Baker City Weekly Report

March 11, 2011

ADMINISTRATION

 Human Resources conducted an internal recruitment for the Management position in City Hall. One applicant
from within the City workforce applied. Valeria Hysong who has worked for the Baker City Police Department
for several years was interviewed. Valeria was offered the job, accepted, and will begin in her new position on
April 1.
 The City Manager participated in a telephone conference with about 20 other Oregon communities in reference
to Charter Cable. All of the communities are either involved with negotiations of franchise agreements or will
be soon. The group is considering the possibility of negotiating as a large group which will give us the financial
ability to retain a franchise attorney.
 Gary Bood, our building official, has included a couple tips concerning building regulations. He hopes to make
this a weekly offer.
 The City Manager met with Craig Ward this week, and talked about the renewal of a lease of City property to
Ward Farms for the purpose of farm use.

Potential Agenda Items for March 22, 2011:

 Amendment of Resolution 3407.
 Council goals timelines.
 Information Charter Cable franchise negotiations.

POLICE
 BCPD opened 30 new cases, making multiple arrests. Two of these cases resulted in DUII arrests by our newest
officer, Officer Gerrit Southard.
 The 2011 OSAA 1A State Tournament was completed this week. Four BCPD Officers provided security for the
championship games on Saturday night.
 On behalf of the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and rural law enforcement, Chief Lohner traveled to the
Salem Capitol and spoke to the Ways and Means committee in support of the Oregon State Police budget.
 BCPD opened an internal selection process to fill our vacant sergeant’s position.
 BCPD Evidence Technician/Administrative Assistant Valeria Hysong is moving to City Hall to fill the
Management Assistant position. Former BCPD Sergeant Beth Yeaton has been reinstated as a part time
employee to manage the property/evidence room. BCPD is opening a selection process to fill the part time
Administrative Assistant vacancy.

www.bakercity.com
FIRE
The Baker City Fire Department Responded to a total of 20 emergency alarms for the past week. Breakdown of
emergency responses:

FIRE
General Alarms 0
Still Alarms 1
TOTAL RESPONSES 1

Fire responses are broken down as follows:

 1 Burn complaint.

AMBULANCE
Rural Calls 4
City Calls 15

Transports 18
No Patient Trip 1
Out of town transfers 3
Airport Transfers 0
Motor Vehicle Crash 0
Doubles 1
Triples 0

TOTAL RESPONSES 19

TRAINING/MAINTENANCE:
24hours of training consisting of:
 EMS: Medical emergencies.
 Fire: Engine company operations.
78 hours of station and equipment maintenance including:
 Weekly medication inventory and replacement of expired medications.
 Station, apparatus and equipment maintenance.
 Annual SCBA/respiratory fit testing initiated.
 Annual SCBA maintenance and testing continued.
Additional services include:
 Baker City Firefighter 1 academy training for new volunteer firefighters.
 2 fire inspections of local businesses (Heart n Home and Papa’s Pub).
 Fire department personnel read to Brooklyn students at annual pajama night event.
 Hosted ICMA presentation and counseling in department training room.

www.bakercity.com
PUBLIC WORKS

Parks/Cemetery
 The annual cemetery clean- up will take place from March 21st –April 10th. A notice for the paper is being
prepared.
 Our risk management team has asked us to make some modifications to the skate park in an effort to improve
safety. A plan is being developed and some minor changes will be made in the next two weeks.
 The Notice of Intent to Award to Partney Construction for the Central Park project was issued. There is a seven
day waiting period before the contract can actually be awarded.
 Work continues on the storm water management permit for the Central Park project. This permit must be in
place prior to any construction work beginning in the area.
Airport
 The pre-bid conference was held at the airport on Wednesday. Bids are due for the construction and lighting
project on March 22nd.
Water
 Justin and Blain could be found at the Water Treatment Facility reassembling the well house structure as the
Riverside crew reinstalled the well pump motor, as seen in the photo below.

Figure 1 Crews working at the Water Treatment well house.

 Exercising water valves continues. There are over 1,700 water valves in the water system that must be opened
and closed a minimum of every 24 months in order to keep them operable.
 Water meters that are not registering correctly continue to be replaced throughout town.

Wastewater
 As stated in last week’s report, we began discharging treated effluent at the Wastewater Treatment Plant on
March 1st. Since then we have received our first laboratory results and we are in compliance with the NPDES
D.E.Q. Permit.

www.bakercity.com
 Unfortunately, the treatment plant is receiving approximately 1.2 MG of wastewater each day, and we are only
able to successfully treat and discharge effluent at a rate of 0.8 MG/day. At this rate it will be challenging to
contain the stored wastewater within the pond dikes much longer. In order to increase our disinfection of
wastewater, hence, increase the effluent discharge, we have implemented the use of an injection pump and are
using sodium hypochlorite to augment our disinfection system. With the addition of sodium
hypochlorite system we are able to treat 1.5 MG/day. We last experienced this type of issue with wastewater
disinfection in 2001.

Figure 2 Tom and Rick adjusting the outlet piping in Pond D.

 The wastewater crew continues cleaning and video-inspecting wastewater lines.

 Crews assisted the City of Haines by cutting a root from one of their wastewater collection lines. Using the root
cutter eliminated the need for the line to be excavated.
 A locking storm sewer lid was installed over a manhole at Main & Broadway Street. Last year the manhole’s
lid became detached during heavy rainfall.
 Silt, sand and other debris was removed from various storm water catch basins in town.

Streets

 Keith Magnuson and Tom Fisk traveled to Idaho this week to see a demonstration of a new Elgin Pelican
Sweeper that was recently purchased by the City of Twin Falls. The City of Twin Falls has five sweepers in
their fleet.

www.bakercity.com
 Figure 3 The 36” gutter brooms and the sweeper’s 66” wide main broom in operation.

