Welcome to Monmouth Monthly a peek into the heart of the Willamette Valley. Each month we will bring you updates of the things happening in and around town brought to you by the people who helped make it happen. I am your host Sabra Jewell
Welcome back to Monmouth monthly. This is our third episode. And boy we have action packed guests this month we have four different folks talking about two different subjects. First of all, we are going to speak to three guests regarding volunteer appreciation month with us during the month of April. And because we are a city we depend heavily on our volunteers later on. We're also going to talk to Janet Chenard. She's the director of finance wanted to give her an opportunity to talk about working on the budget. But without further ado, let's welcome our first three guests. Right here today in studio I have Diane Ostrom. She is a Monmouth community member and a longtime and active volunteer a couple of our boards and conditions. We also have Barbara Cronin. She's the director of the Monmouth Senior Community Center here in Monmouth and Phyllis Bolman, who is a city recorder for the city of Monmouth. Welcome everybody. And so I just wanted to take an opportunity to get to know our guests a little bit because you have different backgrounds. We have folks that have lived here for a really long time folks that are relatively new to the community but have been doing the work that they do for a long time. So Diane, I'd like to start with you. How long have you been living in Monmouth?
Well, actually, I have relatives that came to Monmouth in the late 1880s. And my own great grandparents came in 1911 I was raised on a farm north of independence and I've lived my entire life in Polk County, except for five years teaching in the town of Brookings on the coast.
That is quite a long history. And I have to mention that Diane is here with us today because she is very special to the city of Monmouth she is currently holds the position of the longest active volunteer with the city. She has been volunteering for how many years
this is my 39th years serving on the Parks and Recreation board.
Wow, that is super cool. But we are so happy to have you here, Diane, and I can't wait to dig into some of your experiences, working alongside Parks and Rec Barbara and Phyllis to talk to you guys for a minute. Now, Barbara, you have been with the senior center for how long?
I've been the director of the moments in your community center for five years now. I prior to that had a long career in long term care, actually started volunteering at a retirement home close to my my house I before I had a car before I had a license, I could walk to it and volunteer. And then I got a job working in the kitchen and then later worked as an activities coordinator for assisted livings and memory cares for years prior to my time at the senior senator. I also have a volunteer background as well. One of the things that that spurred me into wanting to have a career that served other people was an experience I had serving to different terms in an AmeriCorps program called N triple C It's National Civilian Community Corps. Shout out to two other community members I know of Melissa Dr. Melissa cannon and Ramon Martinez that works for the city of independence. They both are alums from the same N triple C program as me so there's there's some strong leaders in the community that also have strong volunteer backgrounds as well. So that that was something that was two years of service that I did that that sparked a desire to continue serving people in my career.
Phyllis, let's talk about your service with the city. How long have you been with the city of Monmouth?
I've been with the city of Monmouth for 17 years as of Monday,
have you been doing the same role your entire time with the city city recorder work?
Yes, I did. Except I was working for the city straight out of college and worked for a year and a half at the police department as a dispatcher.
And how long have you lived in Monmouth for quite some time yourself almost
50 years this year. I came to the college and stayed I never left
until it's talked to me about you have a love for volunteering as well, right?
Yes, I volunteered on the downtown Task Force in 2000 that we had. And then I again volunteered this time in 2022 when we did the another downtown Task Force. I was on the planning commission in 2004. Before I was hired by the city this time, and I was also chairman of the NBA for five years because I own my own business in the past.
So Diane, you mentioned you've been a volunteer of the Parks Recreation board for quite some time. What other boards and commissions Do you happen to serve on our community groups?
Well, I have a real passion for the 4H program because growing up here and being involved in that youth organization added so much to my life and so I've continued to volunteer for many, many years with that. And so I lead to 4H clubs. I've been an officer for the county four h Leaders Association, I chair, horticulture at the county fair, and floriculture at the State Fair for the forage program and serve on the state awards committee. And I'm also the forage rep for Polk extension Citizens Advisory network. We can
also feel like you were a garden club member for quite some time, weren't you? Yes,
I continue. It's been also 39 years in the garden club. And I will be beginning serving my fourth time as president of that later this month. So it dovetails very nicely with being on the Parks and Recreation board. Because we have done so much for the parks, with our fundraising and all the dollars that we've contributed to park development and beautification in our city. I'm very proud to be part of that group.
