FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2016
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 9
Local
City Council
approves Water
Facility Plan, extends
City Manager’s
contract one month
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Tuesday evening the
regular City Council meet-
ing was called to order by
Vice Mayor Mike Down-
ing as Mayor Kim Moiser
was not present.
Downing led the room
in the pledge of allegiance
and gave the invocation
before City Recorder Luke
Yeaton called roll with all
other Councilors present.
The first matter Council
attended to was the consent
the agenda. With a motion
to approve the agenda by
Councilor Abell and a sec-
ond by Councilor Lewis,
Council passed the motion
with a unanimous vote.
Downing then called for
Citizen Participation. First
to come forward was Terry
McQuisten.
He addressed Council
regarding the recent rural
lives matter rally in Half-
way. He said, “I want to
publicly thank the people
that set that up. It was very
organized and a nice rally.”
He said that rally was
about people’s lives em-
ployment, schools among
other things.
He noted that there were
County Commissioners
and others running for of-
fice who attended that took
their time and made the
effort to attend and speak
about “the Constitution,
our rights and our respon-
sibilities. There’s one that
a lot of people miss is that
responsibility part.”
He acknowledged Coun-
cil as being responsible in
what they do, he under-
stood citizens were going
to rant but advised Coun-
cil, “What I am encourag-
ing you to do is encourage
folks to get points of fact
not assumptions.”
He also noted the issue
that Council had hear re-
garding train whistles and
commented that perhaps
there was a way the rail-
road could be approached
about covering up some
of the graffiti and vulgari-
ties on their trains after all,
those trains pass right
by one if our elementary
school where children are
exposed to them.
Next Lara Petitclerc-
Stokes, Manager of
Communications and
Governmental affairs for
OTEC addressed council
awarding them with a
quick update on projects
and investments they have
been working on. She
also presented them with
a quarterly Baker County
franchise check in the
amount of $ 113,812.31.
She noted that last
summer’s fires in both
Grant and Baker counties
delayed some progress of
the work that is being done
to upgrade the system.
She also advised that
there was still time to nom-
inate for the Peggi Timm
civic leadership award,
selection deadline is 5 p.m.
on April 1 and the nomina-
tion forms can be found on
OTEC’s website.
She also extended an
invitation to the annual
meeting taking place at the
Oregon Events Center on
April 30th where the win-
ner will be announced.
Mike Kee advised
council that he had Shelly
Cutler present to introduce
to the Council, she was the
new Executive Director
for the Chamber of Com-
merce.
Cutler introduced herself
to Council telling them she
had “been on the job for
about 60 days.”
She told them mem-
bership was up and the
Chamber was getting re
involved with programs
that they had pulled away
from in the past and that
was exciting community
members. She felt things
were headed in the right
direction.
The Council welcomed
her.
Last Kody Justus ap-
proached Council introduc-
ing himself telling them
he was running for Baker
County Commissioner. He
said, “The only reason I
address the Council is to
introduce myself. I’m here
more to learn from you and
your Council then to share.
Thank You.”
Water Facilities Plan
Michelle Owen ad-
dressed Council advis-
ing them that the Water
Facilities Plan before them
tonight was for them to
adopt.
She stated that while not
every element of the plan
may be exactly as it needed
to be there was room, after
adoption, to change things
as needed.
She also advised that
adopting the plan did not
mean adopting every item
in it financially, the fund-
ing for those items was
done yearly at budget time
based on the identified
projects for the year.
The plan had been
reviewed and discussed
at length by the Public
Works Advisory Commit-
tee before being recom-
mended that it be sent to
the Council for adoption.
Owen introduced David
Stangle and LaDonne Har-
ris of Murray Smith and
Associates who led council
though a presentation.
The presentation out
lined the City’s current
water system and includes
long term strategies for a
five-year and twenty-year
plan.
Stangle said that the
cities current system is a
pretty good system and
with the implantation of
the new UV water treat-
ment system Baker City is
in a good position how-
ever, Stangle did think the
addition of another well
was critical. Council posed
several questions regard-
ing the need for a second
well and what having that
second well would mean
in case of a fire in the
watershed.
Some members of Coun-
cil were not sold on the
idea as it is an expensive
what if but it was pointed
out that last summer’s fire
did come a little too close
for comfort to our water-
shed.
Stangle also was vocal
that a rate hike of 10% was
almost immediately neces-
sary to help with costs
incurred by the new UV
plant. In the end, Councilor
Lowe moved to approve
the Baker City Water
Facilty Plan with a second
by Councilor Abell.
The motion passed with
a unanimous council vote.
Award Golf Course Irriga-
tion Design Contract
Michelle Owen addressed
Council about the propos-
als received to design
the golf course irrigation
system.
She stated that they had
received two proposals and
of the two Baer Group had
been selected.
Councilor Lewis
questioned reimbursable
expenditures on the bid
and asked if that could be
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
OTEC’s communications director Lara Petitclerc-Stokes addresses Council.
clarified. Owen explained
that could be for normal
costs such as gas to travel
over her etc. and indicated
if Council wished a cap
could most certainly be
placed on that so as to not
exceed budget dollars.
Owen also explained that
in the decision to move
forward with this project
it had been discussed that
the remaining 9 holes be
redesigned to fit into this
new design should the
need arise in later years
to accomplish that task.
It made sense to have the
piece already in place.
Owen did express some
concern that technol-
ogy may advance making
that design insufficient.
Some debate was had as
to whether or not it was a
good use of money to do
the additional work now
or not. Owen did feel for
grant purposes it might be
a good idea to have it com-
pleted and was confident
that additional funding to
do additional work could
be secured easily.
