Benny Westcott
The Sweet Home City Council honored two public servants at its Thursday, Feb. 14, meeting, one for his future in a relatively new position, the other for his contributions to the city in challenging times.
In the first instance, Ryan Cummings was sworn in as Sweet Home Police Department’s second-ever captain.
The 20-year SHPD veteran and former police sergeant replaces Jason Ogden, who became the department’s chief in September 2022 after his predecessor, Jeff Lynn, took a patrol deputy position with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.
“To dedicate this service to our community is such a huge undertaking,” City Manager Kelcey Young told Cummings after the ceremony, “and we are so very grateful.”
“We went through a competitive process,” Ogden added, “and I’m looking forward to serving alongside you.”
Cummings has worked in numerous capacities during his tenure. His positions have included field training officer; drug-recognition expert; deputy medical examiner; departmental, defensive tactics and women’s self-defense and Citizens Police Academy instructors; interim detective; department videographer and photographer. He has also competed as a runner in the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics.
The other honoree was Mayor Pro Tem Greg Mahler, who was recognized for his five-year tenure from 2017 to 2023. (Mahler will continue as a city councilor.)
“He saw the city of Sweet Home through many very challenging years,” Young said, presenting Mahler with a wooden plaque with a gavel on it.
“As mayor, he provided guidance through COVID and the city hall remodel and maintained an excellent budget, including paying cash for city hall and other items. He helped evacuate the surrounding areas during the fires and has served for 25 years at the fire district.
“He has always come through quickly when signing checks and helping the city manager with various tasks, as well as providing support,” she continued. “Even in the short time that I have been here, our former mayor stepped up numerous times in the middle of busy workdays and family outings to come and help us out. He was even our last-minute Santa when we needed one. Councilor Mahler has dedicated his life to serving this community.”
“It was an honor to be your mayor,” Mahler said. “And on behalf of my family, it’s an honor to serve this community. The community’s always given back to us, and I think it’s just fair that I’ve always given back.”
In other business, councilors:
— Heard from Sweet Home resident Nancy White, who complained about activities at 913 6th Ave., a neighboring residence, including a carport fire extinguished by police a week before the meeting.
She also spoke of a man living in an RV next to the carport, as well as pickup trucks full of garbage parked in front of the home. The carport itself, she added, was full of car parts, oil, trash and junk, including a water heater that had been sitting inside since the previous fall. Allegedly, the property has seen no garbage service for more than a year.
“They pile their garbage in the carport,” she said. “The smell is atrocious. We have rats. The person that lives right behind them has to deal with this smell constantly.”
White added that the house, despite having two to six occupants, hasn’t had water for months.
“I do not know what they are using for a bathroom,” she said, “other than these garbage sacks piled in the carport, or perhaps the backyard.”
“It’s a safety and health hazard, and we have been dealing with this for quite a while,” she continued.
“We are told that there will be some cleanup done within a week or so, and that these people are supposed to be out within a few more weeks. But we have been dealing with this for two years, and it’s been this bad for at least four months now. We don’t know how much we can trust that this is going to be taken care of immediately.”
According to Mayor Susan Coleman, the property in question is currently owned by Midland First Mortgage Co. It is managed by Cyprexx Services LLC, which the bank hired to clean the property. Coleman said vehicles parked in the right of way at that location have been cited to be towed.
Within the last month, the police department has recovered a stolen vehicle and arrested someone with an open warrant on the site.
Ogden sent a department-wide email, instructing officers to monitor the property for suspicious activity and evidence of criminal conduct. Regular patrols were directed for the street. Coleman also said that vehicles parked in the right of way were cited to be towed.
“I’m glad that something is being done,” White said. “That makes me feel much better.”
— Approved the purchase of a patrol K-9 for the Sweet Home Police Department. The dog is being provided by Sanford, N.C.-based Tarheel Canine Training at a cost of $13,627.
The department decided to implement a patrol K-9 program after researching replacements for Gemma, a narcotic detection K-9 that retired last August.
Tarheel offered a lifetime guarantee if the dog was kept in good health.
The $13,627 cost will be paid for by donations to the department from the public for its K-9 program, according to Ogden.
Five of the seven councilors voted on the matter. Coleman said that Dave Trask was absent due to a family vacation in Florida and Dylan Richards was at an interview.
— Passed a resolution allowing staff to place signs around the city notifying the public of recently passed restrictions on the parking of recreational vehicles on certain streets and alleys.
