It was a busy meeting of The Dalles City Council last night, as they wrapped things up before taking the month of August off.
Things kicked off on a positive note with a presentation by The Dalles Lions Club. Former mayor Jim Wilcox made the announcement.
“We have a check for $30,000. One-third of those funds came from Northern Wasco PUD Community Development Fund. It’s another example of what they do for our community.”
You can see a photo of the giant check, smiling representatives of The Dalles Lions, Northern Wasco PUD and the city, on our website, gorge news center dot com.
The second presentation came from District Attorney Kara Davis, who gave an update on her office.
“The good news is, crime is down. And if you weren’t aware, we have restarted the MINT task force. Having that has also led to some pretty significant arrests for local entrepreneurs of the illegal kind.”
MINT is the acronym for the Mid-Columbia Interagency Narcotics Team, which historically has been made up of selected members of the Wasco and Hood River County Sheriff’s office, city police from The Dalles and Hood River and the Oregon State Police. Davis mentioned that one drug bust yielded $100,000 in cash, which was used towards funding the task force.
Under the public comment section, Darcy Long raised concerns about people living in commercial spaces and downtown parking issues caused by construction, Nicole Bassett introduced herself as a candidate for the Oregon State Senate, and Mark Linebarger made a startling announcement:
“I’m here to basically let everyone know that I am NOT going to open up the Baldwin Saloon. I’ve been out of the country for a while, and when I came back and saw what was going on and saw that the Baldwin Saloon was empty, I immediately got hold of the Martins. We talked about it. We had a game plan how I would come back in and give life to the saloon. At this point, it’s impossible. That’s because of how I was dealt with.”
The First Street Project has definitely impacted the Baldwin Saloon building, including excavations right up to the main door and other challenges such as having the only water supply from a garden hose. Mayor Rich Mays said he would meet with Linebarger and hoped to find a solution.
The situation wasn’t helped when the longest discussion of the night was a contentious $146,955 amendment to an archeological services contract for the First Street project. This is the fifth adjustment to expand that contract, and will delay completion on a project that’s already having negative impacts on parking and will now continue to do so into next year.
Councilors were frustrated that the archeologists had uncovered something described as “an archeological feature,” requiring two cubic meter excavations, but wouldn’t say publicly what that feature was. Ultimately, councilors vote in favor as the only way the project could continue, but they were not happy about it.
The final item of the night was an executive session, following which councilors voted in open session to approved a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, which represents many city workers.
In an unusual move SEIU issued a press release announcing the settlement and crowing over specific details the afternoon before the city council could even meet to ratify the agreement.