In Albany, customers of the city wastewater system face projected rate jumps for sewer service totaling some 57 percent over the next five years. That’s way above inflation. What’s going on here? What accounts for this huge jump in the price of a very basic public service? Several things, actually. For one thing, parts of […]
Albany’s downtown urban renewal district, CARA, expects to have a surplus of $1.25 million next budget year. It could decide to levy that much less in tax, which would benefit mostly the city of Albany, Linn County and indirectly the state school fund. But after discussing it on May 7, the CARA advisory board recommended […]
My bike route takes me through Albany’s Bryant Park almost every day, and I’ve been wondering about something: Why has the lower loop of the park drive near the Willamette River been closed to cars? During the routine wintertime flooding, the entire park road was closed. But the upper loop has been open since some time in March […]
What exactly, I have to ask, is the point of all those ridges on the bottom of casual shoes? This particular pair was marketed as hiking shoes, and I got them even though I’ve never done much hiking. But even while hiking, you would not need all those ridges and grooves on the bottoms of your […]
For devoted fans of Albany City Council meetings, the one on Wednesday night must have been a disappointment. It took all of 35 minutes and produced no news to speak of. (The appointment of Mario Lattanzio as police chief had been announced before.) Its highlight was the appearance of Jim Clausen, who regularly addresses the […]
Here’s something you may not have suspected until you read about in the papers or heard it on TV: The number of gun homicides in the United States has fallen sharply over the last 20 years even while the number of guns in civilian hands has grown. From the public buzz lately, you would think […]
Rear windows: Small bill, big principle
Because an Albany businessman got an undeserved ticket, Oregon’s law on being able to see through the windows of vehicles will be clarified. On May 13 the state Senate approved, 28-1, House Bill 2406, which previously had unanimously passed the House. Sponsored by Rep. Andy Olson of Albany, the bill removes the current ban on […]
Tags: Andy Olson, Art Meeker, HB 2406, rear windows