Business View Magazine | July 2019

309 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 operations of the County and about 500 County employees. Kerby, who was hired in 2017, reports directly to the County’s three commissioners. Here, he talks about the County’s economic activities, and, most importantly, about one of its most serious, current challenges: “Of the 36 counties in the state of Oregon, Benton County is one of the smallest from a square mile perspective,” Kerby begins. “We’re about 60,000 residents within the city limits of Corvallis, the County seat. The other 30,000 reside in the unincorporated areas of the County so we have both urban as well as rural. Benton is a combination of both agricultural and industrial. OSU has 5,000 employees. We also have a Hewlett-Packard facility in the community that used to employ several thousand people over the course of the years, though they’ve cut back that workforce somewhat, since. So we have some industry, some agriculture, and the large university. Our community is very environmentally sensitive and progressive. “One of the major challenges Benton County has had over the years relates to our criminal justice system. The County has gone to the voters two or three times in the last 15 to 20 years, trying to get them to buy into expanding and/or constructing a new jail facility and a new courts facility. Our courthouse was constructed in 1888. It’s still in operation today, and is actually the oldest courthouse in the state of Oregon, possibly the West Coast. We use it daily, but I would say it’s functionally obsolete. Though it’s an icon in the community, and probably one of the most strikingly beautiful courthouses you’ll ever see in terms of design, it really creates many challenges for us.” “Immediately adjacent to that is an 8,000-square- foot jail facility - not a facility that we are proud of by any means. It almost looks like a concrete bunker inside and out, and it’s very small. When it was constructed back in 1976, it was intended to be a temporary facility until a new jail could be constructed and yet it’s still here after those many years. We have 40 beds there, but our average daily population far exceeds that, so we have to purchase beds in other BENTON COUNTY , OREGON