From the mayor’s desk: by Meadow Martell

I just returned from the League of Oregon Cities 97th annual conference in Bend. Councilor Jean Ann Miles also attended. The conference was jam packed with attendees, workshops and meetings. Some of the highlights for me, in addition to connections made with other city leaders, were workshops on: combating the fragmentation created by growing problem of misinformation and using social media; small cities meeting; sessions about how to lobby our state legislators; leading strategic visioning workshops in local government; homelessness issues; and how cities can be prepared and build relationships to bring broadband infrastructure to our local communities.
In the Public Works Department the following is a snapshot of some of the bigger projects our crew is working on: The Watkins/199 new waterline was installed, passed testing with flying colors, and sections of sidewalk that had to be removed are being prepped for new concrete; consumer water use is still high enough that we are continuing to run the water plant on weekends to keep the reservoirs at a safe operating range; the pipes and parts for the new waterline for the splash pad at Jubilee Park have arrived; and our street crew has had a number of new locates for the six mini cell towers going in. Everyday our Public Works team is testing, monitoring, providing routine maintenance, repairing and upgrading. They are a very busy team!
No less, our small city administrative staff of three (Deanna, Lisa, and Becky), is very busy. They manage all the paperwork and public contacts for water/sewer, building applications and information, budgeting, grants management, planning, City Council/Mayor support, and everything else that goes into running a city. We can be proud that Cave Junction has a small, but competent, energetic and dedicated staff.