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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2023)
SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 18 , 2023 The city of Boardman swears in new council members -Continued from PAGE ONE 2023, or until a successful I think it’s very important meeting planned for Board- about any action. “I’m just a little con- cerned about letting the public know this is an item we’ll be discussing,” said McCauley. “Before we go down that path, Mr. Mayor, may- be we should decide wheth- er or not it’s even legal for us to have this discussion,” agreed council president Brenda Profitt. “We need to decide who’s going to lead the city,” responded Keefer. Profitt replied that the council might need to have another meeting, and coun- cilor Drago suggested a special meeting. “If we don’t know, I think we should side with caution,” Profitt said. McCauley read that section of the charter, which stated the council may ap- point a city manager pro tempore but seemed to give no guidelines as to the process. Pro tempore is a Latin term meaning “for the time being.” The city council rules, she said, did not address a city manager vacancy. “My concern is not that we can’t do that. My concern is if we should have advertised to the public that we were considering Boardman Mayor Paul Keefer swears in re- turning councilor Isaac Williams. -Contributed photo doing that,” said McCauley, agreeing the council should hold a special public meet- ing for the purpose. Keefer again asked who was going to run the city in the absence of a manager. “Don’t you think we should appoint somebody to act in the name of the city until our next special meeting?” he asked. “We should probably be discussing more a date when we could meet, so we can have it on an agenda and let the public know this is something we’re consid- ering doing,” McCauley replied. Williams asked, first, if a special meeting required seven days’ notice and, second, if the city has a flow chart outlining who was after the city manager in responsibility. Pettigrew thought there was. “I think if you’re going to appoint someone as an interim city manager, that’s the next step down. Then it goes department heads, across,” she said. “Then who’s running the city?” asked Keefer. “Nobody,” said Mc- Cauley. “Everybody knows their job. I guess if there was a really big crisis, you’d get a phone call.” Keefer questioned whether there was any guidance on who acted as city manager if the current manager couldn’t perform their duties. McCauley said the city’s policy stated the police chief could step in in that case but “it does not speak to a vacancy.” Police Chief Rick Stokoe pointed out that he was currently the assistant city manager, and that he thought it would be best to wait and hold a special meeting. The council agreed to hold a special meeting Thursday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m. At the special meeting, Keefer moved to appoint Stokoe city manager pro tem from Jan. 11 to June 6, city manager is chosen. June 6 is the date of the June city council meeting. “One of the reasons I put the date in there is that, if we are unable to choose a city manager, it allows us to come back and discuss it,” said Keefer. Williams asked if the city had received any letters of interest, and Keefer re- plied that they had not. Wil- liams then asked whether it was the council’s respon- sibility to simply choose a person as they saw fit. Keefer replied that it was. Councilor Drago asked for clarification on Stokoe’s current title, which was as- sistant city manager/police chief. In the absence of the city manager, Stokoe would be the one to step in and perform the city manager duties anyway. The motion carried 5-1 with Williams voting against the appointment. Councilor Brenda Profitt was an excused absence. Financial report In her report, Board- man Finance Director Mar- ta Barajas reported that the general fund had a large receipt of revenues for the month of November. Total city revenue for the month was $3,957,047. “November’s always an exciting month for the city. That’s when we re- ceive the majority of the property taxes, which really funds most of our activities for the general fund,” she said. The city’s biggest ex- penditure was in the cap- ital projects fund, which Barajas said should be the case for a while. The cap- ital projects fund covers housing of the G.O. Bond water and wastewater proj- ects. Expenditures for the fund were $698,977 for November. “We’ll be seeing that for a while, while we con- tinue with those projects,” she said. Special goose taking The council also ap- proved Resolution 1-2023 to establish a special Cana- da goose taking on private property. Landowner Dan Mc- Carty reported that he had found depredation of his crops due to Canada geese feeding on his property. McCarty requested a spe- cial permit for the taking of Canada geese to decrease the population. According to the resolution, the tak- ing of the geese would be within guidelines from the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) as well as stipulations from the city. Stokoe explained that the council had allowed it in the past, and that law en- forcement would be given 24 hours’ notice before any shooting took place. “Are they doing their due diligence and letting everyone know?” asked Drago. Stokoe said they were pretty good about contact- ing law enforcement. The new ordinance will expire Dec. 31, 2023. Board appointments/ Other business The city council voted unanimously to appoint Keefer and Pettigrew as city representatives to the Columbia River Enterprise Zone (CREZ) II board with Williams as an alternate. Keefer made the nomina- tions, saying he felt the mayor needed to be on the CREZ board and that he felt Karen Pettigrew was most qualified to be the second person. “I just think since she’s been on there, she brings a lot of history, and with people leaving, and we’re getting a lot of new people, that we have a person who’s been on there from the