Oregon City is a community that has worked hard to build a reputation for innovation, good planning, a unified vision, and good leadership. We are now reaping some rewards for that painstaking and challenging work. So, here is my annual round-up of Good News!

• Oregon City is one of only 8 cities in Oregon to receive federal funding for new police officers! With $576,598 from a highly competitive COPS grant, our OC Police Department can hire two new sworn officers and make headway in meeting our goal of adding officers
• Ribbon-cutting for our ‘new’ City Hall (actually, the recycled former McLean Clinic) will be sometime this fall. This long-awaited move is the second in a series of strategic relocations designed to relieve the severe overcrowding that has plagued our staff in the current building. It meets several goals. It will be our first LEED-certified city-owned facility. It will improve customer service and privacy, plus have good sound for web streaming and cable access to city meetings. It will be a stimulus to business on Main Street and, most importantly, free up today’s City Hall to provide our Police Department additional space as we look at a more permanent solution to finally address the needs of our Police Department that now exists in woefully inadequate facilities.
• Watch for the ground-breaking for the McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement project and Jon Storm Park in the spring when the hundreds of new landscape plantings will be in bloom. A replacement for the fallen historic Abernethy Elm will be a part of that celebration.
• We’ve broken ground on the Promenade restoration project and the Warner Milne/McLoughlin road alignment projects. Both are federal stimulus projects and will project jobs and transportation benefits in Oregon City.
• The old bridge between Oregon City and Gladstone is not only open for pedestrians and cyclists, but is enhanced with original and eye-catching public art.
• New signs on some of the old buildings downtown will appear, thanks to a grant from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department and the OC Urban Renewal Commission, plus the initiative of Lloyd Purdy and Main Street Oregon City.
• Our FREE electric car plug-in station is drawing more usage and is part of a growing network in the region. Please express your gratitude to our dedicated staff and community volunteers for the hard work and creativity that has made so much Good News possible.