Proposed Ordinance Seeks To Limit Outdoor Lights To 40 Watts
By Suzanne Ellis-Jones
The Baker County Planning Commission met Thursday night for both a work session for the revised Zoning Ordinances and a brief public hearing on the Zoning Ordinances. Commissioners Randy Joseph, Anna Sullivan, Michelle Dollar and Marv Burgraff were in attendance. Also there were Baker County staff, Mark Bennett, Holly Kerns, Lauri Hoopes, Tara Andrews and Donna Thibodeau.
In a brief public hearing, Scott Hartell from North Powder testified the partition requirement of range land, that current wording creates a hardship for the landowner. Chair Randy Joseph agreed with Hartell. Hartell asked that changes be made, even if its six months down the road, just so changes would be made. The public hearing portion of the meeting adjourned, but will be continued at the July 23 meeting.
The Commission went back into work session on the proposed Baker County Zoning Ordinances. They reviewed and discussed public comments on the last portion of the Zoning Ordinance document. Some of the revisions will require further meetings such as with the Big Game Habitat overlay and the proposed Sensitive Bird Habitat Overlay Zone. Staff plans to meet with ODFW District Biologist, Nick Myatt about his comments.
Business Sidewalks Chalked With Boycott Slogans
The sidewalks were chalked with boycott and support our community slogans outside of Mayor Dennis Dorrah and Councilor Beverly Calder’s businesses last week. This incident follows their and two other councilor’s decision to fire City Manager Steve Brocato earlier this month. Calder owns Bella on Main Street and Dorrah owns York’s Grocery and Sporting Goods on Campbell Street.
Dorrah said the sidewalk writing cleaned up easy. “I’m thankful it wasn’t spray paint and that there wasn’t any profanity,” he said. He said he feels he and the councilors did the right thing in letting Brocato go.
“We’ll either get through it or we won’t,” he said. “I’m not too worried about it. I haven’t noticed any difference in our business.”
Budget Approved At County Commissioners Meeting
By Eden Taylor
In their regular session on June 17 the Baker County Commissioners adopted the 2009-2010 budget as approved by the Budget Committee. The Baker County Budget Committee approved the taxes for the 2009-2010 fiscal year at the rate of 3.7286 per $1,000 of assessed value for operating purposes in the General Fund and recognized the $90,000 local option weed levy in their budget meeting on May 21.
Christena Cook, Administrative Services Department Head, explained that this is a pretty flat budget. The total budget adopted is for $21,521,755, which is down just slightly from the $22,277,000 budget of last year. This budget’s general fund is only down $20,000 from the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The bulk of the difference is in special funds. The new budget estimates 1.269 million in ending fund balance. With State funding still up in the air, there will be changes along the way. Grants always make a difference and are coming and going throughout the year.
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