Framing a plan
City, county leaders focus on improvement blueprint for Ontario streets
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Friday, December 26, 2008 9:09 PM PST
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| While Ontario officials say the North Oregon improvement project is ready to go, Mayor Joe Dominick said the Idaho Avenue underpass is one venture that will be needed down the road. |
ONTARIO — City, county and area business leaders Monday framed a list of projects that carry the potential to receive funds from one of three state and federal stimulus packages.
Minus any firm criteria to rate projects, though, the participants in the Monday meeting decided to wait until more is known about the project selection process before making any binding judgments.
Area officials do know, though, that projects already engineered and ready to go will be a major focus in terms of the injection of stimulus cash. Other criteria include job creation and long-term benefits to the community.
One project on the list is the replacement of a Nyssa sewer line on East Ehrgood Avenue, which is needed before work on the new wastewater treatment plant can begin.
Also, on Nyssa City Manager Roberta Donovan’s list is funding for an alternative fuel facility at the site of the former Amalgamated Sugar Co. sugar beet processing plant in Nyssa.
However, Amalgamated Sugar Co. leaders are still exploring prospect’s for an ethanol plant or some other fuel production facility at the former beet plan, according to John McCeedy, a vice president at the firm.
Malheur County Engineer Jim Kimberling said the top project would be widening and an overlay of Lytle Boulevard, which goes south from Vale and the Malheur River toward Adrian and Owyhee Reservoir. Connecting to that is Vale’s lone project, improvements to Glen Street, which goes north into Vale from the Malheur River Bridge.
Two major projects were presented by Carl Kruger and Joe Plaza, representing Heinz Frozen Foods, including an alternative energy process and an update on its wastewater treatment process to meet federal water quality standards.
Randy Griffin, dean of Administrative Services, and Linda Simmons, director of workforce training and continuing education, representing Treasure Valley Community College, promoted a proposed new classroom-science lab building and a project to expand its capacity in the area’s distance education to deliver classes to students in other counties and bring in classes related to wind energy technology. Columbia Gorge Community College is offering the classes for people interested in becoming technicians in the field but for TVCC to bring those classes to its students, its needs more wide-band, Simmons explained. Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said North Oregon Street was Ontario’s top project, if immediacy was the criteria. The underpass was also mentioned, but it would be a long-term project.
When it came down to narrowing the list to two or three items, it was decided to keep all the projects listed, immediate or long-term, until the criteria for the funding is known.
The federal stimulus is expected to be known sometime after the inauguration, with the state packages to be made public during the legislative session.
“We need to be ready,” Jim Jensen, Malheur County economic development director, said.
To those who oppose the bailouts, they can say keep the money, Rep. Cliff Bentz said, but in the end they will still have to pay.
“We need to grab our share,” he said.
