Hillsboro City Administrator Larry Paine pauses by one of the the downtown signposts directing visitors to Main Street businesses. Paine says he has been looking up business owners since coming on board July 23 in an effort to get a better feel for the local business climate and to build a positive working relationship between business and city government. Don Ratzlaff. Free Press. Click image to enlarge

Larry Paine has hit the ground running since he officially began work July 23 as Hillsboro’s new city administrator. And one of the first places he has been running to is the office door of local businesses.

As part of his self-imposed orientation regime, Paine has made meeting business owners a priority during these first days. He plans to contact every business and industry owner within the next few weeks.

“It’s nice to get out and talk to people in the community so they know, ‘Who is this person the city council hired?’” said Paine, who came to Hillsboro from a similar role at Concordia.

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The Board of Education for Unified School District 410 received the green light to authorize “the offering for sale of general obligation bonds” for three of the four facility improvement projects approved in the bond election.

Superintendent Doug Huxman reported that an agreement had been reached between litigation parties so that bonds for $4.605 million—the “non-Tabor portion” of the election—can be sold.

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Concerns about water drain­age problems in residential yards after significant rainfall continued to gather at Hillsboro City Council meetings like...well, water in residential yards after significant rainfall.

Nine residents from the west side of South Wilson Street met with the council during its Aug. 7 meeting to express their frustration with inadequate drainage in their backyards.

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Members of the Hillsboro High School TSA team that competed at the national TSA conference in Nashville this summer pose with the three trophies commemorating their top-10 finishes, and with the two model planes and bridge they entered. From left are Lonnie Benda, Isaac Leihy, Evan Just and Neil Kaiser. Don Ratzlaff / Free Press. Click image to enlarge

Preparation pays off.

That’s the lesson Hillsboro High School technology instructor Creigh Bell thinks enabled four of his students to come home with three trophies from 29th annual National Technol­ogy Student Association Confer­ence in Nashville in late June.

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