Community Services & Parks Closure FAQ

Understanding Current Park and Community Service Closures

We recognize the impact these park closures will have on the community and do not take this step lightly

Parks are an important part of daily life in Independence. Losing access to neighborhood parks has affected families, children, and the community as a whole.  The closures were not a decision the city took lightly. For four years the city has been making cuts and spending reserves to delay this crisis.  There is simply not enough ongoing revenue to sustain all of the services the community has historically relied on, and the city’s reserves are now too low to provide a cushion until the referendum is decided.  

City Service Closure Information

The City of Independence is beginning temporary service and facility closures following changes to the funding available for Parks, Library, and Museum services.

The City’s adopted FY 2026–27 budget includes revenue from the Community Services & Parks Fee to fund the continued operation of these services. A referendum petition regarding the ordinance establishing the fee has qualified the matter for the November election. While the referendum process is underway, the City cannot collect the fee.

Because the adopted budget relies on this revenue to support Parks, Library, and Museum operations, and does not have sufficient reserves to bridge the funding gap until the election. 

This page is intended to provide factual information about current closures, affected services, and what residents can expect in the coming months. It is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to advocate for or against any ballot measure.

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Frequently Asked Questions
What’s Closing
Community Services & Parks Fee

What’s Closing?

Status updated August 24, 2026

  • Parks

    Closing / Closure in Progress

  • Heritage Museum

    Status pending

  • Public Library

    Currently Open

Closure Details

Park closure information will appear here. Add a Group block with the CSS class cim-src-parks.

Status: Riverview Park Open / Other Parks Remain Closed [yellow]

Updated: August 27, 2026

Current Park Information

Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park are temporarily OPEN.
Riverview Park and the adjacent Independence Landing Park have temporarily reopened at pre-closure service levels thanks to a grant from Friends of Community Parks. The temporary reopening will continue through December 31, 2026.

Reservations are available at these two parks.
Previously scheduled events and reservations at Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park may continue as planned. New reservations may also be made for available dates through December 31, 2026.

All other City of Independence parks remain closed.
Other City parks and park facilities will remain closed to public access while the matter of the referendum is pending. Please follow posted closure signs and barriers at closed locations.

Friends of Community Parks

The temporary reopening of Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park is being supported through a grant awarded to the City by Friends of Community Parks.

For additional information about Friends of Community Parks and the grant, please visit their website.

Learn More About Friends of Community Parks →

Status: Closed beginning August 26, 2026

Heritage Museum Closure Information

Beginning August 26, 2026, the Independence Heritage Museum will be closed to the public until further notice due to insufficient funding.

Although the museum building will not be open to visitors, the museum collection will continue to be cared for and maintained in secure, controlled storage during the closure.

Updates regarding the museum will be shared as additional information becomes available.

For questions regarding the Heritage Museum or its collection, please contact orheritage@ci.independence.or.us .

Status: Open at this time

Independence Public Library Information

The Independence Public Library remains open at this time.

Unlike other City facilities, Oregon law requires the City to complete a specific public process before a public library may be closed or support withdrawn. This process includes holding at least two public hearings, at least 90 days apart.

The first public hearing was held on August 11, 2026. The second public hearing is scheduled for November 10, 2026.

The Library will remain open while the City completes the required process. Additional information regarding Library services will be provided as it becomes available.

Why Are Services Being Closed?

The FY 2026–27 City budget was adopted on June 9, 2026. The budget includes revenue from the Community Services & Parks Fee to support ongoing Library, Museum, and Parks operations.

The ordinance establishing the fee was adopted by the City Council on June 23, 2026.

A referendum petition was subsequently filed regarding the ordinance. While the referendum is pending, the fee cannot be collected. Because that revenue was included in the adopted budget to fund these services, the City must reduce expenditures while the matter is unresolved.

The City developed an operational closure process to address the financial, legal, contractual, public safety, facility, and other requirements associated with reducing or closing these services.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question? We’ve compiled answers to some of the most common questions about closures to city services.

What Happens Next?

The Community Services & Parks Fee remains on hold and is not being collected.

The FY 2026-27 budget earmarked the revenue received from the Community Services & Parks Fee to pay for the operations of the city’s Parks, Museum, and Library.

Because fee collections are suspended during the referendum process, current General Fund revenues support a lower expenditure baseline. City Council approved staff recommendations to align service levels with existing revenues, beginning with scheduled park access changes starting the week of August 24.

The Museum and Library require additional steps, and Oregon law requires a formal process before a municipal library can be abolished.

Collection of the Community Services & Parks Fee is suspended during the referendum process. As a result, General Fund expenditures operate under current baseline revenues. City Council accepted staff recommendations to align operational spending with active revenue sources.

With the loss of fee revenue and insufficient reserves to fill the gap, the museum and city parks were closed.  Thanks to a generous grant from Friends of Community Parks, Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park were re-opened on August 27, 2026. 

