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Salem citizens came to the council meeting to applaud their leaders for listening to their needs to save library and park services.

SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) — Grappling with a budget shortfall, Salem city councilors voted Monday to move forward with a $728.2 million budget for next year.

This comes after a contentious budget season and threats to cut major services to parks and libraries, as well as heated debates among constituents and councilors in recent weeks.

Leading up to the vote, there were protests and hours of public outcry to save the library, park services that hose family friendly events.

While the city was able to come to a resolution to fund those services for another year, they acknowledged that it’s just a Band-Aid for the time being.

“I don’t want the community to walk away from this thinking this is good news,” said councilor Trevor Phillips, as he described city staff being stretched to a breaking point. “I think the structural problems we’re bumping up against are epic.”

Still, the citizens of Salem came to the council meeting to applaud their leaders for listening to their needs to save library and park services.

“They are essential services, now and in the future. They are needed for the community to thrive, youth, family, seniors and businesses. They are truly community centers,” said one Salem resident.

“We want to thank Mayor Hoy for coming up with a plan for coming up with a plan to fund our library at the depleted level for one year, while we all work together to find adequate funding to restore full library services for all Salem residents,” added another Salem local.

The budget proposal saved eight library employees but not all cuts were averted. A couple of job sectors were cut from other departments, including a housing-first outreach team operated by the Salem Housing Authority and a youth services development program.

City leaders stressed the funding was a one-time fix and that harsher cuts would be necessary next year if more revenue streams weren’t created.

Mayor Chris Hoy said he doesn’t think anyone should feel good about this budget, but that it was the best they could do with the circumstances they’re faced with.

“I feel like the budget committee did a good job in a really difficult situation,” he said.

City council is scheduled to adopt the budget on June 24.

Grant Park Neighborhood residents say they want it turned into something “useful.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) —  A longtime eyesore has now been ruled a major safety concern in Northeast Portland.

The old Gordon’s Fireplace Shop at Northeast 33rd Avenue and Northeast Broadway in the Grant Park Neighborhood has been vacant since it closed in 2016. A new owner took over with approved permits for redevelopment. Despite this, the structure fell into disrepair.

“It’s hard to miss that building because it stands right there,” said one local resident who wanted to remain anonymous. “Obviously, there’s a lot of graffiti. If you look out my back porch, we get a perfect view of that.”

The building is a hot topic in the neighborhood, he said. While most neighbors are angry that it’s an eyesore, he’s more focused on its uncertain future. 

“The only thing that I think is a pity is that it could be useful for something,” he said.

He’d like to see this space become affordable housing, retail or recreation. The City of Portland wants that too.

“We want to see that building redeveloped. We’ve approved the permit plans to have it redeveloped,” said Ken Ray, a spokesperson for the city’s Bureau of Development Services. “They’ve had that permit since March of 2022 and nothing’s happened yet.”

Ray said the new owners have failed to maintain basic safety standards. The city cited the owner for thousands of dollars over the past five years for falling bricks, broken windows and leaving the structure unsecured.

This is one of about 50 buildings in the city that Portland Fire and Rescue designates as “unsafe.”

“We identify it appropriately so we don’t put the men and women who are in the big red rigs responding to these emergencies in an unnecessary danger,” said Rick Graves, a spokesperson for PF&R. 

The city is now moving to foreclose on the property Wednesday “in the hopes that we might find a buyer who is willing to take responsibility for those safety concerns,” Ray said.

The neighbor KOIN 6 News spoke to said it’s a step in the right direction.

“I think it is beneficial for that building to move towards a more positive way of using it,” he said.

Foreclosure is a last resort but the city said it was a step they had to take.  

This is one of eight problem properties Portland City Council is voting to foreclose on Wednesday. KOIN 6 made attempts to reach out to the out-of-state owner and developer responsible for this property but they weren’t immediately available for comment.

Records show the owners failed to appear to two code enforcement hearings about these issues in December and January.

In terms of the next steps, the Portland City Council first needs to approve the foreclosure, which is being voted on Wednesday. After that, the Office of Management and Finance will then schedule the foreclosure auction at a later date.

Newberg discovered a nearly $4 million shortfall just weeks ago

NEWBERG, Ore. (KOIN) — As the Newberg-Dundee School District races the clock to figure out their nearly $14 million two-year budget deficit, a critical budget meeting set for Monday night was canceled when the superintendent and the head of Human Resources could not attend.

That left parents frustrated with more questions than answers.

“It wasn’t till the end of May that the magnitude of the problem even sort of came to light,” parent Irene Dunlop told KOIN 6 News on Monday. “My perspective on the problem is that the superintendent and deputy superintendent and chief financial officer are all incompetent.”

