Since 2016, infrastructure, specifically street repairs, have been a major focal point for the mayor and city council of Pendleton. To address these concerns, we began with distributing a survey to the residents of Pendleton. In addition, there were conversations with individuals and several meetings with civic groups to establish and prioritize goals for the council. The result of that effort clearly revealed that streets were the top concern. That lead the city budget committee to allocating significantly more money to the street budget to tackle a problem that had grown over multiple decades.

In 2016, the estimated backlog of deferred street maintenance had built up to a sum of more than $40 million. The city had increased its annual funding for streets to $1.2 million, but it was determined, even at that level of commitment, that the problem would continue to grow. The estimate to arrest deterioration and to see improvements so streets could reach “good” condition over a 10-year period was $2.2 million annually. As a result, the city council began a process of surveying and meeting with community members and civic groups, to identify funding sources that the community might support to raise the additional revenue to reach the annual $2.2 million. The most popular responses were to impose a ticket fee for major events, to increase the hotel tax and to propose a 5 cent gas tax.

In 2019 those efforts began. A political action committee was established to support placing a gas tax on the ballot. Then came COVID-19. The closing of public gatherings, obvious impacts to local economies and shutdowns, made it clear that these options were no longer on the table. Over the next year our efforts related to increase street funding mostly stalled, waiting for that elusive “return to normal.”

In recent months, the Pendleton Development Commission allocated $10 million in Urban Renewal District funds to address street reconstruction in the district. This infusion of URD dollars released general street funds to be used outside the district. This allowed the city to accelerate street repairs during 2021. The total amount of street repairs nearly tripled any year in our history with nearly $3.4 million being spent on street maintenance and repairs. Looking forward, those amounts look to be $5.7 million in 2022, $4.5 million in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2024. By the end of 2023, those URD dollars will have been spent and will require the council to return to the conversation related to how much is needed to maintain our street infrastructure, giving the additional spending infused by the URD.

In the past few weeks, the council has been reviewing goals related to infrastructure and has established the goals related to street condition. The decision was made to maintain our streets based on an objective evaluation tool called the “Pavement Condition Index” or PCI. The city has adopted the goal of maintaining its arterial, collector and residential streets in the “good” category. What is not known at this point, is what is the needed revenue to reach and maintain that PCI condition given the contribution of URD funds. In early 2023 the city will receive an updated Pavement Condition Index report based upon an assessment done in 2022. This report will demonstrate the effect of the increased spending and how much improvement has been realized by that additional spending. That data will reveal what is needed to continue to improve and maintain our street system. At this time, we do not know if any additional revenue will be received from the passage of the Federal Infrastructure bill.

In the near term, the city will move forward without requesting additional local revenues. We still believe there will be need for additional revenues to maintain the street system once the currently allocated dollars have been spent, but that amount is not yet known.

Beyond streets, the city has also updated its goals related to deferred building maintenance. Currently, the city has deferred maintenance on buildings estimated at $5.2 million. The council has asked our facilities department and our city manager to itemize and prioritize those needs. The city of Pendleton has available $3.4 million due to the American Rescue Plan Act stimulus funds covering other city needs, this will be allocated to this maintenance backlog. Once those repairs are made, the city council has asked that 2% of each building’s value be set aside annually and budgeted for future maintenance. Regarding utilities, we have also asked city staff for a list of planned infrastructure projects slated for completion out of the city’s master plan. These projects are related to water, sewer, storm, the airport and the UAS test range.

Major improvements are being made in our local infrastructure. The amount of work we will see in the next three years will far surpass anything our community is accustomed to seeing and this will come with other challenges. What it takes to maintain our infrastructure over the long term is still an issue to tackle, but for the next couple of years, the city will be working at capacity to make the improvements based on current investments.

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