This article was in Wednesday’s (November 22nd, 2017) Herald and News

Written By: Sean Bassinger, H&N Staff Reporter 

The Klamath Falls City Council continued talks on current budgets, separating downtown committees and new business liquor licenses at its regular meeting Monday evening.

The council voted in favor of several items, which included allowing more funds for two city water projects and the recommendation for a liquor license for a new convenience-style store coming to Main Street.

The city’s 2017-18 general fund budget, which covers public safety, administrative services and public works, is about $30 million, with $19 million projected to come from total revenue by the end of the fiscal year.

For the first quarter of the next fiscal year, July 1 to Sept. 30, budget lists a beginning balance of about $11.6 million and about $2.3 million in projected revenue.

Water mains

The council voted unanimously to approve more money toward two continuing water main projects, one in the Altamont area and another for the Pelican City Booster Station project.

The first item, which focused on water mains along Altamont Drive, would cost roughly $44,000.

Klamath Falls Lead Engineer Scott Souders said they were adding a sixth phase onto the waterline replacement project after discovering at least 150 more feet of damaged waterlines between Barry and Anderson avenues.

“We’ve identified, during that time period, that we’ve got some really bad breaks in that portion of the line,” Souders said.

City council then voted to add about $31,000 onto work toward the Pelican City Booster Station water main project, which is now in its third phase.

Klamath Falls has about $3.28 million allocated for water fund infrastructure improvements.

Downtown committees

City councilors discussed separating downtown advisory, design and parking committees due to the amount of parking issues being brought up at prior meetings. The council voted 4-1 on the first reading of ordinances to separate the committees, with Councilor Bill Adams voting against.

Klamath Falls City Manager Nathan Cherpeski said city council previously talked about wanting to reshape the committees during a previous work session, but that merging the downtown design and advisory groups was more difficult and complex than anyone anticipated.

Adams said he prefers to see all these functions in one group that meets on a more regular basis.

“I think it’s only fair that the city has some control of what goes on downtown,” Adams said.

Councilors Matt Dodson and Kendall Bell said talking about parking issues at meetings that cover several topics would take away from other conversations.

“We would get sideways quite regularly on parking,” Dodson said. “The parking’s always going to come up.”

“It is a huge issue all in itself, so I would recommend keeping it separate for now,” Bell added.

Liquor license

The council voted unanimously to recommend a liquor license be added to Rock~en Robins, a new store set to open at 737 Main St.

Art Belsky, manager at Rock~en Robins, said the store would focus on a variety of goods, including U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved foods, health foods, beers and wines. Belsky also said a number of other goods would be sold at the store.

Belsky said he wanted the liquor license established to offer his customers more, but that the focus of his business was not going to revolve around alcoholic beverages.

“We did want to concentrate on regional wines,” Belsky said. “It’s only going to be wine and beer.”

Belsky said he wanted to see more food options in the downtown area, which has had little options since the Haggen store closed its doors in 2015.

However, a new Holiday grocery store at the former Haggen location at Pine and Ninth streets, is in the works to open next spring.

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Council Approves Water Project Funds, Discusses City Budgets (H&N)