News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
In an interview with The Nugget last week, Sisters City Councilor Sharlene Weed stated that the City of Sisters is spending $57,000 this year on economic development.
"We were spending $750 on economic development (for Economic Development for Central Oregon dues) two years ago," she said. "Now we're spending $57,000. That's a huge jump. We increased our dues to EDCO to $7,500 from $750 and we're getting the same support from EDCO that we got when we were spending $750. That huge jump I just couldn't support."
Council candidate Virginia Lindsey challenged those numbers, writing to The Nugget, "I was disappointed that Sharlene Weed's quoted statement intimating that the cost to the city for membership with EDCO, and other economic development, went up from $750 per year to $57,000 per year ran without trying to verify her figures before printing the article!" (see Letters to the Editor, page 2).
Lindsey states that "the City of Sisters has actually committed to spend $37,500 this year and no further commitment except the $7,500 per year for our EDCO membership."
Asked to clarify the numbers, city finance director Lisa Young said that the total of budgeted funds for economic development comes to $52,500.
According to Young's figures, the city budgeted $30,000 for an economic development manager position; $7,500 for EDCO dues; $10,000 as an unallocated set-aside for economic development purposes (which Lindsey acknowledges in her letter); and $5,000 as a match for a micro-enterprise grant.
That match will not be needed, which, Young said, leaves both the $10,000 and the $5,000 available for general economic development spending.
Regarding the $10,000, Lindsey notes that "there are still no current plans to spend any of it."
Weed acknowledged that the $5,000 probably won't be spent, but she believes that the $10,000 was budgeted with the intent to actually use it.
Weed acknowledged that the $57,000 figure is in error. However, she stood by the thrust of her argument.
"The point is that we've gone from $750 to over $50,000," Weed told The Nugget on Monday. "We've had a dramatic increase in economic development spending. I don't mind spending if we have a good plan that's going to have a good impact on the community. In this case, we're getting very little for our money."
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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