Safe Routes to Schools – We are submitting our Safe Routes to school grant through the state this week. We’re grateful for schools involved for submitting letters of support.  

Overpass Lighting – We haven’t talked about it in a while, but I reached out to some lighting companies to see about lighting up the overpass. I had an onsite visit with one vendor. This will be brighten the exit to our city as we attract visitors off of I-84.

Downtown Attraction – Also, the Mayor and I talked about the downtown attraction that got a little waylaid by COVID. I have been talking to one company about a tower concept that was presented to us by the study. I’ll continue the conversations.

Police
Aug 24th- Chief Romero worked with CIS (Risk Management Consultants for the city) on training for understanding and respecting diversity in our workplaces and communities. This will be provided to all police personnel at OPD.

Chief Romero met with members of the American Legion Post (Ontario) to discuss possibly hosting a joint “9-11” ceremony this year. Venue and ceremony details are being discussed and worked out with Fire Chief Leighton, City Manager Adam Brown and other stakeholders.

Aug 27th-Chief Romero developed a new uniform policy for the Ontario Code Enforcement personnel. Chief Romero feels that a change in uniform for the two code enforcement officers will enhance their safety and create a distinction between sworn police officers and code enforcement officers.
 
Field Services
Officers were confronted by a suspect with a shotgun in the 600 block of SW 24th Street. The suspect ran and was able to elude pursuing officers. Suspect has been identified and is being sought.

OPD had a short pursuit where the driver exited his vehicle armed with a knife. The subject was taken into custody without incident after numerous orders to comply.

OPD continues to field numerous calls at our retailers regarding homeless individuals who are committing thefts. OPD has noticed an increase in the number of new homeless individuals arriving in Ontario from other parts of the state and Idaho.

Code Enforcement
Code enforcement continues to work towards the “Making Ontario Shine” campaign through concepts such as “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” and “assisting the elderly.”

Aug 26th- Officers Reyna, Brocket, and Chief Romero conducted a pre-abatement inspection W Idaho. This property is a long-standing empty residence that has a severe weeds, grass, and bushes overgrowth issue. The city has struggled to locate the current owner(s) and the city has been seeking out a feasible abatement service.

Aug 26 & 27th- CEO’s conducted a 5 X 5 initiative (5 block radius) in the southeast area of the city, addressing chronic abandoned vehicle issues. 20 + vehicles were marked and noticed for removal.

Aug 27th- Code enforcement responded to issue an abatement notice. When the CEO’s realized the owner was an elderly female (90+) that was unable to care for her yard, CE officer’s Reyna and Brockett went into rescue mode and removed the “Goat head” noxious weeds from her property. Officers will be working with the resident to develop a future maintenance plan for her property, through her family or friends.

Aug 26th- Code enforcement conducted an agency assist for DHS regarding a male subject living in filth at the location. Officers Reyna and Brockett located the property owners and issued a notice to correct. The primary owner is in an assisted living facility and the grandson is currently trying to squat in a camper on the property.

CEO handled 1 dog abuse case this week in the southeast area of the city. Citations pending.

Airport 
We had our very first completely virtual Airport Committee meeting Monday evening. It worked well. Thanks to all who helped make that happen.

The last of the spraying for weeds at the Airport is now complete and the sprayer was cleaned, parked, and winterized.

We said goodbye to our wonderful airport volunteer who is now taking up his academic studies. This mentorship program was truly a success this year.

​The donated building from the FAA to the city of Ontario is now ours to use completely. Electricity has been changed this week and put in the city’s name. The only thing left is for the FAA to remove a very tall tower. That will probably not happen for at least a year.

Community & Economic Development
The office is open, but the door is locked. However, we are allowing customers to come in one at a time. Foot traffic is still at a minimum with most still calling in and/or making appointments.

Staff is reviewing 20 building applications this week and has issued 8 building permits this past week.

The Planning department is keeping busy processing 33 land use actions. Staff is handling many phone calls and walk-ins dealing with planning issues and/or questions.

The contract with DLCD on the $50,000 grant we were awarded to update our codes has been signed and staff is working with the consultant to put together the TAC committee and schedule the project.

Staff is still working with Jacobs and Keller & Associates on the STP Updates for the East Idaho Traffic Study area as well as updating planning codes associated with the Comp Plan update.

This was the first week of part-time Planning Technician, Marc Berg, helping us in the office. We think he will be a great asset to our office. He is very much needed and appreciated during this very extremely busy time of all the code updates required. Staff thanks the City Council and Budget Committee for approving this part-time help.

Economic Development
Staff continues to work on the Ontario Townhouse project which received a $5,325,000 LIFT (Local Innovation and Fast Tract) housing project grant. Staff is working with the developers to see what utilities may need to be upgraded for this project.

