By Lauren Brown
Burns Times-Herald

Burns City Council member Jim Eshelby surprised the rest of the council when he resigned at the end of the March 12 meeting.

He left his seat, walked around to face his fellow members and said, “This is my last meeting. I’m just tired.”

Eshelby thanked the council telling them that he thought they were a great bunch of people, and then walked out of the meeting.

Eshelby’s term would have been up in December of this year, so now the council will have to find a replacement until residents elect another councilor in November.

In other business:

• the city’s letterhead has become a major issue of discussion among community members. At a February council meeting, Burns City Manager Justin Boone proposed a new Steens Mountain logo for the city’s letterhead. It would have replaced the city’s old logo featuring a Scotsman. However, the city received so much feedback from residents who didn’t want to do away with the Scotsman, that Boone had Cindy Witzel from Design Journeys come up with another design featuring a different Scotsman, this one playing the bagpipes.

He offered the new Scotsman logo up for comment at the March 12 meeting. “This is sort of a shot in the dark,” Boone said. “I don’t feel particularly passionate about this logo.”

Councilor Linda Johnson and Acting Mayor Lev Vohs, who was sitting in for Mayor Laura Van Cleave, said they would like to see something more akin to Burns High School’s warrior Scotsman on the city letterhead. Johnson said the warrior logo would be more consistent with the signs drivers see as they are entering and exiting Burns.

“I’d like to see a more professional appearance for our city logo,” said Vohs who isn’t particularly fond of the cartoonish nature of the current Scotsman.
Resident Roger Reason commented that the city is not the high school and said he didn’t think it was appropriate for the city to have the exact same logo as Burns High School.

The discussion concluded with no action taken;

• after some negotiating with City Attorney Steve Finlayson and Unicel representative Randy Winlake, the council approved a lease agreement with RCC Atlantic, Inc., which will give Unicel permission to install a cell tower on the city’s water tower.

Winlake said the agreement will give Unicel customers better coverage in downtown Burns. As part of the agreement, RCC Atlantic will pay the City of Burns $12,000 annually, for a period of 25 years, to lease the water tower site.

• the council discussed the possibility of including funding for a code enforcement officer in next year’s budget.

City Manager Boone stated that the City of Hines may consider splitting the salary for a code enforcement officer, who would then patrol both cities. He said that it would probably be a 60 percent (Burns), 40 percent (Hines) split. The officer would use the fire chief’s old vehicle, which would be outfitted with a cage to transport dogs caught at large.

Councilor Renwick said that if the city does hire a code enforcement officer, he would like to see someone with police credentials.

Boone said that someone with police credentials would probably require a higher salary, somewhere in the range of $30,000 to $40,000.

Pro-tem Councilor Yvonne Warden, who is filling in for Sean Wilson, stated that she felt the city should not pick someone with police credentials. However, she said she felt a code enforcement officer was needed. She said the issue has been addressed at budget time for the last two years. Both times funding for the job has been struck down.

Acting Mayor Vohs said that the city has been looking to fix the problem for quite a while. “It’s going to take some creative financing to get it done,” he said;

• City Manager Boone brought up the issue regarding renewal of the parks, cemetery and airport contracts.

In the past, the city has renewed these contracts without putting them out for bid. However, last year, Councilor Wilson suggested that for legal and fiscal reasons, the city should put them out to bid like all other contracts.

Boone said that currently the parks and cemetery contracts are grouped together as one contract, but logically, they should probably be split up because of the amount of work involved. “I’m in no way saying that the current groundskeeper isn’t doing what he is supposed to do,” Boone said. “I’m just saying it’s a big job for one person.”

City Clerk Dauna Wensenk noted that if the contracts go out for bid, the bids will be higher than what the city is currently paying because contractors will need to pay for new equipment.

Some councilors agreed with splitting the parks and cemetery contract and others thought it would cost the city more money. However, the general consensus seemed to be to keep the parks and cemetery contract as one.

Councilor Johnson then moved to rebid the contracts (keeping the parks and cemetery together) with specific rebid dates included. The motion was approved unanimously.

• Vohs reminded the council that the city will schedule another public meeting, likely during the week of April 7, to discuss whether or not the city should change Monroe Street from four lanes to three lanes. He stated that he hoped residents would come with open minds to hear the pros and cons of each option.

• the council appointed Tom Sharp to the Airport Committee.

• the council approved a $150 donation to fund a table for the HHope shelter’s 25th anniversary dinner to be held May 8 at the Valley Golf Club;

The next Burns City Council meeting will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Burns City Hall.