The Dalles City Council met last night. Items on that agenda included a pair of public hearings on the budget, one on how to allocate state shared revenues, and the second on the budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The total budget is $91,690,001. That included some good news, as noted by Councilor Scott Randall.
“$758,051 in the special debt fund for the approval of the Oregon Department of Energy grant for solar panels and associate equipment for the new MCCAC Navigation Center,”
Councilors also awarded a $188,000 contract for rennovation of the upper story of city hall. The remodel will create two new interior offices and four additional work areas. Prineville-based Griffin Construction, LLC was the low bidder.
Under public comment, former The Dalles City Council member Russ Brown reminded councilors that he had the perception that crime in the city was getting worse, and was hoping to get some accurate statistics. He said it was easy to get arrest records, but had so far not been able to get any responses from the Wasco County District Attorney. He said he was concerned because five police officers are leaving the city, some due to retirement, others moving to higher paying jobs. City manager Matthew Klebes said the city has a plan to deal with the interim situation until new police officers can be hired.
“We’ve begun a new temporary paid reserve officer program, due to the department being understaffed, and having reserve officers available, wanted to start a new paid reserve officer program to help take care of some of those shifts and provide an additional resource to our community. Just today, at the chief’s request, I activated our first reserve officer, and I’m hoping to have more join our police reserve program, taking those shifts to support our department.”
Councillors also approved an ordinance dealing with nuisances. Currently repeat violators can be charged up to $1,250 per day. The new ordinance caps the total for recurring violations at $50,000.