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January 14, 2010 Front Page |
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Prospective City Manager Unable To Begin Job, Council Considers Options
By Mark Bogart
After discussing stop signs and snow berms, Mayor Dennis Dorrah dropped another bomb on the Baker City Council Tuesday night. Dorrah, who added the City Manager issue to the agenda after the meeting began, notified the Council that the prospective new City Manager, Tim Johnson of Portland, would be unable to fill the position in the near future due to an illness in his family.
Dorrah then laid out three options for the Council in order to hold the position until Johnson can come to Baker City. He recommended that the counselors consider the third option, to discuss the possibility of hiring another former interim manager, Steve Bogart, to fill the position, which has been held by Tim Collins since the termination of Steve Brocato.
Dorrah reported that he had assured Johnson that the Council understood his situation and would keep the position open for him. He said there is no way to know when that might be. In the meantime, he suggested that the Council has three options:
County Fine Tunes Deputy Watermaster Job Description
by Eden Taylor
In the first County Commission session of 2010, the Commissioners defined and refined the job description for a watermaster position with the County. The session was held Jan. 6 at the County Court room.
Commission Chair Fred Warner Jr. had proposed that the Deputy Watermaster II position be combined with a county road snow removal position in order to make it full-time status. After a discussion with the Powder Valley Water Control District last commission meeting, it was determined that snow removal may not be the best fit for extra duties in the watermaster position. However, leaving the job description open to other duties is vital to the position being full-time.
After Warner read aloud the additions to the position description, which included secondary duties of snow removal under the supervision of Baker County Roadmaster and natural resource information gathering and collection under the supervision of the Commissioners, some objections were raised.
Longtime Baker Rancher Passes Away
Robert J. Thomas
(June 18, 1936—Jan. 3, 2010)
Robert J. Thomas, 85, a longtime Baker Rancher, died at his ranch home on Jan. 5, 2010. His graveside service was held Saturday, Jan. 9, noon at Mount Hope Cemetery followed by a memorial service at the First Church of the Nazarene at 2 p.m.. Doug Connelly, the husband of one of Bob’s granddaughters, officiated both services.
Robert J. Thomas was born to Merton and Martha Thomas in a farmhouse in Crawford County, Iowa on July 8, 1924. He was one of six children. Bob was involved in agriculture even as a young man. He graduated from Dow City High in 1943 and went into the Army. He was stationed in Iwo Jima and Saipan until the end of WWII. After returning home he attended Iowa State University where he majored in Animal Husbandry. On Feb. 6, 1949, Bob married Gloria Ewoldt in Vail, Iowa. The couple began farming in Iowa where their three daughters were born.
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