All other parks remain closed.  State Statute requires a lengthy notice period before closing a library, so the Library will remain open until November 10, 2026.

Funding to reopen Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park was provided by a grant from Friends of Community Parks. 

The organization exists to support public parks in Independence and Monmouth. 

For more information, you can visit their website Friends of Community Parks

The city will begin restricting normal recreational access to affected parks.

That may include barriers, signs, restroom closures, playground restrictions, and closure of some facilities.

The boat ramp will remain accessible because emergency responders requested that it remain open. It is one of the few river access points available for emergency response.

The City will continue the minimum work needed to ensure safety and protect public property.

While the Friends of Community Parks (FCP) grant provides important support, the available funding is not enough to operate Independence’s entire park system.

The limited funding is being focused on Riverview Park and Independence Landing Park, two of the City’s most frequently used park areas.

Their location also provides continued access to the riverfront and downtown area, benefiting residents, visitors, and nearby businesses.

Each service has different requirements.

Parks will begin closing the week of August 24.

The Museum has collections, contracts, property, and storage issues to address.

The library must go through a formal process required by Oregon law.

Closing some operations sooner preserves money needed to operate the library during that process.

The city still owns the property and must address serious safety and property issues. Maintenance will be reduced to what is needed to protect public safety, infrastructure, and city property.

The Museum property is currently for sale, and negotiations with a potential buyer are underway.

If the sale is completed, the Museum Director will coordinate the inventory, packing, and movement of the collection.

The building also has outstanding debt. The city must pay that debt and sale costs before it receives the remaining proceeds.

The City Council will decide how to use any remaining money.

They must be carefully inventoried and handled according to ownership, donor, loan, grant, and preservation requirements.

Museum staff will oversee that process.

More information will be provided as the collection and moving plans are completed.

Oregon law requires a formal process before a municipal library can be abolished.

The library must continue operating through portions of that process.

Staff must also coordinate with the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) and address books, patron accounts, contracts, technology, records, and other obligations.

Dates and service changes will be announced as they are confirmed.

They must first be inventoried and reviewed for ownership, CCRLS requirements, grants, and other restrictions.

Only then can the city determine what to transfer, return, donate, sell, or otherwise handle.

The city is working with CCRLS to determine what happens to patron accounts, holds, borrowed materials, electronic resources, and reciprocal borrowing.

We will update this information as additional details become available.

With the re-opening of Riverview Park, previously scheduled events and reservations may still be held, and new reservations can be made for dates through December 31, 2026. 

Reservations in other city parks have been canceled and reservation fees refunded. 

If you have made a reservation in a city park that is now closed and are unsure of your reservation’s status, please contact Gizell Camero at camero.gizell@ci.independence.or.us 503-837-1181

HR and Finance are reviewing each affected position.

The city must follow employment law, personnel policies, benefit requirements, and applicable notice requirements.

Some employees may remain temporarily to complete closure work such as inventories, records, packing, and securing city property.

The city will provide affected employees with information directly.

Not by themselves.

Volunteers are valuable, but the city remains responsible for public safety, insurance, contracts, records, buildings, collections, equipment, and legal requirements.

Those responsibilities require funding and professional oversight.

If voters approve the measure, Ordinance 1639 takes effect and authorizes the Community Services & Parks Fee. If voters reject the measure, Ordinance 1639 does not take effect, and services will continue to be funded through existing General Fund revenues.

How We Got Here

The structural shortfall developed over multiple years. Before 2022, the General Fund relied on annual transfers and loans from other city funds to cover ongoing operating costs, which temporarily offset the General Fund deficit.

In 2022, the city began phasing out interfund transfers to reflect true department operating costs. In a subsequent review, S&P Global Ratings noted that the city had eliminated interfund transfer practices that had previously offset the General Fund deficit.

A structural deficit occurs when recurring operational expenditures exceed recurring operational revenues each year.

Since at least 2022, the city has reduced staffing and services. The city has eliminated or left 11 positions unfilled. Even with those reductions, the General Fund still has a structural deficit.

Because other city funds covered the shortage.

Before 2022, the city balanced annual operating gaps with transfers from Water, Sewer, Stormwater, and Transportation funds. S&P Global Ratings noted in a subsequent financial review that phasing out these transfers reflected the full extent of the General Fund structural shortfall.

Continuing interfund transfers allocate Water, Sewer, Stormwater, and Transportation funds away from capital infrastructure projects and utility operations. Water, Sewer, Stormwater, and Transportation funds are budgeted for system maintenance, state regulatory compliance, and capital infrastructure needs.

In effect, yes.

Before FY 2022–23, General Fund operational expenses, including the Library, Museum, and Parks, were partly supported through interfund transfers and loans from other funds. The Community Services & Parks Fee was enacted as a standalone revenue source designated specifically for those services without relying on interfund transfers.

