This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE.  12/27/05

            2006 is just around the corner and generally a new year means a new beginning.

            As this year wended its way toward the exit, there was a session recently that hopefully can come up with some new answers for this community.

            It was an excellent effort, headed I think by the Chamber of Commerce, but it brought together many local people involved at one level or another in the development of this community.

            It included members of the Klamath Falls City Council, the County Board of Commissioners, as well as individuals from areas like police, fire, planning commission and more.

            The main topic appeared to be growth.  All acknowledged that growth of the community is already occurring and that adequate planning should be in place to accommodate it.

            Fire officials, as well as the Basin Transit manager, stressed that new subdivisions should be aware of the need for good access to both the fire as well as transit needs.

            Most agreed that an attitude of “not in my backyard” has been and is a hindrance to some development proposals…and that growth is going to come whether we’re ready for it or not.

            Listening to the round table discussion…took me back a few years to another community wide effort called the 2002 mission.  A great deal of citizen effort went into a wide ranging area of future needs of the community.

            In the end, however, not too many of the suggestions ever became reality.  Some of the ideas that became reality were the establishment of a Community College.  A possible consolidation of city and county schools was studied and rejected.  The city and county fire departments were consolidated into one district.   However, any effort for districts for library and airport didn’t happen.

            A joint city-county planning department effort faded when the city elected not to locate with the county in the new county administration building.

            But…there are still things that can be done.   Both city and county should upgrade their condemnation ordinances to clean up entrances to the area.   

            A number of good things have happened in the interim.  The Youth Sports Park is an excellent example.  The naming of the Alameda bypass as Crater Lake Parkway is another good incident.  The Town Center project to revitalize this area is also another great improvement.

The developments along Washburn Way….the new location for Safeway and Ross stores are other good examples of progress.

            And there are others.

            But…I would agree with the round table speakers….the biggest issue facing the community in the next few years is growth….and how it can be controlled and where will it go.

            There is still much land available off the Foothills Boulevard that should be among the prime development areas.  Developments along the Orindale Draw highway…and in the area of Moore Hill are already on the drawing boards.  These both will create problems of traffic, but those are the kind of problems that come with growth.

            We should learn from the disaster that cities like Bend and Medford have and are suffering because they did not adequately plan for the future.  Let’s not let that happen to us.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.