City Community Updates

See the attached documents for a brief glimpse of Carlton City happenings throughout the week.

Some of the tidbits may change in timeline depending on contractors, meeting changes, or cancelation.

They will be listed in date order under the documents below. Enjoy!

See the attached documents for a brief glimpse of Carlton City happenings throughout the week.

Some of the tidbits may change in timeline depending on contractors, meeting changes, or cancelation.

They will be listed in date order under the documents below. Enjoy!

This is the time of year Law Enforcement and communities see an increase in theft crimes. These thefts often occur during the early morning hours between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. The Carlton Police Department would like to share the following prevention information regarding our “LOCK IT or LOSE IT” program. The intent of the program is to promote awareness in hopes of eliminating thefts of vehicles as well as property being stolen from automobiles occurring in the City of Carlton and surrounding area.

The Carlton Police Department, as do all law enforcement agencies across the country, periodically conduct theft investigations from vehicles that seem to come in waves throughout certain periods of the year. Many of the thefts are from vehicles that were left unlocked. Items taken in these quickly committed crimes range from spare change to wallets, personal/business documents, electronics, and firearms In most, if not all instances, these crimes can be prevented by simply locking car doors, assuring all the windows are completely shut, removing all valuable items or what might be perceived as containing valuables such as backpacks or other bags, keeping change and charging cords out of sight, and NEVER leave keys inside the vehicle. Another high value item that is stolen from vehicles is catalytic converters. Please keep in mind where you are parking your vehicles and if there are suspicious individuals around or under vehicles, please report this to the police department in real time. Getting in the mindset of locking doors to your home, garages, and vehicles is the first step of minimizing the chance of becoming a crime victim. Carlton Police Department has “LOCK IT or LOSE IT” yard signs available for residents to display in their yard if they would like to help encourage a strong community prevention mindset.

This program supports the mission of the Carlton Police Department’s dedication to the community by proactively solving problems and protecting life and property through education and prevention. “Police & Community Together”, can and will make our community safer and more livable. Please be aware of your surroundings and report any suspicious activity immediately to your local law enforcement agency. For more information about the “LOCK IT or LOSE IT” program and/or if you would like a sign to place in your yard, please feel free to contact the Carlton Police Department at 503-852-3805 or email Chief Martinez at kmartinez@ci.carlton.or.us

The Carlton Police Department urges citizen to be aware of what is going on in their neighborhoods and to report suspicious activity to law enforcement as much as in real time as possible. Citizens that have cameras are encouraged to monitor their camera footage especially in the early mornings and late at night and to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement in real time as this helps us in addressing and apprehension of individuals involved in those crimes.

See the attached documents for a brief glimpse of Carlton City happenings throughout the week.

Some of the tidbits may change in timeline depending on contractors, meeting changes, or cancelation.

They will be listed in date order under the documents below. Enjoy!

The City of Carlton has launched the Envision Carlton Comprehensive Plan Vision, a year-long, city-wide community engagement process to discuss the desired future for Carlton over the next 20 years. The Visioning process will engage community members to develop a shared understanding of Carlton today and anchor a Comprehensive Plan that addresses key issues for the future.

Carlton expects significant growth over the next two decades and is in need of considerable updates to the Comprehensive Plan that was created in 2000.  The current Plan is outdated and no longer serves the needs of the community. The Comprehensive Plan should be updated to reflect contemporary policies and views regarding citizen involvement, housing, recreation, economic development, sustainability, resilience to natural hazards, historical preservation, and more.  The Vision and Comprehensive Plan will guide growth and development for the next several decades. Click here to learn more about the current Comprehensive plan.

Get Involved!

For the past 12+ months, Carlton community members have been sharing what they love about Carlton today and what they would like to change in the future. With the help of the Project Advisory Committee (PAC), we have translated your comments into a Community Vision and are in the process of developing Goals, Policies, and Objectives. There is still more work to do! 

You can review a complete list of goals, policies, and objectives below in the Supporting Documents.

