The backlash arrived immediately.
On Monday, the 10,000 residents of Independence, Oregon, woke up to all five of their city parks barricaded by chain link fences, with signs saying the parks were closed “due to insufficient funding.” Gone were the music and movies in the park and a popular farmers market.
Two days later, the city’s museum shuttered. The city also announced it would close its library, although state law prevents that from happening right away.
In this Willamette Valley town known for its historic downtown, riverfront parks and hop-growing heritage, the closures have driven a wedge through a close-knit community.
City officials say they had no choice but to take drastic action after voters rejected a 2024 operating levy and, more recently, referred a new utility fee intended to raise over $1 million annually for parks, the library and the museum to the November ballot. A deepening financial crisis, they say, has left Independence unable to sustain its basic services.
Some residents in turn say city leaders have taken their civic assets hostage to force voters to approve the $20 monthly fee on Election Day.
“Ours is a beautiful, walkable city with great restaurants, beautiful parks and people who look out for each other,” City Councilor Dawn Roden told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “But unfortunately, right now people are divided, neighbors are fighting with neighbors and it’s heartbreaking.”
Yearslong financial woes
The city’s financial crisis stretches back years. Officials blame rising costs, limits on property tax growth under Oregon’s tax system and the city’s past practice of using utility-fund transfers to support general operations. They also say they’ve already spent years eliminating staff positions, reducing library hours, selling city-owned property and making other service cuts.
In 2024, 60% of Independence voters rejected an operating levy that would have raised just over $1 million annually for the parks, library and museum.
The following year, the city convened a citizens committee that recommended adopting a dedicated fee for those services. In June, the Independence City Council approved the fee — nearly $20 per month on all utility customers.
Not everyone liked the idea.
A former city manager led the referendum effort, saying not everyone can afford to pay the fee and city voters should have been consulted.
“My purpose wasn’t to repeal or to approve it,” Greg Ellis, the Independence city manager from 2000 to 2010, said. “It was to let people have their say.”
The referendum effort qualified for the ballot earlier this month. Under Oregon law, that suspended the fee before the city had collected any money from it.
City leaders say the loss of the anticipated revenue created an immediate funding gap, leaving them with little choice but to immediately close parks and the museum, and to begin the process of shutting down the library while residents decide the fee’s fate this fall.
Community reacts
In coffee shops, community gatherings and online social media groups, residents expressed frustration and disbelief. Some said they would gladly pay more to preserve parks and other community services. Others argued they could not afford to pay and said the closures were excessive, intended to pressure voters ahead of the November election.
“Closing the parks and things seems like a manipulation strategy by the city,” wrote an anonymous poster in the town’s community Facebook group. “Almost like they know how much they mean to the people who live here, so if they close them they’ll get their taxes… seems like there are other ways to accomplish their goal that doesn’t include more taxes, or taking parks away from families.”
In an interview, Victoria Kruljac said many residents believe the parks are “being held hostage” by city staff who have declined to hear opposing views.
“They can’t get their way, so they do something drastic to really create havoc in the community,” said Kruljac, a retiree who has lived in Independence for 23 years and loves to take her three grandchildren to the park. “People are up in arms. And maybe that’s a good thing because now they will start paying attention to what’s happening.”
Delaney Osborn often takes the trolley from Monmouth to Independence’s Riverview Park with her 7- and 5‑year‑olds. Her kids love to wade in the Willamette and stop for ice cream at a downtown shop, she said. But earlier this week, while driving by the park, they noticed the chain link fence, she recounted on Friday.
“My oldest was like, ‘Well, maybe they’re gonna upgrade the park and put seesaws in it.’ I didn’t have the heart to tell him,” said Osborn, who is a Monmouth resident but said she’d gladly pay a fee to keep Independence parks open.
Roden, the city councilor, said the city should have looked at alternatives. That includes not hiring a full-time city attorney and partially closing parks rather than shuttering them altogether, she said.
“It’s pretty serious to close down the parks, especially since it was just a few years ago that we closed our pool,” said Roden. “We’re limiting the access for kids and families to get outside, socialize and meet with each other. I don’t think they fully understood how it was going to hurt people.”
City officials said they attempted to avoid the closures with previous cuts to staff and services and rejected suggestions that the closures were an attempt to influence the November vote.
“Because the city cannot collect the fee while it is stayed, the revenue that the adopted budget relies upon is not available to fund those services. That created an immediate funding gap and required the city to reduce services to the level it can currently afford,” city spokesperson Emmanuel Goicochea said via email. “The city is not asking residents to vote a particular way.”
What the future holds
Ultimately, the city said, Independence voters will decide whether to fund their parks, museum and library.
In the meantime, two of the parks temporarily reopened on Thursday thanks to a $30,000 grant from local non-profit Friends of Community Parks. The money was collected from community members during the annual July 4th Independence Days festival and fundraiser held at Riverview Park last month, the nonprofit said.
And on Friday, state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, unveiled a new legislative concept ahead of the 2027 legislative session aimed at protecting essential community spaces in Oregon’s smallest cities.
The proposal would create an emergency fund within Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, to offer one-time loans to communities with fewer than 20,000 residents facing parks, library and museum closures. The proposal aims to keep essential city services open as local governments stabilize their budgets.
“It’s unfortunate that a program like this doesn’t already exist,” Evans said. “Independence could have used it.”
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