Figure 4 The dual tire guide wheels in the back of the unit that allow the sweeper to be very maneuverable.

www.bakercity.com
 Figure 5 Sweeper control panel.

 City streets were swept, and traffic islands received a clean sweep by hand.
 Street signs were repaired or replaced as needed.
 Several burned out street lights were replaced.

SAM-O SWIM CENTER

 The pool was utilized by the following groups; Baker High School, Baker Middle School, St Alphonsus
 We had approximately 571 people use the pool last week (31% non Y members)
 Water Fitness: 117
 Lap Swim: 185
 Private Swim Lessons: 4
 Masters Swimmers: 10
 Open Swim: 252
 Miscellaneous: 3
 We had no incidents in the pool everyone remained safe
 We have a mini swim meet on Friday March 18th
 We are planning for our summer programs and looking forward to our spring break day camp and open
swim times.
 We have changed two locks and will be installing a gate to bring the pool up to code as far as safety and
security
 We have now started registration for our Age Group Swim Team. We hope to expand this program this
year.

www.bakercity.com
  Learning to swim is one of the most important life lessons you can learn. Join us for private swim lessons
now, or group lessons starting in June.

DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
Planning
 Suggested planning department revenue and expense amounts for the 2011-2012 budget were submitted to
the Finance Director to assist in preparing the draft budget.
 A Temporary Use Permit (TUP) application has been submitted by Mark Servid to operate a retail
greenhouse site called Rock Garden Greenhouse at 2601 Oak Street. Public notice has been sent out to all
neighboring property owners.
 Letters regarding sidewalk alternatives were sent out to several property owners that have recently built new
homes adjacent to streets where requiring sidewalks is impractical. In order to maintain equitable treatment
between all members of the public, a variety of alternatives are offered in lieu of constructing the sidewalk.
Owners can choose to:
o Contribute to the City’s sidewalk, tree, or Leo Alder Memorial Parkway (LAMP) fund; or
o Construct missing sidewalk elsewhere in the vicinity where deemed more appropriate.
 The staff reports were prepared for the upcoming Planning Commission hearings on the St. Alphonsus sign
variance request and Terry Marsh’s accessory structure request.
 An application for a Transportation Growth Management (TGM) Program Grant was submitted. If awarded,
this project would result in an updated Transportation System Plan (TSP). The application and a resolution
of support will be presented at the City Council meeting on March 22nd. Letters of support will also be
requested from relevant stakeholders.
Building
Tip of the week:
If you have building projects scheduled for this spring start early and submit plans for review so you can stay on
schedule. This is the normally busy time of the year for the Building Department and plan review can take longer due
to the increase in applications.

We have sent the local Mechanical contractors information on exhaust fan duct installation. The type of duct used and
sizing of the ductwork has changed in the code and is sized per CFM of the fan installed. This is a specific requirement
from the last code change. There will be a new adopted residential code in April 1, 2011 and there will be more
changes that the contractors will need to learn about. We need to be in touch with the local Builders Association and
possibly attend some of their meetings to give out information of the new changes.

Commercial projects:
 The new Maverick Store and fuel service station to be built at the corner of Campbell and Cedar streets has
been plan reviewed and we are waiting for a response from the architects.
 A partial remodel (50%) of the 5th floor of the Baker Towers building is under construction and the Fire
Sprinkler system on this floor will be completed as well prior to occupancy. This area has two new business
offices to be occupied.
 The 7th floor has two new condominiums nearly completed, and the 6th floor has started construction on two
more additional units. The owner is working towards the completion of the building remodel that was started
approximately ten years ago.
 Recovery village project on Midway drive is being framed at this time. The roof truss system is installed and is
being sheeted off at this time.
 ODOT Maintenance Facility is nearly finished on Hwy 86. Some repairs in the bathroom areas are scheduled
soon.

www.bakercity.com
  The Haynes studio apartment above the YMCA has all permits issued and construction is at the framing stage
before insulation.
Residential:
 No new Residential project permits issued in March so far.
 We have one application for a 1200 square foot pole structure in Unity for equipment storage.

FINANCE
Finance Director
 As of March 11th the City has received $2,526,576 in current year property taxes and $109,142 in prior year
property taxes.
 February’s revenue and expenditure report will be available March 18th.
Utilities
 Zone 2 was billed today which includes 456 residential and 13 commercial accounts. Of those accounts 34 or
7% are signed up for direct payment.
 89 late notices were sent March 7th.
 Three residential customers (Zone 1) were scheduled to have their water turned off for non-pay (over 60 days
past due) one of those was actually turned off until their past due balance is paid.
Accounts Payable
 The first of two accounts payable check runs for the month was generated March 10th.
Accounts Receivable
Monthly accounts receivable billings were sent March 8th. The billings were as follows:
o Property and Weed Abatement - $2,486
o Cemetery - $155
o HBC Business Licenses - $8,980
o City of La Grande Inspection Services - $1,863
o Wastewater Maintenance - $3,687
o Water Line Hookups - $3,468
o Lien Searches - $490
o Ambulance - $278,762
o Airport Hangar Rent & Ground Lease - $1,796
o Miscellaneous - $708
Total Billed $302,395
Ambulance
The following were the ambulance services billed and collections received for the month of February:
o Medicare – Billed $78,435; Collected $18,247
o Welfare – Billed $6,033; Collected 4,670
o Medicare/Welfare – Billed $5,813; Collected $4,728
o SAIF – Billed $0; Collected $261
o Motor Vehicle Insurance – Billed $1,442; Collected $1,504
o All Others – Billed $10,485; Collected $7,248
Total Billed $102,208
Total Collected $36,685

www.bakercity.com