It's interesting, I was looking up some facts about the garden club, it looks like y'all are about to celebrate your 60th anniversary as a club. And about 10 years ago, y'all had raised over $100,000 At that point for park improvements. So I can't even imagine what you've done in the 10 years since Do you happen to know dollar amount of an updated dollar amount?
No, but we will be getting that. That'd be interesting to look at other before next year, we celebrate 60 years.
That's incredible. Big plans for the 60th anniversary.
Yes.
Oh, I can't wait. She's she's making us wait for the information, y'all. She is not going to let it leak. Stay tuned.
I would like to add that they're the ones who plant the red, white and blue flowers at Main Street park every year before the Fourth of July.
Oh, yeah. That's very cool. What are some of the other things that the Garden Club is a part of that we may not know that they're doing around town? What are some things that they're responsible for?
Well, we have a plant sale, the first Saturday in May at the library, it coordinates with their book sale. And we have a green sale first week in December, which really helps people beautify their homes with fresh greens. And then those funds are used for items, you know, like plantings, benches. We did that gazebo at Main Street Park helped develop the arboretum at Madrona. Park and park developments to get them started for Moorpark and South Gate Park. So a lot of major projects over the years that we can point to with great pride.
And I think a lot of folks don't realize that those things are so volunteer driven, which I think leads me to the next point. I think Barbara and Phyllis you all can speak so so clearly to how important it is to have volunteerism, and how they really make the city run. Barbara, can you talk to me a little bit you have the Friends of the senior center and also a senior center board, and then myriad volunteers working your desk. Can you talk to me about how our Senior Community Center really is such a powerful part of our community because of the volunteer work that happens there?
Absolutely. I actually want to back up even further to the mid 80s. The way the Senior Community Center came to be is is a very volunteer driven, very grassroots background. The Monmouth senior citizens Club was meeting renting halls when they had large events and meeting people's homes off and on. And they approached the city of Monmouth and said, Hey, we want an actual brick and mortar Senior Center. We're willing to pony up the dough and build the building ourself through volunteer work and hiring. What they couldn't do themselves when the city of Monmouth donated the piece of land that our building is on currently, they opened up the doors in 1987. I believe it was completed and completely run by a volunteer board for a very long period of time I took over for someone Sue Thiel, who was there 28 years so a long, long standing director that helped a lot of that programming build from the ground up and the board was kind of like split into two factions. Later on. There's a nonprofit fundraising arm that's our friends of the Monmouth Senior Center, and they do a lot of the super fun events that community members look forward to. We have a first Saturday of every month pancake breakfast fundraiser. We have a soup and pie sale twice a year of Victorian tea, usually a holiday bazaar and other events Trash to Treasure craft supply sale and volunteers run and plan and put together all of those events. So for all of those really fun, community events that people look forward to every year that's completely volunteer run. We also have our senior advisory board which is one of the city's boards and commissions. And they look at the functions of the center itself programming and they act in an advisory capacity to me and to looking at overarching it issues that affect seniors in the community, I want to go a step further and also say that a lot of the programs that you find on our daily calendar, weekly, monthly calendar, most of those programs you see on the calendar are led by volunteers. So we're not paying to have instructors in all of those roles there. There are people that have said, Hey, we want this to happen in our Senior Community Center. And I'm willing to step up and make that happen. So that is just exceptional to me that we're able to offer as much as we're able to offer and have the robust programming that we're able to offer because of those volunteers. If you're just now
joining us, we are here today talking to Dianne Ostrom, Phyllis Bolman and Barbara Cronin, who were discussing volunteerism how it makes us city run and how important it is to get involved in what's going on in your community. And Phyllis, you, what is your role of boards and commissions? Do you keep those things organized and staffed and those folks and forum or tell me more about your role with that?
So I keep the boards and commissions organized at least so we know if there is a vacancy on a board or commission. And if we need to fill it I keep track of when people's terms expire and send them letters to let them know their terms up and if they would like to reapply. So I deal with all that just keeping all the ducks in a row for the boards and commissions
that what are some of the boards and commissions that we have and for the city. Can you tell me about those?