Staff is working with Kit Kamo of SREDA on several large firms looking for sites in Oregon and have submitted serval sites to these projects.

Public Works
Field Services
Hot taping for directional arrows took place around town. Garbage cans, bike racks, and benches have been installed on South Oregon. All bulb outs on the South Oregon Street project have the fabric and chips in place. Planting of ornamental vegetation is scheduled for later in the fall.

Crews have been working to build a storage area for bio-solids at Skyline Farms. Crews are also working on the Skate Park bathroom.

Water
The #2 Booster Pump at Westside Reservoir is still down. The vendor supplying repair parts does not have an estimated time when parts will be onsite.

Wastewater
The contractor for the pH adjustment project is finishing up the final installation. Programming for the pH adjustment system is scheduled to be complete by September 1st.

Parks and Cemeteries
Staff are working to keep up with the mowing and weeding at the parks and cemeteries. One of the large mowers went down last week and is being repaired. Crews were catching up on trimming city properties.

Engineering
Oregon DEQ has approved the bio-solids removal plan as written. Four vendors submitted qualifying bids for the bio-solids removal project. Those bids are being compared and reviewed.

​Merchant McIntyre – The full submission for the Our Town Grant was made on Tuesday evening. All our community partners came together to get all the necessary pieces together.  It sure was nice to have someone else with experience coordinating the entry.

COVID
City and County ICS – Both City and County ICS teams met. We are good on PPE between both the City and County.

State Conference Call – The Governor held a live broadcast at noon today. The Governor is asking everyone to step up their own self-governance of the guidelines. Her request for local officials to lead by example, educate first, and enforce when necessary. Her plea is to solve it ourselves so she doesn’t have to intervene.

LOC Conference Call - The testing market is dynamic at an international and national level. We are getting faster results on tests in our county, but there is still a shortage on the number of tests coming our way. The state is mixing up the testing as the market changes.

Boots on the Ground Team – Our local response team met this week and listened to a presentation about an online incubator in rural Oregon. This could be a nice platform to move towards a brick and mortar incubator. It’s called Reinventing Rural. They have had great success in helping launch rural businesses. It’s a free open-source platform for small businesses.

We are investigating whether our 40-50% business program must go through Business Oregon. Also, as we talked about the most recent change the SBDC is getting 8-12 calls a day with anxious and frustrated business owners, which is completely understandable given the uncertainty.

BLM Airbase – I was able to connect with the BLM office out of Denver about the $2.5 million grant. They are still working on their final design for their tarmac and she assured me that the grant will roll over to the next fiscal year. They are working on getting agreements together though. I also had a call with Business Oregon to discuss the financing of the project.

SRCI Fire Service – Mediation is on Monday. This is very short timing to get something together, but I am working on it.

​Transportation System Plan – We had a TSP meeting his week. We got good public feedback on the East Idaho Design. 

​Automation – Our staff leadership team listened to one provider of automated services. We have another next week. This is to make more services available online.

Fiber – IT and I met with LS Networks to talk about next steps for fiber service.

We have a third party that will be helping us with the service to other airport customers. We are working on an agreement with him.

Homeless Emergency Shelter Siting – I joined a call with Community in Action this week to talk about next steps for the winter emergency shelter. I created a shelter siting committee to ensure we have stakeholder representation and public input into the process.

Airport
Monday began with the loss of irrigation water due to a burned wire in an electric panel. Fortunately, there was no fire and it was repairable. Water was restored Tuesday.

We were finally able to close out the grant from two years ago with the FAA for taxiway lights, signs, and VASI lights.

The contractor selected to do the new taxiway and hold apron will also be relocating the irrigation ditch. They are putting it to their engineer now and will then submit a proposal.

There were two bids submitted for the mowing and maintenance at the Airport. We will bring a recommendation for award on the 3rd.

Due to the high volume of fuel sales at the Airport from the firefighting aircraft, it is estimated the city will make nearly $1,600 from flowage fees just from last week’s sales. Both Burns and John Day ran out of fuel and the firefighting efforts there had to stop.

The Federal Aviation Administration called to say the grant has gone through channels for the taxiway and hold apron and should be sent to us within the next two weeks.

Fire & Rescue
8/19 The building official and Chief inspected projects at River Drive, Malheur County Child Development, Sunset Drive and West Idaho Avenue, and Reiter Drive.

The staff is still training with social distancing so another circuit drill of drone, water supply, and water rescue.

Incidents
8/14 Rescue 1 assisted the OPD with the thermal image camera looking for a suspect/ They also responded to a controlled burn on East Island Road and a vehicle fire on the 700 block of NE 3rd Avenue. 
8/16 The crew responded to a dumpster fire at 254 SE 2nd Street. 
8/17 the crews responded to multiple grass fires along Railroad Street by Clark and Lincoln.
8/19 Rescue 1 responded to a possible arson where someone had set a fire at the front door of a house on the 200 block of NW 2nd Avenue. The fire was out upon the crew’s arrival, but they cleared the smoke out of the house.  The crew responded to a burning complaint on NW 36th Street and a dumpster fire at 995 Manor Way. 
8/20 the crew and extra staff twice had to respond to assist with the loading and transport of a very large man needing medical treatment.

Public Works
COVID-19 Update
The Public Works office is closed to public and non-essential employee access. Jacobs has one COVID-19 positive case who is self-isolating until symptoms improve. At this time, it is believed that none of Jacobs Ontario staff have been exposed to this case.

Field Services
Hot taping cross walks continues around town. Weed removal is taking place on city owned properties Crews have removed the sunken sidewalk and gutter at Aquatic Center and poured new gutter and will pour sidewalk next week.

Crews sealed and painted the Skate Park Bathroom this week. We began construction of the holding pit for the bio-solids removal project at Skyline Farm. We also swept Downtown and finished the full town sweep this week.

Wastewater
The contractor for the pH adjustment project is onsite removing obsolete equipment. The project is on track for completion by the third week in August. 

Facilities
City Hall HVAC UV lights are in the works.

Engineering
The Mercury Minimization plan for the waste treatment plant is under final review before submitting it to Oregon DEQ.

​Work resumed on the Skate Park Bathroom. The roof was installed this week and the field services staff will sand and seal it next week.

We welcomed a new front desk attendant. Her name is Laura Reyes and she comes to us from working at the 8c School District. She had a great start this week and was welcomed by all the staff.

COVID19
Roll back to Phase 1 – As everyone knows by now, we are being rolled back to Phase I on Monday. I have been talking with several businesses downtown who are being impacted.

(Important) The federal increase of $400 for unemployment benefits is dependent on the State paying $100 of the $400. It’s possible that the state could pull some or all of our coronavirus relief funds already promised to the city to pay for this unemployment match.

Coronavirus Relief Funds – We are working on a proposed program for businesses that were hurt between the 30% to 50% range. I asked staff to begin while I was gone on my short vacation and they put together a rough outline working with the SBDC.

In addition to using the relief funds for the business support, and the virtualization of our city council meetings, we are also looking to automate some of our processes that can be done online.  Right now, there is only online utility billing, but there are many more things we can do online.

River Trail – I had a follow up call to the right-of-way attorney today to inquire about the appraisal. I was told that the appraiser had a serious medical issue and had to drop the case after the property walk. The attorney is picking up another appraiser and the first will not be charging us, but it does slow us down.

Our Town Grant – I spent a good part of the second half of the day helping with the Our Town Grant through National Endowment for Arts. I still have a little to do. We had a follow-up call at noon today to fill in the holes. The grant is due on Tuesday.

PERS Incentive Fund – We received notice from PERS that they are not accepting any more payments to side accounts for the purpose of matching them with the employer incentive fund.  Our payments are still covered, it’s just that with the uncertainty of the state finances, they are unsure whether it can be matched going forward. Good thing we got ours in early!

JOINT SEACT/NEACT – Last week Dan Cummings and I attended the joint Eastern Area Committee on Transportation on Wednesday.

Border Board Meeting – Applications for the planning grant will open back up and close in September   
I have a meeting scheduled with Business Oregon to help put together the financing package for the BLM base next week. I’m still pushing with several federal officials on the location.

Airport
A large cleanup project was completed this week with volunteer help. This puts approximately 1 acre back into usable ground and enables the mower to mow that ground as well.

Work continues on updating leases with one more lease update needed as a hanger sold last week. Considerable interest in hangers at the Ontario airport continues.

Keeping nearly 5 acres of grass runway green and growing through the summer months presented its own challenges. A bid for an underground sprinkler system should be coming in next week. Interest in the grass runway from pilots continues to grow. If you know of people who could do this mowing and clearing, please tell them to make a bid.

Fueling issues are also being addressed and some usable plans are being put together.
 
Community & Economic Development
 
The office is open, but door is locked but allowing customers to come in one at a time, but the foot traffic is still at a minimum with most still calling in and/or making appointments.
 
Staff is reviewing 22 building applications this week and has issued 14 building permits this past week. Dan is keeping busy processing the 31 land use actions. Staff is handling many phone calls and walk-ins dealing with planning issues.
 
