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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 2016)
8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016 Local Arts master plan progresses County Commissioners CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press L-R Brian Vegter, Rosemary Abell, Corrine Vegter, Mary Miller, Ann Mehaffy, Derek Hosler. • PUBLIC ARTS COMMISSION MEETS BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com Tuesday evening the Public Arts Commission met with the main goal of working on completing their master plan. It’s close, but there is still work to be done. As the meeting began Brian Vegter said, “I think we should welcome Rose- mary. She is joining us as the City Council liaison.” Councilwoman Rose- mary Abell was attending her first meeting. Chairwoman Ann Me- haffy added, “And wel- come Mike Myers.” Myers is a local citizen who attended the meeting to become informed as to what was going on. Abell asked “So, where are you in editing this?” referring to the draft copy of the master plan in front of her. Each member answered stating what they had done but made it clear that there was still plenty to do. At the February meeting, the group agreed that once completed they would need to present the final product to the City Council. Tuesday evening, still having not completed the plan, the group agreed that a presentation to City Council was not something they were quite ready to do, although they’re very close. Current City Manager Mike Kee, who was not present at this meeting, has been a crucial part of this commission. Mehaffy noted, “We really need to make sure we present this to Council before Mike Kee is gone, he really has been key to our success.” She laughed at her pun, “Kee is key.” Kee, who officially re- tired in November 2015 is on a six-month contract to continue his services with the City as they go through the process of hiring a replacement City Manager. He represents City staff on the Commission. At the February meeting the commission looked over a rough draft plan that had been put together by Julie Smith, Management Assistant for the city and while they all paid compli- ment to her hard work on the project there of course were revisions and addi- tions they wished to see. All agreed to take the plan home and edit it to their liking and bring it back to the table at to- night’s meeting. Mary Miller said she had delivered her hard copy to Smith with corrections that were grammatical in nature, having to do with sentence structure past or present tense, spacing that sort of thing. She said unfortunately she currently did not have a computer that is why she delivered her corrections to Smith in person. Smith had not yet made those changes and resent an updated copy to com- mittee members. The majority of the meeting encompassed the committee going through the document section by section adding, removing and relocating wording to make it flow better. The Committee agreed that someone still needed to go through the entire document and make sure that everything was written in the same tense. “I can do that,” offered Abell. They discussed whether or not the use of numbers in a subsection was a good idea or not concerned that assigning numbers may imply that certain items had higher value than others, which was not necessarily the case. Miller noted that in several instances sections referred to the same things more than once, such as funding, and then later in the docu- ment funding had its own section. Brian Vegter said that he thought that should be cleaned up and addressed however, in some instances it was good to put small dashes of a certain thing in other areas of a document that help tie into a larger picture later on. Mehaffy advised the committee she had written an entire page outlining the Principles of Public Art that she had forwarded to Smith and not brought with her to the meeting, there- fore the committee was not able to assess that section for editing. Corrine Vegter has been working diligently on an Art on Loan program that she wanted to make sure was included in the plan. The group discussed where in the plan that program should be mentioned. Corrine also had re- searched and drafted a con- tract that could be signed with artist, however the committee decided that did not need to be part of the plan and it would be in the best interest of everyone to have the City’s Attorney review and approve the contract before it was used. The Committee agreed that in the Master Plan, the locations of all of Baker City Public Art should be an appendix to the docu- ment rather than its own section because the group foresees the inventory changing, especially with the Art on Loan program, and it needing to be up- dated frequently. It makes more sense to do it as an appendix since that will be the case. They also thought maybe it should just be a list with the location for reference and a photograph. Mehaffy also said that in the plan, “We need to include Ordinance 3332 which is the creation of the Public Arts Commission.” Miller said she had noted the ordinance in a section she had originally worked on but as Mehaffy said, “The whole ordi- nance should be there,” The group discussed the options and decided to add a note where the ordi- nance was mentioned that referred to the appendix where the entire ordinance could be found. “That ordinance is a glo- rious ordinance; it is really beautifully written. It took a long time to craft.” Before the meeting adjourned Vegter noted that his term and fellow committee member Derek Hosler’s terms serving on the committee expired in April. Vegter asked what he need to do and was advised to contact Luke Yeaton in Human Resources for a new application to fill out and submit while Hosler humbly said, “No. I think it’s time for some new blood.” Vegter also told the com- mittee, “So, the movie rat case was heard.” He gave a long dramatic pause, while the committee intently waited for him to continue. “It was thrown out,” he said. Vegter was referring to a $250 graffiti citation given to the Eltrym Theater last year, which that business’s owners appealed before a judge. The committee chat- ted several minutes about that with Mehaffy saying, “Good. We won’t have to hear any more about that.” The committee once again agreed to work on their own revisions of the plan to bring back to the table in April with the hopes it will be completed at that meeting and pre- sented