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Oroville area property being reassessed
Welcome back students!
Gold mine one-quarter of taxable property valuation in district BY GARY A. DEVON MANAGING EDITOR
OROVILLE – The Oroville area is undergoing a new assessment by the Okanogan County Assessor’s office to determine property values within the school district for taxation purposes. “We have just started to appraise the properties in the Oroville School District. We are under the new annual assessment, but that doesn’t mean we Scott Furman reevaluate ever year, it just means that we look at different areas of the county each year to determine if values have gone up or down,” said Scott Furman, Okanogan County Assessor. “If we know an area has seen increases or decreases in market value we can take that into account at that time, but we must complete a total reevaluation of each area at least every six years,”
Students and parents line up in the Tonasket Elementary School office on the opening day of classes on Wednesday, Aug. 29. The hallways were filled with the sights and sounds of students arriving for their first day of school at Tonasket Elementary School last week. Students hop off the first bus to arrive at Tonasket Elementary School on the first day of the 2012 school year on Wednesday, Aug. 29. Breakfast is served at Tonasket Elementary School on the first day of classes last Wednesday.
Furman said The Oroville School District contains about 9,000 parcels and the appraisals will take about a year. These evaluations will take affect for property taxes for 2014, according to Furman. “The market is seeing some signs of life, but it is still too early to see if we are coming out of this recession,” the assessor said. “Everything else has pretty much held the line, but I expect we will see some increases in lakefront values.” Furman said he expects the values to increase within the Oroville School District in the future, but that the Kinross’ Buckhorn Gold Mine in Chesaw, which is within the district, will be closing June 30, 2015. “That affects the taxing district in the area, the mine accounts for 25 percent of the valuation. Of the $600 million in valuation in the Oroville School District, about $150,000 is from the gold mine,” he said. “Next year should be the high water mark for the mine, about $180 million, and it will start dropping and a tax shift occurs to the remaining property owners.” Furman said that school levy rates, which have remained stable for over a decade despite the loss of levy equalization, will start to increase, unless the district again qualifies for levy equalization dollars. SEE PROPERTY | PG. A3
Fourth graders learn to swim at Veranda Pool Poynter hired as new second grade teacher BY GARY A. DEVON MANAGING EDITOR
Brent Baker / staff photos
OROVILLE - Following the news Veranda Beach Resort’s homeowners association had raised several thousands of dollars for Oroville Elementary, Superintendent Steve Quick announced that the resort had offered the use of the pool for swimming lessons for fourth graders. “They had a big fund raiser with the goal of raising $5,000 to $6,000 to replace playground equipment and raised more like $15,000 to $16,000,” said Quick under “Good News and Announcements” at the Monday, Aug. 27 school board meeting. The actual amount raised was more than $20,000 (see related story page 3). “While we were talking they made an offer, they said why not use the pool for the fourth grade students to take les-
sons. We still need final approval from the members of the homeowners’ association,” said Quick, adding the district would have to provide instructors for the students. “If we can educate them to swim we might save some lives,” Quick said. “Or improve some lives,” said School Director Rocky DeVon. In addition, Quick announced that the district had worked out an agreement with the City of Oroville on building a new press box, which, like the old one, will be located on city property. The district will have to apply for the proper building permits and permits for work done in close proximity of the Similkameen River. “It won’t be happening now because football season is already starting, but will probably be ready in time for track season,” said Quick. The superintendent explained to the board that the district would not be offering season passes to athletic events.
SEE BOARD | PG. A3
Council deals with construction project issues ing firm, Varela and Associates, approved the company’s performance review. The city also had to approve interim financing of about $232,000 in the project management budget caused by additional expenses incurred by redesigning the Bonaparte Creek crossing as mandated by ECY. The street projects along Third, Fifth and Sixth avenues, however, will be delayed despite approval by the Transportation Improvement Board of the issues they wished addressed. Varela recommended that bidding for the project be delayed until spring as it would be unable to be completed before weather interfered. “I think the delays helped our timing because of the split of the project,” said mayor Patrick
Plumb. “Waiting until this fall has helped us work with the contractor immensely. I just had a sneaking suspicion that even though everything looked cool at first, that we’d be short because of some technicality. At least we didn’t find out at the end of the project instead of before it. I’m really pleased with Varela and DOE listening and having a meeting with us. So we’re moving forward.” Council member Jill Vugteveen said there were some lessons to be learned from the process. “When you apply for a grant, expect it to cost more than what you applied for because it always seems to cost more than they first expect,” she said. “The reasons are all justifiable. But it’s still frustrating.” “Shovel ready wasn’t as shov-
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TONASKET - The Tonasket City Council seemed to feel it was two steps forward, one step back with a number of city construction projects that have been in the works for more than a year. The hope was that construction would take place this summer and fall on the Bonaparte Creek Sewer Expansion and Whitcomb Avenue street projects, but it appeared that some if not all of those projects would be delayed to next year. On the positive side, the council awarded a $2.729 million bid to Strider Construction for the sewer and water expansion project. It was the lowest of five bids received, and the city’s engineer-
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el ready as we thought,”Plumb said.
More sewer stink Ron Martell, whose disagreement with the city over its mandate that he connect to the city sewer system ended with his closing his business and putting up his building for sale, returned to continue his discussion over his displeasure over the situation. He had been cut off after using up his three minutes of public comment at the previous meeting and was unhappy with how that had been done, as well as with comments on the mayor’s Facebook page by members of the community, including a Tonasket police officer.
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“How do you go out in the community?” he asked. “I have no other problems with anybody. How can you lie to council with the mayor present? What about a credibility issue? Where does this go down the road where people go down the road and start second guessing whether you’re getting pulled over, when the officer lied in these chambers?” After several minutes of further discussion, Plumb asked Martell what it was he wanted done. “What I’m asking you is what is the credibility of the officer that lied before you?” Martell asked. “Ron brought in copies of the Facebook page,” said council member Jill Vugteveen. “In there it went back and forth. I under-
stand it upset you. I didn’t take the comments that were made seriously, though I agree there was probably a degree of inappropriateness in the humor. “I don’t know that anyone lied in here. I think they felt that you portrayed the comments differently than they were intended when they were posted on the mayor’s Facebook page.” Further discussion failed to resolve issues about either the comments or the sewer hookup. In further discussion after Martell’s departure, Tonasket Police Chief Rob Burks said he had discussed the issues both with Martell and his officer. Vugteveen, in her council report later in the meeting, suggested the council formulate a policy on webpages and social media use.
INSIDE THIS EDITION Community 2-3 Valley Life 4 Letters & Opinions 5
Valley Life 6 Movies 6 Sports & Outdoors 7
Classifieds/Legals 8-9 Valley Life 10 Sports Preview B1-B8