida. We will present the project to businesses and then listen to questions, concerns, requests, and anything else our businesses want to talk about.  

Housing Forum
The housing forum went well. I believe there was about 80 to 100 people there. It feels like there is momentum building in the community to do something, but it’s hard to tell if those 100 people represent the community. I need to know if you get the same feeling to help determine if that’s the case.   

Energy Savings Project
We have a date to sit down with Ameresco. It looks like they have found some savings for us.  

Transitional Shelter – Two buildings showed up last Wednesday. Six more are scheduled for delivery next week. We put up lights for Nichols on our side of the property line to light up their parking lot. Bob Kemble sent me a thank you note. I think they may become operational after the next five are delivered.  
The Malheur County United Housing Taskforce met again today. 

Japanese Consul Visit – We were honored to have the visit from the Japanese Consul. He is on his way out. A new one will be coming for the states of Oregon and Idaho. As they are well known for, he was extremely gracious, pleasant, and kind to be with.  
Airport / BLM Project – We had our conference call with the BLM Wednesday and they really want us to push it to the southeast side. I think that’s our best route at this point. That will help that side build out faster which means the other side will get developed sooner. We are working on an application for the planning grant from Border Board and with Business Oregon. I believe the $2.5 million will probably just cover the asphalt. We can finance the building through business Oregon or through a private developer.  
STF/STIF – Our committee met on Thursday (STF and STIF). These two committees review the mass transit funding coming to our community. Malheur Council on Aging has ordered four more vehicles and is extending hours of bus service with new funding. Our local funding leverages a great deal of Federal funding, so obviously it’s very important for them.  
Urban Fishery – Councilor Crume put staff in touch with someone from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife about working with us at Beck Park to create a better Urban Fishery. This has been something Cliff Leeper has been passionate about so I asked him to follow through on it. Cliff made contact today and they assured him there was funding opportunities to help with stocking the pond and maybe docks for fishing. We are scheduling a meeting in the next two weeks. Very exciting. This aligns with your Strategic Plan. 
Community & Economic Development 
Staff is reviewing 9 building applications this week and has issued 7 building permits this past week.  
TVCC started the foundation for their Career and Technical Education Center, their new 12,000 square foot building and we have started inspections for the project.  
The Planning Department is staying extremely busy finishing up the planning action from last year and we have already received 9 land use actions this year.  
Dan continues work on amending the Ontario Flood Plain Code (10A-47) to meet the new Oregon Model Code and federal regulations (FEMA) and will be bring the changes to the planning commission and Council soon.  
Staff is working on a new Project called Project VET Housing and the solar farm lease on the Stelling property that the Council previously approved. 
Police 
Chief Romero conducted a fraud prevention and education seminar for the elderly population at the Brookdale Senior Living Center in Ontario. Chief Romero’s presentation provided information on how to and where to report elder abuse (physical, mental, and financial); as well as how to identify the top 10 most common fraud scams used to victimize the senior population.  
Chief Romero met with area law enforcement leaders and supervisors to discuss the police reporting system infrastructure and a multi-agency enforcement operation plan as a strategy to impact the rate of property crimes throughout the city and county. A tentative plan and date have been set with OPD hosting the crime impact efforts.   
Chief Romero attended the Eastern Oregon-Idaho Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run planning session in Caldwell, ID. OPD has been solicited to be a participant in the upcoming Special Olympics LE Torch Run, which will be held in Caldwell, Idaho this June 2020. Tentatively, OPD will do the symbolic torch run in Ontario. Details are still developing.  
Chief Romero spent several days in the field assessing traffic related concerns (speeding, parking near high school, traffic collision prone areas, and onion slurry) in order to develop a long-term response plan for OPD, in the absence of a designated traffic enforcement officer, detail, or unit.  
Field Services 
This week, OPD investigated numerous traffic collisions and the usual garden variety of calls for service. 
OPD had a foot pursuit and arrested a felony warrant suspect that had been sought for some time. 
OPD investigated an incident at Beck-Kiwanis Park, where a male who was walking his dog brandished a handgun after a dog (not on a leash) approached him and his leashed dog. The non-leashed dog owner filed a report with OPD about the gun being publicly brandished. The case is under investigation. The paper reported on this in addition to our cameras. Now the cameras are a good idea! 
OPD is currently engaged in several high priority Grand Jury Trials that resulted from cases from 2019 and prior.  
Code Enforcement 
Our Code Enforcement Officers continue to respond to a high number of dogs “Running-At-Large” calls but where able to issue various new property abatement notices this week. 
Chronic location (672 NW 2nd Street). Extreme levels of trash, debris and abandoned personal property. Property is a bank owned repossession. CEO’s will be reaching out to the bank’s Loss Mitigation Department and property management in hopes of having the property cleaned up soon. 
Fire & Rescue 
The Deputy State Fire Marshal, building official, and Chief toured a well-designed and approved marijuana production facility, from new plants all the way through the retail portion. Chief met with a property owner that is installing some modular homes on access issues and other fire requirements. 
The staff did training with the thermal image camera, and interior hose pulls at the training house on NW. 11th St.  Some of the staff practiced forcible entry, ropes, and knots. 
Incidents   
Both city and rural apparatus responded to a mutual aid request on the Oregon Slope from Payette Rural Fire Department for a fully involved residential fire.  Rescue 1 responded to a controlled illegal burn along I-84 at a homeless camp.  The crew responded to alarms for smoke detector and carbon monoxide activations.  Both incidents were equipment issues. 
 
