Sean C. Morgan
The City of Sweet Home Budget Committee last week cut funding for the city’s Public Works Maintenance Superintendent position.
Committee members declined to second a proposal and vote on whether to set aside funds for new crosswalks on Main Street, but they did indicate they were interested in addressing deteriorating streets.
The committee discussed the topics during its annual review Wednesday, May 4, of the proposed Public Works budget for fiscal year 2016-17, which begins on July 1. The committee reviewed the proposed Police Department and library budgets on May 3 and is scheduled to review the General Fund on Wednesday, May 11, with another meeting scheduled for Thursday if the committee needs an additional day to review the budget.
Maintenance Superintendent
The position became vacant when Pat Wood died in December. The city has yet to fill the position.
Public Works Director Mike Adams said the position’s duties have changed over the years and it is worth reviewing the position.
Committee member Dave Holley approached the City Council earlier this year to suggest cutting the position. It was something he had been thinking about for several years, but he was waiting to suggest until after Wood could retire.
Instead of filling the vacancy, Adams has given additional duties and pay to three lead workers to handle some of the duties, and he has handled other duties himself.
After councilors were receptive to the idea of cutting the position, Adams told the committee, neither he nor then-city manager Craig Martin intended to fill the position without returning the City Council.
“I chose to keep it in here,” Adams said of including the position in the proposed budget. “If you do want to keep it, the funds are there.”
Holley said he started thinking about it when the city began contracting out the operation of the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants.
He said that reduced the number of employees supervised by the position to six or seven.
“If we need an employee in that area, I’d rather see it be someone in the workforce rather than supervisory,” Holley said. “I didn’t believe, I still don’t believe we need the middle management there.”
To clarify, Adams said, the position never supervised plant employees, and the total number of employees supervised by the maintenance superintendent is 12, although some positions are vacant.
Without the position, Councilor James Goble asked, who would handle the day-to-day responsibilities?
The Public Works director, answered Councilor Dave Trask.
“The work itself has changed,” Adams told the committee.
The city doesn’t do the oil mat overlays it used to do on streets, for example, Holley said. If it does, it’s likely to contract out the job.
He can pick up some of the duties, but some activities require oversight by someone in another position. To get there, it may require the city to negotiate a wage package.
The city could rely on crew leaders, Holley said. “The crew is good. They don’t need anybody looking over their shoulders.”
Adams requested that the committee leave the money in the budget so it is available for whatever finally comes of discussion about the position.
“I wouldn’t have any problem leaving this line item in,” Holley said. “I think it’s fair to bring it out now.”
Councilor Jeff Goodwin said that Martin told the council earlier this year that he would just hire someone to fill the position anyway, as allowed by the City Charter; so Goodwin was concerned about leaving the money allocated to the position in the approved budget.
The committee voted 7-0 to move the money, nearly $60,000 in wages, to contingency funds, where it could not be accessed without council approval.
Street Conditions
The committee discussed the superintendent position as it reviewed the city’s Street Maintenance Fund. That portion of the budget is entirely funded by the state gas tax and interest on the money in the fund.
It pays for four full-time personnel, three in maintenance and one secretary. It also pays a portion of several other positions, a total cost of $339,000 proposed in 2016-17. The city will receive $522,000 from the state and carries forward $202,000 from the current budget year for a total of $725,000 in the fund this year.
The city is budgeting $134,000 in materials and services, which include a variety of expenses, $67,000 in operating supplies and equipment operating supplies and $25,000 in professional services. The proposed budget sets aside $8,750 for furniture, equipment, a building and improvements as necessary.
It transfers $50,000 to the city’s path program, which is used to pay for sidewalks and handicap accessibility projects; $68,000 for equipment reserves to pay for vehicles and other equipment that may need to be replaced; and $48,000 to the General Fund.
The street crew is responsible for asphalt patching, striping, sign maintenance, gravel street maintenance, street sweeping, brush removal, sanding, ice and snow removal, crack sealing, overlay preparation and other miscellaneous tasks on city streets.
The proposed budget does not include any street overlays.
This money is sent to the city to maintain its roads, Goodwin said, adding that it’s going to employee salaries and filling potholes, which is not really road maintenance.
The money should be going toward projects that fix the roads, he said, to make these roads nice again.
Fourth Avenue, he said, is growing grass.
“No one has stood up and said this gas tax money is to fix roads,” Goodwin said. He suggested that it be taken out for further discussion.
The General Fund is the only other place to find money for streets, Holley said.
Councilor Bruce Hobbs asked what the city can offset to pay for street projects.
“How are we maintaining our roads?” Goodwin asked. “Not maintaining our roads is unacceptable. I’m not willing to kick the can down the road (till all of them fail). These are politically unpopular questions. The longer we put this off, the worse the problems become.”
All said and done, Trask asked how much is left to fix roads. He doesn’t think the legislature planned on this money going to wages and benefits. What’s left is minute compared to what the city receives from the state.
