PENDLETON — Town of Pendleton gave its initial approval to the creation of a new full-time position, community development coordinator, a position that would be in charge of grant applications for the town — as well as for two other Pendleton organizations — among other responsibilities.
The two organizations that would share the new employee — and whose leaders say they eagerly anticipate the new hire — are Main Street Pendleton, a non-profit whose goal it is “to encourage revitalization and restoration in downtown Pendleton,” and Pendleton Business Association.
“This is kind of a situation where we get to be an incubator for Main Street,” Town Council President Marissa Skaggs said during the regular town council meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9. “Main Street needs to have a staff person in order to qualify for grants. PBA could use a staff person also. So we get to be an incubator and help out.”
The position is being created through an amendment to the town’s 2023 Wage and Salary Ordinance, and the council passed the amendment’s first reading unanimously at the meeting. The amendment must pass a second reading at a future council meeting to be official.
The position as proposed is set to report to town Planning Director Hannahrose Urbanski and has a set annual salary of $67,184. The town would pay $47,184 of that cost, and the other groups would pay $10,000 each.
Pendleton town manager Scott Reske said the town has discussed the position with the two organizations for several months, at the same time the two groups have been working on a bilateral alliance based on mutual interests.
The town has long worked closely with both groups, and all three entities would benefit from the new position, Reske said.
“Pendleton is very dependent on Main Street, Main Street is dependent on Pendleton,” he said. “Same thing with the PBA.
“The solution that came about is that the town would go ahead and hire somebody with the main focus of doing work for the town as far as grants, and then also, under contract — separate contracts, one with PBA, one with Main (Street) — and then they would pay us, and then that person would be their staff person.
“Each entity didn’t quite have enough work for one full person, but we have enough if we collect, put all three together.”
The position would have other “community development” responsibilities, Reske said, such as promotion of the town and promotion of utilities.
Before hiring someone, the town, PBA and Main Street would have to “come to a consensus on the job description, and then from that we’ll have a scope of services that the town will have for PBA, a scope of services that’ll be provided for Main Street, and then we’ll have a contract with each.
“We didn’t want that person to feel they had three bosses,” Reske said.
Town councilman Steve Denny asked Reske if he thought there would be enough work for a full-time position.
“I feel like it’s a 60-hour-a-week job, and they have to figure out how to do it in roughly 40 hours,” Reske said.
Following up on a comment — by Clerk-Treasurer Willie Boles, who said, “You get someone that’s a good grant writer they’ll pay for themselves” — Reske said, “That’s right. The first grant they write is to figure out how to cover our costs, the town’s costs.”
The cost for the position is dwarfed by the potential grant funds available, Reske later told The Times-Post.
The new employee and arrangement “will open a whole new world for us,” he said.
The town will be vying for millions of dollars of grant funds that it “normally wouldn’t go after or even be aware of,” Reske said.
While the town and Main Street overlap considerably in the area of grants, Reske said, the town and the PBA overlap largely in their goal of ensuring the right mix of businesses in town.
He said they’re in agreement that “our economic development should be focused on quality of life.”
Steve Schug, president of the Main Street Pendleton board, said on Monday that the new position would help in several ways: event organization, such as for 4th at The Falls, Fall Festival and Christmas in Pendleton; volunteer recruitment; data reporting; and grant writing.
“We’re really excited to bring somebody on board and get them plugged in,” Schug said.
He said the big-picture goal — wrapped up with adding the new hire and developing the alliance with PBA — is about “setting goals and objectives” to help the town manage the growth that is expected.
“We just want to be prepared for that … to maintain quality of place, we see that as a big strength of Pendleton,” Schug said. “We want Pendleton to grow the right way, and we think we need to be proactive in that endeavor, and not reactive.
“This position will be a big step in helping get us going.”
PBA board President Laura Shank said her group also wants to work to preserve Pendleton’s small-town feel — to “keep the things that make us special” — as the town grows, and also specifically as the PBA itself looks to expand.
“We are doing really deep changes,” Shank said, referring to her group’s possible transition to a Chamber of Commerce.
At press time, a member vote on whether to become a Chamber — which Shank said there’s been no opposition to — was set for Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The change to a Chamber would involve rewriting bylaws, increasing board size, adding committee chair positions, rebranding and more, Shank said.
The goal is to become “a high capacity” organization serving its members and the community, including helping to attract businesses that will help ensure “the quality of place that we are looking for.”
In that light, a new full-time employee would help all parties involved ramp up for growth, and will provide a central contact for people with questions, she said.
“That’s one place to call for a business that’s interested in coming to Pendleton,” Shank said.
A job description is expected to be complete before the end of the month, Reske said.
Reske said if all goes well, someone could be hired by the end of March.