Planning
We held a joint planning commission meeting with Malheur County last night to approve a parcel of land joining the Urban Growth Area (UGA). They have already filed for an application to be annexed into the city since they had to connect to our sewer line when their septic field failed.

Trail Grant
I got home at midnight from my conference and left at 5:30 am that morning for Bend to make a 20 minute pitch for the Treasure Valley Connector Trail grant. I received very nice comments on the project and the presentation and the city’s overall trail plan. They seemed genuinely excited for Ontario. I should know one way or the other in the next two weeks.

Efficiency Project
I met with a company who does lighting replacement projects that have a performance contract. How it works is they upgrade our lighting on our properties and the savings pays for the new lights for a certain number of years after which you then get the savings once it’s paid off.

Wayfinding Kickoff
We are working through our Wayfinding Project bids and plan to award a bid soon. We are excited to begin this process!

Police
Chief Romero attended a “STOP” (Statistical Transparency of Policing) video conference meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss this upcoming, unfunded mandate, which is required by Oregon Law (HB2355); the law requires all law enforcement agencies in Oregon to collect data regarding officer-initiated traffic and pedestrian stops by 2020. Its purpose is to gauge any likely hood of “Racial profiling” by a specific race of officers. OPD is currently working with the Criminal Justice Commission to establish a functioning platform for this state mandate.

Chief Romero and Lt. Cooper attended a debriefing at ODOT regarding the recent water treatment plant clean-up project. Both ODOT and Jacobs expressed their gratitude for all the positive collaboration and city support for their project. The discussion yielded new safety ideas for the work crews, new short-term strategies, and long-term strategies for insuring this type of infrastructure threat and hazards do not recur.

Chief Romero facilitated an employee wellness training session for OPD staff, which also offered a free $5,000.00 Life Insurance benefit for all OPD public safety officers.

OPD made an arrest of a male adult who is a convicted felon and suspected of having ties to the “Arian Brotherhood” gang in California. The arrestee was observed discarding a loaded handgun in the street and fled from officers. After a brief foot chase the male was captured without incident. He may be involved in other suspected felony crimes.

Chief Romero and I separately had the opportunity to visit with the Four Rivers Preparatory School Lego Robotics Club for a question and answer forum. They grilled us with great questions on “How to improve Ontario”.

OPD received information from Nyssa PD, regarding a wanted felony female suspect that had been involved in a shooting in the City of Nyssa. OPD located the female in the Ontario city limits and took her into custody without incident, with the assistance of OSP personnel.

Fire and Rescue
There was a public meeting attended by public safety personnel, ODOT, and others discussing putting in a round-about at Cairo junction. ODOT has been approving more roundabouts across the state which has dramatically reduced fatalities even in high traffic areas. If there is going to be an accident, the design of a roundabout results in a side by side collision as opposed to a very deadly T-bone collision. Cairo junction is one of the most dangerous intersections in Eastern Oregon, which is why ODOT is focusing on a redesign.

Staff members tested three firefighters for their practical portions of Fire fighter 1 and Firefighter 2 certifications. The staff is also continuing to do smoke detector installations on our drill night.

10/11 The crew responded to a mutual aid fire in Payette County for many hours on a large hay stack fire. The crew rescued a wedding ring, and possibly more, from a storm drain on SW. 4th Avenue. Crews also responded to a couple false alarms due to system malfunctions.

10/13 The crew responded to a propane leak on SW. 5th Avenue.

10/15 Staff members responded to a car fire at SW. 4th Avenue and Highway 201.

10/16 The crew responded to a cooking fire on NW. 6th Street. and a chimney fire on NW. 5th Street.

Public Works
Field Services
Crack sealing has been completed for this year’s budget. The new machine made our crews a lot more efficient.

The super structure for the new shelter was erected in Lions Park. Concrete work will follow and then the roof will be installed.

Street sweeping has begun for the entire town based on our schedule.

Catch basin cleaning started and will be going through the fall.

Water
Jar testing continues to optimize water quality, winterization is underway, and some additional work was done at the north river property after last week’s major cleanup effort.

Parks and Cemetery

There were two burials this week at Evergreen Cemetery.

Leaf mulching at the parks has also begun, in weekly inspections staff are keeping well ahead of leaf drop.

Staff will begin winterizing underground irrigations systems later this month as temperatures cool.

Engineering
We have had several meetings about our SRCI contract negotiations. We have an appointment with the state to give them our new proposal.

River Cleanup
The Snake River shore cleanup begins on Monday. This is a coordinated project with ODOT. Councilor Rodriguez asked to go down to the area so I accompanied him and several others on Thursday including the Malheur Enterprise. We were able to speak with some of the people in homeless camps and tell them about resources available. It was a very productive trip. There is a great deal of waste to clean up which includes human waste, trash, used needles, and other drug paraphernalia.

Malheur County United Housing Coalition
We met again on Monday. This is a newer work group formed about a month ago. I was asked to chair the committee with Barb Higinbotham. We will be working on long-term sustainable facilities for the homeless.

​PERS
2018 was a poor year for the PERS investment, but the outlook for 2019 is very good. They have earnings of 8.87% this year.

Alameda Intersection
We have a proposal for traffic calming measures behind Alameda Elementary. We will be distributing a proposed plan to the school.

4 Rivers Community School
I met with the Lego robotics Club at 4RCS this week to talk about community issues. They were a sharp bunch of kids.

​Community Development
Dan Cummings hosted a few PDAC’s this week. One is a new business that will be very nice for the community.

Police
Chief Romero attended a meeting with the Ontario Boxing Club and local fitness center (Go Fitness) to discuss potential outreach program(s) for the Ontario area youth population. The goal is to add an after-school alternative for working parent(s) and their children here in Ontario.

Chief Romero provided fundraising support (via procured business sponsors) to the Star Center for this weekend’s Cornhole Tournament at the Ontario Elks Club.

The Police Department is in the process of completing an after-action report regarding this past weekend’s concert event at the Hotbox Farms Grand Opening.

Chief Romero welcomed his first Ontario student mentee from the Four Rivers Community School. Chief Romero will serve as a professional mentor for the student’s high school senior project. The student was recommended by Principal Raeshelle Meyer.

Lt Cooper is managing a recent shooting investigation and all communications to the press regarding the incident and investigation (Press release published 10/10/2019).

Fire Rescue
Some of the staff attended the Malheur County Emergency Management Team meeting and learned from the National Weather Bureau.

We had 4 crews do smoke detector installations of over 50 smoke detectors. The crew had cardiac care and pacing reviews with TVP.

Both the Fire and Police Departments participated in the Home Depot Safety Fair with the public education trailer and fire engines. With this being fire prevention month the staff are doing public education for the first graders, so far they have presented at Aiken, May Roberts, Alameda, and Four Rivers elementary. They also visited a day care site on 3rd St.

The staff responded to an agency assist to get some people off a roof downtown, and a fuel spill on SW 4th Avenue. They also responded to fully involved vehicle and tractor fires. The crews responded to two mutual aid structure fires and then an equipment fire.

​Public Works
Field Services
Crack sealing in the NW part of town, our new crack fill machine is working extremely well. It is much more efficient than the old piece of equipment recently retired.

Footings were excavated and prepared for the new shelter in Lions Park. This is a replacement shelter for the one that fell in the snow storm of 2017. The footings will be poured late this week and then construction will begin the following week; the concrete pad and sidewalk to the new shelter will follow. Staff will erect the new shelter once the footings have been poured and cured.

Catch basin cleaning started and will be going through the fall.
Water
Jar testing for decreased organic load was completed multiple times this week to optimize the water quality.

Staff are preparing for debris and vegetation cleaning on city property located north of the water treatment. Crews from the City and ODOT will focus on bank stabilization and clearing debris from this area. A press release was generated and run in the local papers. City Police have been engaged in this activity.

Parks and Cemetery
Staff will begin winterizing underground irrigation systems later this month as temperatures cool.

Dispensary Opening 
We were notified Friday morning of the event that happened Saturday night. We set up our incident command post about a ½ mile away. We had Police, Fire & Rescue and Treasure Valley Paramedics. Much thanks to our State Police partners and the City of Fruitland also. We responded to some incidents, but it went off as good as we possibly could have made it given the short notice. We estimate around 3,000 participants, which would have been near impossible to stop with only 15 officers on hand.
 