Yes, we have the arts and culture Commission, which right now is a very, very active commission that puts on the July 4 community art show did an a joint art show with the library in January of this year, and has a lot more things planned for the future, the historic commission or commission that was able to get the mural put up on the side of the building on PCL, to show an illustration of our history, Parks and Rec board. I think Diane has covered that Barbara Lynch and the senior Advisory Board, we also have the tree advisory board that we have to keep our standing as a Tree City USA, which we just found out we are Tree City USA again this year, the budget committee gets to help decide on the budget for the city. So that's a big one, the library board makes decisions for things at the library and programming. And they also have a friends group at the library Planning Commission is in gets to hear all of the land use stuff in the city. And then we have a Traffic Safety Commission that if someone has a complaint or things to stop shut, signs should go there, it goes to the Traffic Safety Commission, and they decide on what to do on that.
And because these have different term limits and different responsibilities, the best way to find out more about these is to go to our website. And you can also find applications and each of these boards and commissions. So you can apply right there because we would love to have folks participate. That's a lot of different kinds of groups that appeals to a lot of different kinds of skill sets. So there really is something for everybody out there if they want to be engaged in their community. Now, Phyllis, I think you've ran some numbers for us for volunteerism, how many did you run it for last year, like volunteer numbers for last year? Tell me about some of the numbers you
ran think this is fiscal year 2122. I ran the numbers for the boards and commissions for the council 4388 volunteer hours to help keep the city running.
That's pretty incredible. And we're not just talking about volunteers. These are active volunteers that these boards and commissions these are working boards and commissions very much So Diane, can you tell me about some of the things that you've worked on in parks and rec that stand out to you is exceptionally memorable as some of the things that y'all have done as a group?
Well, each year we try to tour all of the parks and see what what they look like and if the playground equipment is in good repair and and make suggestions if they need to replace plantings and then try to find the resources for doing that. And sometimes Garden Club does supply the plants. I think that probably the groundbreaking for the amphitheater was just seeing that come to fruition has enhanced the downtown so much. I think that was a real highlight for me. Of course I love that garden club has the gazebo in that park. And some of the smaller parks that we've helped develop. I used to live on Mar court. And so seeing that small park developed was a wonderful thing because my husband and I were very much into the plantings and actually getting our hands dirty to see that that Park was developed. And so those are all things that kind of stand out to me.
And I don't think I asked you what what made you decide to become so actively engaged in your community? Have you always been driven this way to serve in this capacity?
Well, I think if you have the time and the abilities that are needed in a particular place, then you should step up and make your commute No dia better place. And I also have met some incredible people serving alongside. And that's just been a real joy to me. And I just think that we want to have as our community be as livable as possible. And I do think it's, it's good for those that come after us to see us setting an example. And hopefully, they will then also take up their own roles in community development and service.
One of my questions for you, I think you've answered is Do you think that your work and your volunteerism has made a difference? I mean, based on what I've heard, I think it has, but do you look around and feel like your work has made a difference?
I love to walk through the parks, and see things that I've actually planted or things that have been funded with work that I have done for the green sail, especially because that is a big, big project. And so yes, but I would say that youth development and some of those things, actually gives me more pleasure, because when you can invest in the life of a young person, you are making a difference for years. And that's a real pleasure for me.
You know, I find that our volunteers are typically folks that don't look for appreciation. They don't look for a lot of thank yous, but I feel like that's super important. Phyllis, can you talk about ways that we show a volunteer appreciation.
