Noise Ordinance
With the quiet Christmas week and some office hours I was able to codify the noise ordinance Chief Romero drafted and get it into the work flow for Larry Sullivan to review for our January 9 City Council Meeting.

Downtown Beautification Phase II 
Also, I was able to spend time on the downtown beautification plan, Phase II for the 2020-2021 budget if we are able to continue with the project. Like I said last week, there is a possibility of rolling this in with the energy performance contract. Some of the lamps in the graphics are companies that have worked with Ameresco.

SRCI 
Larry got our last draft to the State for review. Larry and their attorney were able to produce some language to satisfy some of my last concerns.

Transitional Housing 
We are still waiting on the signed agreement with the state before we go ahead with the tiny homes.

Community & Economic Development
Planning

Dan has processed 4 land use actions this past week with a total of 70 land use actions for this calendar year.

Dan is still meeting with people looking to establish Hemp facilities as well as Marijuana facilities.

Dan is continuing to work on updating the City code relating to Marijuana, Certified Local Government regulations and housekeeping code issues found over the years working with the codes and will bring these forward to the Planning Commission and City Council in the near future.

We have been notified on December 20, 2019, by the State of Oregon under House Bill 2003 adopted in 2019 that DLCD will require cities with a population of more than 10,000 to adopt updated Housing Needs Analyses (HNA) and keep them updated every 8 years. Ontario will have to have their HNA’s adopted prior to 2022. Staff is in the process of determining the costs to perform this update so it can be budgeted.

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 be bring that forward to the planning commission and city council.
Dan has completed two more of the non-compliance properties from the 2011 DLCD/FEMA Community Assistance Visit which now only leaves one property issue to resolve as well as updating the flood plain codes as mentioned above. So far, Dan has been able to get the city out of non-compliance without any fines being issued to the City for non-compliance which is a good thing. The last one will be trickier to resolve but he’s keeping his hopes up that he can find a resolution for it. He plan’s on meeting with DLCD on the matter after the first of the year.

Dan’s proactivity in addressing the floodplain issues he inherited should be applauded.

Economic Development
Staff is in the process of reviewing the subdivision application and construction plans for the 10-lot affordable housing subdivision that is planned to be constructed this spring.

Airport
Hanger owners and pilots are showing a great interest in improved Internet capabilities at the airport for hanger security and functionality through smart phones.

The connection of the sewer for the FBO and future hanger builds is also well received especially as populations increase at the airport due to the flight school which continues to grow.

The rotating beacon light is down for repairs and parts have been ordered.

The runway and taxiway’s have been plowed and remained open throughout the snow.

Police
Chief Romero met with the Treasure Valley Special Olympics representatives to discuss future partnership with OPD for events such as the law enforcement Special Olympics Torch Run and plane pull events. These events support the Special Olympics athletes and program. Chief Romero signed on as a general board member for the outreach campaign.

Chief Romero spent much of the week tending to the administrative needs of the department. The Chief updated numerous OPD Lexipol led department policies, is drafting a new employee wellness policy as required by SB, 424 and has begun the process of developing a 5-year Strategic Plan for OPD.

OPD patrol officers engaged in a brief vehicle pursuit of a suspected narcotics suspect that fled when they attempted to initiate a traffic stop. OPD self-terminated the pursuit due to the speed of the suspect. The suspect eventually crashed his car in a field where he was arrested by deputies from the Malheur County Sheriff Office.

Chief Romero assisted and volunteered at OHS with the Charlie Anthony Memorial Wrestling Tournament.

Code enforcement efforts continue to be a priority for OPD and the Chief, with efforts to enforce civil penalties at the forefront. The chief also responded to a citizen concern regarding slurry being dumped from trucks in transit on SE 2nd street and SE 5th Ave.

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 will be a work in progress as time permits through the winter.  Clearing the line now will address any issues during the spring and summer during heavy rain events.

Sweeping throughout town continues. This is dependent on snow events.

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

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

Water
Chemical feed lines were purged and cleaned again. The clarifier was off line for cleaning and minor maintenance. Soft chemical feed lines were replaced on the Westec system.

Wastewater
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. 

