City leaders review street issue at session
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Friday, August 15, 2008 10:37 AM PDT
Ontario — The Ontario City Council tackled an ongoing street issue with the school district, listened to a briefing from the revenue committee and talked about a license application for a local cab company at its work session Thursday.
The road issue centers on a proposal to close a portion of Southwest Second Avenue between Southwest Sixth Street and Southwest Fourth Street, which currently runs through Ontario Middle School campus. Ontario School District Superintendent Dennis Carter said at the session Thursday students become accustomed to the road being blocked off during school hours and may not be as careful as they should be after the last bell sounds. Another issue, Carter said, involves being able to legally forbid unwanted and disruptive people from walking across school grounds.
“The reason we need this is so we have the ability to control who comes onto the campus and tell someone who is a disturbance, ‘You are no longer welcome here.’ ” Carter said.
Ontario City Councilman John Gaskill said the idea of sectioning off the middle school with a fence would prove problematic for volunteers who had a legitimate reason for being on school grounds. Carter said fencing off the area is not part of the plan because it would impede emergency response time to the school, since personnel would have to be allowed through the gate. Though city documents state the sidewalks would be closed to public traffic, Carter said he did not see an issue with individuals cutting through the area.
“If someone is just walking through there, it’s not a problem,” he said.
Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said the issue would be discussed further at a public hearing Monday. Council members also heard from members of the revenue committee, who offered to give a more detailed look at how they decided to rank their money-generating ideas at the council’s next meeting Monday. Councilman Dan Cummings said he was confused about how they decided to weigh the potential costs and benefits of each of the 14 ideas presented by the group. Committee member Max Chavez said each of the committee members assigned a number to how important certain issues, such as impact to citizens and administrative cost, and these numbers were then averaged to show how relevant the committee felt each idea was. Councilman Lewie Allen said he was still confused by the numbers and said he believed the numbers should have been simpler.
“I think it should have been more down-to-earth sheepherder talk,” he said.
Chavez explained the issue further by comparing the numbers to various grades of sheep wool, some of which are more valuable than others, then offered to present the number system in greater detail at Monday’s meeting.
“Yeah, that’d be a good idea,” Cummings said. “To walk us through that.”
Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee also presented an application to operate a taxicab service on behalf of Courtesy Cab, owned by Barbara and Violet Hickling.
“I always think these things are kind of dumb,” he said of the application. “Renewing them every year.”
However, when processing the paperwork, he said the city discovered one of the drivers was driving with a suspended license.
“They’ve taken care of that,” he said. “It was a paperwork issue.” The council will approve or deny the application Monday.
In other council news:
— Councilmembers discussed keeping Pendleton-based Dickey and Tremper as the city’s audit firm. The firm has been with the city since 1998, according to Finance Director Rachel Hopper. If the city chooses to renew it’s audit contract with the firm for the next three years, the city could save more than $4,000. However, if councilmembers elect to hire the firm for only a year, the city would pay more per year, $28,190 for the next year, rather than $23,450 for next year. After that time, Ontario City Manager Henry Lawrence said, the numbers fluctuate because of cost of living changes. Hopper said she enjoyed working with the firm because it was able to answer her general questions and did not hesitate to point out accounting issues.
— Lawrence reminded council members that Pendleton Mayor Phillip Houk and City Manager Larry Lehman would present information about Pendleton’s downtown revitalization project.
— Council members will vote to approve or deny a grease interceptor currently situated in a parking lot behind Fiesta Guadalajara. City Engineering Technician Dan Shepard said Ontario restaurants are now required to install grease interceptors in order to reduce strain on the sewage system.
However, Cummings said he did not know if the area should be classified as a right-of-way.
City attorney Larry Sullivan said he would look into the property’s legal definition and present an amended permit Monday.