Public Works 
Field Services 
The tree project continues East Idaho. Trees have been delivered and are slated for planting early this spring. A total of 32 trees will be planted both on East Idaho Avenue and other locations through the City. 
Light poles which were installed at the old city shop site to help light up Nichols Parking Lot close to the shelter were energized with new lights earlier this week. This has made a significant difference. Big kudos to Public Works for getting it done so quickly.  
Water 
Well 15 was taken offline. The well will be videoed. It may have to be taken offline and rehabbed. This well provided 2.5 million gallons a day when well systems are being used so it is imperative this be addressed and repaired as soon as practical. 
 A new regional maintenance staff member will be based out the Ontario location and will provide greater depth and quicker turn around for heavy maintenance projects. 
Wastewater 
The wastewater system is operating well. Weekly inspections of the equipment and buildings including maintenance and troubleshooting took place. NPDES permit sampling continues as per DEQ requirements. Tier I samples are being collected as well as required copper samples.  
The new contract farmer met with city staff to go over farm operations on both the Malheur and Skyline properties. A tour of both areas was completed. 
Parks and Cemetery 
We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process.  This process is almost fully completed. 
Trees at Evergreen Park are being pruned this week. 
Staff will be inspecting and replacing swing set bolts throughout parks system. This is done annually and is a task set up on computerized maintenance system. Additional bolts had to be ordered and have arrived and will be changed out this week. 
Newer more decorative trash cans were installed at Lions Park thanks to Jacobs. We would like to switch all of our cans to these more attractive receptacles. The new ones are the dark ones in the picture below. They match the ones downtown. We want to get rid of the can on a pole. 

Facilities 
The hot water tank at city hall continues to have issues. A new tank has been ordered and will be installed when it arrives.  
Engineering 
Work on the Water Master Plan and preparation for budget meetings continue. We have 90% construction docs for both the skate park bathroom and the downtown project.  

Community & Economic Development 
General Office 
Staff is keeping extremely busy again dealing with many phone calls and walk-ins from the general public. Staff members continue to scan the old planning records from the storage units to free up space as well as have a permanent archive record of the paper data which will be destroyed after ensuring that the digital data is backed up. At this point, we are at about 2/3rds done with the planning files and then we will start the Building Department records. 

Building Department 
Staff is reviewing 10 building applications this week and has issued 8 building permits this past week. Staff held two PDAC’s this week for new developments. 