On May 20, Jackie Olson, the executive director of the Oregon Association of School Business Officials, told the school board the district anticipated a negative fund balance topping $3.77 million, which was expected to grow if action wasn’t taken soon.

State leadership is stepping in to try and fix the district’s books, but so far estimates show the district will need to cut around $10 million from next year’s budget, too.

As the Newberg Graphic (a media partner with KOIN 6 News) reported, Heather Bixby, the district’s finance director, said that five accounts are over budget this year.

“We are overextended in the budgeted funds in multiple areas,” she said, adding that at the top of list is $1.36 million for programs for students with severe disabilities, $871,000 for instruction and $2.1 million for support services, which includes everything from staff development to vehicle maintenance.”

The growth in the cost of transportation services has impacted the district more than $1.5 million this year over last. Bixby explained that the increase came in part due to a wrong assumption on her part that didn’t account for the $1.3 million necessary to pay for the last two months of service, the Newberg Graphic reported.

“I shouldn’t have made that assumption,” she said during a special session held May 20. “I should have doublechecked that it was encumbered for the entire year.”

“Why are we having all these shortcomings?” said Newberg parent Carly Barnett. “Where’s the money? Why aren’t schools being taken care of?”

The Newberg School Board is considering various recommendations to correct their mistakes. Parents said they are now concerned about steep cuts, plus possible furlough days, which means unexpected cuts in teacher pay and last minute needs for childcare.

“It’s more than a 20% cut,” Dunlop said. “It’s huge.”

Barnett added it “just seems like the rug is getting pulled out from underneath teachers, staff, parents and students.”

The fiscal year wraps up at the end of June. Time to address this is of the essence.

School board members approached by KOIN 6 News Monday night declined an interview and said they were not in a position to talk because they don’t yet have all the facts.

The next budget meeting was moved to June 10.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.

The New Drug Talk Oregon launched Tuesday

HILLSBORO, Ore. (KOIN) — Jennifer Epstein lost her 18-year-old son, Cal, to a fentanyl overdose in 2020. Now she’s leading an awareness program in Oregon to save other families from this fate.

“The New Drug Talk Oregon” is a tool for parents and caregivers to educate themselves on the dangers of fentanyl and fake pills, encouraging them to have ongoing conversations with their teens about mental health and the risk of pills.

The non-profit started this statewide campaign Tuesday that does more than just warn about the dangers of the deadly drug. It also provides free resources to help start tough conversations.

“It’s something that you never think it will happen to you — until it does,” Epstein said. “In the past young people could get away with self-medicating or experimenting, whereas today that could be a deadly choice.”

Her son thought he was taking a prescription pill from a dealer on Snapchat. Instead, it was a deadly dose of fentanyl.

While people see fentanyl on the streets, Epstein said parents should know teenagers who have no intentions of consuming fentanyl can still get it.

One of the videos on the website features a man who said:

“What people need to understand is that today, whenever somebody reaches for a pill that’s not prescribed to them, whether they get it from social media or a friend, there is a risk that it could contain fentanyl and that could be a lethal dose of fentanyl. It’s especially risky when it’s mixed with other substances. It really heightens the risk of overdose.”

The New Drug Talk Oregon provides educational videos and resources to make sure parents can get the message through to their teens — one pill can kill.

In a recent survey in Oregon, this organization found 73% of parents said they talked to their kids about fentanyl, but only about 45% of kids remember having that conversation.

That is why it’s important for these conversations to be ongoing.

Signing ceremony took place in North Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — At the beginning of Gov. Tina Kotek’s term in office, Oregon’s housing supply was short about 140,000 homes. While the state has made some progress, Kotek said they still have a lot of work to do.

On Monday the governor signed the Emergency Housing Stability and Production Package into law, which will help lawmakers officially secure major investments to increase the housing supply across the state.

“Our undersupply of housing worsens our homelessness crisis, drives up home prices, and makes it harder for Oregonians to live near where they work, play and go to school,” Kotek said at the signing ceremony in North Portland.

Homeless advocate Jimmy Jones highlighted a nearly 23% increase in homelessness between 2020 and 2022 plus another 12% last year.

“The number one primary causal factor is the fact that people just cannot afford to live in their homes,” Jones said. “Almost everyone’s first step into homelessness is triggered by an economic crisis.”

The new housing production bills Kotek signed into law secures $376 million to fund homeless shelters, help renters and boost housing production.

Jodi Hack, the CEO of Oregon Homebuilders Association said the legislation also simplifies building processes, including navigating complex land use laws and allowing cities to expand their urban growth boundaries.

“Oregon has some of the most complicated land use laws in the country,” said Hack. “So for something like this to happen it’s really hard. There are some tough conversations that have to happen. And a governor has to be bold, like Governor Kotek.”

