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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2019)
A8 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, July 31, 2019 John Day to start enforcing nuisance code By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Following a busy and productive Community Cleanup Day on July 19, John Day is taking a new approach to improving the appearance of city neighbor- hoods: proactive enforce- ment of the city’s nuisance ordinance. The cleanup day was pro- moted on Facebook, City Manager Nick Green told the Eagle. Boy Scouts Grant Hall, Kaden Talkington and Logan Randleas and scout leaders Green and David Hall from Troop 800 volun- teered alongside city crews to help clean up properties where residents were unable to do so on their own, Green said. About 2,260 pounds of bulk waste was hauled to the transfer station from res- idences that participated in the event. Another six dump truck loads of yard waste were taken to a city site for future burning and disposal. Savannah Lovell is the city’s new part-time code enforcement officer. She will also do record keeping for the police department. The city has a lengthy and comprehensive nui- sance ordinance in effect since 2015. With 10 subsec- tions, the ordinance runs to dozens of pages in the city code. Violations are punish- able by fines from $100 to $500 for a first offense and at least $250 for the second offense in the same year. The Eagle/Richard Hanners Savannah Lovell will be the new code enforcement officer for the city of John Day. Contributed photo Volunteers and John Day city crews removed 2,660 pounds of trash during a community cleanup day July 19. The code chapter refers to derelict structures, par- tially completed buildings, construction in an unskilled manner, fowl and livestock, pest control, rank vegeta- tion, hazardous thickets, tall weeds or grass, food wastes, junk, yard debris and poison oak, hemlock or ivy. Enforcement of the nui- sance ordinance is not easy, Green told the city council July 23. When he is able to reach property owners by phone, positive action usu- ally follows. He said he hasn’t run into anyone dig- ging in their heels. Some owners, however, don’t have the ability to get cleanup work done, Green said. Other times he talks to residents who do not own the property. The worse situation is not being able to locate the owner of what appears to be an abandoned prop- erty, Green said. A house on Second Avenue has not been occupied for about five years, he said, although the property taxes are being paid. The property lies in a legal gray area between foreclo- sure and total abandonment, Green said. There is some rot and overgrown vegeta- tion, and the roof appears to be falling in, Green said. He said he’s been unable to con- tact anyone who is responsi- ble for the property. The Eagle/Richard Hanners A sign on a house on Second Avenue in John Day, which has not been occupied for several years, was posted by a default mortgage company. The city has received nuisance complaints about the Second Avenue prop- erty, Green said. One option is to serve a warrant to enter the property and enforce abatement, but the city could end up paying all the legal and cleanup expenses, he said. Sky appointed to John Day City Council By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Youth was the predomi- nant factor in the John Day City Council’s decision July 23 to appoint Elliot Sky to fill the seat held by Brandon Smith. Sky, a physical thera- pist with the Blue Mountain Hospital District, was sworn in after the unanimous deci- sion. Brandon Smith, who has moved away, and Shan- non Adair were absent. The city received two applications, including one from Chris Labhart. Labhart served 24 years on the John Day City Coun- cil and served as Can- yon City mayor and Grant County commissioner. He lost a four-way race to three incumbents for three coun- cil seats in the November 2018 John Day election. Councilor Dave Hol- land noted that while the outgoing Smith “brought a lot to the table,” he missed many council meetings. Holland also suggested Labhart missed many coun- cil meetings in the past during fire seasons. Labhart disagreed with Holland’s characterization. In his application, Sky noted that he has lived in John Day for two years and moved here because of the “potential” he saw in the city. “I liked John Day’s cul- ture and loved the idea of helping to grow the city into something more,” he said. Although he has never held public office, Sky said he has “reached out and volunteered my time and expertise to the city to help improve John Day’s quality of life.” He also noted the impor- tance of his age by saying, “I would bring a perspec- tive from a recent transplant and younger professional — one of the target demo- graphics John Day wants to attract.” Mayor Ron Lundbom started the discussion by noting that the council has tried to diversify its makeup in terms of gender and age. The average age of the cur- rent council is far above 50. One by one, the council- Richard Hanners/Blue Mountain Eagle Elliot Sky, left, is congratulated by John Day Mayor Ron Lundbom after being sworn in as a new city councilor. ors cited youth as the pre- dominant factor in their decision to choose Sky. Holland said John Day will be the next genera- tion’s town one day, so the city needs new blood. Paul Smith said change is good, and young blood is good. In other city council news: • Lundbom reported that an evaluation of City Man- ager Nick Green by the councilors found that he “exceeded” in 14 of 19 cat- Grant County Awarded Federal Funds under Phase 36 of the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program Grant County has been selected to receive an award of $2,800.00 for the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the county. The selection was made by a National Board that is charged by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and consists of representatives from The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Council of Jewish Federations, Catholic Charities USA, National Council of Churches of Christ USA, and United Way of America. The Local Board was charged to distribute funds appropriated by Congress to help expand the capacity of food and shelter programs in high-need areas around the country. The Local Board will determine how Grant County’s award is to