Planning Department 
The Planning Department is keeping extremely busy with finishing up the planning action from last year and have already received 8 land use action this year. 

Flood Plain Administration 
Dan is continuing to work on amending Ontario Flood Plain Code (10A-47) to meet the new Oregon Model Code and federal regulations (FEMA) and will bring the changes to the Planning Commission and Council soon. 

Police 
Administration 
Feb 13th-Chief Romero coordinated and developed the “Shield of Dreams” Police-Youth engagement initiative Steering Committee, which is designed to enhance county-wide and regional, law enforcement and community efforts in reducing juvenile delinquency and recidivism rates, while improving police-youth relations. Funding is being sought through the U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office.  

Feb 13th-Chief Romero conducted an exit interview, with now former officer Skylar Johnson. Officer Johnson has taken new employment with OSP and was genuinely thankful for all that was provided to him during his employment with the City of Ontario. OPD now dips back down to 23 full time, sworn, police officers.  

Feb 14th-Chief Romero met with Malheur Enterprise Chief Editor Les Zaitz who requested an interview with the chief regarding community concerns, police response and Chief Romero’s early experiences with the Ontario Police Department and community. No known article to be published at this time.   

Weekly-IT Manager Sheri Smith and IT specialist Kenneth Monson began the task of installing 12 new agency computers to replace the aging fleet of OPD computers. Smith reports that all OPD officers and code enforcement officers are now equipped with portable tablets as well.  

Field Services 
This week, OPD officers made an arrest of two suspects who are suspected of damaging property by shooting out car windows with a BB-Gun. These suspects are suspected in numerous cases throughout Ontario and Nyssa. Charges are being sought against both for multiple counts of Criminal Mischief.   

Feb 10th- OPD conducted directed traffic enforcement efforts on SW 4th Avenue from the belt line to Dorian Drive as a result of complaints of speeding vehicles in the area.  

Feb 11th- OPD engaged in a short vehicle pursuit of an auto theft suspect who eventually evaded OPD but was captured in Idaho by Idaho law enforcement after he crashed and “rolled” the vehicle he was driving. The 19-year-old suspect was lucky to walk away with his life after the crash.   

Code Enforcement 
Our Code Enforcement Officers stayed quite busy through the continued training of our newer officer, who initiated his first property abatement action this week and focused on parking enforcement. Officer Reyna has begun to settle in well and is showing great promise and energy for improving our community.   

Fire & Rescue 
Meetings
2/12- Chief attended 3 PDACs for future projects. 2/13- The Malheur County Emergency Management Team and Local LEPC had some good material presented to the largest crowd of businesses and emergency responders we’ve seen at these meetings. Chief attended with a guest rider the Traffic safety meeting. 

Inspections
Inspections were done at St Al’s and the Quality Inn motel, both involving fire alarm systems. 

Training
2/11- The staff was at the burn house again doing Rapid Incident Team (RIT) and ladder evolutions. 2/13- A few members did Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) drills. 

Events
The staff had a rider from Vale High School that working on his Senior project.  He spent time with the staff and saw how exciting the Chief’s days full of meetings can be.  A car seat clinic was also hosted at the fire station by Sheri Smith and some fire staff. 

Incidents
Rescue 1 responded to a call on Manor Way to assist OPD gain access to the building.  Rescue 1 responded to a carbon monoxide problem in a home at 196 SW 6th Avenue. 

Airport 
Sewer line trenching and laying of pipe is complete. Three stub outs are put in place for future use and manhole covers are set to grade. Final surface grading, asphalt, curb repair and cleanup are next. 

Public Works 
Field Services 
A series of storm water lines at TVCC are being jet rodded to clear the silt from the summer irrigation season. This a continuation from last week. We have approximately 40% of the lines cleared and will be working on this task as time allows through the coming month. 

A new meter was installed at one of our industrial water users. Water service was shut off and a new meter and setter assembly were installed. 

Signs that did not meet reflectivity standards have all been replaced with new signs. 

