Food Hub Now Funded: City Councilors approved final funding for the South Corvallis Food Hub Project at their March 20 meeting. On the meeting’s consent agenda was a vote to approve moving $50,000 dollars from one city account to another in order to fund the project – and that’s what the council did.
On December 19, 2022, the council approved a resolution to accept the $550,000 in grant funds from Benton County, however for the contract to be signed with the County and the funds to be released, $50,000 of matching funds needed to appropriated to the Food Hub Project budget, according to Kathryn Duvall, Economic Development and Climate Program Specialist.
“The residents of South Corvallis have long stated a desire for increased options for food access in their neighborhood,” said Duvall. “These funds will be used to hire a consultant to evaluate the local food system and determine the gaps and challenges in the current system. The funds will also be used for program development and project costs related to site selection and development.”
The resolution approved by the council on March 20 appropriated the matching funds, from the Economic Development Office’s recurring budget, in order to move forward with the long-awaited project.
Some readers may recall the $550,000 grant was initially awarded to the County in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan.
City Adopts Vote Count Changes: Also, at the Corvallis City Council meeting on March 20, the council unanimously approved changes to the city’s Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) rules in order to align with the updates Benton County made to their voting system.
One of those revisions defines continuing ballots and winning threshold and adds clarity to the way an automatic recount is determined and allows single-round batch elimination of RCV candidates that are mathematically unable to win the RCV contest, said City Recorder Alex Downing.
Several council members were confused as to why this ordinance had a sense of ‘urgency’ behind it. “In the ordinance itself it focuses on the promptness to get these rules implemented after the county had approved these changes. Now, we have a sense of urgency to get it in place to match with rules the county has put in place,” said Downing. .
Comment Corner: The City of Corvallis is hosting another Government Comment Corner, this one featuring Ward 9 Councilor Tony Cadena.
This event is open to the public to ask local leaders questions about current government issues.
It will take place at the Corvallis Benton County Public Library from 10:00 am to Noon, on
April 1.
By Jennifer Williams
