November 18, 2019

Homeless
We ran into a little bit of a wall with the airport proposal, but Community in Action and Origins Faith Community are going to give a presentation tomorrow on another possible solution.

​One Stop
Business Oregon met with our team on Tuesday morning to talk about all of the options out there for public financing of our water and wastewater improvements including grant funding. I have to complement them; the State had everybody on the conference call and truly made it a one-stop-shop for funding possibilities. Our city staff was very impressed that we had all of the state agencies to tell us what grants and loans were available.

Ribbon Cuttings
We cut the ribbon on the Origins Day Shelter and on Body Shop Fitness on Wednesday. Two good reasons to celebrate.

St Alphonsus Community Study
I met with St. Alphonsus staff to discuss their community survey. They will be holding other sessions, and I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate, to do so. This helps our hospitals set a strategic direction for community health care and investment.

Airport
The snowplow has been checked over and is ready for service. The sweeper broom has been reattached to the loader and the pavement sweeping has begun around the airport.

Police
Nov 12th- OPD staff conducted interviews for the new code enforcement position, with assistance from HR Director Hall. Several promising applicants were interviewed with the top three finalists moving forward in the hiring process. They are scheduled for interviews with the Chief of Police.

Nov 11-15th-Chief Romero is in the process of developing and finalizing written guidelines for various specialty positions and programs currently operating within the OPD; including the new code enforcement position. Chief Romero’s intent is to create standardized guidelines that will assist employees in better understanding the roles, responsibilities, and city expectations of the various specialty assignments.

Nov 12th- Chief Romero attended the law enforcement executive meeting in Vale. Chief Romero proposed an inter-agency “force-multiplying” model and discussed the need for developing a more sophisticated and effective county-wide information sharing platform during critical incidents.

​Nov 13th- Chief Romero conducted a follow-up consultation with an Idaho based communications systems expert to discuss new technology and infrastructure improvement options for the aging Malheur County and OPD radio communications system. Chief Romero’s primary focus is to seek and solicit federal or state grant funding to cover the cost of any improvements and / or repairs to the radio system.

Chief Romero finalized an educational presentation on the history of the American justice system with his mentee Selena Arocha, from the Four Rivers Preparatory High School. Chief Romero and OPD staff will conduct a presentation and learning activity at the campus on November 22, 2019.
Officer Llamas, Chief Romero, and Lt. Cooper traveled to the Salem area for the honoring and reception of officer Llamas’ “Life Saving Award” presented to her by the Oregon Peace Officers Association. This was a very proud moment for OPD and our Ontario community.

Chief Romero and Officer Sam D’Addabbo attended the Veteran’s appreciation luncheon at the Veteran’s Advocate of Ore-Ida. Many great stories were shared by the veterans that were in attendance. OPD is glad to support our military partners (past and present).

Nov 14th- Chief Romero attended a benefits dinner at the Ontario Masonic Lodge. Chief Romero was presented with a $500.00 Police Department donation from the lodge. Chief Romero will apply the donation funds, exclusively for the purchase of crime prevention and education tools for the Ontario youth (k-12). OPD is greatly appreciative of the partnership with the Masonic Lodge in getting the word out to our youths about societal challenges they may experience as they develop and grow.

Fire & Rescue
The staff attended the Malheur County Emergency Management team meeting and had an update on the LEPC. Lt. Cooper, Chief Leighton and Sheri attended the county traffic safety commission meeting.
The department hosted a large class on drone flight operations. This class had people from Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS and Private industry from Idaho and Oregon attend. The staff had a class at TVP from Dr. Smith on cardiac emergencies CHF.

Truck 109 went to the state high school soccer playoffs and displayed the large American Flag. The crew that day hosted a fire department birthday party with 15 children. A group of Boy Scouts toured both the Police and Fire stations. Some of the staff used truck 109 and changed the rest of the light bulbs at the high school football field.

Besides the normal medical calls this week, our staff responded mostly to utility calls. They had two water leak issues and a complaint about a smell of gas.

Public Works
Field Services
The roof was partially installed on the new shelter at Lions Park but the project is not complete. The shelter looks great and will a positive asset for the community in the future.

​Staff addressed multiple water leaks throughout the city, primarily water services that have degraded over time.

Leaf pickup begins on Monday. We estimate another new record for the number of bags collected.

Water
Staff discovered some additional issues with our chemical feed system. Additional check valves were installed to prevent similar problems in the future.

Parks and Cemetery
Leaf mulching at the parks continues. Leaves have not dropped as quickly as we would have liked so mulching continues.

​The winterization of underground irrigation systems is complete.

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