Ontario council puts library district decision on hold
Elected leaders also approve purchase for laptops for the police department

By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:42 AM PDT

Ontario — The Ontario City Council postponed a decision Monday night to add a new library district to the November ballot so officials could gather more information on the issue.

The Ontario Library District, which would create a taxing district to support the Malheur County Library, would include the boundaries of the 8C School District and the Annex School District.

At least one local resident took issue with the proposed library district boundary.

“Most of the 8C District is agricultural land, and most of them voted against it (a previous bond measure for the library),” Bruce Hunter said.

Ontario City Councilman John Gaskill, however, questioned the idea of fragmenting the district.

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“8C and Annex schools are in the boundaries because of the students who live outside the city limits and use the library extensively, especially middle and high school students,” he said. “A child who lives inside the city can use it for free, and it’s not available to those who live on the other side of an imaginary line.”

Another question raised at the meeting is how strongly the city will have to back this new district.

“If the city and council both give support to put the item on the ballot for now, is there potential for pulling the item off if other funding were found so the library district didn’t have to be established?” Gaskill asked.

Malheur County Librarian Darlyne Johnson did not have an answer to that question, but said City Attorney Larry Sullivan was slated to look into the issue.

Because of these unanswered questions, Mayor Joe Dominick decided to table the issue until the next City Council meeting.

“I do support the library district,” Dominick said. “I just think there are enough questions we need to follow up on. We need to go into this with our eyes open and not get into it after the fact.”

In other business: The council approved spending $10,873 to purchase two additional mobile laptops for Ontario Police Department’s police cars.

OPD Capt. Mark Alexander requested the laptops after discovering $10,873 in the budget was initially slated to go to Lifeways from the police department. The police department received the money through the state’s liquor sales tax.

Alexander recommended using the money for laptops after discovering there was no contract between the police department and Lifeways to provide this money.

“We couldn’t find any sort of agreement or when it was supposed to end or even if it was supposed to end,” Alexander said. “Nyssa and the county also pulled their funding.”

He added he didn’t feel Lifeways had any problem with the new arrangement.

At the City Council workshop on Thursday, Dominick mentioned the money could be used to buy new equipment for the golf course. He continued to communicate with Alexander through e-mail to discover if a portion of this money could be used for that reason. By Monday night, however, Dominick appeared in favor of the police department using all the funds.

“In one of our last e-mails, (Alexander) gave the most compelling reason,” Dominick said. “The tax revenues come from liquor sales, and most of the problems from liquor, go to the police department.”

Councilman Dan Cummings agreed with that statement.

“It would be hard to justify taking it out of the public fund, when the police department desperately needs it, and putting it into golf,” he said.

Alexander said he plans to outfit two patrol cars with the laptops so all four on-duty cars will now be equipped with the laptops.

The City Council also approved to continue negotiations with ODOT to exchange ownership of East Idaho Avenue.

“I don’t have a problem with it if that’s all it is to continue negotiations,” Cummings said.

At last week’s workshop, Cummings had an issue with obtaining the road from ODOT because of the increased construction that would have to take place in order to keep traffic running smoothly. However, at this meeting, council members were more optimistic.

“I like the direction the negotiations are going,” Gaskill said.