By Mayor Paul Becker:

Arriving at the office the other morning, I sat at my desk and began to think of the many issues and tasks facing us this coming year. The tendency to view things in abstract terms has always been a habit of mine and this occasion was no different. Looking at the scene in City Hall, albeit with a little imagination, I pictured a railroad terminal and switching yard. Trains arrive… trains leave… some on an express route… others local. Schedules change… conditions change… but with one constant: the operation is on-going. So too with government… from the fire and police departments to water and public works, city business is a ceaseless activity necessitating constant attention and planning.

Continuing with the railroad analogy, on Track 1 is perhaps the most important train to begin its run, which is a complete review and overhaul of all our city codes, no small task. But we are fortunate that the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office is aiding Jacksonville in this effort. Even so, it will take months, and the participation of everyone involved with HARC, the Planning Commission, City Council, the Planning Director, the City Administrator, and your Mayor. The importance of this job cannot be over-stated. The codes, as presently constituted, do not adequately protect our historic buildings. This must be rectified. We must prevent the loss of these properties from the historic register.

The train on Track #2 is already fired up for negotiations with the Teamsters Union representing our hourly city employees. Successful negotiations whereby all parties are relatively comfortable are difficult enough, but in these economic times they are even more so. This city is small enough so that I know many of you are familiar with at least some of our staff in each of our departments. Therefore, I hope you will agree when I say we are fortunate to have a remarkably capable group of people working here.
Track #3 has carried what can best be described as a “local” train and that is the task on the City Council’s part in coming to a final decision on the proposed MRA landswap. This train has been running for eleven years, making it all the more strange when someone remarked, “We’re moving awfully fast on this.” It reminds me of a John Frankenheimer film called aptly enough, The Train. The train in this film runs and runs in circles, never reaching its destination. In our case, whatever the City Council’s decision, this train has run long enough.

The train on Track #4 is the job of locating, designing, funding, and building a community center, another long-standing project. But this train has yet to leave the station. The biggest, single hurdle is finding a suitable location. There are only a couple of places in the city able to accommodate a facility large enough for multiple uses. One is for sale and beyond the city’s price range while the other is in private ownership and evidently not for sale.

Once built, there is no question that the city would see income from users of the center. Even now, we have been approached by an entrepreneur who would bring two hundred people to Jacksonville for a three-day cultural event, using our community center if we had one, and in the month of November, no less. It bears repeating: any community center built in Jacksonville should be and can be self-supporting.
It’s time to fire up this locomotive. All Aboard?