Jeb Bladine: Evolving message for city rec bond: It’s time!
Voters will decide in November if McMinnville will develop a new community recreation and aquatic center overlooking Joe Dancer Park — a proposal supplemented by improvements to other civic facilities.
Finally, after too many years of top-down, sometimes dubious planning of diverse city projects, there is a chance for citizens to endorse a major development with deep community roots. Let’s hope the bond campaign committee does a better job generating public enthusiasm than the city council produced Tuesday night in a somewhat timid 6-0 vote to place this measure on the ballot.
The council spent just five minutes of public discourse Tuesday before voting. Councilors Chris Chenoweth and Dan Tucholsky declared lukewarm feelings about the proposal while acknowledging the importance of allowing a citizen vote. It would have been a dismal public display had not Councilor Zack Geary stepped up to voice, succinctly and clearly, sentiments that need to drive the election campaign:
It’s time!
It’s time for McMinnville to come together on one important, needed, exciting community project. It’s time, after a prolonged gap, to continue a tradition that over the past 70 years produced the original aquatic center and its subsequent rebuild; restoration/expansion of the historic library; downtown development; Joe Dancer and other city park projects; a parkside senior center; the downtown anchors of our community center, fire station, police station and civic center; well-planned transportation system improvements; and a long string of well-considered public education facilities.
It’s time to do something that springs from community interests, not from government fancies.
McMinnville citizens are aware of decade-long city budget creep, fueled by rising fees, utility surcharges, and a new fire district that produced tax increases beyond what most voters understood. We haven’t seen widespread public agreement on the confusing Innovation Campus along Three Mile Lane … a $30 million, mall-like redevelopment of Third Street with no thought of future parking needs … a luxury boutique hotel surrounded by affordable housing along the railroad tracks.
Public opinion on McMinnville civic projects has been scattered, not focused, for too long. That state of affairs is a challenge to success for the upcoming recreation bond election, but there’s an opportunity to overcome that challenge with variations of one simple message: It’s time!
It’s time for the full cadre of city councilors to express whole-hearted support for this proposal. They may be prohibited by law from spending public funds promoting a bond issue, but they are welcome to express personal opinions about the need for a community to support this project.
Despite the musings above in this very article, it is not a time to rehash the many public misgivings about McMinnville city government in recent years. They will not be forgotten, but here in late 2025, it’s time to set aside those issues for a few months and focus on the “come together” message that Geary delivered this week.
In case anyone missed the point of all this, let’s all try to sing that chorus just once more: It’s time!
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
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