The package includes provisions for interest-free loans to local governments, funding for 44 housing projects that are shovel ready along with 27 recovery housing projects, plus initiative to prevent homelessness in the first place.

Gregory Smith said his family’s is on the brink of losing their house after he got laid off.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A North Portland family says they’re on the brink of selling their house due to a glitch in the unemployment insurance system. 

The Oregon Employment Department (OED) launched a new website earlier this year, Frances Online. And while some delays were expected, some people are having trouble filing claims smoothly. 

Gregory Smith is a father who recently got laid off, telling KOIN 6 News the state’s broken system sunk his lifeline. 

“It’s been five weeks, coming up on six weeks now, that I have seen dime zero. We’ve burned through our reserves,” said Smith, who was the household’s sole breadwinner. 

The steady job he once had to support his family’s dreams is no more. Ever since he unexpectedly got laid off from Intel in early March, Smith said he’s been desperately waiting to receive his unemployment insurance. 

“I’ve got two kids, a wife, pretty decent house that I worked really, really hard, 50-60 hours a week for seven years to be able to remodel my house and make it this happy place for my family,” he said. “And because of a simple typographical error that I cannot — somehow cannot — get repaired, it’s likely that I may lose this house.”

The hold-up? Smith found out that OED has a single digit wrong in his address. He tried three times to fix it — going to their office in person, sending messages online and waiting upwards of 6 hours to talk to a person on the phone — yet it’s still wrong.

“I understand that this Frances Online system has been buggy, but not empowering your employees to fix customers’ problems and customers who have paid into this system through their labor is not tenable,” he said. “You can’t keep a system that doesn’t work.”

Smith said the chaos stemming from the state’s rollout of its new website is unacceptable.

“If something’s broken, you fix it. You don’t just keep limping along and hope that the parts don’t drop out of the bottom,” he said. “And the thing is, in the unemployment department, the parts that drop out of the bottom are the people who pay taxes.”

Smith urges the state to fix the system and fulfill its obligation to taxpayers.

KOIN 6 got in touch with OED who said they’re looking into Smith’s situation but can’t speak to the specific claim. Their office said they’re experiencing very high call volumes and encourage people to use their online resources to update accounts.

Only 1 of 4 derelict houses sold at a Portland auction Monday

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — On a quiet dead-end street in Southeast Portland sits a run down house neighbors say has been vacant for well more than a decade.

This structure on Southeast Cooper is one of four derelict houses the City of Portland tried to sell in a Monday auction. The city took these houses — three in Southeast Portland and one in Northeast Portland — into foreclosure after years of trying to work with owners to get them up to code.

But the house on SE Cooper was the only house to sell at the auction. There were no bids on the other sites.

Ken Ray with the Portland Bureau of Development Services said the city tries to work with owners to get their vacant properties up to code.

“All property owners are required to maintain their properties to minimum standards to ensure the safety of their properties and to make sure their properties don’t become nuisances for their neighbors and the community at large,” Ray said. “As a last resort, when all other efforts to get property owner to comply have failed, we can pursue a foreclosure process to make sure that they are no longer a nuisance to the community.”

The city said the goal is to get properties into the hands of those ready, willing and able to make repairs or redevelop. This helps remove blight and stabilize neighborhoods.

The city’s criteria for foreclosure includes:

• Property must be vacant (not legally occupied) or a parcel of land;
• Repeated source of nuisance complaints and repeated, costly cleanup by city;
• Often a repeated source of criminal behavior or opportunity for fires and calls from police and fire;
• And/or a longstanding case with no movement and extremely high lien balances typically greater than $250K that make selling it by the owner difficult if not impossible.

Neighbors of the derelict house on SE Cooper expressed mixed emotions about the sale of their neighbor’s property. While it’s been frustrating to have the lot deteriorate, they say it hasn’t caused trouble like other nuisance properties in town.

They’re sad for the owner but also deeply concerned about what a developer would do to their tight-knit block of nearly century-old homes. One longtime neighbor said she doesn’t want to see a developer cram multiple tall, skinny homes on the lot.

Experience shows, though, a sale doesn’t necessarily lead to quick action.

Gail Norman, who lives on Northeast Fremont, said the derelict house on that street corner is more than an eyesore.

“It’s just a nuisance,” Norman told KOIN 6 News. “It’s only gone from bad to worse. So far nothing has been done with the property. It’s still there. People still pull up their RVs, cars. Graffiti, drugs, crime, garbage.”

The property is an open invitation for crime she said, so she locks her gates for her own safety after having several trespassers.