The Project Advisory Committee (PAC) has met four times and will meet one more time to guide development of the Comprehensive Plan. Additional meetings will be held throughout 2023 to guide updates to the Carlton Development Code.  The adoption process is expected to begin in 2024.

Contact

If you are interested in learning more about the project, please contact Aimee Amerson, Planning Manager at (503) 852-7575 or email aamerson@ci.carlton.or.us.

We also invite you to sign up for City Community Updates to stay informed of this project and other news! Enter your email on the bottom Left of this page to subscribe.

You may also share a comment directly using this link: Contact Us | City of Carlton Oregon

Comprehensive Plan documents are available below to review. 

To review the Development code Drafts, please use click HERE.

Please join us at our Comprehensive Plan Town Hall summit meeting on Wednesday, October 5th at 6 PM.  This meeting will be held in person at the Carlton Legion Hall located at 158 East Main street.

The meeting will also be on Zoom, but virtual comments will be closed. Any comments from those not in attendance can be given through a comprehensive online survey. To join the meeting virtually, please use the log in details below:

• To join with a computer, please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82878937910?pwd=aEMvYkdOdWFnYksrclUzVkZXcVBiQT09
• To join using a phone, please call: 1-253-215-8782 and enter Meeting ID: 828 7893 7910 and Passcode: 242417

More details will be posted closer to the meeting date.

See the attached documents for a brief glimpse of Carlton City happenings throughout the week.

Some of the tidbits may change in timeline depending on contractors, meeting changes, or cancelation.

They will be listed in date order under the documents below. Enjoy!

May 30, 2024

When I was first elected mayor, I promised that, while I most likely wouldn’t be able to get a decrease for city water use charges, I would at least try to help us understand why our water costs are what they are. 

The questions continue to come, and each year I’ve learned a few more details, so here’s the 2024 edition:

 The basics:  Carlton City's water treatment plant is located about 3/4 of a mile downstream of Carlton Reservoir (located up Panther Creek Road). Because Carlton’s water source is surface water, it’s potentially exposed to more contaminants than you would have from an underground water source. This situation kicks in a significant number of regulatory requirements that govern processing and treatment of surface water before it’s passed on to consumers. 

Because of the range of contaminants, no one-step process is capable of meeting all of those requirements. The water treatment consists of a series of steps, each designed to address specific concerns. One of the primary concerns is the removal of contaminants such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium. At the Carlton water treatment plant, removal is a two-step process where chemicals are injected which cause smaller particles to coagulate into larger particles that can be filtered out of the water. 

Once the incoming water passes through the filters, it goes through a second step: a dose of chlorine. Because the chlorine requires time to work, the water is moved from the filters to the “clearwell", a .3 million gallons holding tank that gives the chlorinated water time to purify before it moves into the distribution piping.

This process, and the ingredients it requires, is not cheap…We have chemicals, specially-lined water tanks, maintenance of the water lines, and regular testing of the treatment facility equipment required by state and federal monitoring agencies. These are all costs that your water bills help pay. 

The process of sanitizing to comply with required health and safety standards is costly and it’s not optional – nor should you want it to be.

Beyond the basics:

Cities throughout the country deal daily with these same issues, and after the last four years discussing these concerns with other Oregon cities, I can tell you that EVERY small city in the state is struggling with the same question: How do we maintain safe water and wastewater systems without increasing service rates? 

(One Carlton neighbor recently suggested making sure system development charges for new-built homes are high enough to cover some of these expenses.) According to Carlton’s currently listed SDC rates, the per house SDC total is $28,616. The larger portion of this applies to water, sewer, and stormwater maintenance costs. Recently one developer prepaid their development charges which the city used for a badly needed upgrade of the Hawn Creek wastewater pumping station. That station transfers wastewater from the northeast and east parts of town, down Grant Street, and into the main pump station, located at the Public Works compound, which then takes it across the river to the settling lagoons.

But without development, there are no SDCs, although the water system is still in use, and the costs of maintaining it continue.  We have already talked about the deferred system maintenance that has left us in the quandary…but what do we do now? 

