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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Neighborhoods Employment Guide Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend October 20, 2006 Growth, traffic, money top candidates' priorities By Meg Landers Mail Tribune Growth and a proposed downtown development project are high on the list of issues facing candidates in the contested races for three Medford City Council positions. The city has wrestled with concerns about traffic congestion and who should pay for the costs of new parks and hiring additional police officers and firefighters. Opinions also have been divided over the proposed Middleford Commons development in downtown, which would include a 10-story office building for Lithia Motors, Inc., a park area and several other office, retail or residential buildings spread over six blocks. The Medford Urban Renewal Agency has agreed to pay $14 million toward building infrastructure for the estimated $150 million project. Following are comments from candidates for the City Council on the topics of growth and Middleford Commons. WARD 2 Advertisement Incumbent Skip Knight said growth is dictated by supply and demand, and governments often can do little to control it. "It's being planned for as well as it can be planned for," he said. He said developers end up paying for new infrastructure, which he supports. City leaders often do not have much say over where growth occurs, he said, and development is driven more by demand and the availability of utilities and city services. He said he was "100 percent" in support of Middleford Commons. "The Middleford Commons is an economic windfall for the city," said Knight. He said the project will provide jobs and housing and will attract other businesses downtown. Lithia Motors will invest 10 times what the Medford Urban Renewal Agency will invest, he said, so it's a good opportunity for the city. "I can't see a negative to it," he said. Challenger Ben Truwe said development should have to pay for "unsnarling" the traffic problems it creates. "The growth is being subsidized by the people who live here," he said. "We should not have to suffer to line the pockets of the developers." Truwe said he does not support the Middleford Commons project and thinks the urban renewal agency had to ignore its own policies in order to accommodate it. The agency, he noted, had a list of projects, many of which have been sidelined so it could focus on Middleford. He also said he's worried about the hundreds of added vehicles to the busy downtown streets. "Where's the traffic study?" he asked. Truwe, who is a history buff, also said he was concerned that the project would result in the demolition of several historical buildings. WARD 3 Brita Entenmann said she sees growth as healthy for the city. "I think the growth is wonderful — we should embrace and enjoy it," she said, adding that city planners are doing a good job of planning and managing the growth. Entenmann said growth creates family wage jobs, and projects such as the Bella Vita condominium project and Middleford Commons will help rejuvenate the downtown by bringing activity and jobs to Medford's center. "I'm absolutely for Middleford Commons," she said. She said she would like to see fewer apartments and more condominiums, townhouses and affordable housing built in West Medford. She also said the city should more strictly enforce neighborhood code regulations. Kip Grant said she supports well-planned growth. "Although I'm for development, I think we should have very good planning, especially the traffic," she said. She said she thought growth needs to be more controlled by city planners than it is. She said the city doesn't currently have enough funding for street improvements and fire and police departments. Grant said she wants to see the Middleford Commons project materialize, but would have liked to have seen MURA put more money in the blighted areas, such as the west Medford neighborhood in which she lives. "I would like to go back to MURA and ask them for additional funding over here." Jill Stout said she does not think the management of growth has been well planned and residents are dealing with the problems, such as traffic congestion, due to past councils' decisions. "We're still paying for the mistakes of 50 years ago," she said. She added that she would like to see a better local bus system and that the city should have pushed for a full-blown traffic study for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in south Medford. Stout said she would like to see long-range planning, and that the city should slow down on development until the planning is in place. She said Middleford Commons is a complex, ambitious project and she would like more safeguards for the city and its residents. She expressed concern about public outcry against the project, and said she hopes citizens' concerns are weighed more seriously as the project goes through the review process. Dan Latham dropped out of the race for the Ward 3 seat, but his name will remain on the ballot. WARD 4 Challenger Lee Morris has been one of the more outspoken opponents of the Middleford Commons project. He said it is too much of a gamble, and thinks it will take a long time to pay back the $14.1 million the urban renewal agency is investing. "I think it's a bad idea as a public investment," said Morris, who also is a critic of the concept of urban renewal districts. In a separate interview, he said people are "outraged" over public funds going to Middleford. "It's not the business of taxpayers to subsidize any part of downtown," he said. "Let the business people create their own revitalization." Morris said growth should be anticipated and infrastructure ought to be in place for development. He said it's important that residents' convenience and lifestyle not be damaged by growth. He said he would need to do further research before commenting on specific growth policies and decisions. Challenger J. J. Owens said growth in the city is being well-managed. "The old areas are getting done up and beautified," he said. The commercial development, including big box stores, is creating more family wage jobs. "I don't think unemployment is as bad as it was five years ago," he said. Similarly, he said, the Middleford Commons project will create more jobs, including project construction jobs. Owens said he would prefer that the project did not include a parking structure. He said he would rather see carpooling and public transit encouraged for the hundreds of Lithia Motors employees, rather than having each of them drive a car and park downtown. Incumbent Bob Strosser said there are 24 citizen volunteers — serving on the city's Planning Commission, Site Plan and Architectural Commission and City Council — reviewing development applications, and he thinks growth is being appropriately reviewed and managed. The city has done well, he said, in ensuring that services such as storm drains, streets and water have kept pace with development. Continued growth is dependent on the long-term availability of water, he said, noting that he had worked to prevent rural areas from tapping into Medford's water supply. He said he supported the Middleford Commons project, which he said will help revitalize downtown, create family wage jobs and living quarters and add three park blocks. It will increase the property taxes in the area from $168,000 to at least $1 million, he said. Al Densmore is running unopposed for the Ward 1 seat. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . WARD 2 Skip Knight, incumbent Age: 67. Employment: Retired. Education: Master's degree in business administration. Experience: 12 years on City Council; business owner; budget and public relations experience. Top three priorities if re-elected: 1. To find funding for additional police and firefighters. 