By James Day The new Silverton Civic Center, a years-long $19.5 million project, likely will not open until late April, city officials said. Our Town participated in a tour of the building Feb. 15, along with project manager Jason Gottgetreu, the city’s community development director, new city manager Cory Misley and Luis Mendoza of Compass Project Solutions, which is providing consulting services […]
By James Day The new Silverton Civic Center will not be occupied until next spring. The $19.5 million project, which originally was projected to open in July 2023, has experienced a steady stream of delays, including supply chain issues, work that had to be redone and even emails that went missing. The project remains under that $19.5 million overall cost, […]
By James Day The new Silverton Civic Center likely will not be fully occupied until January 2024 after some unexpected complications hit the project. The $19.5 million facility, which will hold most city staff as well as the police department, originally was scheduled for completion in July 2023. Aug. 7 the Silverton City Council was told that substantial completion of […]
By James Day The new Silverton Civic Center continues to take shape in the former Eugene Field School block. Less than half a mile away lies the Silverton Community Center, a multi-use, multi-tenanted facility owned by the Oregon Military Department with the city holding the lease. So what happens to the community center when the city moves north and its […]
By Stephen Floyd Supporters of a $138 million facilities bond for the Silver Falls School District are forming a Political Action Committee (PAC) to engage in voter outreach ahead of the Nov. 7 election. While as of the Our Town press deadline the PAC had yet to be registered with the state, former members of the district’s Bond Advisory Committee […]
By James Day The City of Silverton is getting into the affordable housing business. Officials have identified a seven-acre parcel of city-owned land west of the Silverton Senior Center for the project. The issue was discussed at the June 5 City Council session, although final decisions are months or perhaps years away. The city might start by developing just a […]
By James Day If you build it, other decisions will have to be made. That’s the challenge the City of Silverton faces as construction heads toward the home stretch on the new Civic Center on the former Eugene Field School property. The $19.5 million Civic Center project, which was opened to public tours March 16, is scheduled to be ready […]
By James Day Property owner Wes Holman used the public comment period of the Dec. 5 Silverton City Council meeting to raise concerns about trash and debris at a home near the Holman house on South Third Avenue. The complaint record apparently goes back to 2015, and although Holman said there have been some temporary improvements he remains ”not satisfied” […]
By James Day The Silverton City Council has signed off on a plan that will put four pallet shelters and a warming facility at the city’s Public Works compound. Councilors voted unanimously at an Oct. 17 work session to approve a ten-year lease agreement with Sheltering Silverton. Using $250,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that passed through […]
By James Day Silverton has held four public outreach meetings on downtown parking issues. The problem is simple: new development in the downtown area has led to parking challenges, for both business customers and their employees. A possible fix lies just north of downtown where the city is building a new $19 million civic center on property that was once […]
By James Day The Silverton City Council, the Chamber of Commerce, area business leaders and city staffers all agree that downtown faces parking challenges. June 20 folks got together via Zoom and began talking about solutions. ”This is a really hot issue right now,” said Stacy Palmer, executive director of the chamber. “There have been some dramatic changes to downtown,” […]
By James Day Silverton will break ground on its new civic center this spring, with opening tentatively set for summer 2023. The City Council selected Corp Inc. of Salem as the general contractor at its March 7 meeting. Corp Inc. turned in the winning bid of $14,750,000 to build the center, which will include a two-story civic center/police building as […]
By James Day The City of Silverton has opened the bidding process for the construction of its new civic center. Bidding opened Dec. 21, with the deadline for bids Feb. 23. Community Development Director Jason Gottgetreu, the lead city staffer on the project, said that the City Council is scheduled to review the bids at its March 7 meeting. Construction […]
A few citizens have recently brought back up our plans for the Eugene Field School site, so it’s time for another update. The City purchased the entire EF property in late 2017 after negotiations with the Silver Falls School District, who’d weathered having at least two previous offers on the property fall through. We are federally required to have a […]
Since the defeat of the $24.9 million bond measure in the November election, Silver Falls School District board members have listened to input, ideas and feedback from patrons and staff members. As the board deliberates what to do next, it must weigh the pros and cons of each proposal. The recurring question the board faces is when will Eugene Field […]
Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on the proposed $36.9 million bond measure for construction and maintenance projects for the Silver Falls School District on the May 21 ballot. The April 1 story focused on the 92-year-old Eugene Field School. The May 1 story will look at what is proposed for Schlador Street, the former high […]
Stacks of documents with hundreds of pages describing the conditions of the buildings in the Silver Falls School District have been whittled down to two documents – one by the district’s Facilities Master Plan Committee with four pages and the other by Randal Saunders, an architect from Woodburn, with eight pages.
Both documents will serve as guidelines for Silver Falls School Board members to make decisions in the future for its facilities, such as the fate of Eugene Field School, what’s to be done with Schlador Street high school campus after the completion of the Pine Street campus and where the district office should be located.