 SRCI
We have spent a lot of time working on the SRCI contract. It got a little tense at times. We are down to contract language. During our meeting on Thursday we worked out some other language.
 
Airport Committee
They did not have a quorum at the Airport Committee, so they did not have an official meeting. We chatted for a while about various things. 
 
Budget
All departments are working on putting together preliminary budget numbers. For those of you who were not here, we pushed back the strategic planning item on the agenda last week so that all City Council members can be there.
 
Wayfinding Survey
I called in a favor to our community partners on Monday to get more responses for the wayfinding survey. By Thursday, the number of surveys went from 63 to over 200. Our community partners are awesome!
 
Fiber Project
The engineers are in design. He has been talking with the other customers preparing to get them connected once we have service. The timeline is pushed back a little. He’s looking at March for completion. He said that Idaho Power requested a few design changes. No change in price for us though.
 
Homeless Project
We are hopeful that everything will be kicking off following approval of the three-party license agreement. I will sign the work for Idaho Power to get started as well as get the construction fence put up. 
 
Police
Chief Romero attended the steering committee meeting at TVCC for the “Athlete Mentorship Program.” The TVCC Foundation recently was awarded a 19K Grant to administer this new, youth outreach program that Chief Romero has been involved with since July 2019. The chief will serve as a volunteer instructor for the program in 2020.
 
Chief Romero conducted a Chief’s end of year OPD leadership team meeting to recap OPD’s activities during 2019 and to discuss the department’s direction, goals and objectives for 2020.
 
OPD hosted an area law enforcement appreciation Bar-B-Q at city hall for the surrounding law enforcement agencies, to express sincere appreciation for all the assistance OPD receives throughout the year. Great turnout and show of mutual support from both Oregon and Idaho agencies (local, county, state and federal).
 
This week, OPD nominated two OPD employees for the “Community Service Awards” hosted by the Ontario Elks Lodge. Lieutenant Jason Cooper and Office Manager Sheri Smith both received well-deserved nominations for the law enforcement and support personnel categories.
 
This week, Chief Romero successfully registered OPD with the Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO). The purpose is to provide OPD access to a national level equipment surplus program, for a gamut of items that can be procured through a “No or very low cost” equipment surplus program. OPD is hopeful we can find opportunities to improve equipment efficiently.
 
OPD staff remained busy all week with a variety of theft related calls that is often seen during the holiday seasons. Several arrests were made at various locations.
 
OPD arrested a felony suspect that was recently released from prison. The suspect had outstanding felony warrants from Oregon and fled on foot from officers from the Red Apple Store parking lot. After a brief foot chase and neighborhood search for the suspect, he was found in the backyard of a home a block away from city hall on 5th street. 
 
Fire & Rescue
The Chief inspected St. Alphonsus’s Pharmacy remodel and with the building officials visited two sites on S. Oregon looking at their construction projects. 
 
The staff attended joint training at TVP on patient refusals and the correct documentation. 
We had most of our fleet in the Winter Wonderland parade, and the staff handed out over 200 pounds of candy.  That night was the department awards ceremony with Jonathan Rico selected as the firefighter of the year and Nephi Tolman selected as the rookie of the year.   There was a station visit from a little boy who came for his birthday. 
 
The crews responded this week to 5 false alarms and one that was an occupant at Dorian Place pulling the alarm pull stations. The crew responded to rescue a cat stuck in the storm drain.  The Haz-Mat team responded to a call at SRCI for a hazardous situation in the kitchen, all the readings showed the area to be with-in safe conditions.  We had a general alarm for a motor vehicle crash roll over in a ditch with the car on fire.  We had two apparatus respond and 7 crew members respond.  The occupants made it out with slight burns. 
 
Public Works
Field Services
Snow event on Thursday; snow removal plan was put in place including sanding and de-icing throughout the community.
 
A storm water line at TVCC was cleaned and run with our jet rodding equipment. Mud and other debris builds in the line and needs to be cleaned throughout the year.
 
Staff are building 30 new barricades for general use.
 
Wastewater
An issue with our effluent disinfection system was discovered and addressed.
 
Engineering
Engineering is working on the SRCI contract negotiations, water master plan, transportation growth plan, skatepark bathroom, and SE 2nd project coordination.