---
date: "2018-11-20"
title: "Council Meeting Minutes 2018-11-20"
source: "2018-11-20-minutes-council-monthly.pdf"
---

City of Prairie City
Council Meeting
       November 20, 2018

1. Attendance
2. Mayor Jim Hamsher
3. Councilor Georgia Patterson
4. Councilor Carole Garrison
5. Councilor Joe Phippen
6. Councilor Frank Primozic
7. Councilor Les Church
8. Councilor Dottie Miller
9.
10. Visitors
11. Sandy Murry
12. Frances Preston
13. Anna Bass, Solutions CPA
14. Tish Packard
15. Scott Officer
16. Chase McClung
17. Taci Philbrook
18. Chris Camarena
19.
20.
21. Mayor Hamsher opened the regular council meeting at 6:00pm and roll call was taken.
22.
23. Approval of Minutes
24. The minutes of October 10, 2018 council meeting were considered. MSP: To
25. approve the minutes of October 10, 2018 council meeting with corrections. Councilor
26. Church/Councilor Primozic. All members present voted in favor.
27.
28. Mayor Hamsher announced that Clark’s Disposal agenda request has been canceled and will reschedule
29. for the January council meeting.
30.
31.
32. Mayor Hamsher called on Sandy Murry who is the representative for the Front Street Planter
33. Committee. She reported that the committee has met twice, and at the first meeting the committee
34. members established a Chair Person role and a Secretary role. Sandy Murry was elected as Chair
35. Person and Chantal DesJardin was elected for Secretary.  The committee discussed safety issues
36. regarding trees on Front Street that need pruning. They also discussed the tree in front of the Mason
37. Building that is owned by Scott Knepper. The tree has out grown the planter it resides in and the root
38. system is growing underneath the sidewalk. The root is lifting the sidewalk up making it hazardous to
39. pedestrians passing by. Raymond Field who owns Field’s Tree Service is a member of the committee
40. and will be pruning the trees before Christmas on the Prairie.
41. At the second meeting, the committee discussed ordinances and long-term planning for the vegetation on
42. Front Street. Sandy has been gathering information on other city’s policies and procedures. Sandy asked
43. the council to proceed on the Mason Building sidewalk issues with Scott Knepper.
44. Mayor Hamsher said that he has sent a letter and has had verbal contact with Scott on the sidewalk
45. issues in front of his building. Mayor Hamsher had an idea how to save the tree and fix the

46. sidewalk. He said that the slab of concrete could be lifted and the root of the tree could then be removed.
47. Mayor Hamsher said that he has talked with Raymond Field about this idea and Raymond thought that
48. the tree would survive the root being removed. A fresh slab of concrete can then be poured to replace
49. the old slab of sidewalk. Sandy asked if the name of the committee could be changed to Beautification
50. & Revitalization Committee. Mayor Hamsher said that he didn’t see an issue with changing the name of
51. the committee
52. MSP: To Change the Front Street Planters Committee name to Beautification & Revitalization
53. Committee. Councilor Church/Councilor Phippen. All members present voted in favor.
54. Sandy said that the next meeting will be scheduled when Raymond Field is available to attend. The
55. committee members would like to get Raymond’s thoughts on how to proceed forward with the trees
56. and plants on Front Street.
57.
58. Law Enforcement:
59. Mayor Hamsher updated the council on the Police Contract and it has been submitted to County Court
60. and will be on the Agenda for November 28, 2018.
61.
62. Public Works:
63. Public Works Director, Chris Camarena gave an update on the Wastewater Project. Two pumps have
64. been delivered and we are waiting on the other two pumps to arrive. LaDonn for USDA informed Chris
65. that a meeting will need to take place before any work can begin on the project that includes: Joe Hitz
66. from Sisal Engineering, Public Works Director, Chris Camarena, Mayor Jim Hamsher, City Recorder,
67. Bobbie Brown, LaDonn from USDA, USDA Engineers, and Clackamas Construction. Bob Quinton
68. from Bank of Eastern Oregon is working on the paperwork required by DEQ for the City’s Landfill. It
69. should be done early next week.
70.
71. Payables:
72.To ratify the payment of bills. MSP: To pay the bills. Councilor Garrison/Councilor Phippen. All
73. members voted in favor.
74.
75. Resolutions & Ordinances:
76. Mayor Hamsher moved on to Resolution 2018-14: A Resolution establishing water rate increase, base
77. gallon increase establishing commercial rate for business, and setting the rate users outside the city
78. limits. This Resolution will allow the City to make the loan payments on the Faiman Well Project. The
79. loan on the project is $950,000 along with a grant for $550,000 through Business Oregon. The City will
80. raise water rates for a total base gallon rate of $49.00 from $41.00 which is an $8.00 increase. The
81. overage rate for residential was set at $0.00409 per gallon and the commercial rate was set at $0.005466
82. per gallon. The council discussed the outline of this Resolution and the overage amount.
83. Councilor Garrison asked that the wording be change from just quality to “quantity and quality.”
84. Councilor Garrison was in support of having the overage rate more than what it is set to in Resolution
85. 2018-14. She feels that residents need to be billed more for overage than what is calculated in the base
86. gallon rate. Mayor Hamsher was not in support of raising the overage rate so much that residents
87. couldn’t afford to use water over the base rate.
88. MSP: To approve Resolution 2018-14 A resolution establishing water rate water rate increase, base
89. gallon increase established commercial rate for business, and setting the rate users outside the city
90. limits with the word quantity added in the second paragraph to Resolution 2018-14. Councilor
91. Church/Councilor Phippen. All members voted in favor.
92.
93. Mayor Hamsher moved on to Resolution 2018-15: A Resolution changing appropriations in the General
94. and Water Funds. This Resolution is to adjust appropriations in the fiscal year 2018-2019 in the General
95. and Water Fund for payments for the cost related to the water emergency.
96. MSP: To approve Resolution 2018-15 A Resolution changing appropriations in the General and
97. Water Funds. Councilor Garrison/Councilor Miller. All members voted in favor.
98.

