No time to change course on overdue downtown overhaul

By the turn of the 21st century, McMinnville realized its treasured downtown Third Street spine would need extensive below-ground renovation in the coming years. It also knew that would logically dictate extensive above-ground renovation.

Discussion began in earnest around 2012, and planning formally got under way in 2019. Initially, the cost was projected to run $11 million and construction was projected to run 2024-27.

Of course, costs continued rising and timetables kept stretching as the planning process played out — almost inevitable with government projects of such sensitivity, complexity and magnitude.

The estimated cost jumped to $20 million, then $28 million to $31 million, not counting a potential add-on of 15% to 20% on some portions to meet stiffer federal requirements. Along the way, construction timing shifted to 2026-29, then 2028-31.

So far, the city has accepted only $850,000 in federal money. But it is gearing up for an request of many times that in federal BUILD funds for the construction phase, so there seems no ducking the “federalization” label entailing stricter requirements.

The city has also been courting state money and eyeing a major new push that direction. That, by itself, raises the specter of stiffer requirements.

We regard such impositions, however burdensome, as a pay-to-play mandate that defies circumvention. If we’re going to get downtown’s up to a century-old water, sewer, street, sidewalk and storm drain infrastructure replaced before another quarter century passes, we have no choice but to keep plowing ahead with the project as expeditiously as its cumbersome nature will allow.

A split city council reached the same conclusion earlier this month. Its hope, which we share, is that the project will make large enough dividends over a long period of time to justify all the investment of time and toil.

If the council’s more reluctant members need an example of persistence paying off over the long haul, they need look no further up the road than the Newberg-Dundee Bypass. The project took 50 torturous years to reach the point of actual construction, and then only on its first phase, but is already benefiting handsomely for the commuting public.

Any effort to “defederalize” Third Street’s revitalization at this late stage, some seven years in, just doesn’t make sense.

If you aren’t pushing forward, you’re sliding backward. It’s just the immutable nature of things.

Let’s keep pushing forward with this vital community improvement project until we get it done. The next generation will praise us for the wisdom and foresight we displayed along the way, and rightly so.