With three council seats up for election in November, Hines residents will have numerous candidates to choose from. A total of seven candidates have filed for the positions.

At the Hines Common Council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 28, it was announced that Gary Miller and incumbent Diana Rapaport are running for Position 4; Hilda Allison, Laine Lebrecque, and Marsallai Quick are running for Position 5; and the race for Position 6 will be between Duane Hutchins and Johnny Mims.

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Dennis Lyon with Utility Service Partners (USP) attended the meeting to talk to the council about the service line program USP administers to communities across the nation. Lyon said the USP service line program is the only one endorsed by the National League of Cities (NLC), the League of Oregon Cities, and other state and regional government entities.

In his opening comments, Lyon said that Harris Poll results showed that 80 percent of adult respondents strongly or somewhat agree with the statement that, “It should be up to local community governments to educate them as to what their responsibilities are for the portion of water and sewer lines that are on their property.”

He explained that meant if something goes wrong with a portion of the service line, the city doesn’t pay for repairs, the utility doesn’t pay for it, and most times homeowner insurance doesn’t pay for it. He noted that many residents don’t realize they are responsible for a portion of the service lines until something bad happens.

Lyon said USP has been offering the service line program for about 15 years and received the NLC endorsement in 2010.

“What our program is ultimately designed to do is address the public policy issue of aging underground utility infrastructure,” Lyon said. He added that the public side of addressing the problem does a good job, but the private side gets forgotten in the process.

“Most homeowners don’t even think about those lines or don’t even know it’s their responsibility until something happens with them, so our program addresses that,” Lyon stated.

USP administers the program so there is no cost to the city, no public funds are used, and there is an ongoing revenue stream component available to the city.

Lyon said the program includes an awareness campaign to educate homeowners as their responsibilities about service lines, and offers them voluntary opt-in protection they can participate in.

For those that decide to participate in the program, they transfer the risk of the lines over to USP. When a homeowner has an issue, they have to make just one phone call to USP, and they will then dispatch a contractor to fix the problem. Local contractors are used whenever available.

The USP program would cover the portion of the water and sewer lines that are not maintained by the city. For a water line, that would be from the water meter to the house, and for sewer, it would be from the main line to the house. The coverage includes breaks, leaks, clogs, frozen pipes, and other problems.

The homeowner gets up to $8,500 per incident, with no service fees, no deductible, and no paperwork. There are no long-term contracts, the program is on a month-to-month basis, and customers can opt out at any time. There are no pre-home inspections, but there is a 30-day waiting period for the program to go into effect, and an unlimited number of service calls.

Lyon said there are three programs offered: one to cover the water lines, one to cover sewer lines, and the third to cover “inside the home” lines. Homeowners can sign up for one, two, or all three coverages, and may change their coverages at any time. The in-home coverage covers up to $3,000 per incident.

The cost for the water line coverage is $5.75 per month, sewer line coverage is $7.75 per month, and in-home coverage is $9.99 per month. A portion of the fee is also returned to the city that will go into a dedicated fund, such as helping out low-income residents.

Lyon stated that the policy with the contractors is that after a homeowner calls, they are to contact the homeowner within one hour, and to be on-site within 24 hours.

The council voted to enter into an agreement with USP to have them offer the coverage in the city, so Hines residents should be receiving more information about the program in the mail.

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Becki Cunningham was in attendance to ask the council for a donation to Rimrock Recycling so it can pay for a truck to take material to market.

Cunningham told the council it costs $600 for the truck, and because of unforeseen circumstances, including recent tariffs imposed, Rimrock doesn’t have the funds at this time. She was hoping the two cites would share the cost, and that would get them through another month or so.

Cunningham said it is a short-term fix, and they are working with the county and state on a long-term fix for the nonprofit.

Mayor Nikki Morgan explained the city’s donation fund is generally used for youth and community groups, and $300 is a “big chunk” of the city’s donation fund.

Hines Fire Chief Bob Spence offered to give the money from his department to help Rimrock out.

The council then approved a motion to donate $300 to Rimrock.

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In other business:

• Chief Spence said the good news was there was very little fire activity recently, but the department had responded to several fatal vehicle crashes. He noted that 10 people had died in four crashes in recent days, and there was another bad crash on Monday, Aug. 27;

• Hines Police Chief Ryan DeLange was unable to attend the meeting, so City Administrator Judy Erwin read his report to the council. DeLange reported there has been a number of vehicles broken into recently and reminded residents to take valuables out of their vehicles and keep vehicles locked. DeLange also reported they have been cracking down on speed violations, stopping 77 vehicles and citing 27 in the past 20 days;

• the council approved two requests from Erwin. The first being to close city hall at noon on Friday, Sept. 7, and the second to spend $1,500 for the codification and digitalization of the comprehensive plan and city codes;

• Erwin reported that Boomer’s Place in Hines could be opening soon as they were just waiting for a couple final inspections. She added that the former mill office has been purchased and the owners plan to historically restore  the building and open a bed and breakfast;

• the council approved a draft agreement with Anderson Perry for engineering services for the water improvement project, and also selected Anderson Perry as the city engineer;

• the council approved livestock permits for Rhonda Purdy and Jon Morgan.

The next council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, at city hall.