2. To finish the sports park. 3. To see Middleford Commons finished. Ben Truwe Age: 55. Employment: Home office, publishing. Education: Bachelor of arts, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Experience: Small businessman in Medford for 24 years; served on volunteer boards. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Deservedly or not, the City Council has lost its credibility with the people in my ward. I would take care to respond to citizen comments at council meetings; residents should never feel they're speaking to a wall. Similarly, I would never ignore the findings of citizen advisory groups. 2: Meetings to discuss projects are monopolized by those with the most to gain. I would play devil's advocate and reach out to opposition groups. We need to protect the city's interests by properly considering possible negative outcomes. 3: We can't act as if we lived on an empty plain. Our small valley is divided by a freeway, creek and railroad, so traffic will never again flow as smoothly as it used to. I would insist that traffic impacts be a prime consideration before major projects are approved. WARD 3 Brita Entenmann Age: 58. Employment: Oregon Advantage Properties. Education: Bachelor of arts degree, California State University at Northridge. Experience: Twenty-five years in real estate sales and leasing; appraiser for Los Angeles County Assessor's Office. Top three priorities if elected: 1. To court economic development in downtown to broaden Medford's economic base. 2. To increase police and fire services. 3. To maintain fiscal responsibility and a balanced city budget. Kip Grant Age: 67. Employment: Retired. Education: Associate of arts degree, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, Calif. Experience: Republican precinct chairwoman, elected twice; Medford Arts Commission; Communications Advisory Committee. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Budget — Medford is facing tough future decisions on how to fund for growth. Growth needs to pay for itself. The city needs to find alternative funding that does not affect families and the elderly. Supporting and enhancing small business will enhance a strong economic base. 2. Livable neighborhoods — Includes improving quality of life; neighbors coming together to solve neighborhood problems; supporting Neighborhood Watch; removing trash with cleanup days; removing vagrants from areas where there are families and children; community policing; public services spread throughout the city so that one area does not inherit the entire problem. 3. Preserving our heritage while promoting new progress — Ensure the city's treasured sites are preserved for future generations, such as the Carnegie Library; provide public parks where children can play and a sports park for recreation; promote the arts and establish an art museum to complement the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater. Jill Stout Age: Not provided. Employment: LibertyBank Education: Monte Vista High School, Whittier, Calif. Experience: West Medford Coalition treasurer, many years as a member of various nonprofit community and national organizations. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Citizen participation — By holding informal forums throughout the ward on a consistent basis, I can assess the residents' concern and represent them with accuracy and motivate them to become increasingly involved in the process of city government. 2. Expansion of the Neighborhood Watch programs — Create new programs that will revitalize our homes and continue the work we have started to make Ward 3 a vital and vibrant place to live and work. 3. Encourage family wages and workforce housing — We must have stable and reliable employment for our citizens. We must encourage prospective employers to partner with communities by linking development with transportation and creating a strong framework with mixed use, pedestrian-friendly streets while protecting the flavor of our single-family neighborhoods. WARD 4 Lee Morris Age: 69. Employment: Retired from PG&E, California. Education: Bachelor of arts in economics, California State University East Bay, Hayward, Calif.; master's equivalency in performance management and instructional technology. Experience: 50 years of business experience, most of it in management; president, town homeowners association, five years; leadership in volunteer organizations, including CASA board, Rogue Valley Senior Softball Association. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Concentrate city government on funding and providing basics: infrastructure, police and fire protection and a local justice system. Discontinue business development activities, especially those that don't deliver what they promise. Privatize those city services that lend themselves to it. Reduce costs and taxes. 2. Improve the availability of housing at all price levels by working with and encouraging the state to increase availability of developable land and the speed at which it can be made available — these are current bottlenecks to housing. 3. Promote competitive business development without providing subsidies or any other kind of aid that costs taxpayers anything — just make it easy to start and do business in Medford. Fees at cost, quick processing, minimum regulation. These will add to tax base without subsidy. owens Jermaine James (J.J.) Owens Age: 34 Employment: Cascade Athletic Supply Co. Education: High school diploma; several certificates and camps in fitness and early childhood education. Experience: Community center director, corporation trainer, restaurant manager, early-childhood teacher, elderly volunteer, coach. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Livable and viable communities — family-wage jobs, medical, health and community service. 2. Quality education — Strong emphasis on lifelong learning. 3. State and local governments working in a partnership — Enabling response to citizen priorities. Bob Strosser, incumbent Age: 61. Employment: Coldwell Banker Pro West. Education: Bachelor of science degree in public management, Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif. Experience: City Council member, eight years; League of Oregon Cities board, three years; city of Medford Budget Committee, nine years; governor's appointee, SIEC (public safety communications); member of ACCESS board, Senior Center board and chamber. Retired police officer-commander, Pasadena Police Department, Calif. Top three priorities if elected: 1. Public safety — Having adequate police and fire personnel to provide essential safety services consistent with our growth and needs. Making sure that timely emergency responses will occur to protect our citizens when an emergency need unexpectedly arises. I understand and have supported this need vigorously as a retired police officer. 2. Financial stability for Medford — Using scarce tax dollars as wisely as possible consistent with the "Vision" plan goals provided by collective citizen input and outreach. To keep Medford a vibrant, economically thriving quality community. Working at the state level to resolve the difficult state-mandated PERS retirement fund issues. 3. Managing growth and change — Making growth pay for its impacts and planning wisely to maintain the quality of life we enjoy. Roads, air quality, preserving high-value agricultural land are priorities, but perhaps the most important issue is ensuring and protecting the future availability of our water supply to Medford. Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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