One returning city council member, one new council member and a returning mayor were sworn in during the Jan. 16 City Council meeting in Sodaville.
Councilor Adina Olivares and Mayor Brian Lewis were voted in for another term, but newcomer Caleb Gay accepted a write-in nomination from voters. He will fill in the seat vacated by Jeff Hensley, who did not run for another term this year.
Gay, 38, moved to Sodaville from Lebanon in 2013. He spent 14 years in the military before medically retiring from the National Guard in 2018. He’s been with the Forest Service since 2012 and is now the administrative officer of the Pacific Northwest research laboratory at Oregon State University.
This will be his first time serving in local government. Gay said he looks forward to learning how things operate in the local government and seeing how he can help.
In other business:
- Resident Gary Bennett asked if there are any plans for road repair. Public Works Director J D Burns said the city is looking at laying gravel on Fisher, Park and Maple streets. City Administrator/Recorder Molly McGuire told him they’ll aim to get that project done by Spring.
- McGuire told the council that staff met with Rep. Jami Cate and legislative assistant Connor Booth, who informed them they will try to expedite the city’s request for water rights for Well Six.
- Burns reported the city stopped trucking water in from Lebanon in late December. Also, the sensor in the water tank has been repaired.
- Councilors Olivares and Joseph Parsons shared their ideas for how water rates should be charged. Parsons would like to keep the base rate at $47 but lower the amount from 2,500 gallons to 2,000 gallons. He would change the tier levels to 2,000 gallon intervals, increasing each tier by an additional $10, and there would not be rate changes during water restrictions. Olivares would like to keep a base rate for 2,500 gallons, and then simplify the process by charging per gallon used over that (for example, four cents, and nine cents during restrictions). Her main concern is that the city charge residents what the city is being charged for trucked-in water. Given that water is a finite resource in Sodaville, Olivares questioned whether placing a cap per house would be a good idea. City staff are trying to get more community input for how to try to solve the water problem.