The battle of Bunker Hill it was not. But, just last week, the city of Independence experienced a virtual storming of the gates at its closed municipal parks and a volunteer mower brigade threatening to reclaim their civic turf. But, unlike “the course of human events” that followed in the history of the city’s namesake, this revolt was halted when a nonprofit organization intervened to reopen the city’s riverside events venue.
Historical analogies aside, this was a skirmish with reverberations for other small and mid-sized cities in Oregon that have been growing rapidly in the wake of the pandemic. As these cities add housing in pace with the state’s home-building goals, they may benefit in state aid to expand their water and sewer lines; but then they’re stuck with a bill they can no longer afford to provide ongoing services for their expanding populations.
For Independence, a city of 10,000 southwest of Salem, that bill came due when a new administration at City Hall decided it was time to end the practice of shuffling money from other funds to maintain the city’s parks and library. In June, the city council enacted a $20 monthly utility fee to set things straight and put funding for its parks and library on a more sustainable and, proponents argue, a more honest footing…