be- ginning,” he said. The CREZ II board is made up of two mem- bers each from the City of Boardman, Morrow County and the Port of Morrow. The council appoint- ed Pettigrew to the North East Area Commission on Transportation (NEACT). NEACT is an area advisory body chartered under the authority of the Oregon Transportation Commis- sion and covers Morrow, Baker, Union, Umatilla and Wallowa counties and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reser- vation. Williams was appoint- ed to The Loop (Morrow County Public Transit) ad- visory committee. In other business, the council: Boardman Mayor Paul Keefer swears in return- ing councilor Roy Drago, Jr. -Contributed photo -received a written re- port from the Boardman Chamber of Commerce and Boardman Community Development Association with a review of 2022 and upcoming events; -set the date for the an- nual council retreat as Jan. 28. from 8-11:30 a.m.; -removed Leslie Pier- son as a bank signer since she is no longer a council member; -appointed Barajas as 2023-24 budget officer and approved the 2023-24 bud- get calendar. The budget committee will meet May 16, and a budget hearing will take place June 6; -reappointed Alejandra Mendoza as a budget com- mittee member for a term ending Dec. 31, 2025. -reappointed Jacob Cain and Jennifer Leighton to the Boardman Planning Commission. Both terms expire Dec. 31, 2025; -appointed Mike Con- nell to the planning com- mission for a term ending Dec. 31, 2025. -heard from Board Po- lice Chief Rick Stokoe, who reported that Board- man Police Department had more than 600 cases for the year, which is a record for the agency. The department also sent two officers to a class to become trainers on handling active shooter events; -heard that the building department had a total of 854 building permits for 2022. Of those, 197 were for Boardman, with seven manufactured placement permits, 32 new home con- struction permits and 148 apartment unit permits; -heard that public works reported no new meters installed for Decem- ber but a total of 36 for the year. In 2022, public works completed 105 work or- ders, completed 332 locates to mark water and sewer lines prior to digging and replaced 37 broken meters; -read the city manag- er’s report in which Pet- tigrew stated that the city made a payment to the construction bond Dec. 14. Projects already started are going well, and the city will be bidding out the second phase of the water project, which is the storage tank and new water building. She also reported attending a lunch to meet Oregon’s new Speaker of the House, and that the small cities man in January had been moved to Salem; -heard from Drago that he had received good comments on how quickly the city picked up the live Christmas trees; -learned from Stokoe that Public Works Director Kevin Kennedy has been with the city 26 years this month. “That’s a pretty good tenure for the city. We thank him for his years of service in the department,” said Stokoe; At the end of the meet- ing, councilor Cristina Cue- vas noted the presence of several high school stu- dents who had attended the meeting as a senior class requirement. She said she appreciated their attendance and hoped it had been a good experience. Keefer echoed the sentiment. “I would just like to point out that you don’t have to be perfect to do a position like this, to be elected for your communi- ty,” Keefer said. “You just have to love your commu- nity, be involved in your community, listen to your people, listen to your con- stituents, try to do your best.” “Kudos to you for com- ing. Get involved in your city. Have a voice. Share your concerns. Don’t be silent,” he added. “If I can do it, you can do it.” New roof for Windy River -Continued from PAGE THREE azon funding has put it back on the table. MCSD Business Manager Gabriel Hansen said the district received $2.5 million from Amazon, which was put into the capital projects fund. The current shingle roof will be replaced by metal roofing; Combe said the style is the same as was recently put on Clara Brownell Middle School in Umatilla. The contractor hopes to begin work in March, with an estimated three months to completion. Because the new roofing is metal, work can’t be done during the high summer temperatures. The contract is admin- istered through the Associ- ation of Educational Pur- chasing Agencies (AEPA) through Intermountain ESD. AEPA contractor Tremco collected three bids, of which the board chose WTI, and will also serve as the project manag- er. Paying Tremco to man- age the project raises the cost, but Sweeney said she thought their expertise and experience made up for it. “ I t ’s m o n e y w e l l spent,” agreed MCSD Su- perintendent Matt Combe. The dollar amount on the bid is a jump from the quote of $1.38 million the district received in 2020 when it was collecting fig- ures for the proposed bond. Sweeney said that the jump wasn’t a surprise, since so many costs have jumped in the recent, post-COVID economy. However, costs have seemed to stabilize recently. “I don’t think we’re go- ing to get it much cheaper,” said Sweeney. NEW LISTINGS! $195,500 Three bedroom, one bath home on quiet street in Heppner. Real wood floors and knotty pine walls give a warm and comfortable feeling when you walk inside. Large fenced backyard with excellent soil will give you a great garden, and there is an access gate off the back street (Riverside) for additional parking. A full walk-in basement is waiting for you to finish out and add lots of additional living space. Call me for an appointment to have a look! 335 W UNION AVE Heppner $150,000 Two houses and a good opportunity for a real estate investment. The big house in front is a fixer with 4 bedrooms and 2 bath, lots of living space for a handy person. The house in back is 2 bedroom, 1 bath. Have your own home and a rental, two rentals, or a place for the mother in law to live out back. 425 Water St Heppner 177 N. Main P.O. Box 337 Heppner, OR 97836 Chris@sykesrealestate.net Broker Chris Sykes 541-215-2274
