Make a U Turn in Oroville and it’ll cost you

By Gary DeVon • October 6, 2016 4:37 pm
Members of the Valley BMW Riders Club held their final campout of the year at Oroville’s Veterans Memorial Park the weekend of Oct. 7-9. Known as the “Last Chance Campout” there were riders and their bikes from both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who participated. There were not one, but two, bikes with sidecars, as well as a vintage 1953 fire engine red boxer ridden by an enthusiast from Okanogan. Gary DeVon/staff photos
Members of the Valley BMW Riders Club held their final campout of the year at Oroville’s Veterans Memorial Park the weekend of Oct. 7-9. Known as the “Last Chance Campout” there were riders and their bikes from both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who participated. There were not one, but two, bikes with sidecars, as well as a vintage 1953 fire engine red boxer ridden by an enthusiast from Okanogan. Gary DeVon/staff photos
Members of the Valley BMW Riders Club held their final campout of the year at Oroville’s Veterans Memorial Park the weekend of Oct. 7-9. Known as the “Last Chance Campout” there were riders and their bikes from both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who participated. There were not one, but two, bikes with sidecars, as well as a vintage 1953 fire engine red boxer ridden by an enthusiast from Okanogan. Gary DeVon/staff photos

More electrical hook-ups planned for Veterans Memorial

“I appreciate this very much…. we had another incident just this weekend, it’s a wonder we don’t have cars up on the sidewalk.”

Oroville City Councilman Walt Hart

OROVILLE – Oroville Police Chief Todd Hill presented a new ordinance banning U-Turns on Oroville streets at the city council’s Tuesday, Oct. 4 meeting.

Councilman Walt Hart had asked the police chief if there was some way of stopping people from making U-Turns, especially on Main Street, where he and his wife Vicki say they witness people dangerously make the turns nearly every day in front of their shop, Vicki’s Unique Boutique.

Hill, who patterned the ordinance after other Washington towns, said that a violation would carry a penalty of a $120 fee.

Councilman Tony Koepke made a motion to approve the new ordinance and it was seconded by Hart.

“I appreciate this very much…. we had another incident just this weekend, it’s a wonder we don’t have cars up on the sidewalk,” Hart said.

“We’re also having a problem down by the grade school,” added Koepke, who lives on the south end of town.

Later in the meeting, Chief Hill reported new Oroville police officer Gary Hirst was in his ninth week of 19 at the police academy.

“He is doing well at the academy and I expect him to graduate with no problems,” said Hill. “We are working for our next candidate and that will be our last officer.”

With one more officer the police force will be back up to a full compliment of five officers, according to Hill.

“Chris Patterson would like to work here again. He really misses it here and regrets having moved to another department,” said Hill.

Members of the Valley BMW Riders Club held their final campout of the year at Oroville’s Veterans Memorial Park the weekend of Oct. 7-9. Known as the “Last Chance Campout” there were riders and their bikes from both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who participated. There were not one, but two, bikes with sidecars, as well as a vintage 1953 fire engine red boxer ridden by an enthusiast from Okanogan.
Members of the Valley BMW Riders Club held their final campout of the year at Oroville’s Veterans Memorial Park the weekend of Oct. 7-9. Known as the “Last Chance Campout” there were riders and their bikes from both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who participated. There were not one, but two, bikes with sidecars, as well as a vintage 1953 fire engine red boxer ridden by an enthusiast from Okanogan.

In other business, the council approved renewing the contract with Camis Inc., the company the city uses to make reservations at Osoyoos Lake Veterans Memorial Park. It is the same company that the state used when Veterans Memorial was a state park.

“Last year they deployed a totally new system for us and we had the fewest complaints we have ever had with reservations,” said Rod Noel, head of the parks department.

In another park related matter, Noel asked for permission to contract for another Cultural Resource Assessment so that the park’s department could continue their program of adding electrical hook-ups at the camp sites. The city, which took over the park in 2010, had a similar study done in 2013 when they added 17 hook ups, according to Noel.

“They did that for $6,700, this one will be for $6,300 and will include 40 probe holes. I guess it will be less because they’ve already done the one study,” said Noel. “Of course we are not necessarily going to add the hook-ups in the entire study zone, but this will allow us to do more in the future probably without going back for another assessment.”

The price of adding additional electrical hook-ups at the park will be between $15,000 and $20,000, according to Noel. He adds that there will be a three and a half year payback from the extra revenue generated from the sites with hook-ups, which are $7 more per site, than those without.

“The funds to make the improvements are already in the budget. I think it is a worthwhile project as we have a return on our investment in a couple of years,” said Noel.

“Everyone wants additional services out at the park. We hear people say that it is unfair that some have electrical services while others don’t,” said Noel, adding that the park workers often find long extension cords stretched from sites without hook-ups to sites that have them.

Noel said revenues at the park were above what they were last year, adding that you never know what you’re going to see or hear at the park.

“We had someone say that FedEx was supposed to drop off a rented jet ski. Anything you can think of happens at that park,” he said. “I’m not sure if they ever got their jet ski.”

Noel also reported the city’s new water meter reading system is here and being installed.

“It all now goes through the cloud on the internet. We no longer have handheld units that have to be plugged in and unplugged to computers back at the office. Everyone thinks these will be better,” he said.

City Clerk JoAnn Denney said Lynn Chapman, president of Oroville Streetscape, said more than $500 in donations had been brought in to replace the white lights in the Oroville Christmas decorations. The white lights in the poinsettia decorations were not easily identifiable as the holiday flowers they were supposed to represent so a committee began replacing white bulbs with red and green bulbs last year.

“She is asking the city if they would give $1000 to replace more of the white lights,” said Denney.

Hart made a motion to donate the money to the project and it was seconded by Koepke and passed.

Steve Johnston, Airport Services Manager, said the city’s Dorothy Scott Airport was having a very busy month.

“We had a visit from Big World of Flight and we’ve had a lot of business jet flights in. Good to see businesses actively using it like that,” he said. “We get a lot of questions about where to get a rental car because a lot of business people would rather fly in to the airport and rent a car and drive into Canada rather than dealing with eAPIS.”