Planters
Additional ground planters have been planted and are downtown. This is part of the City Council’s Beautification initiative. Even though we have taken over watering again, Andrews Seed is doing weekly fertilizing and pest control just as a service to our community. It’s a great public/private partnership.
 
Airport
This has been a very successful week for our Airport Manager networking with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), ODA (Oregon Department of Aviation), Airport Managers and business personnel from all of Oregon as well as some folks from Washington, Montana and Idaho at the OAMA (Oregon Airport Manager‘s Association) meeting at Klamath Falls. Bringing Ontario‘s Airport to the table and connecting with the FAA, ODA and others will hopefully provide a positive future and increased resources.
 
Police
OPD swore in its newest police officer, Tyler Bullington last week.

Chief Romero met with Angela Salazar from the 8C School District. OPD will be conducting a Drug Awareness Workshop at the Ontario Middle School on October 29th, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. Chief Romero and SRO Elizondo will be presenting at the event.

Field Services
“Coffee with a Cop” with OSP and Malheur County Sheriff’s was this week at Jolts and Juice downtown. Event was well attended by community members and there was great interaction between law-enforcement and community partners.

This week OPD Sgt. Swank made a proactive arrest of a local drug dealer who was in possession of 10 grams of methamphetamine. OPD has kicked off a new proactive approach towards identifying our local drug activity concerns and this case shows what results from great proactive policing.

OPD ordinance officer Brockett continues to work on chronic parking issues and complaints of blight throughout the city. Everyone is looking forward to the addition of another code enforcement officer.

Fire and Rescue
Fire and Rescue staff are in the community for the Smoke Detector Program. They are testing and installing smoke detectors for free.

A crew participated with the ladder truck 109 in the OHS homecoming parade. That night, the same crew took truck 109 to the football game and displayed a large American flag in the north end zone. We received many positive comments about the department’s participation in the parade and pride in having the flag displayed.

​Staff participated in the demonstration of a new health wise fire engine.

The chief along with numerous other public safety agencies participated in the Cairo school Jog-a-thon.
The crew did public education/public service at the Giggles and Grace Fall festival.

On the 28th Rescue One responded to a car. On the 29th the crew responded to a dumpster fire threatening the business, and Rescue One responded to assist OPD with access to a roof of a building where persons involved in a hit and run were hiding. On the 2nd, crews responded to a car fire at the intersection of 4th Ave and SW 9th St. On the 28th there was a gas valve to a fireplace left open and the family smelled gas, the crew was able to find the source and close the valve. Staff responded to a car in a canal South of Nyssa by Mitchell Butte with occupants inside on the 29th, but was canceled in route.

Public Works
Field Services
Crack sealing took place in the NW part of town. Our new crack fill machine is working extremely well.

A new front-end loader was delivered to the City Shops on Thursday. it replaces a unit that been in service since 2005. The old unit was traded back to the dealer. We came in under budget for the purchase.

Footings were excavated and prepared for the new shelter in Lions Park, the footings will be poured early next week and then construction will begin the following week. A concrete pad and sidewalk to the new shelter will follow. This will be a beautiful decorative replacement shelter for the one that fell during the snow storm of 2017.

Catch basin cleaning started and will continue through the fall.

Tree wells on East Idaho are completely evacuated and ready for tree planting later this fall.

Water
Water inventories are at target levels.

A dive team completed their inspections of tanks and river inlet structures. A report as to the current status will follow, but preliminary indications are that the tanks are in good shape.

Jar testing for decreased organic load was completed multiple times this week to optimize the water quality.

Wastewater
We begin discharging to the Snake River at the end of the month; the significance of this is that it will be the first time since our new NPDES went into effect. There are numerous new requirements in order to meet permit limits.

Parks and Cemetery
Staff will begin winterizing underground irrigations systems later this month as temperatures cool.

Nine new flower pots were planted and placed in the downtown core area. Andrews Seed spearheaded this effort and should be thanked for their support of the City. They will assist us with hanging planters in the spring.

​Engineering
Engineer staff continues work on the SRCI contract negotiations, Water Master Plan, Transportation Growth Management Plan, Tennis Court resurfacing, and Airport Wastewater design proposal.