Trades center will be among first projects following Chemeketa bond passage
Chemeketa Community College President Jessica Howard waited until a Thursday tally of ballots to get out the champagne.
By then, enough ballots from the college’s four-county service area had been counted for her to claim victory for Chemeketa’s tax renewal measure. It allows the college to borrow $140 million to fund construction and renovation projects, with the debt to be repaid through property taxes over the next 21 years.
It took Howard two attempts to sabre a champagne bottle open on video — a fitting metaphor after the college’s first effort to pass the bond measure failed in November.
While a handful of ballots arriving in the mail are still being counted, the college’s bond had 46,922 voters, 53%, as of Friday evening’s tally.
“We’re just incredibly excited,” Howard said in an interview.
The measure renews an existing tax of 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value — about $61 per year for the average Salem home.
It will pay for expansions and renovations of career and technical education spaces, as well as security and general improvements.
Howard said specific timelines for projects are yet to be determined, but the renovation of Building 7 on the Salem campus is one of the bond’s major projects and among the first to move forward, Howard said. The roughly $40 million project would include seismic upgrades and retrofitting the building into a community wellness center that could serve as a command post in case of a disaster.
It would also add space for physical fitness programs. It will receive $8 million from a state grant in addition to money from the tax measure.
A new trades center on the Salem campus would also be among the first projects, Howard said.
Expansions of the college’s programs to train emergency medical technicians and paramedics were among the bond features. Howard said construction efforts would add space to an existing program in Brooks and a new program in McMinnville. The college’s current paramedic training is typically full, she said.
Following the November defeat, Howard said the college’s leaders regrouped and focused on the message that the measure wouldn’t raise existing taxes and would support career programs.
“We really expanded our engagement with partners and had a lot more employees involved as well. It was a much more multilayered effort that leveraged relationships and partners and I think we made a stronger case for why this was important and stayed on message,” Howard said.
The measure had support from the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and a number of local businesses.
“The Salem Chamber is thankful our community invested in the shared commitment of workforce development,” CEO Tom Hoffert said in a statement last week. “This renewal will ensure that Chemeketa can expand their career and technical education (CTE) programs and educate our future business leaders and capable workforce.”
Marion County voters, who make up a majority of the college’s service area, favored the measure, as did those in Yamhill County. About 54% of voters in more conservative Polk County voted no, as did the handful of eligible voters in Linn County.
Turnout was low, as is typical in local elections, with about 26% of eligible Marion County voters casting a ballot as of Friday tallies.
It passed alongside a heftier ask from the city of Salem — a levy imposing a new tax to keep the city’s library staffed and open, alongside maintaining parks and Center 50+. Some supporters of the city measure had worried voters would reject both measures.
Three Chemeketa Community College Board of Education directors were also reelected Tuesday in unopposed races: Jackie Francke representing Zone 5, east Salem, Ken Hector representing Zone 4, east Marion County and Linn County, and Birgitte Ryslinge representing Zone 2, Yamhill County.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for over a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
