Local leaders Steve Grasty, Ruth Schultz and Len Vohs address issues of importance at Feb. 16 event held at the Harney County Community Center

 By Harney County Judge Steve Grasty

While the economy of this county is fragile and very worrisome, Harney County government services and obligations remain in solid financial condition today. General fund is where your property taxes go. Many of the programs and services delivered to this community by the county are financially operated from the general fund. Law enforcement viewed as a program area (jail, sheriff’s office, justice court, the county paid portion of district attorney costs and juvenile services) make up the largest share of expenses in this fund. Generally, these services do not generate any revenue and are expected to be a cost center. Justice Court is an exception and the Harney County Sheriff has been quite successful in partnering with federal agencies by contracting for deputies time to cover federal ground. His success offsets the cost of more than one full time staff person.

The county library is an important service paid by the general fund as well. Under our Library Director Cheryl Hancock, the library has “weeded” its collection of older un-circulated books, improved the organization of the entire facility and has seen a dramatic increase in both public use and number of books checked out. Hancock also secured a grant to update the single pane windows in the library to insulated glass. This was from economic stimulus funds and the project should be completed by June 30. All efforts will be made to use a local contractor and local building supply for materials. Last year, the general fund was required to pick up a much larger share of the cost of operation at the library due to the poor returns for the Library Foundation’s investments. Those returns are significantly improved in the last several quarters, and it is hoped they will be able to assist in the future.

Many departments have seen a downturn as a result of the national recession. The number of recordings in the clerk’s office are down from the previous year, and this is a pretty good barometer of home/property and ranch sales. At the same time the planning department’s applications for new homes and manufactured home placements are off.

Perhaps a bright note here; our county has not seen the dramatic downturn in home and land prices that occurred in the rest of the state, i.e. Bend. I believe mostly because we did not see the over inflated values that occurred elsewhere. An interesting statistic is that our county at one point actually had more new homes under construction last summer than Deschutes County.

The public health and home health departments are also financially operated from the general fund. In some years these programs have been funded in large part by the general fund, this year is appearing to be one in which revenue from the state and federal government will nearly cover the expenses. If this continues to be true, these programs will not require significant local dollars to operate this fiscal year. Both of these program’s services touch the lives of many in our community through, immunizations, home care, access to family planning and hospice services. I cannot say enough about county nurses and staff in these two programs as they continue to provide incredible efforts to care for many families, friends and neighbors. If you include hospice, I hear more compliments about these county programs than any other.

Economic development: The court has repeatedly said that we believe economic development is and should be a community-wide effort. At the same time we are pressed hard to take the lead and provide the dollars for economic development. The county economic development efforts are funded by the general fund. Mark Maliwauki, Harney County Economic Development Coordinator, has covered these efforts, and I want to add that we desperately need the involvement of the community to be successful. Interestingly, it is local connections that have started interest in our community on several fronts, i.e., former Monaco Coach employees job hunting and finding a company wanting to expand; a childhood connection to a principal in that company by one of our commissioners; a new interest only two weeks ago that has a close friend and brother-in-law who lives here. It may be that one of you knows someone who knows someone who is a decision-maker at some business considering expansion. We will pursue those leads if we know about them, and we will need your help.

Mental health and drug addiction programs operate in a stand alone fund. The programs offered at Harney Behavioral Health also help many in the community. This program is entirely funded by state revenue and local fees. This is a financially stable program today.

The one fund that we will really need to worry about is the road fund. That fund today is in solid shape, and we can already see that the next year the road fund will have adequate revenue to cover expenditures. But following that year we have likely finally hit a wall on having enough revenue each year to cover expenses.

How are we doing as a community? I propose that question needs to be answered three ways. First, we have the best folks anywhere and that should always give us pride. Second, we have the best part of the state in our county and probably the nation.

But on a much more challenging note we are confronting an incredible number of obstacles to our economy and yet at the same time there are strengths and opportunity in this community. I think we can categorize the obstacles in two or three areas. The first is special interest groups such as Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) with no representation or participation in our community who litigate on nearly everything we attempt economically. The second is excessive government regulation. This can be extremely limiting and/or time consuming to many good projects. And finally, I believe the tax increases from Measures 66 and 67 will challenge us to attract and retain businesses.

