"State of the City" presentation by Indy's mayor showcases milestones amid new challenges ahead
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, March 1, 2024
Independence is a town filled with “cultural gems,” ranging from the MI Trolley to the Heritage Museum, but it’s grappling with the same financial strain affecting other small cities across the state, according to Independence Mayor John McArdle, who issued that message Wednesday morning during his annual “State of the City” address.
“We, like cities all over Oregon, are facing increased (funding) challenges as we try to fund our basic services,” Mayor McArdle said. The city's property tax revenue "doesn’t even cover the police budget,” he added.
Though the mayor was present, the nearly three dozen attendees viewed him in a video shown at the Monmouth City Hall, this year’s venue for the event.
In it, McArdle credited “successful grants and strong partnerships” with helping the city meet its goals. The hard work of clinching grants and forging collaborative partnerships, such as with the sibling city of Monmouth, has helped Independence attain some of the city’s success – showing a capacity “to do more with less.”
The mayor noted that millions of dollars have been added to the city coffers – a result of federal and state assistance by Oregon legislators including Rep. Paul Evans and Sen. Deb Patterson – to help build infrastructure, such as the much-needed Chestnut Street Bridge and the realignment of Polk and Main streets.
He cited a community center as a future amenity and more housing as a necessity. “We can’t say we don’t want to grow,” McArdle said.
In the video, he stressed that Measure 5 and Measure 50 – tax measures that limit tax increases in Oregon – have seriously impacted the city, citing cuts in the recent city budget. “We had to do it,” he said.
Calling Independence the envy of other similar cities in Oregon, the mayor pointed out that, to stay the course, fees and levies cannot be ruled out. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” McArdle said.
Please note: Nicki Marazzani, executive director of the MI Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event, is providing a link to Mayor McArdle's address -- https://youtu.be/auO5RIcUW7U?si=4dNJDWrceyvCy0p5
Thank you, Ms. Marazzani from Trammart News -- the recording allowed a quote in the initial reporting to be expanded and clarified. ▪
Recent memories of Ukraine: A story of a homeland torn by war from a local exchange student
By Nelia Omelchenko
March 1, 2024
Nights with air raids, days with power cuts. Classes in basements, soldiers in the street.
Those were just some of the changes we felt in Ukraine, amid the sorrow and destruction of a full-scale Russian invasion that engulfed us in war.
I’m Nelia, a 16-year-old FLEX exchange student from Ukraine, who came here in August for a year-long stay arranged through ASSE International. And I’d like to describe for you how our typical day was running back home.
Mornings usually start with checking to see whether you have electricity.
Last winter, we suffered massive power cuts in Ukraine. For a certain period of time, we only had about two hours of electricity per day in my home Sumy region.
Our last power cut came in the spring, as everything has now been repaired. But the habit of making sure to turn off the light on time still persists for the majority of us.
Upon waking up, we were having to count how many hours we needed to cook, clean and study, versus things that are possible, at least theoretically, without electricity.
That kind of time management is tough. Hopefully, we won’t need to do that from now on.
Just as people all around the world learned to keep masks in every pocket during the pandemic, Ukrainians have learned to carry flashlights with them, and sometimes have extra generators at home.
Then it’s time to go to school. There’s a high possibility of meeting many defenders.
The city that I describe is Sumy. It lies in the northeastern part of the country, which shares 350 miles of border with Russia.
Sumy is not a battlefield itself, though proximity to Russia makes its outskirts prone to frequent attacks.
Badly injured soldiers and destroyed civilian buildings never fail to remind us of what is going on. But their reconstruction, through prosthetics in the one case and bricks and mortar in the other, imbue us with a strong belief that we will overcome this dark period of our history.
Classes at school are still productive. Teachers do their best to continue to instruct at a high level. But classes are punctuated by sporadic air raids.
Maks, a 16-year-old classmate of mine, has learned to predict local air raid sirens five minutes in advance.
A student of politics, statistics and analysis, he follows the pattern of air raid alerts on an online map. That way, he can see when our turn is coming.
That way, everyone has five more minutes to get down to the basement. Without any sense of fear, everyone in the school heads to the shelter.
Kids aren’t afraid of the danger posed by the missiles anymore. They just go downstairs to study, socialize or play together until it passes.
Some classes pay attention to managing stress, coping with mental issues and giving first aid to injured people.
NATO’s acronym MARCH is known now by the majority of students. It directs students to check for life-threatening conditions in an injured person in a specific order. M stands for massive bleeding, A for airways, R for respiration, C for circulation, H for head injuries and hypothermia.