The tree project continues on East Idaho Avenue. Trees, stumps, and ground cover have been removed. The next phase will include filter fabric and irrigation systems. The target for planting is mid-March to early April. 

The boil water advisory on 4 services at TVCC was lifted on Sunday, February 8. Bacteriological testing indicated negative results for E Coli. 

Additional light poles were installed at the old city shop site.  Electricity and lights will be added in the very near future. Fencing was erected at the site of the homeless shelter. 

Weekly maintenance checks on lift stations and sewer cleaning were performed. 

Water 
The water plant is operating well with inventories at target level. System demands for this time of the year are normal. River levels are stable and river water quality is very good for this time of the year. 

Well 15 was taken offline and will be videoed. It may have to be taken offline and rehabbed. This well provided 2.5 million gallons a day when well systems are being used so it is imperative this be addressed and repaired as soon as practical. 

A newly hired Operator began for our water and wastewater system, he will be training at the water plant. He will shadow operations staff and learn to operate the system. 

Water booster pump 3 at westside reservoir was taken offline due to bearing noise. This pump will be pulled and rebuilt. Pump 4 will be pulled and rebuilt after 3 comes back online. 

Additional sampling was completed as per permit requirements. 

Wastewater 
The wastewater system is operating well. Weekly inspections of the equipment and buildings including maintenance and trouble shooting took place. NPDES permit sampling continues as per DEQ requirements. Tier I samples are collected as well as required copper samples.  

Parks and Cemetery 
Normal winter operations associated with Parks and Cemetery upkeep and maintenance are taking place. We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process.   

Trees at Evergreen Park are being pruned this week 

Staff will be inspecting and replacing swing set bolts throughout parks system. This is done annually and is a task set up on a computerized maintenance system. 

New trash cans are being installed at the newest shelter at Lions Park. 

Facilities 
The hot water tank at city hall continues to have issues. The thermostat was replaced last week, and we are going to replace the heating elements this week. 

Engineering 
Water Master Plan work continues along with preparation for budget meetings.  

Transportation System Plan (TSP)
We held another conference call to get the TSP going. There is a lot of responsibility up front for the TSP on the city’s shoulders. Once get everything started then the consultants take over.

Tater Tot Festival 
Revitalize Ontario’s Tater Tot Festival Committee met with us this week. They are doing an amazing job planning for this event. I am very excited with what they have done. They appear to be very organized and they are learning from everybody they can about how to pull it off successfully. Public Safety was at the meeting and was very valuable in helping us with the safety of the event.

Community Development 
We had some great PDAC’s this week for some new development. Very exciting!

Affordable Housing Project 
We met with some of our community partners working on the affordable housing project.

Police
Administration
Feb 6th-Chief Romero attended the monthly Malheur County LE Executive session. Chief Romero, DA Goldthorpe, and other agency executives discussed recent case dispositions and upcoming, joint enforcement efforts, for a variety of countywide concerns.  

Chief Romero spent much of the week authoring a grant proposal for funding through the U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office. Chief Romero is pursuing funding for the development of a multi-sector, multi-discipline, crime prevention program that focuses on reducing juvenile delinquency while increasing community-based policing strategies regionally. OPD will serve as the lead agency and is conducting the first steering committee development session next Wednesday at TVCC. Stakeholders from both Oregon and Idaho have been invited to attend. 

Field Services
OPD arrested homeless subject who had assaulted his pregnant spouse.

SRO Elizondo seized commercial product of marijuana from a student at the middle school. 

Code Enforcement:
OPD CEO’s will start taking a firm approach towards dog owners who fail to properly control / care for their pets. This will result in less warnings and more administrative citations.

Weekly-CEO continues to be proactive in the downtown area focusing on discarded debris and trash in the alley ways. The goal is to help maintain a clean downtown that will be more appealing to all persons enjoying our downtown area for work or shopping. Blight suppression also works as a crime reducing tool. 
 
Fire & Rescue
Chief and some of the Rural board met with legal counsel for SRCI contract.  The Rural board also had their monthly meeting.

