Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
“Jobs, jobs, jobs” are Linn County Commissioner John Lindsey’s priority in the next term of office for the position.
Incumbent Lindsey faces Lebanon trucking company owner Bill Tacy in the Republican primary for the Position 1 seat. The winner will face Democratic challenger Glenda Fleming of Albany in the fall. She is a research chemist.
Lindsey, 39, of Lebanon, was a refrigeration contractor prior to being elected Linn County commissioner. He served six years in the U.S. Navy and one year in the National Guard. He graduated from Lebanon High School and attended Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College.
“I feel pretty good this year,” he said. “We’ve made a lot of headway in forest issues.”
A revote on the Endangered Species Act will appear in Congress, Lindsey said. The timber safety payments will probably be renewed.
“We’ve got to have opportunities for younger people to stay here,” he said. “The only way to do that is with a decent economy.”
That means Linn County will need to continue “being very receptive to business,” he said. Local government should not play an adversarial role with new businesses. Rather, it should partner itself to incoming and potential businesses, he said.
Lindsey stressed that jobs need to be in the private sector.
“We can’t have everybody as a public employee, regardless of what the Legislature thinks,” he said. An anti-business attitude drives an economy downward and leads ultimately to social problems.
“I think a lot of people have been stepping up to the plate,” he said. The county has stepped up to the plate, providing $1 million for street improvements for the new Lowe’s distribution center.
Linn County has made headway in economic development, transitioning to a more diverse economy with large-scale property development, Lindsey said. He predicted that Lowe’s will have a ripple effect and help change the face of employment over the next 12 to 18 years.
Manufacturers in Albany are expanding, he said, and he expects fallout from the construction of Lowe’s to place businesses in Sweet Home.
“I’m really optimistic,” he said. “You’re not putting all your eggs in one basket, plus I’m really optimistic about the forest products industry.”
Lindsey believes the area may have more timber harvesting going by fall on Bureau of Land Management lands, he said, and the Santiam State Forest can be sustainable with higher yields.
“The receipts on state lands affect all taxing districts,” he said.
Lindsey cites his experience as the biggest difference between him and his primary challenger, Tacy.
“I like Bill Tacy,” he said. “I think he’s a hard-working family man.”
As far as funding to provide services, he said, if he’s not talking about services mandated, but unfunded, by the state, the county has plenty of money.
“I think we have been very smart and very frugal,” Lindsey said.
He anticipates renewal of the federal timber safety net monies this fall, he said. If they are not, funding will become a challenge. The county has a contingency, but the lack of that money could be crippling.
Those dollars are paid by the federal government in exchange for loss of property tax revenues federal lands would provide.
Counties and schools receive taxes on timber, but since the decline of the timber industry, the federal government has provided supplementary funding.
“I feel pretty confident we’ll be reauthorized,” Lindsey said. There are 41 states damaged by federal land ownership. “I don’t know if those 41 states are ready to close down schools or lose infrastructure.”
Government’s got enough money,” he said. “It’s spending priorities (that are the problem).”
Some might say that human services may not be funded enough, he said. “It’s up to the state to fund it… I know it’s not popular to say, (but) should we even be funding this stuff?”
The counties are a dumping ground for state-mandated services, Lindsey said.
The county has been generous in allowing the Sheriff’s Office to run a tremendous jail and law enforcement program, he said. “The people of Linn County have told us this is how much we have to work with. We work with it. I think we have enough to make it work (notwithstanding state programs).”
The Board of Commissioners has “aggressively backed the sheriff” in fighting meth, he said. The board has authorized the purchase of two more drug dogs, which, he said, have led to big arrests around the state.
“That is a huge issue,” Lindsey said. “We’ve set up the drug court. We are being aggressive. I’m passionate about this.
“(Meth) addicts are a very expensive drain. There is an unbelievable cost associated with it.”
Those costs range from healthcare to law enforcement.
The board is planning to demolish an old meth house in Sweet Home, at the north end of 13th Avenue off Highway 20, he said. “We’re wondering whether to plan a block party when we destroy it.”
Destroying those old homes is part of the solution, he said. It makes new ground for new, better housing. Philadelphia, Pa., took that approach in the late 1980s and stemmed a rising drug problem.
“You have got to make it so it is not cost-effective to be a doper, a drug manufacturer,” Lindsey said. This methamphetamine is industrial toxic waste. Who wants to suck battery acid? That’s what it is.”
Linn County is growing, and Lindsey said county government will assist cities as much as possible as they go through their growing pains.
The cities have infrastructure issues, roads, sewer and water. The county doesn’t have quite the same issues, but they are involved in road improvements just outside the cities, and as cities take county lands, the county will help them cope with the additions.
Lindsey said he wants to see a bypass around Lebanon as soon as possible, he said.
“If I had my way right now, we would be on the ground right now. We’re making preparations for a bypass.”
He said Airport Road and Stoltz Hill Road in Lebanon, in particular, are going to become huge problems for local residents, let alone Sweet Home residents traveling through to Corvallis or Albany for work. Growth in Lebanon is making it an issue as more people use the route.
“We have to get Sweet Home people off that,” Lindsey said, and for their sakes, Linn County is working on the Van Buren Street Bridge with Benton County, in an attempt to fix the bottleneck from three to one to two lanes.