The Clark County Council will again hear a proposal to charge property owners a few dollars a year to prop up a local agency that administers conservation programs.
On Tuesday, the council will hear a request from the Clark Conservation District to charge most Clark County property owners $5 per parcel per year. Landowners with property designated as forestland will pay $2.96 per landowner.
Zorah Oppenheimer, the district’s interim manager, said the fees would generate nearly $700,000 for the district. She said that money would help it leverage other grants for a total proposed budget of just over $1 million. She said that owners of forestland will pay less because of a quirk in state law.
The Clark Conservation District was created in 1942 during the Dust Bowl era to help farmers conserve soil. Since then, its turned to helping landowners comply with regulations, install conservation features on their land or provide technical assistance. The district’s services are nonregulatory and offered free of charge.
Grants that have sustained the Clark Conservation District have dried up, and the district has indicated that unless its finances are shored up it will be severely hobbled or will have to close.
There are 45 conservation districts in the state. Under state law, when a district files a proposed budget, the county’s legislative authority is required to hold a hearing on its adoption. The Clark County Council held a hearing last December on a similar set of fees intended to support the district but only received the support of Council Chair Marc Boldt, a former farmer.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” said Oppenheimer in anticipation of Tuesday’s hearing. “We have a lot going for us this year that we didn’t last year.”
She said that what’s different this time is that the county council now has a better idea of what the district does. She also pointed out that a county work group produced a report earlier this year that found the district benefits landowners and is well run. The report also found that the district will not be financially viable by the end of 2018 without a new funding source.
Oppenheimer said that local environmental and farm conservation group Friends of Clark County has circulated a petition that’s gathered over a thousand signatures in support of the district.
“There was pretty much an outpouring of support and a certain level of alarm that the conservation district may have to close its doors,” Sue Marshall, the group’s board president, said during the public comment period of last week’s council hearing.
However, property rights group Clark County Citizens United doesn’t support maintaining the district. The group posted on its Facebook that landowners can’t support any more fees or taxes and that the services of the district can be obtained elsewhere.
“Clark County Citizens United Inc. appreciates the past good work this agency has done, but, times have changed, and it is time to put the agency to bed,” reads the group’s statement. “We no longer need the Conservation District, and ask the Councilors to defund that program.”
Oppenheimer said that aside from herself, the district has one other staff member who is retiring.
“If everything continues as is, we have the budget for one staff person and that’s it,” she said.
She said the district could continue with one staff person on half-time for a while. But she said the district’s services would become extremely limited and the sole staff person would likely be overwhelmed with running the district, providing services and applying for grants.
“It’s not really tenable,” she said.