Councilor Lewis was
astonished at the price sim-
ply for the design element
of the process that did not
include any actual work
however did make a mo-
tion to award the contract
to Baer for all 18 holes
with a second by Councilor
Lowe and all Councilors
unanimously voting in
favor.
Update on City Man-
ager Recruitment
Current City Manager
Mike addressed Council
advising that the com-
pany Slavin Management
Consultants have narrowed
their search to 10-15 can-
didates.
He says by the end of
March Council should
have an Executive Session
to choose the candidates
to interview which should
be conducted mid to late
April.
Slavin will then conduct
background investigations
after which Council should
pick their final candidate.
Upon offering and ac-
ceptance of employment
Council should expect the
candidate to need ap-
proximately one month to
terminate from any current
employment and relocate.
That puts the timeline
well into May whereas
initially the projection was
to have a new City Man-
ager secured by the end of
April.
Kee has offered to extend
his contract for one month
with the City if they so
choose.
He also offered the op-
tion of appointing any of
the well qualified depart-
ment heads as interim City
Manager until a newly
hired Manager can take the
reins.
Councilor Langrell
seemed very upset by the
fact that this has taken
longer than originally
anticipated, felt that it was
not right we received far
less applications than The
Dalles, who has also been
advertising with Slavin
during this same time pe-
riod and hinted that it was
all too convenient that Kee
was able and willing to
provide another month of
service all while drawing
his PERS retirement.
As Kee pointed out he
is only allotted so many
hours in a year he can
work and collect his PERS
so while he is still within
the allotted time it is
quickly expiring.
After some debate among
Council it was moved by
Councilor Lowe to extend
Kee’s contract one month
with a second by Councilor
Abell.
Downing, Lewis Lowe
and Abell voted in favor
while Langrell and Thomas
voted against.
The motion passed.
Kee will take a depart-
ment head under his wing
to help with the transition
and that department head
will help a new City Man-
ager familiarize themselves
with Baker City.
City Manager/Director
Comments
Kee expressed desire
to set dates as soon as
possible for another Goal
Setting session.
He felt what came out of
last year’s sessions were
extremely positive and
beneficial to Baker City.
Michelle Owen advised
she had been contacted
by ODOT about doing
a $21,000 project that
required no match from
the city to study Campbell
street that would include
the replacement of most of
the stop signs.
She just need to respond
to ODOT with a yay or nay
from Council.
Council all was in agree-
ment that at no cost to the
city this was a project they
should most definitely
support.
Council Comments
Councilor Downing
spoke of the recent Scotts
Firefighter Stair Climb
benefiting Leukemia and
Lymphoma that took place
in Downtown Seattle on
Sunday March 6, 2016.
He indicated seven
participated representing
Baker City including the
departments Chief Mark
John.
The Climb took place
at the Columbia Center
downtown where par-
ticipants climbed over
20 flights of stairs in full
firefighter gear.
The fastest time was by a
Montana firefighter at just
over 10 minutes.
Councilor Downing was
proud to inform Council he
had almost cut his time in
half over last years’ time.
He also informed Coun-
cil they group had been
invited to participate next
year in New Zealand.
With no other business
on the agenda Downing
adjourned the meeting.
Construction work planned Prison to host dinner
on Highway 395
The Oregon Department
of Transportation will be
paving a short section of
U.S. 95 (Idaho-Oregon-
Nevada Hwy.) in southern
Malheur County from the
west-end of Jordan Valley
at mile post 20.71 to mile
post 25.62.
The project is scheduled
to be constructed later this
summer with work being
completed by fall.
The actual paving opera-
tion should only take about
two weeks, with highway
striping occurring later in
the season.
Travelers can expect lane
closures, flaggers, pilot
cars and up to twenty min-
ute delays during construc-
tion activities.
The project is needed
to address deteriorating
pavement surfaces. Work
will include grinding out
three inches of old asphalt
and inlaying three inches
of new pavement.
Legislative session adjourns
The 2016 short session of
the Oregon State Legislat-
ture adjourned last Thurs-
day, March 3.
The session was marked
by tax hikes, utility hikes,
and minimum wage hikes.
All spending cuts were
rejected by the majority
party, which is the Demo-
cratic party in Oregon.
Powder River Cor-
rectional Facility (PRCF)
is inviting community
members who may have
an interest in volunteering
to a volunteer appreciation
and recruitment dinner to
find out more about the
program.
The event will be Friday,
April 8, 2016, at 5:45 p.m.,
at PRCF, located at 3600
13th St., in Baker City.
Participants will have
the opportunity to learn
about the PRCF volunteer
program from current
volunteers and hear from
incarcerated men about the
impact volunteers have had
on their lives.
Incarceration can be a
life-changing time of redi-
rection and growth, which
can transform people who
have made mistakes into
productive community
members —volunteering in
a correctional setting can
help that evolution.
Any knowledge of gar-
dening, knitting, quilting,
art work, writing, weld-
ing, cooking, computers,
exercise techniques, pho-
tography, performing arts,
coping skills, budgeting,
and any other activity that
potential volunteers wish
to share can help transform
the lives of others.
In order to attend,
participants are required
to provide their full name,
date of birth, and driver's
license number by Tues-
day, March 22, 2016, as a
background check will be
conducted.
This is necessary from
all guests when entering a
correctional facility. Please
RSVP to Lori Fuzi at (541)
523-6680 ext. 264 by
March 22, 2016 with this
information.