Saturday the staff had 3 members take their firefighter I practical test and 1 member take the firefighter II practical test. Tuesday drill night was a good class taught by Ridge Medford on the use and policies of naloxone/Narcan for narcotics overdoses.  Thursday night was an introduction to personal protective equipment for some new members. 

The crew responded to a small fire in a house that was some clothes that fell on a lamp and caught on fire.  The fire was extinguished, and the crew ventilated the smoke from the house.  That day the crew also responded to a car fire.  They contained the fire in the engine compartment with only smoke damage to the engine compartment.

Public Works
Field Services
A brief snow fall resulted in snow removal plan put into effect on Wednesday.

Brush and debris were removed from East Idaho, ground cover will be removed up prior to laying irrigation systems.
We experienced a 6” water main break at the new TVCC construction site, a newly cut in connection failed. Staff addressed the break and made repairs to the line . As a result of the outage a boil water advisory was issued for portions of TVCC. The advisory will remain in effect until the results of bacteriological samples can verify disinfection and water potability.

Water
New security cameras were installed and are functioning well.
Additional sampling was completed as per permit requirements.

Wastewater
Weekly inspections of the equipment and buildings including maintenance and trouble shooting.
NPDES permit sampling continues as per DEQ requirements.
​
Parks and Cemetery
We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process. 
A power pole was installed at Laxson Park to provide the required camera angles and communication.

Code Enforcement Officer
We had a huge crowd to swear in our new code enforcement officer. Apparently, he is well known in the community. I can tell you he has passion and drive. We can teach people jobs, but it’s hard to find that passion.

SEACT Meeting 
Dan Cummings and I were in the SEACT meeting on Monday in John Day. I was able to get some support for the marijuana distribution from the County Judge and the Chamber of Commerce.

Airport Committee 
The committee met this week and determined to push the construction back one year to get the full FAA funding. Otherwise we would have to split the project in two to do it and it would likely be wasteful to some extent as two separate projects.

Chamber of Commerce
Board met this week on Tuesday morning.

Budget Committee
Great job to Kari for preparing the forecast part of our budget process. I hope those who were not able to make it are feeling better.

Citizens Coalition of Ontario
I presented Council's strategic priorities at the community forum Wednesday night. Councilor Rodriguez was able to make it and the Mayor also. 

Skate Park Bathroom Grant Work progresses now between the Architect and the Recreation District and City on design.

Downtown Attraction Study and Wayfinding – We had an exciting meeting with our consultants.

Transportation System Plan 
We had a kick off meeting for the Transportation System Plan this week. This will be a year long process. Focus is a lot on East Idaho and I think we can get some trail focus in there too to coordinate with the Tater Tot Trail.

Homeless Shelter
At least one shelter was finished. I believe 5 more are very close. 

Budget 
Our staff leadership team reviewed all the new requests in the budget and made some prioritization based on the Council’s strategic plan.

Oregon Public Broadcast 
The Mayor spoke with OPB about our marijuana state distribution formula issue. I’ve had several comments from people that heard it.

Trail Webinar 
I participated in a trail funding webinar from the state. It gave me a few additional ideas and possible funding sources to pursue for our trail system.
 
Airport 
The Airport committee met Monday night and elected new officers. Jim Bain remained as chair, John Freeburg remained as vice chair and Barb Brody was elected to the position of secretary. The meetings will continue on the fourth Monday of each month through 2020 however the venue will change to the city council chambers. The Airport Committee made a recommendation to the City Council to delay the next phase of capital improvement until it could be fully funded in 2021. 

Work continues on updating hanger leases and managing compliance issues.

The installation phase of the security cameras is complete.
T
he equipment is in place to begin laying the sewer line that will connect the life flight hanger, FBO and then be stubbed out for future growth at the airport.

The grass is beginning to grow on our new runway.
 
Fire & Rescue 
This week was full of meetings, these included the Oregon state fire marshal hazmat rail car representative, three future Ontario development projects, and budget planning.  The Malheur County Ambulance District met to plan for some future preventative education. The Chief and Rural Board met with legal-council to progress on the SRCI fire protection contract. 
 
