Kirkway erosion project continues

Vicki Wares, coordinator of the Powder Basin Watershed Council, told the four councilors who attended Tuesday’s meeting that grants and in-kind donations have been raised or committed to cover all but $22,900 of the $204,000 Kirkway Project, provided Baker City and Baker County contribute $36,000 to haul the rock riprap designed to stabilize the river’s banks.

Wares said a group called the Kirkway Reach Powder River Partners has been working for two years to plan, design and secure grant and in-kind funding for the  project.

Partners include Kirkway Drive residents whose riverside property is being eroded, representatives of the watershed council, Baker Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, Baker Valley Irrigation District, Baker City Public Works Department, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That effort now appears to be drawing toward a conclusion, with a $118,800 grant from OWEB, $5,000 in-kind contribution from the Bureau of Reclamation, $20,000 in-kind from the Baker Valley Irrigation District, and $2,250 in cash from Kirkway residents.

Wares said the partners have applied for a federal grant through the Environmental Protection Agency to cover the remaining $22,900.

The group also is asking the county to supply the riprap and the city to haul the rock.

During Tuesday’s meeting, city staff reported that excavating and hauling the rock would cost an estimated $7,000, which Bogart said could be included in the proposed 2010-2011 fiscal year budget that the City Council will approve in June.

The fiscal year starts July 1.

Wares said county officials told her the county can donate the riprap.

Wares expects the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to announce in March whether the federal $22,900 grant has been approved.

With that money, workers could get started on stabilizing the river’s banks this fall, she said.

If the EPA rejects the grant application, then Wares said she will have to look elsewhere for that last piece of the funding, which could delay work until 2011.

Chuck Risley, who purchased property along the river in the Kirkway neighborhood in the 1970s, said he was losing so much land to erosion that at one time he had ordered rock and was preparing to do some streambank stabilization work on his stretch of property.

But Risley said a government official warned him that if he did so he could be fined $1,000 a day.

So Risley went to the Baker Valley SWCD and initiated the planning process that led to the formation of the Kirkway Partners and adoption of a formal cooperative plan to deal with the erosion that affects several property owners, including the city, which has a small park at the northern terminus of the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.

“That stretch of land has major erosion problems,” Risley said. “I’ve lost five feet of property to erosion in the last five years.”

Risley believes several factors have caused the river to flow faster and cause more streambank erosion in the last decade or so, including the installation of a concrete bridge support column in the river and the removal of old irrigation diversion dams to improve fish passage.

“I am still losing riverbank to the water, but we are working with everybody involved” to solve the problem, Risley said.

Wares said the successful planning and design work that’s about to come to fruition would not have been possible without the cooperation of all the landowners, agencies and others affected and involved.

“We have our permits all lined up. All we need is the last dollars and a $1,000 certification fee,” Wares said.

“It is great to see how everybody has worked together, and the number in red is small,” said Councilor Beverly Calder.

In other business Tuesday, the City Council approved by a 4-0 vote the first reading of the city codification revisions.

City Manager Steve Bogart said the code changes must be approved at three readings during separate City Council meetings.

He said the public will have two more opportunities to comment on the code changes, which are available for public review at City Hall, 1655 First St.

Calder said the revised codes will also be posted on the city’s Web site — www.bakercity.com — soon.

Calder noted that Tim Collins initiated work to update and modernize the city codes decades ago when he first came to work for the city as city attorney, and that he was proud to have been involved in the final process during a nearly seven-month stint as city manager pro-tem that ended with the hiring of Bogart, who started work Feb. 1.

Calder said a company that specialized in codification updates was hired two years ago for $10,000 to work with city staff and councilors to complete the codification changes.

Calder said the new code, which include a variety of city ordinances, will be much more user-friendly.

“It is a lifesaver for staff,” Bogart said. “I want to applaud council and staff. This is really quality stuff that will benefit Baker City for a long time.”

Discussion delayed

Also on Tuesday the Council decided to remove from the agenda the “discussion of agenda item policy/resolution No. 3407.”

The council by consensus decided to instead discuss possible revisions to Resolution 3407 at a March 8 work session, including Bogart’s proposal to prohibit the Council from voting on items that weren’t listed on the published agenda for a meeting.

Bogart said he proposed that policy to put to rest a smoldering dispute among councilors over the Council’s June 9, 2009, firing of City Manager Steve Brocato.

The matter of Brocato’s employment was not listed on the agenda for that meeting.

Although Bogart suggested the Council consider his proposal as a separate item, Mayor Dennis Dorrah and some councilors had proposed to discuss the idea as part of a review of the six-page Resolution 3407, which deals with appropriate conduct of councilors, staff and the public during meetings.

Councilor Andrew Bryan said after Tuesday’s meeting that he would have preferred to discuss Bogart’s proposed policy revision Tuesday because that meeting was televised, whereas the March 8 work session is not scheduled to be shown on Cable Channel 3.

However, Bogart said he thinks it was appropriate to reschedule the discussion because Dorrah and Councilors Milo Pope and Sam Bass were absent Tuesday.

In other action Tuesday the council approved proclamations for Disability Awareness Week and National Future Business Leaders of America Phi-Beta Lambda Week.