11/18/09
By Rachel Azevedo
The City of Prineville has laid off its Community Development Director after revenues in the Planning Department from the first quarter weren't just down, they were in the negative. Prineville expected $30,000 dollars in revenue from that department, but after the first quarter it's in the red $500 dollars. Several permits were pulled last year and refunded this year.
"These individuals decided not to move forward with their building. As a result, per our policy, we refunded those permit fees," said City Manager, Steve Forrester.
The Prineville Police Department has lost three and a half full time positions after not receiving a public service grant. Now there's only one school resource officer instead of two.
Also eating up money from the general fund, a debt service fee of more than $100,000 dollars that the city hoped the freight depot would be able to cover. The depot, which stores materials for businesses to ship by railcar, is hurting because a large volume of business was in construction materials.
"We had as many as 25 customers using our facility, most of them building products related, prior to the slowdown of the economy," said Dan Lovelady, Railway Manager.
But hope could be on the horizon. The railway manager says five new prospective customers have shown interest in leasing space at the depot. The city manager says two businesses are looking at building data centers in Prineville off Tom Mcall road. Each business would bring about 35 permenant jobs and 100 construction jobs to the area.
Some residents say they see signs of a turning economy; others do not.
"Yes i think we will. I think the housing market is an indicator of what's going on and things don't seem to be sitting as long."
"A light in the tunnel yet? No."
The city should know within the next few months whether those business decide to build in Prineville.
Comments
Business and jobs
I'm a bit curious about what, if anything came out of the supposed super secret huge business that was coming to Prineville. I wonder if that is still in the works or is that just another opportunity Prineville leadership managed to scare away? Oh well, I don't think to much about Prineville any more. You can't if you need work and a fair school system. One thing is for sure though, there are a lot of empty houses selling pretty cheep. Maybe the leadership in Prineville should take a lesson from the citizens in Powell Butte. They seem to get what they want and need don't they!
Prineville Budget Shortfall
Maybe you're on to something with your comments. We've been depending on our "Old Boys" to get us thru this and do the right things but it's gotten us know where. We need some fresh blood on the city counsel and also at the county level. If the folks of Powell Butte can pull it together why can't we? We rally around our Cowboys teams but as a city we never pull together. Maybe it's time to start.