The alternatives: 

1. Do nothing & hope the systems hold up (they aren’t, plus that strategy is what got us into this mess in the first place). 

2. Be as frugal as we possibly can be, while at the same time assess annual cost of living water rate increases, which allow us to set aside a portion of the funds we need to make the necessary improvements. 

3.  Work as hard as we can with our state and federal representatives to find public dollars to support our needed projects. But getting state & federal assistance is highly competitive because just about every jurisdiction in our state, (and in the entire country) is facing the same deferred maintenance issues and is also looking for help.

So we're focusing multiple options--2 & 3 while continuing to search for others

Which brings us to our water bills: Remember that what you pay on your water bill covers more costs than just piping the water from the reservoir through to your faucets.  It includes: delivery-lines maintenance and other city staff services: 24/7 monitoring of the water and wastewater systems; regular monitoring (testing) of the water quality, regular monitoring and testing of the reservoir levels and conditions and monitoring the intake and treatment plants’ performance, maintaining the holding tanks and the main delivery line that brings the water into the city. And being first responders for water and wastewater line failures.

That’s about 12 miles of water line, 4 miles of wastewater line & approximately the same amount of stormwater line within the city. These lines will always be the City’s responsibility no matter who we get our water from.

So for now, we’re stuck with Option 2, the most dreaded option: raise rates. At the same time we watch for any other opportunities that may appear, such as state or federal grants. Earlier this month our city manager made a 2-day trip to Washington, DC to visit our Senators Wyden and Merkley, and Representative Salinas and their staffs in order to discuss our city’s critical infrastructure needs. We keep in close contact with our state Representative, Lucetta Elmer. And we watch for any and every funding opportunity that may come along from agencies such as the Division of Environmental Quality, the state legislature, and any federal and state assistance programs.  Your city council and staff are not counting on a fairy godmother to drop a pot full of money in our laps. Councilors all pay the same bills you pay and are just as concerned. But we don’t have any other good options.

The rate increases are NOT determined by throwing darts at the board…they are a carefully calculated formula that includes factoring in many things such as needed and required improvements to our system, debt, inflation, and more. When we reach out to agencies such as DEQ, or our state and federal representatives, their first question is: What are you doing about user rate increases? When we show them our figures, the discussion moves immediately to finding ways to relieve the burden we are all facing. 

We are working to avoid loans because that would cause an even higher increase to rates due to interest and repayment obligations. A portion of every water bill goes into an account that is specifically designated for the repair and replacement of our city water and wastewater lines. It’s not the most glamorous or exciting use of funds – it’s like a building foundation: nobody ever sees it, but if you don’t have one, the building isn’t going to last very long.

~Linda

Please join us at our Comprehensive Plan Town Hall summit meeting on Wednesday, October 5th at 6 PM.  This meeting will be held in person at the Carlton Legion Hall located at 158 East Main street.

The meeting will also be on Zoom, but virtual comments will be closed. Any comments from those not in attendance can be given through a comprehensive online survey. To join the meeting virtually, please use the log in details below:

• To join with a computer, please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82878937910?pwd=aEMvYkdOdWFnYksrclUzVkZXcVBiQT09
• To join using a phone, please call: 1-253-215-8782 and enter Meeting ID: 828 7893 7910 and Passcode: 242417

More details will be posted closer to the meeting date.

Please join us at our Comprehensive Plan Town Hall summit meeting on Wednesday, October 5th at 6 PM.  This meeting will be held in person at the Carlton Legion Hall located at 158 East Main street.

The meeting will also be on Zoom, but virtual comments will be closed. Any comments from those not in attendance can be given through a comprehensive online survey. To join the meeting virtually, please use the log in details below:

• To join with a computer, please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82878937910?pwd=aEMvYkdOdWFnYksrclUzVkZXcVBiQT09
• To join using a phone, please call: 1-253-215-8782 and enter Meeting ID: 828 7893 7910 and Passcode: 242417

More details will be posted closer to the meeting date.