Ms. Sophorn Cheang
Director of Business Oregon
Ms. Cheang,
The Manzanita Mayor and City Manager in describing to State officials the City’s need for funding the reconstruction of Classic Street specifically highlighted the failing road base and the need for a retaining wall along the west boundary of Classic Street.
Citizens were given the same story including a design for vehicle travel lane widths that complied with the City’s minimum standards for vehicle safety. We’re now getting none of this.
The City will claim that it doesn’t have enough money to pay for the recommended design. That’s a false explanation.
The City’s General Fund which is substantially funded by visitor Transient Lodging Tax revenue contains approximately $3.7 million dollars in unappropriated revenue in the current Budget. The purpose of these funds is to ensure that the City has adequate operating revenue from the start of the fiscal year on July 1st until property taxes are distributed from the County in November.
For Manzanita, the General Fund is not as dependent on property taxes as most other cities. A generous unappropriated ending fund balance to meet this contingency would be $500,000 thus leaving $3.2 million that City officials would be hard pressed to explain why these funds are not being used for City infrastructure improvements like Classic Street. There is nothing to prevent the City from spending these funds after completing a supplemental Budget process.
City officials tell us that visitors pay for most of the City’s infrastructure and then refuse to allocate a single dollar of the available TLT revenue from the General Fund for this project. The hypocrisy of City officials is on full display.
20 years ago City officials were responsible for the initial poor design and construction of Classic Street that has given rise to the present unsafe conditions. Given a second opportunity, will they repeat their blunder based on false claims of an inability to find funding?
Ms. Chaeng, as I see it, Business Oregon has two options. Require the City to comply with the construction of the retaining wall and street design that was a part of the City grant funding request from your department. Businesses Oregon then becomes a partner in resolving a public safety issue and providing a long term stable Classic Street that provides safe transportation to both residents and the thousands of visitors who are coming to Manzanita and traveling on City streets.
Or, Business Oregon ignores the City’s stated objectives that were the basis of its funding request, fails to question the City’s false claim that it lacks funding to construct the project as recommended by its consultants, shrugs at the construction of a major street project that fails to meet minimum standards for public safety and is content to be a partner in a project that does nothing but put another band aid on Classic Street.
Ms. Cheang, Manzanita citizens are entitled to an explanation as to how your agency plans to address the status of this project going forward given the above facts.
Respectfully, Randy Kugler