So every two years, I do a volunteer recognition dessert, and make sure that we have real tablecloths, real napkins, real dishes, and plates and glasses, and we put some pretty wonderful desserts on those plates. And then we have all of our boards and commissions share with each other what they have done in the past year. I hope they go out of there feeling like we really appreciate them. It's not a lot. But it's something we hope that they understand how much we value them and the work that they do for the city
at the moment Senior Community Center during the week of volunteer Appreciation Week, which is April 16. Through the 22nd. We will often have a volunteer recognition event during that week. Last year, I also put up a board during the month of April, that allowed volunteers to talk about other volunteers at the center. And that was really well received. And it's something I plan on doing again, this month, people often don't want to talk about the work they're doing. But they'll happily talk about the person working right alongside next to them. So it gave them a chance to recognize all the good things that they're seeing and a chance to write down what they appreciated. And we're getting out of the volunteer experience. And going back to the numbers that Phyllis pulled together to put that in some terms, people can wrap their head around, I am the only city employee at the Monmouth Senior Community Center. And the volunteer hours we have in a given fiscal year equates to between four and four and a half full time employees at the center. So if it weren't for the people that we have working the front desk, providing those classes and programs, setting up all those big events, we would have a lot less to offer. So they are the reason why we are one of the focal senior centers in our area. Phyllis,
do you have any stories that come to mind about experiences you've had with volunteers that are particularly special that you'd like to share things people have done that have gone up, you know, so above and beyond the call of duty
American for the arts, arts and economic prosperity survey, and we have to collect 800 surveys in about a year's time. And they have stepped up to the plate and go above and beyond by attending events to collect surveys and they do not know how much they are so appreciated for doing that. It will help us to see how the arts helps our economy in the city of Monmouth because it's specific to the city of Monmouth we will get data from American for the arts and fle be able to use it to get grants and because of it.
So I guess the one thing I would like to ask is, you know why do I want to be a volunteer Ken Barber, do you want to talk about some of the benefits of volunteering?
Yes, I'd love to some of the benefits to volunteering. Diana already touched on when she was talking about why it's it's been something that's been a passion of hers for as long as it has been and you'll find that there are a lot of community members that have been volunteers for years. Because of these reasons. Volunteering connects you to other people in a time that we're in right now. Still readjusting from from being disconnected from people for so long. People are searching out volunteer opportunities because it creates that social connection, making new friends and contacts in the community strengthening relationships of other community members volunteering a lot of people don't know realize this or think about it when they're doing it. But volunteering, yeah, it makes you feel good. But that's because it actually does physically benefit your mind and body, it increases your self confidence it combats depression releases dopamine, and it helps you stay physically and socially active, right. So it keeps your body moving. And it keeps you connected to other people, which can have actually a really profound effect on your physical health, especially if you're 65. and older. I know we talked about younger people being involved too, but older adults, volunteering in the community is such an incredible way to stay connected socially to people around you, it can if you are a younger person, it can help advance your career, it can give you opportunities that you might not be paid to do but get it can build your skills in areas that you are passionate about that you didn't know you were passionate about till you try to enter volunteering setting. And ultimately, volunteering can just bring fun and fulfillment and purpose to your life in ways that you didn't realize,
I would like to add to Barbara's besides all those wonderful benefits, you can also make a difference in your community like Diane has illustrated with what she's done with the parks and the garden club. But there are other ways to make a difference, like the land use decisions on Planning Commission, the Budget Committee decisions, the historic commission, with the mural, I mean, each one of them has something, some way that you can contribute to your community and make it a better place.
I think that's the call of action here today. If folks feel inspired to be a part of the change they want to see, please reach out to the city of Monmouth there are opportunities abound for people to be a part of the great things that are growing right here in town. I want to thank my three guests again, before I let you guys go and we tap into the the wonderful world of finance. So thanks again to Dianne Oh strim, Barbara Cronin and Phyllis Bowman for joining me today and talking about volunteerism. I've learned a lot about some of the great things that we have going on. And I appreciate so much the work that three of you are doing to make it happen. So thank you very much for being on today.
Thank you, Sabra.
And we are back with our second section of guests. Today. I am excited to welcome Janet Chenard, who is the finance director for the city of Monmouth or at least will be for a little while longer. Before we send her off into retirement. Janet, welcome to Monmouth monthly.
Thank you, I'm excited to be here.
So tell me Janet, and this has always been a passion of yours. Because you know, Janet and I have worked with you for a while now and you are passionate about your job as is working in finance, or numbers or this kind of skill set always been something that spoken to you.