Moreover, students have developed one more after-school activity. Some of them are staying after class to make camouflage net for the army under the direction of teachers.
Then it’s time to come back home, the streets are still crowded with busy people, as if it were peacetime. However, the billboards they pass now show them how to contribute to charities or help the army, and restored cafes play a warfare genre of music.
There’s no need to imagine these melodies as tragic or full of sorrow, though.
The majority of the wartime music is dynamic and positive. Its main aim is to emphasize Ukrainian military milestones and maintain the spirit of future victory throughout the society.
One of the most popular songs is “Pes Patron.” It tells of a little Jack Russell terrier named Patron, which means “cartridge” in Ukrainian.
With his light weight and keen sense of smell, this dog can detect explosives safely. One of his first assignments was locating Russian mines in the city of Chernihiv, lying in the north, which was liberated on April 2, 2022.
Owing to the hard work of this tiny dog, more than 250 mines were neutralized. Now Patron has his own bullet-proof vest, national recognition and a song commemorating his role in the war.
As you might expect, even very young kids know the lyrics. They are keen on repeating: “Who’s in charge of this region? Patron the Dog, Patron the Dog!” The song was written in Ukrainian, of course, but that’s a word-for-word translation.
Human civilians are also doing their bit.
Karina, a 14-year-old, spends her free time selling hand-made patriotic accessories. She has been doing that for more than a year, and her contribution to the Ukrainian Army recently passed the $3,000 mark.
“I’m not supporting certain people,” she said. “We try to help everyone. I do it because I want to do my bit; I want Ukraine to live.
“We attempt to supply soldiers with whatever they need. Mostly it’s special equipment or medicine.”
Evenings still see families gather together, as in the past.
Some of the chairs may be empty, though, as some relatives may have already given their lives for the peaceful life of future generations. That helps us not to give up, to fight and to defend what we believe in.
Warm evening conversations have changed to news updates on military progress of the day.
Skill at making “trench candles” has marked my personal contribution.
A trench candle is a metal box or can filled with rolled paper and a mixture of wax and paraffin. Soldiers use them to warm up, heat their food or serve as a source of light.
They are popular with our defenders, as they can be re-lit repeatedly for a long period of time. Civilians are highly encouraged to create them, which serves as just one more thing shifting our reality.
It’s necessary for us to talk about the war, as it’s been dominating our lives for two years now. We appreciate it when nothing and nobody is forgotten.
Despite escalating sound of air raids sirens, time to sleep eventually comes.
Will the night bring drone or missile attacks? We are getting used to differentiating.
If the news channel warns about drone attacks, the biggest concern is the quantity. If the warning is about missiles, that’s not the case, as just one can wipe out your whole house.
Either way, the chain of actions is the same. You either head to the basement or go downstairs and follow the “two-walls rule.”
You need to make sure there are two reliable walls between you and outside locations. You also want to avoid windows or other sources of glass.
We spend so many nights sleeping in cold shelters and narrow corridors. Tomorrow may be a new day, but it will feature the same wartime routine.
We Ukrainians recognize and highly appreciate all the support we get around the world.
Peaceful protests, warm words of support, little blue-and-yellow accessories and stickers, donations and army supplies. It’s all noticed. It all makes a difference.
I want to convey our infinite gratitude to everyone who believes in and works for Ukrainian victory!
Nelia Omelchenko is a 16-year-old exchange student from Sumy, Ukraine, just across the border from Russia. She arrived in Oregon in August to spend a year with a local family. In her native land, her life has been disrupted the last two years by a full-scale Russian invasion, marked by missile and drone attacks. As a youth journalist, she drew on a wartime diary she’s been keeping for this article. Her article is reprinted with special permission from the News-Register in McMinnville OR, where it first appeared. ▪
A newly annexed area for the city arouses opposition and worries
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, March 1, 2024
A majority of the Independence City Council voted Tuesday to annex nearly eight acres outside the city limits but inside the urban growth boundary – simultaneously approving a zoning designation that makes it a potentially new subdivision, despite substantial opposition that included one of Independence’s former city managers, who called it a revenue-draining move.
City services such as police support for a new development there would mean “a net drain on the general fund,” said David Clyne, who preceded by a few years current City Manager Kenna West as Independence’s city manager. He was among the attendees who raised objections.
Opponents of the action aired their views both in writing and in personal testimony. Sarah Ramirez, a neighbor who lives nearby, told councilors that more information was needed about the residential zoning change for the pastoral lot, “seeing that this will probably be developed shortly.” The property to which Ramirez referred is on Corvallis Road, a little over a half-mile south of the Independence Civic Center
However, City Planning Manager Fred Evander explained that any housing proposal would need to go through many procedural steps before that could happen.
