A 10% rate increase for solid waste collection was approved by the Keizer City Council at its Dec. 19 meeting. The increase will take effect in February. Two haulers serve the city—Loren’s Sanitation and Valley Recycling and Disposal, Inc. A rate increase approved in 2022 was not implemented.
Boundaries of the Northeast Keizer Neighborhood Association were expanded in a vote by the council. The change involves addition of an area that had been unrepresented by a neighborhood association and provides representation for all households east of River Road from the southern city limits to the northern boundary of the Greater Gubser Neighborhood Association.
The name of the association was changed to the Greater Northeast Keizer Neighborhood Association.
“We will be representing around 1,300 to 1,500 families to add to the 4,000-plus we are already serving,” Tammy Kunz, president of the association, told the council. “Once this is approved, we will then be fulfilling the needs and voices of 50 to 100 businesses as well.”
In other business, the council:
•Authorized Mayor Cathy Clark to enter into an Oregon public works emergency response cooperative assistance agreement. This would allow a city, in the event of an emergency, to seek assistance from the state. Public Works Director Bill Lawyer has noted that Keizer has not had such an emergency since the 1996 flood, when the department evacuated the western part of the city with assistance from the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers.
• Accepted the canvass of the Nov. 8 election results for the positions of mayor and council positions 4, 5 and 6, and prohibiting psilocybin-related businesses in the city.
Adam Riggs of Boy Scout Troop 121 opened the meeting by leading the Pledge of Allegiance.