You know, when I was five, my father would hand me forms to fill out and he said, my girl, you are a bean counter. And so I actually rebelled against that I was going to be a lawyer. When I left high school, my plan was to be a lawyer. And then I took my first accounting class during my business degree and decided no, my father was right, I wanted to be an accountant, I thought my path was not destined to be that it turned out, I found a much better job in international finance, back in Ottawa, Canada. And so there I worked for a large bank, which was a Canadian Crown Corporation for countless years and traveled the world on business. And structured did structured financing for foreign borrowers of Canadian exports. And so foreign buyers, I should say, of Canadian exports. And that was fun. And I landed this job in municipal finance, which was not something I ever had any idea about back in Canada, I mean, they have towns and cities as well. But it was not something that, you know, I was aware of. And so I've been doing my level best to educate others about the wonderful opportunity there is to work in municipal finance. And one of the things that I have learned to love about it is just the broad spectrum of work that you can do and actually come. So just love budgeting that is my passion. It is a way of you know, helping the city, build a plan that is transparent to the community that they can work on to provide the very best services at the most effective and efficient cost and so, so long story, but gets us to where I am today, in that I do love working with the numbers. But you know, beyond that, I like telling the story behind the numbers.
Well, I know that we are lucky to have somebody as passionate as you as a part of our team because you are excellent at your job and we are certainly going to miss you when you retire. However, we were lucky enough to get you to do one more budget for us, Janet, before we sent you off. Yeah. Tell me about the budget process for a city you know, this seems like it's gotta be a huge undertaking.
Well, you know, it is it's an annual thing. So there are some things that are fairly repetitive. But the way that agenda really works is that it's about a six month process. We're of course reporting on how the city is doing all year long to our department has been then we're reporting to the City Council, and the community through quarterly report as well. But as soon as we have about six months and data, then we start to formulate the next year's budget is by formulate, I mean, department heads, and the city manager who is the city's budget officer by charter, all of us work together to put together the individual department and fund the budget on a proposed basis. And so we take into account all of the things that are going on, as far as costs, increasing costs, particularly right now personnel costs with with the high inflation, weight, impacting wages, and also impacting health care. public pensions, of course, are a notorious thing that that folks that are in the community don't really understand. So we tried to do our best to understand sort of what the drivers are behind that, as we develop our personnel budgets, which are within the general fund, which is our main fund that that manages the services that a lot of people are aware of, such as police library, Senior Center, municipal court, and then a lot of our administrative functions are all in the general fund. And so those ones are developed on the basis of where what kind of resources we have in the general fund, which are property taxes, primarily, that is our biggest revenue source. And then we have also franchise fees, and some in lieu taxes from utilities. So So those are kind of the big dollars that we use to try and ensure that we are able to provide the types of services that come within the general fund. Then our public works director and our Power Light director also managed several funds as our building official through our community development director. And all of those particular funds have their own revenue sources, whether they be rate paying or permits. And so those are the revenue sources that those department heads look at to try and understand what they will have available to perform the services that the community is seeking. So that's kind of the backbone of the proposed budget. And then once we've developed that, that takes close to three to four months to pull together into a document, which then is available to the public, usually about the end of April. And that will be the case this year. And that will be available at the local library. The Monmouth library will also be available at the University Library and will of course be on our website for viewing and a hardcopy will be available at the finance department, which is currently located at the power light facility. So that budget then that proposed budget is taken to a budget committee, which is comprised of the city council, seven members of city council and then seven local community members who are electors, they have to be residents of the city unable to vote on measures associated with a budget. And so we currently do have 14 people on our budget committee on the community, and they get a chance to hear the budget message this year, it will be on Tuesday, May 2, and that is at the regular Council time 6:30pm. And it will be at the senior center. And then they get a chance to hear questions from the community. And they have a chance to hear from their department heads about some of the accomplishments and the plans and the goals of the budget. And then they will deliberate and make a decision about whether or not to approve the budget and recommend it to city council that can take anywhere from two meetings to four meetings to possibly more but but our hope is that we've put enough information into the budget that really by the time they've had a chance to review it the Budget Committee is really comfortable with with staff plan, and any tweaks will be minor. However, you know, from a policy standpoint, they can ask a lot of questions and make sure that they are comfortable with the services being provided within a given set of resources. After that buy in the first meeting in June at Council. Usually we will bring the approved budget from the budget committee for to council and council will have a chance to weigh in further. They have a limited amount that they can change. It's up to 10% per fund. But typically, you know they've they've been involved in the whole budget committee process. So they typically don't change a lot from what has been already approved by the Budget Committee. And so that literally in a nutshell, is the process. But all along the way. Of course the community is is welcome to ask questions of me, the finance director or Marty this one the city manager or have any of the council members or department heads to ensure that they have an understanding of what we're doing with The budget at the end will produce once the budget is adopted and even more fully fleshed out budget document that has lots of pictures and graphs as well as verbiage to, to help be a very good communication piece. In fact, the Government Finance Officers Association has been kind enough to give us and I arrived, my second year, I submitted it for a GFO a award. And we have received that based on the transparency and communication and financial planning that is done through this documents. So it is it's a very open process. And I think a good process to ensure that we do have a balanced budget, which is a is a legal requirement under state law. And so but yet perform all the services that the community needs and wants. And
you mentioned that that community members can be directly influencing this process by being electors. Is that what you said?