So how do we change these challenges into opportunities or strengths for this community?

I believe a huge strength we have is the High Desert Partnership (HDP) and their effort to try to find common ground amongst many diverse interests. Their efforts speak highly of how we are doing as a community. One example of this is the collaborative group trying to find a way to provide a predictable supply of products from the Malheur National Forest (God forbid we say logs and/or bio-mass). The county court and HDP have both tried on numerous occasions to invite ONDA and others to seek some solutions we can all live with and we should keep trying.

Government regulation has slowly crept up on us over the last several decades, and now is so invasive that it restricts both existing and emerging businesses. I think we will have a slow time of removing them, but again think we need to try. The county court has requested Business Oregon to work with us to see if some waiver of regulation, particularly the paperwork, could be put into place in this county to see if this might enable attraction of new businesses or to allow existing businesses to grow. If any business owner has an example of how reducing some specific regulation on their business would allow them to grow or be more prosperous, we would like to hear it.

Measures 66 and 67: Well there was no doubt how the voters of this county felt on these two tax measures. We are attempting to get an idea of the actual impact to individuals and businesses in the community to tell the story in Salem. We are also looking for an actual tax comparison state to state of our surrounding states. This would allow us to show a comparison as we talk with any interested business. So here again if you are willing to share a specific story related to these tax measures we would like to hear it.

This is the best community anywhere. The people here are the best, and we can make ourselves some opportunity. We just need to keep after it.

City of Hines

By City of Hines Mayor Ruth Schultz

The City of Hines tries to remain positive in these financially tough times, and we strive to provide the basic services in the most cost effective way.

As with every yearly budget, the decisions made at the state level impact the revenue to the city. New development is at a standstill, but property taxes have remained stable.

On a positive note, we have been fortunate to have received several grants for improvement to our city.

1. Last spring we received a Small City grant, which allowed us to install new curbing on the west side of our main park.

2. The county provided $100,000 to use for street repair and maintenance, and we are very appreciative of their generosity.

3. We will be receiving $292,000 from the T-HUD federal stimulus money, also to be used for street repair and maintenance.

4. Partnering with ODOT, on a 50/50 cost share, new pedestrian flashing lights have been installed on Highway 20 and Barnes.

5. In January, the fire department received a grant from FEMA in the amount of $77,510 to update and purchase new equipment.

6. The police department is functioning very well under the guidance of Chief Cook. Drug Awareness material has been printed and dispensed to 24 various schools, businesses, etc. If you haven’t seen one of these booklets, I urge that you do so as they are very enlightening regarding the drugs our young people are being exposed to. We were also able to purchase a new vehicle for the chief.

7. The city maintenance crew does a remarkable job keeping our sewers repaired, our wells in working order, our streets plowed and our parks watered. Many hours are spent outside the normal work day, and we really appreciate Earl Hofman, Pedro Zabala and Roger Glerup — they keep the city together.

8. The city staff — Pam Mather, Ramona Hofman and Maxine Seadschlag — do the mundane day-to-day tasks that keep the city going. The council and planning commission members are all dedicated individuals and are a great asset to the community. I appreciate all their hard work and the many hours that they contribute to the smooth running of Hines.

This budget year (2009-2010), all employees graciously accepted a wage freeze. I know that hard choices will have to be made again in the 2010-2011 budget, and I am hopeful that they do not have to be too drastic.

It has been a pleasure to be the Mayor of Hines, and as I enter my eighth year in this position I am hopeful that the economy will improve and that the residents of Hines will enjoy the services that they have come to expect.

City of Burns

By City of Burns Mayor Len Vohs

The City of Burns, in cooperation and collaboration with our partners, Harney County, the City of Hines and the Sovereign Nation of the Paiutes, have made significant strides together with our sights on strategic planning and a 20-year vision for the future of our community as a whole.

It is exciting to be a part of what I have called  “hands across the table.” With this combined effort, we will accomplish what is so vitally important to all of us in Harney County, and that is economic revitalization and growth. As we work together we will see that with a combined plan we will not only move forward, but we will finally see that obstacles that have stopped our progress as individual entities are much smaller or nonexistent.

