September 8, 2020

 Visitors and Convention Board – The V&C Board met this week and awarded their first grant in 6 months for the TVCC new student orientation. They also fulfilled a promise to add an additional $2,500 to the Palmer Healing Garden.  
 
Merchant McIntyre – I met with our grant writers this week and went over the items they are working on. I’ll come to Council on the 15th so that they can make a decision about moving forward with them. They are working on two EDA grants. One, to finish construction on SE 2nd Street, and the other, to design the SE 1st Avenue Americold property.
 
COVID Business Relief with City CRF – Staff is working on a plan that we hope to bring for Council approval to assist businesses in the 30-50% loss margin.
 
Homeless Siting Taskforce – We held a group meeting about where the shelter should be sited. The participants included non-profits, church pastors, staff, and business owners. There is one property that is farther along in the process than any others, and that is the property behind the day shelter. The owner is offering to site these shelters without a monthly lease. We are planning a public process to vet the choices, so that it is all done in the open.
 
Wayfinding – Peter, Dan, and I had the final presentation to staff on the wayfinding system. We are working with them to get a date to present to Council. We can start working on an implementation strategy for the logo. The grant we applied for will not be awarded until April 21, 2021.
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Ameresco – We met with Ameresco to come up with a plan to move forward and wrap up the Energy Savings Performance Contract.
 
Audio Visual Bids – I have been collecting more proposals/bids for the chamber AV automation. The vendor we are using to record meetings does not have a competitive contract, so I need to get 3 bids/proposals. We will still have to keep up a steady pace on this to use the relief funds.
 
Automation Presentation – We watched our 3rd presentation on automating services. We will be doing some cost and savings analysis. Multiple platforms look like they would help the city offer services online that we don’t currently have, so it will likely come down to value.
 
STF/STIF – I participated in the State Transportation Fund and State Transportation Infrastructure Fund Committee meetings through the Malheur County Council on Aging Snake River Transit.  
 
Airport
The FAA grant for our capital improvement projects has been approved by the FAA and sent to Ontario. The contractor will be notified, and work can begin as soon as they are able.
 
The grass runway will be mowed Friday morning. Wheel lines and large yellow “X’s” will be removed and then it will be serviceable for aircraft throughout the holiday weekend. This should be a very marketable asset for the city of Ontario.
 
The port of Portland, through the Oregon Department of Aviation, has supplied airports with masks during the duration of the pandemic. Approximately 500 new cloth masks have been added to the PPE supply for the city’s use.
 
A Harrier jet did its first taxi today and some of its final testing. It will hopefully be part of our Air Museum someday. 
 
Community & Economic Development
The office is open, but door is locked and allowing customers to come in one at a time. Foot traffic has increased again which is normal towards the end of summer with people trying to get their projects done. It was an extremely busy week for all staff.
 
Staff is reviewing 23 building applications this week and has issued 8 building permits this past week.
 
The Planning department is keeping busy processing 36 land use actions. Staff is handling many phone calls and walk-ins dealing with planning issues and/or questions.
 
Dan and Marc held a web conference for the kickoff meeting with Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) staff and the Cities Hired Consultants on the $50,000 grant we were awarded to update our codes and Housing Needs Analysis (HNA).
 
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.
 
Dan and Adam attended the SREDA meeting, as well as web meetings for the Emergency Winter Shelters, the Business Relief program, and the ICS Leadership group dealing with keeping business open.
 
Dan has been working closely with ODOT staff on the SE 2nd Street project dealing with construction and property owners.
 
The construction plans are being reviewed by staff for the extension of SE Goodfellow Street and the North side of SE 5th Avenue from SE 13th Street to Malheur Federal Credit Union development.
 
Flood Plain Administration
Dan continues to work on the amendment Ontario Flood Plain Code (10A-47) to meet the new Oregon Model Code and federal regulations (FEMA).
 
Economic Development
 
Staff is working with Kit Kamo of SREDA on several large firms looking for sites in Oregon and is providing information to these projects.
 
Fire & Rescue
Meetings
8/24 City Manager Adam Brown, Chief, and the Rural Fire District’s legal council had mediation with the Department of Corrections for fire coverage at SRCI.  8/25 Some of the staff participated in the City Safety Committee meeting.  8/26, 9/1 City Manager Adam Brown, Assistant to the City Manager Peter Hall, and Chief worked many hours on building financial cost models for the city and rural fire needs.  8/27, 9/3 Chief virtually attended the Malheur County COVID-19 task force meeting.  9/3 Staff attended the Rural Fire Protection board meeting.
 
Inspections
 8/28 The Deputy State Fire Marshal, Airport Manager and Chief did fire safety inspections at all three agricultural service centers at the Airport.  9/3 The building officials and Chief did a final inspection at 727 South Oregon Street. The chief also worked with the staff at St. Peter’s School on occupancy issues for a new license.
 
Training
8/25 The staff continued to do circuit training drills on the same hands-on stations we have been doing for the past few weeks.  8/28 Some of the staff did an extrication demo/class at North Verde Auto Salvage, trying out some new battery powered tools.  9/1 The Fire Department did Post Incident Analysis for some of our fires from the past couple of months.
 
Events
8/25 Some of the staff got their physicals completed.  8/27,28 These were days of annual pump testing of all the apparatus.
 
Incidents  
The past couple of weeks we have had three illegal burns, a trash fire behind West Park Plaza and a dumpster fire. The crews also responded to two semi-truck fires with the trailer brakes and tires extremely hot and burning.
 
Public Works
COVID-19 Update
The Public Works office is closed to public and non-essential employee access.
 
Field Services
Staff are working on vegetation control on City property. Crews have finished building a storage area for bio-solids at Skyline Farms. They are now working to improve the haul road.
 
Water
#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.
 
Jacobs will be scheduling clarifier maintenance for this week and next.
 
Wastewater
 
BLM had requested that they be allowed to discharge fire retardant wastewater from their operation at the Ontario airport to the WWTP. However, the waste is hazardous and must be taken to an approved receiving facility.
 
Final inspection for the pH project is being scheduled.
 
Parks and Cemeteries
Staff are working to keep up with the mowing and weeding at the parks and cemeteries. A new staff member has joined the Parks team. This will help with the backlog of trimming and mowing needs.
 
Engineering
The Goodfellow lane extension is being reviewed.
 
A contactor has been contacted to look at the police station break room remodel.
 
An AutoCAD program for the Community Development Director is being sourced.
 
Jacobs staff have caught up with their part of the work on Skate Park bathroom. Once the contractor moves to the next phase, Jacobs will continue the work. We have to meet our deadline of the end of the October to finish out the grant.