99. Mayor Hamsher moved on to Resolution 2018-16: A Resolution to dedicate revenue. This Resolution is
100. to dedicate cell tower funds of $1500, and to allocate $1.00 per day for sewer and $1.00 per day for
101. water for each space rent at the Depot Park. This will help cover the loan costs for Faiman Springs.
102. MSP: To approve Resolution 2018-16 a Resolution to dedicate revenue. Councilor
103. Church/Councilor Phippen. All members voted in favor.
104.
105. Other Business
106. Mayor Hamsher moved on to an issue that regards an employee’s insurance benefits in the Public
107. Works Department. Mayor Hamsher asked the council to consider letting this employee apply for
108. city benefits before the enrollment period requirements in the City’s personnel policy.
109. MSP: To allow Jake Ellson to enroll in the CIS benefits early. Councilor Church/Councilor
110. Phippen. All members voted in favor.
111.
112. Mayor Hamsher moved on to an email the office received from Kristin Green regarding Economic
113. Opportunities Analysis for Prairie City. This opportunity will ensure Prairie City has enough current
114. and anticipated employment land that is served or serviceable for 20 years. It can help position cities
115. for the next steps including state and federal funding.
116. MSP: To move ahead with the Eastern Oregon Planning Project on our own. Councilor
117. Phippen/Councilor Church. All members voted in favor.
118.
119. Mayor Hamsher moved to the next item of business which addresses the ODOT deer composting site
120. and development. ODOT sent an email asking the council to vote on a decision regarding the payback
121. options for the deer composting site. The site will be placed by the wastewater ponds on City property.
122. Option one, is a 7-year payback that will take approx. 7 years based on the estimated construction cost
123. to recover the initial ODOT investment. During the payback period ODOT will cover the cost to
124. decompose deer carcasses at no charge and after the payback period ends, ODOT will compensate the
125. City of Prairie City at a rate of $50 per deer. It is estimated that ODOT will spend $75,000 to construct
126. the deer composting site. ODOT said that if the City would like to use their own equipment during the
127. construction period that would reduce the overall cost of the project. Option two, ODOT will pay the
128. City of Prairie City $2,500 a year to subsidize operating costs. The payback period would be extended
129. to approx. 10 years with payback option two.
130. MSP: To choose option one for the payback period of 7 years for the deer composting site that
131. ODOT will install. Councilor Church/Councilor Primozic. All members voted in favor.
132.
133. Mayor Hamsher moved on to a request from the Restore National Parks Campaign. This campaign is
134. asking for local cities in Oregon to help with the costs to maintain and keep up with maintenance needs
135. to keep these parks open and safe for visitors.
136. Councilor Phippen said that he is afraid that if the council approves this that the City maybe signing on
137. to costs that the City couldn’t afford. He said that this does not affect us and that we have no National
138. Parks in the surrounding area. The council did not want to move forward with this matter.
139.
140. Mayor Hamsher called on City Recorder, Bobbie Brown to address the utility billing adjustments. The
141. City has changed the utility billing software from Chaves Consulting to RVS Software in August.
142. When the new software was installed by RVS technicians there were mistakes of customers balances
143. that need to be adjusted. For next year’s audit purposes because there were a large number of
144. adjustments made to customer’s accounts, the adjustments need to be addressed on the recorded.
145. The City has now used RVS for 3 billing cycles and are still having issues with the new software. Some
146. accounts are not being billed each month, and those accounts are corrected with adjustments.
147. Hopefully in the next few months, the RVS system will be on track and all accounts will be right.
148.
149.
150.
151.

152. Adjourned at 7:21pm
153.
154.
155.Mayor Hamsher adjourned the regular council meeting at 7:49pm
156.
157.
158.  ________________________________
159.    Bobbie Brown, City Recorder
160.
161.
162.
163. Approved by the City Council this 12th day of December, 2018
164. and signed by the Mayor:
165.
166.
167.                   _______________________________

                                   Jim Hamsher, Mayor