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Chemeketa officials, local business leaders urge Yamhill County support for bond renewal on May ballot
Summary
Chemeketa Community College officials and the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce told the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners they support a May bond renewal that would not increase property tax rates and would expand regional workforce training at the Yamhill Valley Campus.
Chemeketa Community College President Jessica Howard told the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners on March 13 that the college will ask voters to approve a bond renewal on the May ballot and that the measure would not raise property tax rates.
“40% of those who voted thought that this was a new tax,” Jessica Howard said, summarizing a post-election survey after a November bond attempt failed. She said the college will make clearer this time that the proposal is a renewal and “would not raise property tax rates at all.”
Howard said the bond would fund workforce training at Chemeketa’s Yamhill Valley Campus (YVC), expand emergency medical services training locally and advance pathways from early childhood education certificates into a bachelor’s degree to meet Head Start staffing requirements. “Bringing EMS training to YVC will provide increased access to life saving career pathways for students in the region,” she said.
John Olsen, president and CEO of the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce, addressed the board in support of the bond and urged the commissioners to publicly back the measure. “Chemeketa’s Yamhill Valley campus is a critical resource providing students with the education, skills, and job training they need to secure living wage jobs,” Olsen said. He called the bond “an investment in Yamhill County’s future” and emphasized local employers’ dependence on Chemeketa graduates for health care, manufacturing and other industries.
The presenters said the measure is a renewal of an existing tax rate, not a new levy, and that the college will emphasize that fact in outreach. Howard described planned uses including expanded EMS training, enhancements to early childhood education pathways and hospitality and tourism workforce training in partnership with the City of McMinnville.
No formal board action on the bond measure was recorded during the March 13 meeting. Several commissioners and staff acknowledged receipt of the presenters’ materials and public comment; no motion or vote endorsing the bond was recorded on the meeting agenda or in the transcript excerpt.
