Mayor Pam VanArsdale said that former Planning Commission member Brady Lockwood had withdrawn her application to be appointed to the City Council to fill the final months of the late Sharie Davis’s term at the Rogue River City Council meeting on Thursday, June 25.
“Her schedule this fall is going to be such that she doesn’t feel that she can give it her all,” she said.
Lockwood had recently resigned from the Planning Commission because she delivers for Food and Friends. The mayor said that Dee Copley, who is also currently on the Planning Commission, has applied for the interim position and that she would ask Copley whether she is still interested and, if so, invite her to the Thursday meeting. July 2 council workshop to meet council members she hasn’t yet met.
VanArsdale said Lockwood had asked about possibly joining other city committees that might fit her new schedule.
Council member Grace Howell, the council’s liaison to Jackson County Fire District No. 1 in Rogue River, said that several broken fire hydrants had been “black-bagged” to make sure they won’t be used on fire calls. This was from a report, Capt. Mike Gavlik had prepared for the District 1 Board of Directors’ June 10 meeting.
Gavlik said at the June 10 meeting that the fire department and the city both flush each hydrant once a year, and that each hydrant undergoes a flow test to determine how many gallons per minute (GPM) are pumped. The department conducts the flow test once every four years, while the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires it every five.
Each hydrant is marked with a sticker indicating its GPM, and Gavlik said he keeps a record of the hydrants’ outputs. Hydrant locations are in the First Due software, which fire and EMT personnel use, with the latest GPM test result available for each hydrant. He said there are poor-performing hydrants at the end of North River Road and one or two at the top of 315 West Evans Creek Road. A list of the black-bagged hydrants was sent to the city, which is responsible for repairing them.
He said poor-performing hydrants may be so due to the diameter of the feeding pipe and because they are among the last several hydrants on their routes.
Public Works Director Mike Bollweg said his department has a specific repair person assigned to hydrants and added that the repair person had been notified and scheduled.
“Some of them work, and they work fine, but they’re just slow, and they just need maintenance,” he said.
Barb Gregory, the liaison to the Planning Commission, said new legislation regarding the establishment of a core business district and zoning with both commercial and residential housing together, with design standards, may come before the council at its Aug. 20 meeting following a public notice-and-hearing process.
Council member Barb Hilty, the liaison to the Rogue River Chamber of Commerce, said that the chamber’s new digital walking map of the city should be available by July 30.
The council postponed, again, moving toward a decision on new legislation regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) flood insurance program and its accounting for strictures from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
VanArsdale had sent letters to each of the city’s federally elected representatives concerning a bill proposed by Rep. Cliff Bentz that would demand that FEMA not consult the ESA with regard to its flood insurance program. City Administrator Ryan Nolan said he and VanArsdale had met with representatives of Sen. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to help bolster the Bentz bill.
“I think there’s a likelihood that something major could still come from FEMA or that this bill could pass,” City Administrator Ryan Nolan said, but recommended the council continue the matter until the council’s Sept. 24 meeting.
Reach reporter Brian Mortensen at [email protected] or 541-582-1707.