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A city’s plea was heard.

The 20,000-word House Bill 5006, which passed on the 2025 Oregon Legislature’s final day, included 10 words that will improve life for the 2,000 residents of Rainier. Amid scores of allocations throughout the state, the budget bill provided $500,000 for Rainier to repair and replace failing sewer lines.

“The session was very positive for us,” Rainier City Administrator W. Scott Jorgensen told me. “We got funding for a priority project, and that’s going to go a long way towards helping us deal with our inflow and infiltration issues at the sewer plant.”

The situation was so severe that, in 2023, the state Department of Environmental Quality reported that the city’s sewage treatment plant had incurred more than 100 violations over a six-year period. The incidents occurred in part because stormwater seeped into sewage pipes, overloading the plant.

“Half a million, that’s huge for a city like this,” Jorgensen said. “The stakes are pretty high for Rainier, because if we don’t get the inflow and infiltration issues taken care of, we’re going to have to borrow tens of millions of dollars to upgrade our sewer plant for more capacity.”

Rainier is geographically closer to Washington’s state capital, Olympia, than to Salem. But Jorgensen’s travels to lobby Oregon legislators proved fruitful.

The Capital Construction Subcommittee, which handles such budget requests, is among the Legislature’s few panels with a Republican co-chair, Sen. Fred Girod of Silverton. Having held that role for 13 years, he told colleagues on June 27 that this year was one of the smoothest, despite the spending requests far outstripping the available dollars.

Jorgensen arranged meetings with Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego; the House co-chair, Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland; and most other committee members.

It helps that Jorgensen, a former Republican legislative aide, has established relationships with lawmakers, especially the committee members. He started lobbying this year’s legislators as soon as the session began. He credits Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, and others for championing the city’s cause.

Jorgensen’s advice to others: “Relationships are key – knowing the process, having your ‘ask’ pretty well pinned down with details, and being able to provide supporting documentation.”

Many requests, probably most, died in the Joint Ways & Means Committee. Community allocations that made it into the wide-ranging HB 5006 included:

— Prospect School District, backup power project, $63,559.

— Dundee, water line upgrade: $325,000.

— Culver, rerouting a sewer line, $379,705.

— Wheeler County, food pantry, $500,000.

— Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre, Baker Orpheum Theatre structural upgrades, $600,000.

— Columbia River Maritime Museum, Mariners Hall Exhibition and Education building, $700,000.

— Winston, sewer improvements, $946,700.

— Hermiston, Carnegie Library renovation, $1 million.

— Washington County courthouse replacement planning, $1.25 million.

— Jefferson County Fire District No. 1, building expansion and remodel, $1.9 million.

— High Desert Partnership, Center for Collaboration, $2,031,500.

— Morrow County courthouse project, up to $2.5 million.

— Union County Fair Association, water and wastewater improvements, $2,539,405.

— Portland Business Alliance Charitable Institute Inc., festivals in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, $3 million.

— Burns, repair of drainage and wastewater treatment infrastructure impacted by flooding,  $3 million.

— Deschutes County, Central Oregon Child Psychiatric Facility, $3,121,146.

— Mid-Willamette Family YMCA Veterans Housing, Albany Veterans Apartments Project, $3,402,760.

— Warm Springs Community Action Team, commissary project, $3,843,973.

— Columbia Memorial Hospital expansion, $6,078,256.

Those are among allocations listed in the first half of the 48-page bill. All await approval by Gov. Tina Kotek.