This has been a frustrating fund for years, Holley said. If the city pays people for street maintenance, it doesn’t have money for projects. If it pays for projects, it cannot pay the people.
Holley described a special fund the city has used in the past for periodic street overlays. The fund has about $1.5 million. In the past, the city used interest to fund projects every couple of years.
With low interest rates, it hasn’t generated much revenue for a while. The city received the funds from Linn County when it took over responsibility for certain roads from the county.
Based on a little rough math, Hobbs said, it would cost roughly $270,000 per year to repave Sweet Home’s streets on a 70-year cycle.
The question is where the city cuts money from, he said. “This is the question the city’s been asking for a long time.”
“It’s a great discussion,” Adams said. ‘The discussion needs to be had, but that’s a policy discussion for the council.”
Answers to these questions would help staff put together the budget, he said.
Trask suggested taking this topic to the Public Works Committee in June or July, once the council and Budget Committee deal with other issues.
Crosswalks
Goodwin suggested using money from the state gas tax to pay for crosswalks on Main Street.
From Clark Mill Road to Wiley Creek Road, Main Street has no crosswalks. He noted a fatality on the east end of Main Street soon after he moved to the community.
He said crosswalks need to be made more visible and that the Oregon Department of Transportation is not as opposed to adding crosswalks as he had been told it was. He thought that the council was perhaps reluctant to add crosswalks.
He offered photos of crosswalks on state highways in other communities, more visible, with lighting.
He suggested installing four crosswalks.
Holley said he wouldn’t vote to put crosswalks anywhere the speed is 45 mph. Highway 20 has too many trucks for crosswalks at that speed.
Pedestrians will keep crossing the highway, though, Goodwin said.
A crosswalk implies safety, Holley said, and a crosswalk at those speeds isn’t safe.
Goodwin moved to spend $50,000 from the long-term street improvement fund Holley previously described to install crosswalks if ODOT were willing. The motion failed for a lack of a second.
Holley said he could see funding projects like that within the state gas tax fund.
“It’s going against saving that money for future road improvements,” Hobbs said, noting the previous conversation.
Goodwin moved to spend $25,000 on crosswalks from state gas tax revenue, but again the motion died for a lack of a second.
It sounds like crosswalks are not important, Goodwin said.
Present at the meeting were councilors Goble, Trask, Hobbs and Goodwin and committee members Andrew Allen, Diane Gerson and Holley.
Absent were Mayor Jim Gourley, councilors Greg Mahler and Ryan Underwood, and committee members Brent Gaskey and Gerritt Schaffer.
The committee has two vacancies. Those interested in serving on the Budget Committee may contact Julie Fisher at (541) 367-8969 or stop by her office at City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.
The committee meets next at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the City Council Chamber behind City Hall.
Public Works Budgets
The Street Maintenance Improvements Fund, mentioned earlier by Holley has approximately $1.5 million in revenue, including $1.2 million carried over from 2015-16.
It also includes $179,000 in revenues that originated with the federal government through the state government and $125,000 for a possible local improvement district on Harding Street.
The fund budgets the Harding Street project at $250,000. The additional funds would come from assessments on property owners along the street. The budget also includes $300,000 in matching funds for a project from 54th Avenue to Riggs Hill Road along Highway 20. The city budgeted the money last year, but the project did not materialize.
Some $160,000 is allocated for street and bridge maintenance and $25,000 in the Path Program for sidewalks and bike lanes.
The Path Program itself carries forward $195,000. With money transferred from other funds, the proposed budget includes $75,000 to repair, replace and install bike paths, curb cuts and wheelchair ramps throughout the city.
As part of an ongoing project to meet federal requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, the fund also includes $90,000 to construct wheelchair accessible ramps.
The Water Fund, which pays for water treatment and distribution, is budgeted at $2.5 million. The Wastewater Fund is budgeted at $2.7 million. The City Council is considering rate adjustments to meet these requirements and is scheduled to continue the discussion following completion of the Budget Committee’s review and approval of the budget.
The Storm Water Drainage Fund is budgeted at $210,000. The city collects $1 per month from most residents and $1 per month for each “equivalent dwelling unit” on utility bills to raise revenue for the service.
In its systems development funds and capital construction funds for water, the proposed budget includes $640,000 for waterline replacement; $140,000 for system maintenance, fire hydrant repair and replacement and water meter replacement; and $70,000 for infrastructure projects if needed.
For wastewater, the budget includes $1.450,000 to aid in reducing inflow and infiltration and system maintenance as needed under an agreement with the state, $75,000 for design upgrades in sewer lines, $435,000 to pay costs associated with completing a Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility Plan and projects identified in the plan; and $100,000 for replacement of sewer lateral replacement.
In storm water, the budget includes $10,000 for construction of a storm water catch basin and pipe at various locations throughout the city and $55,000 for projects that may arise during the year.