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Rogue Family Center will expand Couunty approves several White City projects By PETER WONG A larger Rogue Family Center, ground for which will be broken Dec. 6, is the first phase of a community center for White City. Jackson County commissioners voted Wednesday to approve a contract with Vitus Construction Inc. of Medford, which will build the center on a site on Avenue C. Vitus Construction submitted the lower of two bids at $2,534,000. Adroit Construction Co. of Medford submitted the other bid at $2,554,500. Both were less than the architect's estimate of $2,720,600. Acting as the urban renewal board for White City, the county's largest unincorporated community, the commissioners also voted Wednesday to issue $9.3 million more in bonds for various public works projects. Among them is a new library estimated at $1.1 million. If White City were incorporated, its population would rank fourth in the county. County commissioners created a White City urban renewal district in 1991. The Rogue Family Center, which provides services to White City and communities to the north, has come a long way since it opened in the Cascade Shopping Center in 1992. "It was on a hunch that if we picked our best and brightest and put them together in a small office, they could figure out better ways of providing services to families in a more integrated way," said Hank Collins, county health and human services director. The center moved to 2400 Antelope Road in 1994 but has outgrown its 7,000 square feet. The new building on Avenue C will be 23,950 square feet. Collins said the larger building will make it possible to expand clinical services, provide mental health counseling in private rooms, and offer space to other agencies such as Jackson County Community Corrections and the state Vocational Rehabilitation Division. The building also will continue to house the White City office of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. More than a dozen agencies will operate in the building. "All of them work together on a professional basis, but when it comes to building a building, it is a little bit difficult because you start negotiating for who gets space," said Commissioner Sue Kupillas, who heads the urban renewal agency's governing board. Cathy Conlow, the agency's executive director, said the building should be finished late next summer. The building will be the first on a 37-acre site that eventually will be White City's community center. In a related action, commissioners also approved $9.3 million in new urban renewal bonds, which are tax-exempt. About $1.3 million will pay off the first bonds that the urban renewal agency issued in 1993, and $8.1 million will be for new public works projects during the next three years. The bonds will be repaid through tax-increment financing, which uses the taxes generated by increased property values within the urban renewal district to pay off the bonds for public improvements. Once all the bonds are repaid, the higher property values are put on the countywide rolls. An advisory committee recommended projects for the new bonds in this order: First phase of storm drain improvements, $2.5 million. Final phase of street and utility improvements for Avenue A, $439,000. Street and utility improvements for 24th, 27th and 28th streets and Cascade Court, $1,001,520. Sidewalks for Gladstone Avenue and Hale Way near Mountain View and White City elementary schools, $373,165. Improvements for Avenue E, $778,347. Improvements for 28th Street, $225,000. New library on Avenue C, $1.1 million. Land purchase for proposed training center for Jackson County Fire District 3, $780,000. The rest of the $8.2 million will be for architectural and engineering costs, administration, and bond issuance costs. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA