August 5, 2019

​We have another busy week ahead of us. Work session is on Thursday. OLCC is hosting some listening events regarding marijuana at 6 pm on Tuesday at the Cultural Center and specifically for local governments at 9 am at the Cultural Center on Wednesday.
Eastern Oregon University  
At the request of Bill Johnson, a member of the Board of Directors for EOU, I addressed the entire Board of Directors for Eastern Oregon University and all of the college deans, which was around 30 people. To prepare for that I met with some of our community leaders to have a broad discussion about our community needs and how EOU might collaborate and serve our community. I think the presentation went well. What an amazing opportunity to have the entire Directors and Leadership Team of the University see our community first hand!
Charter School
I attended a facility planning meeting for Four Rivers Charter School on Thursday. They hosted some sessions open to the public later in the day.
Beck Park Bridge
We believe the bridge was vandalized. This was a gift from our sister city in Japan, Osaka Sayama. The rails were torn from the bridge were found in the pond or it is possible that they could have broken from someone leaning. A police report has been filed. We are looking at options and cost to replace it. It will come back to the City Council at some point for a decision.
Traffic Safety
Two women from Ontario met with me this week concerned about traffic safety on NW 4th Ave between 9th and Verde. Their cars have been hit around a dozen times over the last decade, mostly from drunk drivers early in the morning. Chief Romero was able to join me for the discussion. We will work as a team with the city engineer to figure out how to prevent those accidents and bring down the speed on that segment of the road.
Tennis Courts
I continued work on the tennis court bid document. I hope to let that out next week.
Fair
A lot of our employees volunteered at various places at the fair. The Police and Fire Chiefs, Peter, and I volunteered at the emergency management booth and many of us including Tori also volunteered at Revitalize Ontario’s Tater Tot Festival Booth. I heard a lot of excitement around the Tater Tot Festival.
Finance
We went live for online billing / civic pay on Thursday. The great part about the new system is that customers can look at usage and billing history.
Police
Chief Romero, Officer Scott Phelps, and I attended the Malheur County Housing/ Homeless Meeting at the Clarion Inn to participate in a group think session for developing a regional strategic plan for the homeless and vulnerable populations.
OPD staff members continue to provide directed patrol efforts to the downtown area in response to past and recent complaints regarding drug addicts and homeless individuals loitering in and around the area.
I ran across a little guy about 6 years old at the fair who was looking for "Chief Steve". He told me Chief Steve was his new buddy. How awesome is that?
Fire and Rescue
The Rural board met and had a guest presentation from Shawna Peterson from the Oregon Border Board.
Our drill night for this week was spent at the Malheur County Fair doing public education. The staff was there all afternoon and night and taught a couple hundred children about numerous points of fire safety.
The department set up the hoses and water supply and had the ladder truck at the mud volleyball tournament. The event was a fund raiser for Project Dove and raised close to $10,000.
This week we have mostly responded to illegal burning complaints and the normal medical calls.
Public Works
Field Service
Hot taping cross walks started and will continue for the next few weeks.
Staff members focused on multiple water connection repairs and meter replacement.
Wastewater
Aerator repairs were on-going all week; this includes taking our work barge out onto the lagoons and replacing or repairing warn parts, we plan on focusing on this activity while the weather is warm.
SRCI – We spent a lot of time working on SRCI this week. We had a conference call with me, the city engineer, city attorney and some of the rate specialists from JACOBS. We are making very good progress. Our next meeting with the state is next week.