be distributed among emergency food and / or shelter programs run by local service agencies. The Local Board is responsible for recommending agencies to receive federal funds made available through Phase 36. Under the terms of the National Board award, local organizations chosen to receive funds must be a private voluntary non-profit or unit of government eligible to receive federal funds, with an accounting system and federal employer identification number. Organizations must demonstrate the capability to deliver qualified emergency food and / or shelter programs. Private voluntary organizations must have a voluntary board and practice non-discrimination. Qualifying agencies are urged to apply. Grant County has distributed Emergency Food and Shelter funds previously to the Grant County Food Bank, Prairie City Baptist Church Food Bank and Monument Food Bank. These agencies were responsible for providing food to qualifying local citizens. Public or private voluntary agencies interested in applying for Emergency Food and Shelter Program funds under Phase 36 may request an application by contacting 541-575-0059, Grant County Court Office, 201 S. Humbolt Street, No. 280, Canyon City, OR 97820. Completed applications are due before 5:00 pm Friday, August 16, 2019. egories and averaged 2.6 on a scale of 0-3. Based on that evalua- tion, the council approved placing Green on the city’s new pay scale system with an $84,048 annual salary effective next fiscal year. They also requested that his contract be modified to reflect that Green is paid a 1% grant administration fee for certain grants. • The council approved a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Grant County Police Officers Association, which represents John Day police officers, effective through June 30, 2022. Significant changes included adding a 10th vacation day — the day after Thanksgiving — as well as changing pay increases for fiscal year 2020 from 1% to $1.50 per hour, for FY2021 from 1.5% to 4% and for FY2022 from 2% to 4%. • Fire Chief Ron Smith will retire at end of this year. Don Gabbard will be the new fire chief as a part time position. He will also work part time in the public works department. Gabbard has been a volunteer fire- fighter for about 12 years. • The council accepted a $125,000 bid from Tyler Sheedy and Krista Qual for the Weaver Building. The city will carry the financing. The couple plan to remodel the Main Street building in three phases over 3-5 years. • After much discus- sion about an unexpected request by Robert and Bon- nie Watt to increase the size of the lot they wanted to purchase from the city, the council agreed to stay with the original offer and make changes at a later time if necessary. The Watts, who own JD Rents, want the lot behind their business for additional storage. • The council turned down a $39,640 bid by Har- ney Rock & Paving to com- plete the Canton Street cul- de-sac project. Green said the city had budgeted about $25,000, and the council consensus was to wait until next spring when other pav- ing projects were under- way in the county. If a com- pany was already working here, that could reduce the cost for the small amount of paving on Canton Street. • Green said final con- struction at the city’s com- mercial greenhouse is fin- ished and full production is next. The council approved a request by a retired ser- vice member to work at the greenhouse under the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program. DOD will pay 100% of his wages for six months. Court considers new maintenance department By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle A plan to create a county maintenance department was presented by Nate Hughes to the Grant County Court at their July 24 meeting. Hughes said the idea has been floated around for a while. In addition to incorpo- rating janitorial services, the department would be respon- sible for facilities the county owns at different locations. Currently some facili- ties are maintained by the department that uses the building. Hughes said track- ing changes, such as ther- mostat settings, could help the county save money on energy bills. Grant County Judge Scott Myers noted that Hughes needs a shop because some- times when he works on fur- niture, the fumes lead to complaints by courthouse employees. Hughes said the court needs to decide which build- ings to include in the new department. It likely would not include the fairgrounds, which has its own mainte- nance staff, he said. The court agreed to review the idea and bring it back at a later date. In other county court news: • Commissioner Sam Palmer suggested making payments to the new Grant County Emergency Commu- nications Agency on a quar- terly basis instead of once a year after confusion over payments to the 911 dispatch agency. A cost-sharing formula used to pay the agency is based on revenue from a statewide 911 phone tax, a 5-year rolling average of call volume by local dispatch users and assessed prop- erty values of affected taxing jurisdictions. A new legislative bill will raise the phone tax over the next two years, which should significantly lower contribu- tions needed from users and taxing jurisdictions. Myers noted that 911 dis- patch “has always been a hit to the county budget.” He said he didn’t think the num- bers for users were accurate. He and Commissioner Jim Hamsher agreed with Palm- er’s suggestion, and the court will look into whether quar- terly payments can be done. • The court approved a request by Tracey Blood on behalf of the Community Health Improvement Coa- lition for up to $20,000 in funding from the county’s share of recreational mari- juana tax revenue. Some of the discussion addressed the paradox of using marijuana tax money for drug treatment programs. • The court discussed a job description provided by Grant County Watermas- ter Eric Julsrud for an assis- tant watermaster. Julsrud is a state employee, but the assis- tant is a county position. The court agreed to send the job description to the Local Gov- ernment Personnel Institute for review with no obliga- tion by the court beyond that, Myers noted. • A request by Steve Fletcher, the Grant County ARES emergency coordi- nator, to place a repeater for ham radios on the Fall Mountain communication tower was approved. Myers noted that the repeater can- not interfere with the coun- ty’s road department antenna.