The property on Northeast Fremont sold at a foreclosure auction on October 17, 2022 for $147,746.00 to Wesley Mahler, according to the city. However, ownership may have changed since then; according to Portland Maps, the latest owner is listed as DOCA ASSETS LLC.

But Norman said that while she is hoping for improvement, she’s not holding her breath.

KOIN 6 did observe a foreclosure property improve: Two lots on NE Skidmore also sold at the October 2022 auction and is now serving a community daycare center.

“Notably, the improved condition of the Skidmore property really is the goal here,” said Carrie Belding, with the City of Portland’s Office of Management and Finance.

The City of Portland will try again to sell the other three derelict houses at their next auction.

Neighbors cited crime, homeless, drug use as reasons

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — On Monday night, the St. Johns Neighborhood Association overwhelmingly rejected a proposed BottleDrop site, with nearly unanimous opposition. The board said it is not a part of the solution to the community livability issues at this time.

Hundreds of neighbors gathered in person and online to voice their concerns about the impact the BottleDrop redemption center on Lombard Street at the former Dollar Tree. They cited increased traffic, homelessness, crime, drug use and dealing, all based on experiences at other BottleDrop locations.

“We’re very concerned what it would bring to the area without any sign of additional resources coming,” said business owner James Armstrong.

Resident Jonah Jensen said he “wouldn’t have concerns about safety if the downtown area didn’t have marked improvement a week after removing those BottleDrops. So why are we willingly inviting this into our neighborhood? Why are we conflating compassion with enabling? It makes no sense.”

The neighborhood board argues that using this prime neighborhood space solely for BottleDrop purposes is inappropriate given the city’s need for additional affordable housing.

“Where do we need to go to solve the problems in our neighborhoods and our city?” said Board Chair RJ DeMello. “If we focus on that and solving that, that’s the productive conversation.”

State Rep. Travis Nelson, who was also at the meeting, said he’s called for a meeting with leaders including Rep. Maxine Dexter, to find a more suitable spot for the BottleDrop.

“I’m here because I care and I initiated that meeting because I heard from you,” Nelson said.

Neighbors also said there are already 2 nearby alternatives for bottle redemptions in St. Johns. They emphasized they don’t need more locations to redeem bottles — they need more places to house people.

Keith Martin was one of the ADA class action lawsuit plaintiffs

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Keith Martin is a small business owner who said he moved to downtown Portland for the coffee shops, the restaurants and the conveniences. He relies on his scooter and the Portland Streetcar to get around his neighborhood.

But his neighborhood right now is littered with tents blocking the public right of ways, groups of people openly smoking or dealing drugs right outside the Safeway at SW 10th and Jefferson.

Martin, 72, was one of the numerous handicapped plaintiffs in the Americans with Disability Act class action lawsuit that the City of Portland settled last summer. The settlement required tents and campsites be removed from sidewalks to be in compliance with the federal law.

Despite some improvements after the lawsuit, he said accessibility issues persist.

“That’s what scares me when I’m downtown and there are people doing drugs openly. It scares me sometimes. They come out and chase me and yell at me and I feel like I shouldn’t have to be scared to go outside,” Martin told KOIN 6 News.

He’s disappointed in the city and county leadership’s lack of focus on making the city safer and more enjoyable for residents.

“The job of a leader is to have a positive image and to create goodness for a community. And if all of us are feeling despaired, we keep paying our property taxes, but we can’t get our scooters on the street. And what does that mean? That means it’s been a massive failure in a will to make this a great place to live,” he said.

“We expect a fair exchange. Pay our taxes, do our work, and have a safe place to live.”

When downtown Portland businesses and amenities close because of untenable conditions, Martin said, it takes away from the flavor of the city. He wants leaders to have one top priority: to create a positive environment for the community.

“The reason I moved downtown, which is for the coffee shops, the restaurants, the conveniences. Each time one of those closes, it’s like a little cut,” he said. “It’s just one more nice feature cut away from the town that you come to live in.”

Statement from the mayor’s office

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said the ongoing problems at the Safeway at SW 10th and Jefferson are being addressed in an ongoing fashion.

The City said it’s continuing to post and remove problematic campsites in the area daily and is spraying and cleaning the sidewalks daily. During last week’s removal, the city’s outreach team reports numerous people accepted shelter offers.

Wheeler’s office said Portland police are continuing their targeted missions in this area. KOIN 6 crew saw the Bike Squad and a state trooper clearing out a group of open drug users today.

The Mayor’s office said PPB is also working with Safeway security to help out and met with Safeway executive management this week. The city’s Public Environment Management Office identified some priority areas in the neighborhood to get graffiti removed, the area cleaned and get better lighting.

The mayor is also “very concerned about the bottle drop recycling at Safeway and other markets across the city.” His office has received many complaints from businesses about the Bottle Bill.