Yes. The city’s financial practices and General Fund structure have been evaluated through multiple independent reviews:

Fiscal Recovery Plan: Prepared by Contract Finance Director Rob Moody, CPA, outlining structural deficit causes and recovery options.

Federal Technical Assistance: Completed through HUD’s Distressed Cities and Persistent Poverty Technical Assistance Program, which assessed municipal accounting practices and long-term structural shortfalls.

Credit Rating Review: S&P Global Ratings completed an independent review evaluating the city’s transition away from interfund transfers and its updated fiscal practices.

These separate reviews consistently identified long-standing structural gaps between recurring General Fund revenues and recurring expenses.

Why Can’t the City Use Other Money?

The General Fund pays for many everyday city services, including Police, Library, Museum, Parks, and Economic Development.

Its largest outside source of income is property taxes. Other income includes state-shared funds, franchise fees, licenses, permits, service charges, and the Public Safety Fee.

They pay for specific infrastructure and services.

When residents pay their water or sewer bills, those dollars support those systems. Stormwater fees support the drainage system.

Transportation receives gas-tax money that flows through the State and can be used only for transportation purposes.

Having money in one of these funds does not mean the city has extra General Fund money.

Water, Sewer, Stormwater, and Transportation Funds come from utility rates, dedicated fees, and other funding sources. By law, these funds must be used to operate, maintain, and upgrade those specific infrastructure systems.

Reverting to interfund transfers would reduce the capital available for necessary infrastructure operations and long-term capital projects, including:

Sewer System Maintenance: Meeting Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) compliance standards and executing required system repairs.

Water Rights & Treatment Infrastructure: Developing new water treatment facility and putting senior water rights to beneficial use to support long-term municipal demand.

Diverting Water, Sewer, Stormwater, and Transportation Funds to General Fund operations can delay planned system maintenance and capital improvements required for these utility systems

No. Revenues in the Water Fund and Sewer Fund are dedicated restricted assets budgeted specifically for system maintenance, state regulatory compliance, and projects identified in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan.

The city used contingency funds to maintain operations. At the same time, it conducted financial reviews, evaluated asset sales, pursued grant options, and received recommendations from an advisory committee on long-term funding models. The advisory committee ultimately recommended the Community Services & Parks Fee.

Reserve funds are non-recurring resources intended for emergencies, cash-flow management, and unexpected revenue fluctuations. Because the General Fund structural deficit represents an ongoing, annual gap between recurring costs and recurring revenues, using one-time reserves would only temporarily postpone spending reductions without eliminating the structural deficit.

Once reserve balances are depleted, the city would still face the underlying operating shortfall while also losing its financial buffer for emergencies.

Yes.

Since 2022, the city has eliminated or left 11 positions unfilled. The city has reduced library and museum staffing and hours, and other departments have also lost staff and capacity.

The city has also delayed purchases, reduced expenses, and left positions vacant.

Further reductions now mean reducing services.

Many city positions are funded across multiple funds, including Water, Sewer, Building, Transportation, and other city operations. Eliminating a position reduces General Fund expenditure only by the proportion allocated to the General Fund. Eliminating shared staff positions would yield minimal General Fund savings while affecting the city’s ability to maintain essential services.

The city is selling property. But the city can only sell property once.

Asset sales generate one-time, non-recurring revenue. While those proceeds can reduce existing debt or build reserves, they cannot fund recurring annual operational expenses.

Because some employees serve several city operations.

The IT Director is a good example. IT supports Police, Water, Sewer, Streets, Finance, Community Development, and other departments.

Each fund pays its share of the employee’s cost.

For example, if an employee earns $125,000 but only part of that employee’s work supports the General Fund, only that portion of the salary is paid by the General Fund.

Splitting the cost does not increase the employee’s salary. It simply makes each fund pay for the work it receives.

Legal counsel is required across all municipal operations, including contracts, grants, ordinances, employment, public records, land use, and infrastructure projects.

Previously, the city contracted with external law firms for these services on an hourly basis. The adopted budget transitioned routine legal work from external hourly billing to an in-house position.

Because the City Attorney provides legal services across multiple city operations (such as Water, Sewer, Transportation, and Building), the city divides personnel costs among the funds receiving those services, rather than bearing them entirely in the General Fund.

A significant amount of communities in Oregon uses some kind of fee to provide balanced and consistent funding beyond the limitations of current property tax assessments.

This Page Will Be Updated

Closure dates and service availability may change as the City works through the operational requirements associated with these closures. Please check this page for the latest information regarding parks, the Independence Public Library, and the Heritage Museum.

Still Have Questions?

We understand that City finances can be complex, and you may have questions that aren’t answered on this page.

City staff are happy to provide additional information, explain the budget process, or direct you to the appropriate resources.

Contact Us

Phone: 503-838-1212

Email: communications@ci.independence.or.us

Visit Us: 555 S. Main St.
Independence OR. 97351

Hours: Monday – Thursday
7:30 am – 5:30 pm

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