Voters Handily Approve 911 Tax District, Elect Schaffer to Ward 7 Seat

Measure 2-124 passed by a wide margin this evening, 61.42 percent voted in favor, and 38.58 percent voted against.

The measure funds upgrades and added personnel for the area’s 911 dispatch center.

Currently, a dispatcher can only retrieve an address when a call is made by a landline, but this feature is not currently possible with cell phones. Moreover, asking for an address takes time, and time is critical in an emergency. New upgrades will will allow dispatchers to use the features of a cell phone to find a person in trouble – and 75 percent of calls to the dispatch center comes from cell phones.

Our  911 Center is failing to meet the national standard for dispatch timing of 90 percent of calls dispatched within 60 seconds – the staff can only meet that standard 71 percent of the time. The measure aims to increase staff.

The new property tax district funding these enhancements assesses 0.65 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value – this comes to $260 on a home worth $400,000.

Paul Schaffer Handily Wins Ward 7 Seat

Retired policy analyst, Paul Schaffer, won a convincing victory in his bid for the vacated Ward 7 seat on the Corvallis City Council.

Shaffer received 53.20 percent of the vote. The other four contenders polled: 16.32 percent for Susan Walenza, 16.09 percent for Brad Longman, 10.98 percent for Lucas Letelier, and 3.11 percent for Linda Gearheart.

Schaffer was unique among the candidates, stating he believes the City is placing too much emphasis on housing, Among the other five candidates, only Schaffer and Letelier stated they would be against pay for City Councilors

The Ward 7 seat that Schaffer will be assuming midterm, was vacated by Bill Glassmire for medical reasons after a bicycle accident.

By Andy Thompson

Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com