The owner of the parcel, Brendan McMullen, testified that he plans to put affordable homes on the acreage. “I have a strong passion for affordable housing, and I hope to do that someday,” he said. When asked about his definition of affordability, he described homes ranging from 1,000- to 1,500-square-feet, priced below market levels.
City Councilor Dawn Roden requested that the resolution for annexation and zoning be split into two parts, so that the zoning recommendation could be discussed separately from the plan to annex the land.
City Manager Kenna West countered that it was one application and “we cannot bifurcate it.”
However, the development code entry that was cited as supporting the dual action shows only that an annexation-plus-zone change can be undertaken “when requested concurrent with one another” – not as a requirement. An email inquiry for clarification sent to the city’s communications coordinator, Emmanuel Goicochea, as well as to West, went unanswered, despite several requests over the code’s language.
The inquiry by Trammart News was undertaken after some of those who attended the hearing asserted that the city is routinely engaging in attempts to push through plans without fully considering citizen perspectives.
For example, some in attendance expressed appreciation for an observation by Councilor Roden to city staff that tying annexation and zoning together was due to the way they chose to write it -- not the result of a rule. “We have mixed the two,” Roden said.
Others at the meeting made similar comments after the hearing. “I’m concerned further meetings will be handled the same way,” said Kathy Hill, who owns the property adjacent to the annexed plot. She found the agenda “unclear,” as well as the notification she received. She’s concerned city officials “won’t take our concerns into the conversation,” Hill stated, noting that her seven acres sits beside the new zone and “will be the most impacted.”
Hill lives on land passed down by Independence founders Henry and Martha Hill, from an original land patent in the wake of Oregon’s Donation Land Act of 1850. The pair were generous land donors to the city, she pointed out.
Both Councilor Roden and Councilor Sarah Jobe voted against the resolution to bring the land, as well as a new zone, into city limits. The vote was 4-2.
(Note: Next week, Trammart News will cover a unanimous decision by the city council to adopt System Development Charges for water that will cause SDCs for new construction to exceed $50,000 per home – a vote that has caused several builders to say they won’t be undertaking future building projects in the city.) ▪
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, March 1, 2024
Independence is a town filled with “cultural gems,” ranging from the MI Trolley to the Heritage Museum, but it’s grappling with the same financial strain affecting other small cities across the state, according to Independence Mayor John McArdle, who issued that message Wednesday morning during his annual “State of the City” address.
“We, like cities all over Oregon, are facing increased (funding) challenges as we try to fund our basic services,” Mayor McArdle said. The city's property tax revenue "doesn’t even cover the police budget,” he added.
Though the mayor was present, the nearly three dozen attendees viewed him in a video shown at the Monmouth City Hall, this year’s venue for the event.
In it, McArdle credited “successful grants and strong partnerships” with helping the city meet its goals. The hard work of clinching grants and forging collaborative partnerships, such as with the sibling city of Monmouth, has helped Independence attain some of the city’s success – showing a capacity “to do more with less.”
The mayor noted that millions of dollars have been added to the city coffers – a result of federal and state assistance by Oregon legislators including Rep. Paul Evans and Sen. Deb Patterson – to help build infrastructure, such as the much-needed Chestnut Street Bridge and the realignment of Polk and Main streets.
He cited a community center as a future amenity and more housing as a necessity. “We can’t say we don’t want to grow,” McArdle said.
In the video, he stressed that Measure 5 and Measure 50 – tax measures that limit tax increases in Oregon – have seriously impacted the city, citing cuts in the recent city budget. “We had to do it,” he said.
Calling Independence the envy of other similar cities in Oregon, the mayor pointed out that, to stay the course, fees and levies cannot be ruled out. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” McArdle said.
Please note: Nicki Marazzani, executive director of the MI Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event, is providing a link to Mayor McArdle's address -- https://youtu.be/auO5RIcUW7U?si=4dNJDWrceyvCy0p5
Thank you, Ms. Marazzani from Trammart News -- the recording allowed a quote in the initial reporting to be expanded and clarified. ▪
Recent memories of Ukraine: A story of a homeland torn by war from a local exchange student
By Nelia Omelchenko
March 1, 2024
Nights with air raids, days with power cuts. Classes in basements, soldiers in the street.
Those were just some of the changes we felt in Ukraine, amid the sorrow and destruction of a full-scale Russian invasion that engulfed us in war.
