Top 5 stories of 2009

Looking back on a year in Estacada

By Evan Jensen

The Estacada News, Dec 30, 2009, Updated Dec 30, 2009

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After the library reopened, Elizabeth McKinnon retired as Estacada Public Library director, Anna Stavinoha was hired as new director, and library hours were expanded with support from the city and voter approval for library tax Measure 3-310.

Elliott joins Estacada as new city manager

Former Sequim City Manager Bill Elliott was selected by Mayor Becky Arnold and Estacada City Council to lead the city of Estacada beginning in August 2009.

In April 2009, former city manager Randy Ealy announced his resignation and accepted a position as assistant to the mayor in Beaverton. The city hired the League of Oregon Cities to assist in the search for a new city manager and spent four months narrowing down the candidate pool and conducting interviews.

Elliott has 28 years experience in city government and was selected from an initial pool of 47 applicants. He served seven years as city manager in Sequim, Wash., and has held similar administrative jobs in his 28-year career as an accountant, school district employee and private business owner.

Highway 224 Beautification Project begins

For the last two months, Oregon Department of Transportation contractors have been busy transforming Highway 224, through Estacada. Pedestrians can walk along a newly finished sidewalk on both sides of the highway. Landscaped medians have been installed, with planted trees and shrubbery. Streetlights illuminate the sidewalks for pedestrians, and the best is yet to come. In 2010, contractors will resurface Highway 224 from Eagle Creek to Estacada as part of the ODOT Highway 224 Beautification Project.

Last year, ODOT and the city of Estacada received grant funding made available through the $787 billion federal stimulus package and other programs to pay for the project. Contractors are expected to complete, in January, phase one of the project that includes the landscaped medians, bike lanes, street lights, ADA-standard sidewalks and other improvements. Phase two of the project, which will involve paving and striping from Eagle Creek to Estacada, is scheduled to begin in June 2010, according to ODOT.

Rep. Brent Barton and other local officials played key roles in securing the funding for the project now underway in Estacada.

“I want to thank Rep. Brent Barton and ODOT for taking a hard look at our requests and helping our small community in competition for stimulus funding,” Mayor Becky Arnold said earlier this year.

Voters approve three percent cap on city taxes

In November, Measure 3-346 was approved by Estacada voters, with 56 percent in favor of a tax measure that will require voter approval for any tax, fee or rate increase of more than three percent. The measure also rescinds any rate increases above three percent made since August 2008.

The measure was endorsed by Americans For Prosperity-Oregon and filed by chief petitioner Dora Morgan, who unsuccessfully ran for a position on the Estacada School Board in 2009.

Measure 3-346 is modeled after a similar measure approved in Damascus in March 2008 and Cascade Locks in 2007. Both measures also received endorsements from APF-Oregon. Measure 3-346, approved in Estacada, limits the ability of city officials to raise rates, fees or taxes of any kind by more than three percent without voter approval. City officials will begin implementing the requirements outlined in Measure 3-346 in 2010.

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