The staff had a great hands-on hose class at the practice burn house.  A few new members also worked on personal protective equipment. 
 
The staff responded on three false alarms and a burning complaint along with our normal numerous medical calls.   
 
Public Works
Field Services
A series of storm water lines at TVCC are being jet rodded to clear the silt from the summer irrigation season. This a continuation from last week , we have approximately 40 % of the lines cleared and will be working on this task as time allows through the coming month. This is a work in progress that will continue throughout the winter.

Sign maintenance, replacing faded signs throughout the community with new signs that meet reflective codes. This is a work in progress.

Trees along the northern section of  East Idaho were taken down this week as we move forward with our tree project, a total of 22 trees were removed and will be replaced with 10 trees. This project will move forward with new tree wells and grates, irrigation systems, and new ground cover in the coming weeks.
A new water main was cut in for the TVCC expansion

Water
We experience a power spike that has caused issues in multiple area of the water plant. We are working through those issues and treatment process is good. We believe this spike is related to a transformer that was blown in the area.
Mercury samples were taken as per state and federal regulations

​Wastewater
One of our chlorine contact basins were taken off line and cleaned.
Parks and Cemetery
The sewer line at the Beck Park bathrooms was replaced in connection with the bathroom remodel project.  End goal here is to put the Beck Park bathrooms back in service.
We are working with the new surveillance camera system installer to help in the installation process.  This continues as a work in progress.

Council Strategic Planning Session
The planning session was very valuable to staff to have guidance in putting together your budget.

Budget
We wrapped up meetings with individual departments early this week and next week we will use the strategic guidance to collaboratively put together a budget for the Budget Committee and City Council.

Chamber Leadership Program – We hosted the chamber leadership program this week. We were able to talk about what we do and how we work together to accomplish the city council’s goals.

Temporary Winter Shelter Project
We hosted a second community forum Thursday night to listen to thoughts on the winter shelter project. We had great attendance probably over 30, which was double last weeks meeting. The units are under production and awaiting inspections. Some could arrive on site next week. Everything else is ready to be place as soon as the units arrive.

Community Forum 
The Malheur Enterprise will be hosting the next community forum on homelessness on February 18. 

Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee 
The committee met on Wednesday night. It went very well, and we had good attendance from the committee. The committee authorized the chair to write a letter to the state on behalf of the committee to request a change to the distribution formula. They wanted to have a united front with the community on the issue.

Wayfinding and Downtown Attraction 
We met with Trademark in Boise on Thursday morning. Their first concepts really blew me away. The concepts for the wayfinding were equally impressive. They want to meet with our design committee next week. 

Ameresco – I spent the afternoon with Ameresco visiting city facilities for the energy efficiency study. They were very impressive in their questions to our staff. It looked to me like they are going to be able to pull together a project that self-funds improvements to our facilities.

Police
Chief Romero attended the Boys and Girls Club board meeting and “Great Futures” campaign Kickoff.

Chief Romero conducted an interview with the Argus Observer regarding the road slurry concern in the southeast area of the city. The chief hopes that a public service announcement approach with what will become a “ZERO TOLERANCE” enforcement approach will have a positive impact on this recurring community concern. Leslie reached out to me and Cliff Leeper about the spill on Monday.

Chief Romero and Detective Esplin finalized MOA & MOU contracts with a federal law enforcement agency to secure federal assets for assisting OPD with major crime cases as the chief deems necessary. If agreed upon by both agencies and appropriated by the city, OPD will also receive federal funding to cover the cost of any overtime, incurred by sworn OPD personnel during joint investigations.     

Chief Romero interviewed with Boise Channel 2. Channel 2 wants to run a follow-up story on the recent approval by city council to repair/replace OPD’s communications equipment, and the county’s recent grant request to conduct a study of the county’s radio system infrastructure, which is connected to OPD’s.

