Expecting the unexpected and solving the unsolvable

So much of what local government entities do for their constituents is so mundane and routine it seldom gets any attention until things go wrong.

Then a hue and cry arises. Everyone wonders why someone didn’t do something about it back when it might have been more manageable — that and what’s going to be done about it now that it’s come to the fore.

Local cases abound.

In Willamina, Huddleston Pond, a former log pond conveyed to the city as a gift by Hampton Lumber, is a popular haven for fishing and picnicking.

It was created back in the day by construction of an earthen dam at the confluence of the South Yamhill River and Willamina Creek. That required it to hold back water on three fronts, two of them fast-moving.

For decades, the dam performed its assigned mission flawlessly. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Then erosion began to undercut the structure, threatening to destroy the pond.

The pond’s demise would not only deprive the community of a key recreational asset, but also dump a massive volume of sediment into a river serving as a domestic water source. And the river is a water source not only for Willamina, but also Sheridan and Amity downstream, raising the stakes.

Meanwhile, the city discovered the invasive elodea weed was beginning to smother the pond, threatening eventually turn it into a marsh, killing its fish population in the process. That led the state to warn it would have to cease stocking the pond if the problem weren’t rectified.

These are the strange sort of hidden twists and turns requiring the kind of concerted community action only a city can bring to bear.

Willamina rose to the occasion. With an assist from Hampton, it immediately began marshalling forces to both shore up the dam and declare war on the weed.

The leading option on the latter front seems to be a mechanical harvester amounting basically to an underwater mower. It sounds like something celebrated American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg might have proposed, but it apparently works.

Here in McMinnville, our Tuesday edition broke news of a new city initiative to overhaul a hodge-podge of seven separate sprinkler systems designed to serve the West McMinnville Linear Park walking trail.

The trail runs along Cozine Creek through a lengthy section of southwest McMinnville. The sprinkler system is supposed to help keep the landscape green, but has not been in usable shape since 2013, some dozen years ago now.

Who knew?

McMinnville’s sprinkler woes hardly rise to the level of the pond threat in Willamina, but then, neither does the projected cost. The city is anticipating a relatively manageable $100,000 expenditure.

On a more serious note, questions recently arose in over who’s responsible for maintaining the city’s extensive fire hydrant system, McMinnville Water & Light or the newly created McMinnville Fire District.

This appears to be another case of out of sight, out of mind.

The city used to pay $70,000 a year for maintenance of 1,153 hydrants, under an agreement signed in — hold on to your hats — 1961. However, that obscure little obligation never got officially handed off when the fire district took over local firefighting duties, so never found a home in the district’s budget.

Having a working hydrant near doesn’t really seem to matter too much until your house catches fire. Then it becomes a priority dwarfing virtually all others.

And what if it’s not just your house? What if an uncontrolled wildfire engulfs whole neighborhoods, as happened recently, to tragic effect, in Los Angeles?

That may not be foremost in your mind. But it is in the mind of former firefighter John Gallup, who submitted a letter to the editor this week on his situation in McMinnville’s West Hills.

Gallup said he’s far more worried about getting sufficient flow to westside hydrants than he is about who picks up the tab. He said Water & Light’s current gravity flow system affords the hydrant across from his place less than 40 psi, well below the residential norm of 50 to 60, and that’s not sufficient for multi-structure firefighting.

What’s more, he warns, it’s going to get progressively worse as hundreds more homes are added the complement currently sharing the westside water system. He’s particularly concerned about those being built on uphill from him, where flows are even more tepid.

Water & Light has long planned to add a pump station on the city’s hilly west side to provide gravity with the necessary assist. But so far, that project has failed to rise to the top of the utility’s to-do list.

Local government entities have much to deal with these days.

The roster not only includes perennial mainstay services like police and fire, street and sidewalk, and power, water and sewage. It has also come to include newcomers like sidewalk seating, cellphone tower and EV station services — with the occasional recreational pond and trail sprinkler system oddball thrown in.

Carlton wants Highway 47 rerouted around its downtown core. Amity and Lafayette are facing the need to expand or replace sewage treatment facilities. Every community in Yamhill County is encountering looming water supply challenges, even McMinnville.

It’s the hope of every citizen that community leaders will worry about looming issues in a timely fashion, so he doesn’t have to. And, for the most part, it really does work that way.

But some are just too obscure and others are just too unexpected. That’s when competent leaders really earn their keep.

Our pledge is to continue our time-honored role as a safe haven for citizens sounding alarms, airing grievances and addressing issues.

Remember, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. If you don’t speak up, who will?