Facility Investment: The Corvallis City Council will be looking at an update to the ongoing facility investment efforts being made to address several of the city’s facility deficiencies at a work session on July 6.
An assessment completed by the city recommends 11 separate projects estimated to cost $255 million. However, according to the city, it is not looking to tackle all of these projects at the same time. The city is also not looking for just one $255 million funding source solution.
“Staff is working with FFA Architecture (FFA) to refine the conceptual plans for four top-priority facility projects identified by the City Council. The conceptual plans were developed during the Citywide Facility Strategy (CFS) work that was completed in January 2022,” said City Manager Mark Shepard. “The goal of the current effort is to determine if there are any challenges to the viability of the concepts developed and to refine project cost estimates for the four projects to support the development of a funding strategy to construct the new facilities.”
The last update on the projects was provided at the April 6, Work Session, staff shared the progress in bringing the Police facility into the current work, the outcomes of the three sustainability workshops held, and an update on the project’s community engagement efforts.
County Administrator Update: The Benton County Board of Commissioners hosted a community engagement event last week as part of the hiring process for a new county administrator. It was an opportunity for the community to meet the three finalists for the county’s top management position.
No other such opportunities have been scheduled, though the public only had a two-day notice about the event, which was held at 4:30 pm on June 28, a Wednesday.
According to Benton County’s Public Information Officer there was a good turnout for the event, “We had to pull out more chairs, so there was a good turnout for the event. The final decision has not been made yet. Part of the process for this event is to collect feedback. I suspect the new CA won’t start for another couple of months.”
At the June 28 event, community members were given the opportunity to meet the finalist for the position. The meeting was in-person only.
Discussions continued at a special commissioner meeting the following day on June 29.
The three finalists are Aaron Cubic, who has served as the City Manager for the City of Grants Pass, Oregon, since 2012. Prior to his time in Grants Pass, Aaron was the City Administrator for the City of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, where he served for seven years. Second is Rachel McEneny who has served the City of Albany, New York, since 2016. She spent her first year as the Budget Officer before being promoted to the Commissioner of Administrative Services in 2017. Lastly, Nancy Newton has served as the City Manager for the City of Springfield, Oregon, since 2020. Prior to her time in Springfield, Newston was the Assistant County Executive/Chief Operating Officer for Sacramento County, California, for four years.
No word yet on when the County Commissioners will choose the ultimate finalist.
For more information visit https://www.co.benton.or.us/boc/page/%E2%80%9Cmeet-benton-county-administrator-finalists%E2%80%9D-event-scheduled
By Jennifer Warner
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