Benny Westcott
In what’s become a constantly evolving back-and-forth, years-long process, the Sweet Home City Council has once again changed its homeless action plan.
On Feb. 1, it voted to begin building a temporary “managed outreach and community resource facility” at the Sweet Home Public Works Yard. However, the Lebanon-based Family Assistance & Resource Center Group didn’t want it there and preferred that a shelter be permanent, not temporary.
TCouncil members voiced concerns at the session about purchasing a third of the 7.67-acre “knife property” east of Bi-Mart from the county for the facility, not wanting to be held liable for environmental cleanup on the former Weyerhaeuser/Willamette Industries mill site.
Linn County Commissioner Will Tucker addressed the hesitation in a Feb. 4 email, suggesting that the county give a portion of the property to the FAC, which indicated a desire to accept the donation at its Feb. 7 board meeting. The following day, county commissioners expressed their willingness, provided that the city approved and, with the FAC, brought a plan forward.
Subsequently, the Sweet Home City Council voted 5-1 at its Feb. 8 meeting that the city would accept the county’s land donation to the FAC and direct staff to pursue an agreement with the latter on the future center.
Councilor Dylan Richards was the sole dissenter. Mayor Greg Mahler was not present.
The council said it was willing to allow the FAC to use the former City Hall annex building as a resource and services center on the site, and help provide infrastructure, such as water, sewer lines and power. The council was also willing to help fund a nighttime security guard, and to give the county an easement on land across from the Public Works Yard for a shared driveway serving both the center and an RV dump site the county hopes to build on the “knife property.”
Councilors expressed a desire to move forward.
“Those guys [the FAC] want to get going. And I don’t blame them,” Councilor Dave Trask said. “I’d like to get this going as fast as we can, and have the right things to do, so we don’t goof something up.”
“We’ve had a lot of distractions as we’ve gone down this road,” Councilor Lisa Gourley added. “We’ve been talking about this piece of property for this purpose for quite a while, and we have a community partner [FAC] that would run it. They’ve been standing and waiting and putting up with our meetings over and over. They’re going to do something whether we are part of it or not. And the longer we wait, the less ability we have to clean up our downtown and move forward with other projects that we’d like to see done that are going to make a huge difference.”
“I am pleased that the county is choosing to take an opportunity here to work together on this issue,” Councilor Susan Coleman said. “I think working together with the county and the FAC is good for the City of Sweet Home.”
According to City Manager Pro Tem Blair Larsen, the plan would ensure that the city wouldn’t have liability from owning property where the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality may later require work. He said that the city’s infrastructure investment could strengthen its relationship with the FAC.
“The city would have some cooperation with FAC, and some leverage, from things that we are putting in, that would be a reason for us to require things of them as well,” he said.
Sweet Home Police Chief Jeff Lynn struck a more cautionary note.
“I have the utmost respect for FAC, and they’ve worked with us for longer than they ever anticipated, and they’ve been fantastic,” he said. “But I think that if we do not control the property, in the end we can’t control what happens on that property. And that is a huge concern to me.”
In other action:
n Former Community and Economic Development Director Blair Larsen was unanimously appointed Sweet Home’s city manager pro tem in Ray Towry’s absence “for an extended period for personal reasons,” Larsen said. The motion called for the appointment to be reviewed at the council’s April 12 meeting.
n The council unanimously adopted a revised Sweet Home Investment Policy. The proposed changes further align it with existing state statutes and recommendations from the city’s contracted investment advisors, according to a request for council action submitted by Finance Director Brandon Neish.
n The council unanimously voted to update a franchise agreement with Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) for telecommunication service within the city. The previous franchise agreement with the group was granted in 2010.