— Conducted first and second readings of a proposed ordinance regarding the custody, towing and disposal of an RV found in violation of the recently passed ordinance.
The proposed ordinance would treat such RVs as abandoned, calling for notifications before towing by posting notices informing offenders of a vehicle’s possible fate and his or her rights to appeal. The ordinance would make it so that an RV in violation of Sweet Home’s code could be taken into custody, towed and disposed of after 48 hours.
— Conducted the first reading of an ordinance that would add a section on mobile food units (MFUs) to the Sweet Home Municipal Code. City staff drafted the section following frequent MFU-installation requests and because of a lack of current city code to support them. Staff used Lebanon and Albany’s MFU codes as examples when drafting Sweet Home’s.
The proposed section reads that MFU “pods,” or a group of two or more mobile food units on a parcel of land, would be considered permanent installations and require prior site plan approval, as well as lighting in areas occupied by customers.
All MFU and customer amenities within a pod would need a 5-foot-wide (at minimum) hard-surfaced, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant walkway. Waste and recycling receptacles would have to be provided.
Restrooms with hot and cold running water and nonportable toilets should be available on-site or on an adjacent parcel, with a signed agreement allowing for their use.
All MFUs would have to maintain a 6-foot minimum clearance from any other MFU or structure.
Electrical generators would need to be at least 10 feet from other structures, with any exhaust directed away. MFUs would have to remain operable and mobile, although their wheels could be removed if they were stored onsite.
An MFU could only operate within the city for no more than three days within any 30-day period without first obtaining a permit. However, one could operate sans permit within special events, such as a farmer’s market or public festival. In addition, an MFU in the public right-of-way would be exempt from needing a permit if parking regulations were followed and it didn’t block pedestrian or vehicle traffic.
After obtaining a permit, an MFU is limited to one year at a given site, with an unlimited number of one-year extensions that require new permits.
— Conducted the third and final reading of an ordinance establishing that the city could, without notice, immediately dispose of any property without apparent value or utility or that is in an unsanitary condition.
City Attorney Robert Snyder wrote in a request for council action that the city needed “effective and efficient ways of disposing of personal property for health reasons, safety reasons and the general welfare of the area users and the general public,” from experience at the old city hall sleeping area.
The ordinance comes as the city makes an overnight sleeping area available near the Sweet Home Police Department to contain overflow from the Family Assistance and Resource Center Group’s homeless facility east of Bi-Mart.
— Voted to accept city engineer of record West Yost Associates’ proposal for the final phase of Mahler Water Reclamation Facility interim improvements project design services for a price not to exceed $1,560,873.
This will carry the project’s major phase from 60% through final design and include the design of an outfall replacement.
The design of all the treatment processes will be completed by June 30, 2023, while the outfall design will extend into the next fiscal year.
— Authorized staff to procure owner-supplied electrical equipment through the city’s integrator of record, The Automation Group (TAG), for the MWRF project at a cost of $898,364.03. This equipment includes the plant’s standby generator, main switchgear and automatic transfer switch. These will be supplied to a construction contractor for project installation and programmed and integrated by TAG.
Other such project-authorized equipment included owner-supplied dewatering equipment through TAG, particularly the purchase and installation of a new sludge blend tank, at a total project budget cost of $1,117,490; and the purchase and installation of a new solids dewatering screw press and appurtenances, $704,921.
— Conducted a second reading of a proposed ordinance making various updates to the Sweet Home Municipal Code.
Under the ordinance, a code section is updated to allow for the enforcement of open-storage restrictions. Currently, the city can impose them only on violations viewable from a public street. The update would also allow for open-storage enforcement in commercial and industrial areas, whereas it is currently limited to residences.
Additionally, the code’s open-burning section was clarified to make it clear that authorized individuals had the right to extinguish illegal open burning and that violators would bear the costs of such enforcement.
According to the current code, a structure’s glass window or door cannot be left broken for more than 48 hours if the glass is within six feet of its bottom. The update would include all windows and doors, not just those made of glass, and not just those at a structure’s bottom six feet.
A section would be updated to allow the city to require the input of a licensed arborist for the abatement of dead, dangerous or diseased trees on private property.
Additionally, a section was updated to allow the city manager’s designee to enforce code provisions regarding domestic animals in parks. The current code allows only the city manager to enforce such provisions.
Finally, references to debris or junk property, currently seen in the code’s Nuisances Affecting Public Health section, are moved to a different section as they were deemed more pertinent to open storage.