I’m Nelia, a 16-year-old FLEX exchange student from Ukraine, who came here in August for a year-long stay arranged through ASSE International. And I’d like to describe for you how our typical day was running back home.
Mornings usually start with checking to see whether you have electricity.
Last winter, we suffered massive power cuts in Ukraine. For a certain period of time, we only had about two hours of electricity per day in my home Sumy region.
Our last power cut came in the spring, as everything has now been repaired. But the habit of making sure to turn off the light on time still persists for the majority of us.
Upon waking up, we were having to count how many hours we needed to cook, clean and study, versus things that are possible, at least theoretically, without electricity.
That kind of time management is tough. Hopefully, we won’t need to do that from now on.
Just as people all around the world learned to keep masks in every pocket during the pandemic, Ukrainians have learned to carry flashlights with them, and sometimes have extra generators at home.
Then it’s time to go to school. There’s a high possibility of meeting many defenders.
The city that I describe is Sumy. It lies in the northeastern part of the country, which shares 350 miles of border with Russia.
Sumy is not a battlefield itself, though proximity to Russia makes its outskirts prone to frequent attacks.
Badly injured soldiers and destroyed civilian buildings never fail to remind us of what is going on. But their reconstruction, through prosthetics in the one case and bricks and mortar in the other, imbue us with a strong belief that we will overcome this dark period of our history.
Classes at school are still productive. Teachers do their best to continue to instruct at a high level. But classes are punctuated by sporadic air raids.
Maks, a 16-year-old classmate of mine, has learned to predict local air raid sirens five minutes in advance.
A student of politics, statistics and analysis, he follows the pattern of air raid alerts on an online map. That way, he can see when our turn is coming.
That way, everyone has five more minutes to get down to the basement. Without any sense of fear, everyone in the school heads to the shelter.
Kids aren’t afraid of the danger posed by the missiles anymore. They just go downstairs to study, socialize or play together until it passes.
Some classes pay attention to managing stress, coping with mental issues and giving first aid to injured people.
NATO’s acronym MARCH is known now by the majority of students. It directs students to check for life-threatening conditions in an injured person in a specific order. M stands for massive bleeding, A for airways, R for respiration, C for circulation, H for head injuries and hypothermia.
Moreover, students have developed one more after-school activity. Some of them are staying after class to make camouflage net for the army under the direction of teachers.
Then it’s time to come back home, the streets are still crowded with busy people, as if it were peacetime. However, the billboards they pass now show them how to contribute to charities or help the army, and restored cafes play a warfare genre of music.
There’s no need to imagine these melodies as tragic or full of sorrow, though.
The majority of the wartime music is dynamic and positive. Its main aim is to emphasize Ukrainian military milestones and maintain the spirit of future victory throughout the society.
One of the most popular songs is “Pes Patron.” It tells of a little Jack Russell terrier named Patron, which means “cartridge” in Ukrainian.
With his light weight and keen sense of smell, this dog can detect explosives safely. One of his first assignments was locating Russian mines in the city of Chernihiv, lying in the north, which was liberated on April 2, 2022.
Owing to the hard work of this tiny dog, more than 250 mines were neutralized. Now Patron has his own bullet-proof vest, national recognition and a song commemorating his role in the war.
As you might expect, even very young kids know the lyrics. They are keen on repeating: “Who’s in charge of this region? Patron the Dog, Patron the Dog!” The song was written in Ukrainian, of course, but that’s a word-for-word translation.
Human civilians are also doing their bit.
Karina, a 14-year-old, spends her free time selling hand-made patriotic accessories. She has been doing that for more than a year, and her contribution to the Ukrainian Army recently passed the $3,000 mark.
“I’m not supporting certain people,” she said. “We try to help everyone. I do it because I want to do my bit; I want Ukraine to live.
“We attempt to supply soldiers with whatever they need. Mostly it’s special equipment or medicine.”
Evenings still see families gather together, as in the past.
Some of the chairs may be empty, though, as some relatives may have already given their lives for the peaceful life of future generations. That helps us not to give up, to fight and to defend what we believe in.
Warm evening conversations have changed to news updates on military progress of the day.
Skill at making “trench candles” has marked my personal contribution.
A trench candle is a metal box or can filled with rolled paper and a mixture of wax and paraffin. Soldiers use them to warm up, heat their food or serve as a source of light.
They are popular with our defenders, as they can be re-lit repeatedly for a long period of time. Civilians are highly encouraged to create them, which serves as just one more thing shifting our reality.