Field Services
Since 1/17/20 several Ontario Police Officers have made over 12 arrests, ranging from warrants, drug possessions, thefts, burglaries, unlawful entry into motor vehicles, criminal trespasses, fraud, recklessly endangering another person, strangulation and assaults. 

Officer Johnson investigated a robbery at Walmart where a female subject was attempting to steal property and upon being contacted by Walmart employees brandished a handgun. Walmart employees immediately backed off and called police. Officer Johnson working with Walmart and Idaho law enforcement agencies were able to identify the suspect and she was arrested in Idaho and will be facing numerous charges in Oregon.

Officer Llamas and Sgt Walters were able to locate a wanted subject, inside a vehicle and take him into custody for several outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants. This subject had been eluding Officers for several weeks and is the same subject referenced last week, that had fled in female attire. Chronic problem solved.

Sgt Walters and Officer Llamas arrested a male subject for an outstanding warrant and were able to recover a stolen four-wheeler that had been stolen from a residence in Malheur County. 

Llamas and Sgt Walters were able to locate and arrest a male subject that was in possession of a stolen credit card and had been committing fraudulent transactions with it in Ontario. 

Detective Esplin and Sgt Swank were able to seize approximately 4 ounces of Meth and prevent it from being distributed in our community and surrounding communities. This is part of a larger on-going investigation. 

Code Enforcement:
OPD ‘On-boarded’ our second full-time ordinance officer, Richard R. Reyna. OPD is appreciative for the support from the city council. Mr. Reyna will be in training for the next couple weeks and will be quite visible in our community.

Chronic blight location just south of second and vine restaurant was successfully abated. Property owner complied with notice and front yard was cleaned and debris was properly discarded. Location looks much more appealing and does not drag down the “Business of the year” any longer.

The OPD temporary dog kennel and surrounding area of the kennel (city hall) was cleaned out by our two code enforcement officers. The kennel and surrounding area looks new and OPD personnel are donating a dog house, dog bed, and new food and water bowls for the k-9’s that are at times, temporarily housed in the kennel.

The Chief wanted to share that on January 11th, Lieutenant Jason Cooper was selected as the Treasure Valley “Officer of the Year” by the Elks Lodge. Lt. Cooper was praised for his great contributions to OPD and Law Enforcement as a whole.
Office Manager/ IT Supervisor Sheri Smith was awarded “Police Support” person of the year and was praised for her many contributions over the year to OPD and to the community, through her traffic safety initiatives (Car seats & Traffic School instruction).

Public Works
Field Services
Crews responded to spill of unknown origins on SE 2nd, a street sweeper was dispatched, and the absorbent material swept up.

Sign maintenance, replacing faded signs throughout the community with new signs that meet reflective codes. This is a work in progress.

The water service for the homeless site was connected and a new frost-free faucet installed. Water is available at the location.

4 Staff members attended training in fall protection and confined space, this training was provided by one of Jacob’s in-house training professionals.

Water
The wood debris piles burned last week continue to smolder and should be completely out by the end of the week. Plans for adding soil and leveling the area are in the design phase.

A new water heater for our chlorine generation system was installed and is running as per design.

Wastewater
NPDES permit sampling continues as per DEQ requirements.
​
Bids were received on the Farming operations at the Malheur and Skyline properties. We hope to make a recommendation to you in the near future.

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

Ontario’s First Multi-Purpose Trail
We received bids for the Treasure Valley Connector Trail. 

Housing Incentive Program 
I was invited to meet with a group in another county who was interested in how our housing incentive program worked. It was good to listen to them talk about their challenges, because they are very similar.
 
Budget 
We began budget meetings with departments on Thursday and Friday. We had our first meetings with everyone but Public Works who we will catch next week.

Marijuana Letter
The marijuana letter Council approved last week was sent both by hard copy and email to all the legislators listed and Governor Kate Brown. I also copied the Argus Observer, Malheur Enterprise and the Oregonian. We are going to come in over our estimates (because we estimated conservatively) on the local tax more than enough to make up for the lack of State Revenue sharing. Of course, I would have been happier to underestimate both!

