County eyes creating road service district

Published 2:15 pm Thursday, May 5, 2022

ENTERPRISE — A new road service district for Wallowa County will soon be in the works after the Board of Commissioners agreed to put the wheels in motion to take advantage of a piece of legislation that “fixes a bad piece of federal rulemaking,” as board Chairwoman Susan Roberts said.

At the end of their regular meeting Wednesday, May 4, Roberts said that at the next meeting, May 18, the commissioners will start work on a road service district. She’s been working with a law group that’s been doing research for the commissioners to put together paperwork to free up payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) money and create a road district.

Funds received through the Secure Rural Schools program provides additional funding to rural counties across mostly the western United States, according to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s website. The counties that generally receive SRS funding are those that have large tracks of public, tax-exempt forestland. In the latter part of the 1990s, timber receipts from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management began to fall, impacting many rural counties that received a portion of those dollars from timber harvests to fund services. The SRS program is designed to bridge that funding gap by providing funding for schools, road maintenance and other county services.

Roberts said the SRS money will go into the new road service district and not into what are considered county funds. The governing board will be just like that for the Wallowa Lake County Service District, it’ll have separate commissioners and a separate budget meeting.

“What it does is it puts that money from the payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) back into the General Fund, which then allows us to fully staff our sheriff’s office or other work that we may have been putting aside because we didn’t have the funds to do it.”

Commissioner John Hillock said counties outside of Oregon have already taken such measure.

“There are counties in Montana that have done it already,” he said.

Roberts declined to comment further pending the outcome of further research, but said when the commissioners get started on May 18, it will be the beginning of a long process.

Other business

In other matters:

• Commissioner Todd Nash brought up the proposed bicycle playground planned at Wallowa that is currently in the fundraising process. Roberts and Hillock agreed that it is a worthwhile project and Roberts said that she’d like the county to be able to donate toward it, but wants more information and would like to see a presentation on the project. Ron Pickens, of Building Healthy Families in Enterprise, has made such presentations before to other public bodies and would be requested to do so before the commissioners.

• Was informed by county counsel Paige Sully that her legal practice is changing to handle only government bodies as clients. She has obtained as clients a couple other cities, she said, and the elimination of private clients would allow her more time to work on the government clients and eliminate potential conflicts of interest.

• Corrected the statute number for the county’s drought declaration resolution the commissioners approved April 20 that followed up on action they took April 6.

• Rescheduled a continuation of a hearing on a petition to vacate a roadway, submitted by Matthew Graham and Laura Noë. The commissioners agreed to hold that hearing at their June 1 meeting, giving them time to properly advertise plans for it.

• Accepted the withdrawal of a petition to vacate a portion of Pollack Road requested by petitioners Dale and Virginia Mammon. A hearing on the potential vacation had been held after the April 20 meeting. The Mammons informed the commissioners that since the hearing, they still wish to obtain the property, but believe it best achieved by other means.

• Review and approval of a resolution authorizing reconveyance of an interest in real property owned by Steve Roundy at Wallowa Lake. Sully told the commissioners she needed their approval to execute and record lien releases for the Roundy property so it can be sold and the county can receive money it is due. Sully said that after the commissioners give their approval, she would take the appropriate documents to the Wallowa Title Co. that day for filing.

Employee action

The commissioners also approved several employee-action notices. Those included:

• Position and salary changes for Winifred Conner from fairgrounds manager to a grants position and information technology support. She replaces longtime Grants Manager Chrystal Allen who retired this year.

• Grace Lathrop as a new election worker in the County Clerk’s Department.

• Susan Moody as a new 911 sergeant in the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office.

• A position change for Sianna Williams from 911 dispatcher to juvenile counselor.

• Position and salary changes for Candi Staigle from property appraiser trainee to Property Appraiser 1.

• Ryan Moody as a new patrol deputy with the WCSO.