Pendleton residents were taken aback with city hall’s announcement that our aquatic center would not open this summer, and they want to know why. After all, the funding is right there in the new budget, $607,300. So what’s the problem? It’s revenue, or lack of it, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a bogus budget.

The city’s new budget is a pipe dream based on past revenues when times were much different, not the current economic environment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. They say the decision to close the pool was tough, but necessary. However, it’s one that should have been made much earlier. Knowing the mayor’s feelings on swimming pools, after the closure of the BMCC pool he referred to pools as money-sucking pigs, I don’t think, in his eyes, the decision was really all that tough.

Making tough decisions in a timely manner is that part of the job that our city officials have been unwilling to undertake for fear of upsetting special interest groups. Constantly “kicking the can down the road” just delays the inevitable. It creates future economic problems and a lot of unnecessary worry for the city and residents alike. Issues like parade costs for the police department, unauthorized camping in city parks, our unfunded PERS liability, the Edwards Apartments building, and the deplorable condition of our streets have all festered because of inaction.

Last year, city officials proclaimed that rebuilding our city streets, a top priority, could not be accomplished without fee and tax increases, and budget cuts were not possible to fund the program. Now, it’s just the opposite as officials profess that “maintaining the status quo” is the favored path, and future budget cuts, once considered impossible, are the simplest way to proceed as some revenue sources drop to record lows.

Maintaining the status quo? That’s city hall talk for continuing operations with, unlike the private sector, no reduction in full-time personnel. To meet increased personnel costs required by previously negotiated benefit packages, it’s been decided that reducing services like recreation and aquatics, rather than eliminating budget expenditures used for such things as propping up the Pendleton Downtown Association, is the roadmap to a balanced budget.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton