News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
If growth in Sisters leaves a paper trail, it can be found in the 2006-07 budget approved last week by the Sisters City Council.
City Manager Eileen Stein introduced the $16,432,078 budget as “building for the future.” The most obvious “building” aspects of the budget are projects like the new City Hall ($2.6 million), water system improvements including the siting and drilling of a new well ($390,000) and the completion of a new recycling center ($500,000).
But other areas of the budget give a subtler indication of the effort by the city government to keep pace with the growth of the community. The budget funds three new positions at City Hall, including an administrative assistant/recorder ($41,599 — total salary package including benefits); a planning assistant ($46,160); and a utility worker ($42,894).
Those are in addition to two new positions created in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
The city council believes the new positions are required by the increased demands of administering and running a growing city.
The need to drill a new well is just one aspect of a comprehensive plan to improve the city’s water system, which will be enacted over a period of several years.
“Some of these projects are just ‘tip-of-the-iceberg’ projects,” Stein said.
The well will likely be sited at Sun Ranch Business Park, Stein said.
The city is planning a $390,000 upgrade to the city’s water system, replacing old copper piping. Stein said it isn’t clear whether the current water rate structure is sufficient to repay that investment.
“I want to take a five-year look at our water rate to make sure that we’re not short-changing ourselves three years down the road,” she said.
That means water rates, which have remained steady for more than a decade and actually declined for many when the city’s water system was metered in 1994, may go up in the future.
Stein noted that the city’s budget net tax levy of $520,000 is the maximum the city can levy — and the bulk of it goes to police services, for which the city contracts the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office for $394,530.
Other revenues come from fees, transient room tax franchise fees and grants.
In an effort to make development pay for a larger portion of its impact on staff requirements, “we did have a fairly substantial — but justified — increase in planning fees,” Stein noted.
Stein said the weak link in the budget remains the street fund, which is propped up yearly by a $100,000 transfer from the general fund. According to Stein, the main reason for the shortage in that fund is that highway taxes have not been increased in years, which means that the city’s share has also remained static.
Immediate solutions are not forthcoming. Stein said the council backed off a proposal to create a local street maintenance fee. There has been some consideration of creating city sewer and water franchise fees that would be infused into the street fund.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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