The Oregon Resilience Plan – Critical and Essential Buildings – February 2013 81 <br /> <br /> <br />Financing methods for the rehabilitation of public buildings are much more limited than the <br />opportunities that exist for privately-owned buildings. As a result, general obligation bonds, or some <br />variation thereof, are likely to be the primary method to finance the seismic upgrading of these critical <br />facilities. Oregon Senate Bill 3 and 5 (2005) provided for the establishment and funding of a grant <br />program for emergency services buildings to assist with upgrades of these facilities, but funding to date <br />for this program has been limited. Public buildings ultimately must be financed, either substantially or <br />completely, with public funds. This can only happen by implementing a broad program of education to <br />inform the voters of the risks associated with these seismic hazards and the impact that those risks, if <br />unmitigated, will have on their communities when the Cascadia subduction zone event occurs. <br />In addition to the types of public buildings discussed above, other types of critical government facilities <br />exist, including, but not limited to, city halls, public safety answering points (PSAPs, usually termed 911 <br />Centers), and jails. The 2007 SSNA report did not collect data on these types of facilities, and to our <br />knowledge, no publicly-available data exists about them within Oregon, except for broad statistical data <br />which can be inferred from the FEMA Hazus data discussed in the Critical Government Facilities section <br />of this chapter (see below). Consequently, no specific, data-driven recommendations regarding the <br />seismic resilience of these other critical government facilities have been provided as part of this report. <br />EDUCATION FACILITIES <br />Introduction <br />Public school facilities make up a special category of Oregon’s public infrastructure. Oregon has 1,355 K- <br />12 public schools organized in 197 school districts that are overseen by independent elected local school <br />boards. Combined, these schools have a total of over 2,000 buildings of various structural types, sizes, <br />and vintages, including numerous buildings that are more than a century old. <br />Schools are among the most heavily used public buildings in Oregon and one of a few classes of <br />buildings whose occupants’ presence is compulsory. In 2010, the Western States Seismic Policy Council <br />(WSSPC) adopted a policy recommendation that states, “Children have the right to be safe in school <br />buildings during earthquakes” (WSSPC, 2010). Based on the findings of the Critical Buildings Task Group, <br />the state of Oregon is far from meeting this ideal of student safety today. <br />The 2007 Statewide Seismic Needs Assessment (SSNA) employed the FEMA 154 Rapid Visual Screening <br />(RVS) methodology to characterize the structural performance of buildings by placing them into one of <br />four broad categories of collapse potential. Of the full sample of 2,018 K-12 educational facilities <br />assessed using the FEMA 154 methodology, 12 percent rated Very High, 35 percent rated High, 23 <br />percent rated Moderate, and 30 percent rated Low collapse potential (Lewis, 2007). The assessment <br />focused on school facilities constructed before 1994, although some more recent buildings were <br />included. Of the buildings assessed, roughly 80 percent were built before Oregon first adopted a <br />statewide building code in 1971, and 60 percent are more than 50 years old. The assessment revealed