County commissioners approve $6 million more in bonds for now-$36 million Commons project

By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle

The price tag for the new Lincoln County Commons in Newport continues to go up as architects and contractors work through proposed designs and costs.

Two county commissioners on Wednesday agreed with a recommendation to increase by $6 million the amount of bonds the county will sell to pay for the recommended design to rebuild and modernize the former fairgrounds property just east of Newport High School.

The new amount is $29 million in 20-year bonds compared with the $23 million in bonds commissioners authorized in June.

Wednesday’s meeting was the first in-person meeting in commission chambers since March, when the county’s human resources director ordered them to go online after complaints from a few employees who said they did not feel safe attending in-person sessions after a series of dustups between audience members, commissioners and staff. Other than staff and two groups making presentations, only a handful of people – including commissioner-elect Curtis Landers — were in the chambers Wednesday.

The rebuilding of the Commons area has been in the county’s sights for years and would be the most expensive construction project it has undertaken.

In 2019 – before the Covid pandemic and the resulting effect on construction costs – a master plan estimated one proposed design would cost $8 million and be financed by bonds repaid by lodging taxes over 10 years.

But project manager Joshua Dodson told commissioners Wednesday that the contractor and architect now place the cost at $36 million or “… $6 million more than we can afford.”

The current proposed Commons project includes a new 20,000 square foot exhibit hall with space for 60 vendors, a gallery and meeting rooms, kitchen, restrooms and offices. There is also a new and partially covered rodeo arena, a central grass-filled plaza encircled with a walkway creating an area for gatherings and musical events, outside restrooms and a storage building. The 4-H barn was remodeled in 2023 and is not largely affected by the project.

Dodson said they could trim $4 million to $5 million off the budget by shrinking the size of the exhibition hall, eliminating the partial cover over the arena, and not constructing the restroom and storage buildings.

“A $6 million cut to hit our budget is significant,” he said.

But county treasurer Jayne Welch told commissioners that she had been working on a solution with the county’s bond firm and said increasing the bond by $6 million was feasible using lodging tax proceeds, reserves and interest.

“The county is well within its obligation to repay this debt,” she said.

There is a 12 percent room tax on motel and vacation rental stays on properties in unincorporated areas of the county. The county has been collecting about $4 million a year, putting some of that money into its general fund and directing the rest to tourism and economic development, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, county parks and the fairgrounds, which has a reserve of $6 million.

Commissioner Casey Miller said the new construction estimate “is a huge amount from where we started” but reiterated that no general fund money would be used on the project.

“A lot of people would love to see this, it’s still very spartan and there’s a little leap of faith in everything,” he said.

The decision came during the same meeting where Ryan Vogt, director of the Community Services Consortium for Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, gave a presentation on the organization’s financial troubles and said it plans to ask each of the three counties for $500,000 to help ease its finances. Under a recent reorganization, Vogt also serves as director the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments which has begun to merge some of its operations with the consortium.

Benton County Commissioner Gabe Shepherd accompanied Vogt and said the other two counties were just beginning to hear about the money request and wanted a lot more information from the two organizations and their financial problems. Miller and Commissioner Walter Chuck agreed that more information – and more regular meetings and updates – were needed.

• Quinton Smith is the editor of Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]