It’s necessary for us to talk about the war, as it’s been dominating our lives for two years now. We appreciate it when nothing and nobody is forgotten.
Despite escalating sound of air raids sirens, time to sleep eventually comes.
Will the night bring drone or missile attacks? We are getting used to differentiating.
If the news channel warns about drone attacks, the biggest concern is the quantity. If the warning is about missiles, that’s not the case, as just one can wipe out your whole house.
Either way, the chain of actions is the same. You either head to the basement or go downstairs and follow the “two-walls rule.”
You need to make sure there are two reliable walls between you and outside locations. You also want to avoid windows or other sources of glass.
We spend so many nights sleeping in cold shelters and narrow corridors. Tomorrow may be a new day, but it will feature the same wartime routine.
We Ukrainians recognize and highly appreciate all the support we get around the world.
Peaceful protests, warm words of support, little blue-and-yellow accessories and stickers, donations and army supplies. It’s all noticed. It all makes a difference.
I want to convey our infinite gratitude to everyone who believes in and works for Ukrainian victory!
Nelia Omelchenko is a 16-year-old exchange student from Sumy, Ukraine, just across the border from Russia. She arrived in Oregon in August to spend a year with a local family. In her native land, her life has been disrupted the last two years by a full-scale Russian invasion, marked by missile and drone attacks. As a youth journalist, she drew on a wartime diary she’s been keeping for this article. Her article is reprinted with special permission from the News-Register in McMinnville OR, where it first appeared. ▪
A newly annexed area for the city arouses opposition and worries
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, March 1, 2024
A majority of the Independence City Council voted Tuesday to annex nearly eight acres outside the city limits but inside the urban growth boundary – simultaneously approving a zoning designation that makes it a potentially new subdivision, despite substantial opposition that included one of Independence’s former city managers, who called it a revenue-draining move.
City services such as police support for a new development there would mean “a net drain on the general fund,” said David Clyne, who preceded by a few years current City Manager Kenna West as Independence’s city manager. He was among the attendees who raised objections.
Opponents of the action aired their views both in writing and in personal testimony. Sarah Ramirez, a neighbor who lives nearby, told councilors that more information was needed about the residential zoning change for the pastoral lot, “seeing that this will probably be developed shortly.” The property to which Ramirez referred is on Corvallis Road, a little over a half-mile south of the Independence Civic Center
However, City Planning Manager Fred Evander explained that any housing proposal would need to go through many procedural steps before that could happen.
The owner of the parcel, Brendan McMullen, testified that he plans to put affordable homes on the acreage. “I have a strong passion for affordable housing, and I hope to do that someday,” he said. When asked about his definition of affordability, he described homes ranging from 1,000- to 1,500-square-feet, priced below market levels.
City Councilor Dawn Roden requested that the resolution for annexation and zoning be split into two parts, so that the zoning recommendation could be discussed separately from the plan to annex the land.
City Manager Kenna West countered that it was one application and “we cannot bifurcate it.”
However, the development code entry that was cited as supporting the dual action shows only that an annexation-plus-zone change can be undertaken “when requested concurrent with one another” – not as a requirement. An email inquiry for clarification sent to the city’s communications coordinator, Emmanuel Goicochea, as well as to West, went unanswered, despite several requests over the code’s language.
The inquiry by Trammart News was undertaken after some of those who attended the hearing asserted that the city is routinely engaging in attempts to push through plans without fully considering citizen perspectives.
For example, some in attendance expressed appreciation for an observation by Councilor Roden to city staff that tying annexation and zoning together was due to the way they chose to write it -- not the result of a rule. “We have mixed the two,” Roden said.
Others at the meeting made similar comments after the hearing. “I’m concerned further meetings will be handled the same way,” said Kathy Hill, who owns the property adjacent to the annexed plot. She found the agenda “unclear,” as well as the notification she received. She’s concerned city officials “won’t take our concerns into the conversation,” Hill stated, noting that her seven acres sits beside the new zone and “will be the most impacted.”
Hill lives on land passed down by Independence founders Henry and Martha Hill, from an original land patent in the wake of Oregon’s Donation Land Act of 1850. The pair were generous land donors to the city, she pointed out.
Both Councilor Roden and Councilor Sarah Jobe voted against the resolution to bring the land, as well as a new zone, into city limits. The vote was 4-2.
(Note: Next week, Trammart News will cover a unanimous decision by the city council to adopt System Development Charges for water that will cause SDCs for new construction to exceed $50,000 per home – a vote that has caused several builders to say they won’t be undertaking future building projects in the city.) ▪
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