Lincoln County infrastructure projects and a local program to set up a response system to help the homeless received a total of $11.35 million in funding from the Oregon Legislature, which completed its short, 35-day 2022 session Friday.
The money came from legislative approval of $1.4 billion in new spending on housing, childcare programs, rural infrastructure and summer school due to an unexpected windfall in state tax revenue.
Projects or programs in Lincoln County included:
- To help establish a coordinated homeless response system within rural Oregon, $1 million each to Lincoln, Benton, Polk, Deschutes, Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Umatilla counties;
- City of Waldport: $1.4 million for a new, state-required improvement to its wastewater treatment system that discharges treated water into Alsea Bay. If it had not been received, the city estimated it would require a $10 per month surcharge on every water bill in Waldport. “No matter what, we were going to have to do this,” said city manager Dann Cutter.
- $1.14 million to repair a Port of Newport seawall near Rogue Brewing on the south side of Yaquina Bay;
- $1 million to the city of Lincoln City to help construct a new year-round sports park at the former Taft Elementary School;
- $310,000 to the Devils Lake Water District to deal with vegetation and algae in the lake on the east edge of Lincoln City;
- $6.5 million approved to help build housing for students attending OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and for researchers and employees of state and federal partner agencies. The housing will be built on approximately five acres of OSU-owned property in the South Beach area of Newport, east of U.S. Highway 101.
- $350,000 for maintenance and repairs of the Pacific Storm, an 84-foot research vessel operated out of Newport by the Marine Mammal Institute;
In addition, the Lincoln County School District will get an additional $846,000 a year for five years beginning this year to make up for the state revenue it would have gotten for the 94 Otis-area students who moved out of the district after the 2020 wildfires destroyed much of that community. The district and three others will receive a total of $25 million because of the students who left those areas following the wildfires.
Projects that did not get funded included requests from the Southwest Lincoln Water PUD for water storage; from the Port of Alsea for security cameras and to provide water and electricity at its marina; help paying for a possible new station for Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue; helping Lincoln County build a new animal shelter at the Newport airport; and, a long list of infrastructure projects from the city of Newport.
Some of the Lincoln County infrastructure funds came from $100 million that legislative leaders allocated to rural lawmakers to focus on projects in their districts. Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, was one of the six rural legislators selected to pick programs.
The latest money comes after the more than $50 million that the 2021 Legislature sent to projects in Lincoln County to help pay for 15 infrastructure projects or disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Other programs of interest on the coast that were funded by the 2022 Legislature included:
- Elliott State Forest: The 91,000-acre tract on the southern Oregon coast will be converted to a research forest overseen by OSU under legislation that severs its link to timber production for the Common School Fund.
- Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission: $19 million for a tribal access grant program, which will fund most undergraduate and graduate higher education expenses of enrolled tribal members.
