Massive mixed-use venture moving to forefront in Mac
Fasten your seat belts, McMinnville dwellers. You will soon be hearing and seeing a lot about another major local development project — one the city council got its first formal look at in conceptual ...
Legislators left a mess that demands a prompt cleanup
The Oregon Legislature opened this year’s session with three tasks towering over the rest: - Balancing the budget in the face of worrisome economic slippage and continued economic uncertainty. - Developing ...
City gets budget passed; bond showdown up next
The McMinnville City Council laid one contentious financial issue to quiet, anticlimactic rest Tuesday night — a proposed $121,454,284 budget for the new fiscal year it will be ushering in next week. The ...
Immigration raids violating our nation's proud heritage
As long as federal immigration policy remains nothing more than fare for political debate in Washington, D.C., it may seem a matter of little consequence to people immersed in their daily routines in other ...
N-R editorial: Jobless benefits for strikers violates standard of fairness
Extending unemployment benefits to striking workers in both the public and private sectors — a national first the Oregon Legislature now seems poised to sign off on — is a bridge too far for ...
Cool heads and wise choices called for in manager search
Jeff Towery’s decision to leave McMinnville after putting in a bit over eight years as city manager here, presents the community with both a challenge and an opportunity. We hope local leaders will ...
Don't let highway finance fall victim to partisanship
When the Oregon Legislature opened its 2025 session on Jan. 21, crafting a new state transportation package promised to prove one of the most demanding tasks on its agenda. And with a statutorily imposed ...
Hoping we can restore the luster to police work
Facing a $3 million shortfall in McMinnville’s fiscal 2025-26 budget, city staff recommended cutting 11.6 positions, six of them in the police department. On Wednesday night, the budget committee ...
Region faces power crisis demanding concerted action
Oregon has joined Washington in pledging to put its electric utilities on a carbon-neutral footing by 2040. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek noted the two states had been “leading the way for years on courageous ...
Time county got serious with dog control function
Dog control has remained an orphan function of Yamhill County government for decades, starved for even a welcoming embrace from the powers that be, let alone extension of meaningful financial support. ...
Chemeketa and Sheridan bonds deserve our votes of confidence
There are 45 school, fire and park district seats up in Yamhill County in the looming May 20 election, but only 12 are being contested. One seat drew no candidates, and 32 seats drew just one. If you ...
New stormwater fee justifiable only as replacement, not add-on
Three years ago, McMinnville began assessing the need to follow the path of most cities its size and larger in establishing a separate stormwater utility operation with its own fee structure. To that end, ...
Board got parting right, needs to get hiring right
In response to the naming of Debbie Brockett as school superintendent in the spring of 2021, we opened our editorial this way: “When Maryalice Russell was named superintendent of schools here in ...
Reliable local transit a linchpin for many
We live in times marked by something akin to a crisis a day, if not an even more frantic crisis of the hour or minute. It’s so dizzying, it can numb us into a state of near paralysis. So one of ...
City's elected leaders facing times sure to try their souls
The hopes and dreams of passionate advocates have a bad habit of crashing into the realities of limited means, competing priorities and opposing views. Never has that seemed more evident, we must say, ...
