Wow. $30 million.
That’s quite a good-bye gift from Congressman Pete DeFazio, who’s served Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District for 36 years.
DeFazio, who has announced that this will be his last term, shocked Sweet Home officials Monday morning when he announced that he had procured what essentially is full funding for the wastewater treatment plant Sweet Home must build to get on good terms with federal and state government agencies (see page 1).
City staff, seeing the handwriting on the wall for the past couple of decades, have been working on ways to fund a new wastewater plant, which would prevent Sweet Home from running afoul of environmental regulations by discharging what essentially is sewer water into the South Santiam River – and paying fines for that.
Sweet Home has done a lot recently to make up for failure to maintain its infrastructure in the past. It has invested millions to replace leaking pipes, upgrade the old plant built in 1947, and has generally tried to reduce the inflow and infiltration (I&I) problems.
But it hasn’t been enough, and meanwhile, other challenges haven’t conveniently gone away. Streets still need to be paved. The Knife River quarry property sits out there, a diamond in the rough. The city is growing; there’s a shortage of rental housing. There are homeless issues. There are downtown challenges, which the City Council is seeking to address through the downtown streetscape and parking plan it approved last week.
While money set aside, particularly from ratepayers, will continue to go to the wastewater treatment plant project, this cash infusion may allow the city to focus on some of these other issues.
For those forced to count their pennies, this is particularly good news. Looming rate hikes, necessary to pay off loans and the costs of constructing a $30 million plant, have suddenly receded into the darkness. If rates go up now, somebody’s not doing their job.
While DeFazio’s populistic leanings might not line up well with many local residents’ politics, he’s always been a strong advocate for infrastructure – recognizing the crucial role played by and advocating for railroads, roads, bridges and aviation.
Since he’s been in Congress since 1986 – 36 years – he’s gained a lot of influence. He chairs the influential House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where he played a key role in shaping the $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill, signed in November by President Biden, which, according to DeFazio’s office, produced these funds for Sweet Home.
During his time in Congress, he’s promoted legislation that brought billions of dollars to Oregon for highways, bridges and harbors.
DeFazio has always been a little hard to put in a box.
Those populistic leanings show up in his efforts in environmental causes, health care and animal welfare. In an interview after he announced, last December, that he was stepping down, he told the oregoncapitalchronicle.com that he plans to direct his focus to passing Biden’s social infrastructure spending package, the Build Back Better Act, before he leaves Washington.
In dealings with him over the years, we’ve gotten the sense that, unlike many politicians in Washington and in statehouses, he is as well-informed as his staff on many of the issues he deals with.
Back to Sweet Home and infrastructure.
Sweet Home residents of all political stripes should appreciate this, which is a lot more than pennies from heaven for our community.
The money is needed here, where residents have been paying the price for decades for lack of foresight and lack of maintenance of public infrastructure.
There are many needs in this town and, although we’ve been riding a wave of tax revenues and general economic growth, those dollars still fall short of what’s required to address some of the challenges faced here.
It will be incumbent on city officials and the City Council, to figure out how best to use this money – and any corollary savings – to get the best result.
After all, this may be a once-in-a-lifetime windfall for Sweet Home.