Thanks to this effort we have finally solved one major obstacle — that being the lack of an industrial area that is not in the flood zone. We are in the final stages with the State of Oregon to certify 40 acres owned by Harney County that is within the Burns city limits as industrial/energy development. There are other lands in that same area that we may eventually be able to add to that designation at a later date.

In conjunction with that effort, we have received the “green light” from the Oregon Department of Transportation to add the improvements to the Monroe Street intersection to accommodate the traffic corridor to this new zone. This again shows that with cooperation of the Sovereign Nation of the Paiutes and Teague Motor Co., and with the help of the Oregon Department of Transportation, the governor’s economic response team led by Scott Fairly, with special recognition to  Mark Radabaugh and Rick Minster, and the Harney County Planning Department, we were able to overcome the obstacles that have prevented this from becoming reality for many years. The Oregon Department of Transportation will include this project in the Highway 20 project scheduled for bid in September of this year, with construction beginning in the spring of 2011.

The City of Burns is well into the process of strategic planning in all departments. The Burns Cemetery Committee, together with the Mayor’s Executive Committee for the cemetery is in the final stages of completing their strategic plan, and we have begun the foundation of that plan with the engineering firm of Furgeson Engineering and Surveying. A very special “thank you” goes out to councilors Dan Hoke and Craig LaFollette, and the dedicated members of that committee, as well as Dick Day,  Jean Cain and Jan Cupernall of the Mayor’s Executive Committee. Together they have worked through this very tedious task with an eye on the 20-year vision.

Under the management and direction of Don Munkers, our Burns City Manager, and with the help of his management team, we have begun and are well into the restructuring and revitalization of the Burns Municipal Airport. We will upon completion of this process, with the help of the Airport Committee and the Mayor’s Executive Committee, put together the strategic plan and 20-year vision, with an eye on infrastructure and economic development that is so vital to this community as a whole.

Special thanks go out to the city manager and his management team of the Burns Public Works Department, Bryan Hutchinson, City Clerk Dauna Wensenk, and Utility Clerk Dawn Crafts for all of their help during this difficult task.

Further to this effort, City Manager Munkers has been successful in applying for and has been granted affirmative status to receive equipment from the G.S.A. equipment surplus program. Under this program the city has acquired trailer-mounted generators, a 35-ton rough terrain crane and another snow plow for the airport. As part of the ongoing agreement with the FAA, and with special thanks to  Fred LeLacheur of the engineering firm of Morrison Maierle, the Burns Airport Committee and the diligence of our city manager, the resurfacing of runway 12-30 in concrete rather than asphalt will begin this spring. This will be accomplished though an FAA grant.

City management has also applied for infrastructure funding through Connect Oregon III, and through Federal Appropriation for Airport improvements. The total of these funding streams, including the runway resurface, is approximately $5.25 million. These improvements, as well as management structure, checks and balances, strategic planning and a 20-year vision will ensure our participation in economic revitalization here in Harney County.

Again, this planning is vital so that we are ready and able to accommodate growth at the Burns Municipal Airport. I would be remiss if I did not mention the help we have received from the BLM. Not only were they instrumental in solving the problems with the BLM helitac facility at the airport, but they recently donated a 10,000 gallon water tank to help us with solving the fire suppression issue at the airport. A special thank you also goes out to the airport users and tenants during this restructuring period.

I have highlighted here the cemetery and the airport. We are also in the process of building a strategic plan for our parks system. Thanks to the contributions from Harney County and the diligence of the parks committee, chaired by Councilor Darwin Johnson, we will soon be ready for parks improvements.

We have many pressing issues yet to solve. The serious problem of street repair and paving is high on our priority list, and we are leaving no stone unturned in solving this problem.

We are working on much more, but in the interest of time I have highlighted here the major projects that we have on the front burner. I would like to recognize those who have been an integral part of his process, including all of the city employees and departments. I would also like to recognize the citizen groups and especially the downtown merchants for their unfaltering drive to improve our city. Without the cooperation and input of all the citizens of Burns, we would never have come as far as we have.

We look forward to working with all of our partners in solving the issues that are so critical to the growth and economic revitalization in our community.