Well, they as electors, they can, they can be part of the budget committee. And so we have seven members currently, but when their terms are up, we look for people to be involved. That way, they can also come to the meetings. So any of these meetings are all public meetings, open meetings, they're advertised and notice as required under state law, they may ask questions, they may put out proposals, you know, if they're introducing a proposal that cost a lot of money, we ask that they come up with an idea of where those resources come from. And then the Budget Committee and council can of course deliberate on those as can department heads. So So yes, it's open, right from the second, the proposed document comes forward at the end of April. And actually, even in January, when we have a kickoff meeting, if if a community member wants to communicate through their council member, they can approach their council member and say, here's something that you know, we really think is needed, and then the council can talk about it going forward and bring that meeting and say here's something we'd like you to look at department head as far as how practical and efficient it would be and where the resources would come from. And and we do take those types of things into consideration.
So you really are saying that a community voices is considered heard and accepted throughout the entire process. And there is room for a citizen to be involved in this. Absolutely. Well, Janet, I have to say, I appreciate the work that you do to keep the city moving in the direction it is to keep us all doing what's right and honoring our taxpaying constituents and giving them quality that's thoughtful and intentional. So we are we appreciate you. So Janet, last question for you. What are you most excited about when you think about the direction that Monmouth is moving?
Well, I would say there's a couple of things. And I'm super excited about the ways that we're expanding services by for example, building a new city hall. One of the highlights of my career with the city is how I've been able to help with refunding of bond issues or my net and put us in a better position where we're where we are leveraged. But we are leveraged in a positive way the markets have been favorable. And we have been able to reduce our interest costs on our MyNet bonds by almost $2 million total over the course of the five years I've been with the city. And we were able to get tremendously good rate better than we promised voters for our city hall bonds. And that will help put us in a very good place to build a beautiful city hall granted, you know, we have some supply chain and inflationary issues and design issues. But I think that having that new space available has got me really excited. I'm excited about the trolley service starting up and the grants that we've been able to use to set up that service. And so it's it's just a it's an ongoing pleasure. The people that I work with at the city are so smart and so good at their jobs and I just want the community to realize that they have gems in those people because they are looking out to try and always do something new different better, and help their community become a thriving so much
Janet for joining us. How long do we have you when do you officially retire? When is your?
Well it's a little bit in question but it will be mid to late June. I will not be here on June 30 is my promise to myself. I have planned in July.
Well, that was another episode of Monmouth monthly thank you so much for joining us. This month our guests were dying. Oh strim Barbara Cronin, Phyllis Bowman and Janet Renard. Next month we're going to be talking to Roxanne belts who's putting on the peacock festival. And we're also going to be talking to Suzanne Duffner to talk about work at the store commission. So we hope you will tune in as always, please rate review, subscribe, tell a friend and we look forward to speaking to you next time.
Thank you for joining us from Monmouth monthly My name is Sabra Jewell our music is catching up by chill steady and we recordat Indy Commons which is a co working community independence Oregon. Please find us wherever you find podcasts rate review, tell a friend and we will see you next month.
