City Council acts on affordable housing

An ordinance to create and preserve affordable housing in Sisters passed unanimously at the Sisters City Council April 10 meeting. The affordable housing program has been under consideration for the past six months.

In a separate resolution, the Council granted to Sisters Habitat for Humanity to cover parks and transportation system development charges (SDC) that were originally waived on nine properties in the Desert Rose Loop project. The ordinance allows the City to dispense funds to cover fees originally waived. This is basically a housekeeping item with which the SDC funds will not be reduced by waivers granting non-payment.

From here on Habitat will need to apply for affordable housing grants for items such as this. If the properties don’t remain affordable for 25 years, the grant would have to be repaid to the City by Habitat.

Resolution 2019-05 adopted the 2019/20 Council goals which provide clear direction to staff, commissions, boards, Council and the community for actions taken and projects undertaken in support of the goals.

Council voted to award a public improvement contract to Robinson & Owen in the amount of $521,607.87 for work identified as Schedule A in the Lazy Z Ranch wastewater reuse expansion. All bids came in higher than expected, so for now only the trunk line to the site will be completed. Value engineering for the rest of the project will be completed to get the overall cost closer to original estimates.

Tri-County Paving was awarded a contract in the amount of $76,345.80 for the 2019 street overlay project, which is lower than a previous project. Engineers had estimated the cost at $90,000.

A professional services agreement was approved to contract with Olson LLC for backflow testing. All water accounts will see about a one dollar increase in the annual charge and $1.50 for commercial accounts. The public can use their own tester if they will provide proof of the test results to the City.