The contract with DLCD on the $50,000 grant has been signed and staff is working with the consultant in putting together the TAC committee and scheduling.
 
Police
Aug 11th- Chief Romero spent several hours working with OPD’s legal advisors (Lexipol) developing and reviewing three new agency policies (Social media, Wellness Program, and Tactical Armored Vehicle) for OPD. These policies resulted from state mandates, new agency programs, and to update and improve OPD’s risk management capability.

Aug 14th-Chief Romero was selected for a promotional video that will be used to raise awareness and funds for the Special Olympics (SO) Idaho-Eastern Oregon Law Enforcement Torch Run.  

Field Services
Aug 7th- OPD responding to a major accident (Vehicle versus motorcyclist) on east Idaho and SE 3rd street. The accident impacted the area for about 45 minutes while first responders treated the injured motorcyclist who was transported by Life Flight to Boise. 

Aug 8th-OPD monitored some minor protest activities at the Ontario Auto Ranch which was led by the organization “Black Live Matters.” The protest activities were peaceful and non-eventful.
OPD continues to respond to a high level of vagrancy related calls due to homeless individuals in and around the area businesses on the east side of the city. OPD has provided resource information to many of the contacted individuals and have also issued several trespassing warnings to many at the request of businesses agents and owners.

Code Enforcement
Code enforcement continues to have success with issuing and collecting penalties with non-compliant property owners. High visibility efforts and proactive strategies have allowed code enforcement to develop promising new working relationships with many property owners throughout the city, that have historically been non-compliant.

Aug 13th-Code enforcement officer, Rick Reyna, hosted Argus Observer reporter Griffin Hewitt during an agency ride-along. Griffin will be reporting on the topic.

Fire & Rescue
Chief had multiple meetings with the Ontario Rural Fire Board and representatives.
8/4 The staff reviewed and practiced safe moving of bariatric patients. 8/11 The staff did circuit drills again on Water supply and master streams, Rural water supply, and Water rescue.
The crew assisted with the county Covid-19 testing at Malheur County Fairgrounds.

Incidents:
8/2 The staff and mutual aid from other departments fought a fire in the Ontario Sanitary recycle center this was a 12,000 square foot building with heavy smoke and heat and a lot of fuel. I received a great compliment about our fire department from Scott Wilson.
8/3 the crew had a fully involved vehicle fire on SW. 4th Avenue and SW. 30th Street and then rescued a group of baby quail from the storm drain on Tori Drive. (Hero work!)
8/4 The staff responded to a fire in Laxson Park and only found a BBQ with hot coals. 
8/5 Rescue 1 responded to N. Park Boulevard for a gas smell and were not able to find any hazards and only a slight odd smell. 
8/8 The crew responded to 509 SE 2nd Street for an illegal burn of burning weeds in a pit without a burn permit and the burn ban in effect.
 8/10 Rescue 1 responded to a child burned from playing with fire.  The fire was investigated, and the child was treated and transported for burns to his stomach and legs area.  
8/12 The crew responded to a grass fire on I-84 and MP 375 started from sparks from a vehicle. 
8/14 Rescue 1 responded Ontario Auto Ranch to investigate some type of gas or liquid problem after two employees went to the hospital for medical issues.
8/14 The crew responded to assist OPD with equipment for a scene and they also responded for a vehicle fire on NE 3rd Avenue.

Public Works
COVID-19 Update
The Public Works office remains closed to public and non-essential employees.

Field Services
Crews are hot taping and painting crosswalks and school zone around town.
Garbage cans, bike racks, and benches were installed on South Oregon. Crews have been painting stop bars at the intersections.

Crews have removed the sunken sidewalk and gutter at Aquatic Center and are pouring a new sidewalk and gutter plate.

August 11, 2020 at 12:33 p.m. Knife River was excavating for a storm line installation on the SE 2nd Street Project when they hit and broke a 6" water main. Jacobs crews responded to the call and had the water main isolated by 1:10pm.  Knife River started pumping water out of the excavation and called their pipe crew to repair the damaged line.  Repair was finished at 5:15pm. Once the repair was complete, Jacobs crews began flushing the water line and collecting chlorine residual samples. A “Boil Water” notice was issued to the 17 homes affected by the line break.

Wastewater
The contractor for the pH adjustment project is onsite removing obsolete equipment. The project is on track for completion by the third week in August. 

The pump feeding Malheur Farm that had failed has been replaced.

Facilities
City Hall HVAC UV lights are in the works. This will be reimbursed by the coronavirus relief funds.

Engineering
The skate park restroom project is on hold due to COVID-19. At this time, it is unknown how long of a delay with will create

​The Mercury Minimization plan for the waste treatment plant is under final review before submitting it to Oregon DEQ.