Regional alliance meeting tackles funding issues
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 10:34 AM PST
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| LARRY MEYER | Argus Observer
Southeast Regional Alliance boardmembers Linda Simmons (left) and Cheryl Cruson, both representatives for Malheur County, take a spin in an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by Driving Ambitions of Nyssa. The Regional Alliance met in Nyssa Monday and toured the company’s facility next door to City Hall. |
Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
NYSSA
New funding sources and the renewal of the ConnectOregon program are some of the transportation issues which the Oregon Legislature will look at during its current session in Salem.
“ODOT is taking on a variety of issues,” Rena Cusma, Region 5 South Area Manager, Oregon Department of Transportation, said.
Cusma made her comments during the transportation portion of the Southeast Regional Alliance meeting at Nyssa City Hall Monday.
Alliance board members from Malheur, Harney and Grant counties held their monthly meeting in Nyssa to discuss economic development issues and successes and make business funding decisions.
Also attending were members of the governor’s eastern regional revitalization team.
“ODOT appears to be in good shape,” Cusma said.
The department will continue to make progress with its bridge repair/replacement program and with the ConnectOregon agenda, which is providing money to local communities to help pay for transportation infrastructure.
The ConnectOregon program, for example, is funding an extension of the runway at the Ontario Municipal Airport and improvements to the proposed Treasure Valley Renewable Resources facility, south of Ontario. ConnectOregon 2 will be up for approval and has the governor’s support, Cusma said.
One funding mechanism the Oregon Transportation Commission utilizes to fuel various projects is toll fees. U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is opposing tolls unless they come off when the project is paid for, Cusma said.
“We’re not going after major funding packages this year,” Cusma said, but added later that the department would be back for major funding in a few years and would like to have the board’s support. The alliance board is also the regional advisory commission on transportation. The second round of bids on Ontario’s North Interchange Project will be opened Thursday and there appears to be a lot more interest about the venture this time around, Cusma said. At least 13 contractors have picked up bid packets, she said, and ODOT officials are hoping for a better price. The original bids opened in November were rejected.
While expressing support for the governor’s program, Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, alliance chair, said he is concerned about the amount of money the state is borrowing with these programs, which includes the Oregon Transportation Investment Act and ConnectOregon, and where it would leave the state in the future. In its own project financing programs, the alliance board voted to approve a request from Monaco Coach Corporation to help fund improvements to its plant in Burns, which produces fiberglass components for its recreational vehicles. Bill Burstow, Harney County business development director, said the company had chosen to keep the Burns plant open and close one in Springfield but needs to make its Burns facility more efficient, particularly with heating and cooling. The company currently employs about 145 people.
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Disgusting. "