Transitional Housing Pilot Project 
​Things are moving at the site and we could see the first shelters on site as early as next week. We convened a meeting on Thursday night for the public to ask questions of Community in Action and Origins.

Police
Chief Romero conducted an in-person interview with Argus Observer reporter to discuss Chief’s 2020 OPD goals and objectives.

Chief Romero attended Steering committee meeting at TVCC for the new Athlete Mentorship Program (AMP), in order to finalize details for the program kick off on January 22nd, 2020 @ 4:00 pm at the TVCC Gym. Chief Romero invites all community members to come out and support this new outreach program and the TVCC athletics programs. TVCC will have a basketball game after the kick-off against Columbia Basin College.

OPD held a swearing in ceremony for new police officer Adam Clinton and new reserve officer Wesley Shaw. 

Chief Romero worked with OPD staff to review and develop updated public education literature and platforms for parking, animal control, and abatement concerns. Draft literature and ordinance amendment proposals have been submitted to the city manager for review, feedback, and additional development. The goal is to update and provide policies and protocols that are current and fall under “Best practices” standards. 

Ordinance efforts this week were focused on RV camping enforcement and evaluating permit fees for various community activities and violations. 

The background check process for the second ordinance officer and intends to offer an unconditional employment offer to the applicant. Onboarding of new ordinance officer can be as early as next week.

Jan 17th- OPD conducted directed enforcement in southeast region of city for continued complaints of slurry loads from commercial haulers.

OPD was involved in a foot pursuit in the central area of the city. OPD Officer observed a known, wanted male felon, who was disguised in a wig and female attire inside the truck of an associate. Upon contact, the suspect fled on foot, but the driver was arrested for also having an outstanding felony warrant. Locating and arresting felony suspects remains a high priority for OPD.

Airport
A one-day advisory NOTAM was published for work-in-progress as snow removal was taking place this week.

The rotating beacon, PAPI lights, runway and taxi lights are working well as students are meeting their night flying requirements.

The snow blade has been reattached to the dump truck and weight has been put back as well as new batteries in preparation for snow removal. The bucket of the loader has been repaired and is also ready to keep the airport open during the snow.
 
I have received the grant application for the next FAA funded project starting this year which will include a new taxiway and a hold apron at the end of runway 33.

Fire & Rescue
The crews prepped a house that we will be using for practical skills training for the next two months. 

A couple of members attended the Elks public service awards banquet.  Staff burned the slash piles down by the river at the waste water treatment plant, that were from the river clean-up project.

Incidents: The crew responded to shrub fire that also burned up a vinyl fence. They also responded to a couple of false alarms and a burning complaint.  

Public Works
Field Services
A series of storm water lines at TVCC are being jet rodded to clear the silt from the summer irrigation season. This a continuation from last week, we have approximately 40 % of the lines cleared and will be working on this task as time allows through the coming month.

Trenching and conduit were installed at the old shop site, it is ready for electrical lines to be pulled and final panel installation.

We are working on water service for this site, we may have to install a new service line based on what we have found so far. Fencing will be installed after shelters are delivered.

Crews trouble shot and replaced some fittings at the lift station on 4th and Verde Ave.

Water
A new water heater for our chlorine generation system arrived and was found to be defective, a new one is on its way and will be installed as soon as it gets here. This replaces a unit that has been in service since 2004.

Wastewater
Bids were received on the Farming operations at the Malheur and Skyline properties. They need to be evaluated.

Parks and Cemetery
New tables that have been purchased are being put together and placed throughout the city. New ones can be seen under the new shelter at Lions Park.

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

Crews supported the Ordinance officer with boarding up a derelict property at 46 NW 9th.

​Engineering
The engineer has been busy. There are so many projects right now being overseen. The SE 2nd St sewer and paving project, the airport sewer, and the Treasure Valley Connector Trail will all be under construction soon. Final design is going on for the South Oregon safety improvement project. Our Engineer is awesome!