Astoria manager lists infrastructure, hiring and library renovation among six-month achievements

Lede: Astoria City Manager Spencer Spence told council on Aug. 18 that the city has completed or advanced several major projects during the past six months, including a $10 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade that is about 40% complete and a nearly finished Pipeline Road waterline replacement project.

Nut graf: Spence used a six-month report to map accomplishments across departments: public-works backbone projects, library renovation, park and riverfront improvements, a heavy hiring effort, and public-safety mutual-aid contributions. He included project costs, timelines and usage statistics to give the council context for operations and future work.

Body: Spence highlighted the wastewater treatment plant improvement project, a $10 million construction effort that began in April and is approximately 40% complete; the plant handles an average of 2 million gallons per day and up to 18 million gallons during winter runoff, he said. He described the project as rate-dependent and estimated another year to finish.

The Pipeline Road Waterline Resilience Project, which replaced about a mile of main transmission line feeding the city—s two reservoirs, is about 90—5% complete, Spence said. He noted that Astoria delivers about 2 million gallons of water per day on average and about 4 million gallons on peak days.

On the library renovation, Spence said the project remains on time and on budget; the city has added roughly 5,000 new books and expects to reopen the renovated library in October. The library renovation is a roughly $11 million project that relocated the library to the former Robius Building, he said.

Parks and public amenities: Riverwalk lights were completed on the west end (a $600,000 project with about 71% state grant support) and now illuminate from the trolley barn to Fifth Street. The aquatics center reports about 58,000 visits annually; independent review showed the lifeguard program meets professional standards.

Staffing and hiring: Spence said human-resources processed 31 recruitments in six months, received more than 600 candidate responses, and the city hired 41 new employees; he reported a workforce of about 116 full-time employees.

Other program numbers: The community-development department processed 231 permits in the first six months, had about 420 applications under review and performed 484 inspections. Spence cited a housing-inventory collaboration with Clatsop County identifying about 275 acres for potential housing and $140 million in supporting infrastructure needs.

Ending: Spence closed by thanking staff across departments for the sustained workload and said the council and public would be briefed further in upcoming work sessions and site visits.