to City Council later that month. OTEC committees announce 2016 nominations for Board of Directors The nominating com- mittee for Union County (Donna Beverage, Dale DeLong, and Mike McLean) met and nominat- ed Greg Howard for OTEC Board of Director position no. 7 (Union County) and David Baum for OTEC Board of Director position no. 8 (Union County). The nominating committee for Baker County (Martin Arritola, Diane Brown, and DeeDee Clarke) met and nominated Charlene Chase for OTEC Board of Director position no. 9 (Baker County). All candidates are run- ning to serve a three-year term. Additional candidates’ names may be placed on the ballot by petition. Nominations by petition must be filed no later than March 1, 2016, must be signed by the candidate and by at least 50 OTEC members qualified to vote. In addition, there must be a request that the candidate’s name be placed on the bal- lot. For more information, please contact Joan Macy (541-524-2831) or Lara Petitclerc-Stokes (541- 524-2858). Winners will be an- nounced at the annual meeting scheduled for Saturday, April 30, 2016 at the Baker County Events Center in Baker City, OR. All OTEC cooperative members and their families are invited to attend. OTEC voting members will be able to cast their ballots by mail in April or at the annual meeting. Bennett said, “I will follow whatever the law is... I’m not going to sit here, and discuss my faith ...You under- stand where I’m coming from. You may not agree, but, you certainly understand ... I have no reason to change it, as long as we’re in compliance with the law ...” Kerns said, “When I came on this Commission, for the first year and a half, we didn’t do the Pledge of Al- legiance. I suggested we do the Pledge of Allegiance. I particularly like the ‘One nation, under God’ statement. That’s good enough for me, and I was happy with that. The rest of it is I’m not going to make a big issue of it, because I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve ...” An emotional Ramona stood and said, “I am Jewish. A lot of people don’t know that ... And actually, we don’t like to be called ‘Jews,’ because that was what Hitler called us ...” She spoke briefly about her beliefs, and she regularly attends Commission sessions, standing during both the Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Order No. 2016-117, Re-Appointing Members To The Baker County Natural Resource Advisory Committee (BCNRAC), was approved with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns. Ken Anderson, Jake Bingham, Cynthia Long, Alice Knapp, Jan Alexander, and Arvid Andersen were appointed, their terms set to expire on March 1, 2019. Order No. 2016-118, Re-Appointing Members To The Baker County Travel Management Committee, was ap- proved with a motion from Bennett and a second from Kerns. Marty Stroy, Robert C. Harris, and Denise Kinzer were appointed, their terms set to expire on February 1, 2019. Order No. 2016-119, Re-Appointing A Member To The Economic Development Council (EDC), was approved, with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns. Craig Ward was appointed, his term set to expire on March 1, 2019. Order No. 2016-120, Appointing A Member To The Baker County Planning Commission, was approved, with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns. Kasey Wright was appointed with a term set to expire on September 1, 2018. Order No. 2016-121, Board Of Property Tax Appeals Summary Of Actions was approved, with a motion from Kerns, and a second from Bennett. According to the document, the Board was formed to hear petitions for the reduction of value, and waiver of penalties. Order No. 2016-122, Appointing A Justice Of The Peace Pro-Tem For The Baker District, was approved, with a motion from Kerns, and a second from Bennett. Harvey read a letter, dated March 2, 2016, and ad- dressed to Tom Tidwell, Jim Pena, Tom Montoya, Bill Gamble, and Jeff Tomac, of the United States Forest Service (USFS), and Bruce Stillitoe, and Don Gonzalez, of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), reaffirm- ing Resolution No. 94-1003, Retaining Certain Travel Corridors Across Public Lands Withing Baker County As Baker County Public Roads, And Asserting The Authority Of The County Of Baker To Administer Right-Of-Way Across Federal Public Lands In Baker County, approved by the Board in 1994 (Steve Bogart, Gerald Conrad, and Truscott Irby). Noting some needed language changes, the letter was approved to be signed out of session with a motion from Bennett and a second from Kerns. Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) No. 148056, For The Financing Of Community Developmental Disability Services, between the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), and Baker County, was approved, with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns. Amendment No. 4, to IGA No. 147781, For The Fi- nancing Of Community Addictions And Mental Health Services, between the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and Baker County, was approved, with a motion from Kerns, and a second from Bennett. Amendment No. 2, to an Oregon Military Department (OMD) exchange agreement, between the OMD, and Baker County, was approved, with a motion from Kerns, and a second from Bennett. The next, regular Commission session is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16, 2016, at 9 a.m. Forest proposals requested In response to the two-year reauthorization by Con- gress of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self- Determination Act in April 2015, the Umatilla, Wallowa- Whitman, and Malheur National Forests are soliciting year two project proposals to be funded under Title II of the Secure Rural Schools Act through April 1, 2016. Nonprofit organizations, local governments, and others are encouraged to propose projects that restore water- sheds, decommission or maintain roads, control noxious weeds, or otherwise improve the condition of the For- est. Proposed projects do not need to be implemented on Forest Service lands, but must show a benefit to national forest resources. Project proposals for Year Two funding are due elec- tronically by April 1, 2016. Application forms, instruc- tions, and submission guidelines can be found online at www.fs.usda.gov/main/wallowa-whitman/workingtogeth- er/advisorycommittees. New Title II projects must be initiated by September 30, 2017 and all Title II funds must be obligated by Sep- tember 30, 2018.
