Paul Zipser of Burns Electric and Dale Houck of Great Basin Plumbing attended the regular meeting of the Harney County Court to voice their concerns about people doing electrical, plumbing, and other work without the proper licenses or permits.

“It’s getting rampant,” Zipser said. “It’s the ‘Wild West’ out there.”

Explaining that he’s concerned about public safety, Zipser stressed, “I’m not saying this to get work because we’re busy.”

Residential Building Inspector Howard Palmer said, “It’s a safety issue,” adding that lives are put in danger when work isn’t done up to code.

Houck said he’s reported specific incidences, jobs, and locations to the Oregon Construction Contractors Board (CCB) to no avail, which is discouraging for those who are licensed.

“I see it all over town — people working who don’t have a license at all doing things they should not be doing,” Houck said, adding that others are doing work that they aren’t authorized to do under a general contractors license. “It makes me want to know why I’m paying my fees and doing my continuing ed and jumping through all the hoops when ‘Joe Blow’ can just go do whatever he wants to, and there is absolutely no enforcement at all.”

Zipser asked the court to help come up with a “game plan” for enforcement.

“I feel like it’s going on all over the county,” Harney County Judge Pete Runnels said, adding that he’s asked the cities of Burns and Hines to help with enforcement.

Harney County Commissioner Patty Dorroh said she’s on the CCB, and it’s mostly for consumer protection.

“Their enforcement section isn’t really what you’re talking about,” she said.

However, she said she’d like to follow up with Zipser, Houck, and CCB department heads.

Palmer said enforcement is within local jurisdiction. Runnels said the county may need an enforcement officer and fines will help curb the problem.

Zipser agreed stating, “If you’re not hitting people in the pocketbook, you’re not going to get their attention.”

Zipser also expressed concern about people living in storage sheds. Runnels wrote a letter to the  manufacturers reminding them that the sheds shouldn’t be occupied. However, he stressed that consumers are responsible for using the sheds appropriately.

The court will work with Zipser and Houck to seek solutions.

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Lori Bailey, Melissa Ward, and Aaron Gagnon of the U.S. Forest Service attended the meeting to provide an overview of the Rattlesnake Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project.

The purpose of the project is to:

• reduce fuels (including surface, ladder, and crown fuels);

• alter fire behavior (intensity, duration, rate of spread, torching, and crowning); and

• move the area toward historical fire behavior (low-intensity surface fires) and regime (frequency) with historical effects on vegetation (from high mortality to low mortality).

The project area, which is located on the southeastern edge of the Emigrant Creek Ranger District, is about 32,235 acres. Proposed actions include biomass removal, landscape-scale prescribed burning, and road activities. Major roads in the project area include forest roads 2800, 2820, 2810, 2830, 2850, and 2815 roads.

The project was developed in cooperation with the Harney County Restoration Collaborative.

The Emigrant Creek Ranger District is seeking verbal or written input including site-specific issues, concerns, or opportunities that should be considered. Comments can be submitted to Bailey at 265 Highway 20 S., Hines, OR 97738 or emailed to comments-pacificnorthwest-malheur-emigrantcreek@fs.fed.us. The deadline for submitting comments is Friday, Dec. 28.

Additional information regarding the project can be found online at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=50792

•••

Noe Reyes, range management specialist for the Emigrant Creek Ranger District, attended the meeting to discuss the South Silvies Complex Grazing Allotments Environmental Analysis, which will examine the reauthorization of grazing on three allotments (the Big Sagehen, Silvies, and Bridge Creek). The grazing allotments are located 18 miles north of Burns and 2 miles south of Seneca in Harney and Grant counties.

Comments concerning the project will be accepted until Friday, Dec. 21.

For more information, call Range National Environmental Policy Act Coordinator Marion Mahaffey at 541-575-3302 or email marionmahaffey@fs.fed.us.

•••

In other business, the court:

• held a moment of silence for former President George H. W. Bush who passed away Nov. 30;

• adopted Ordinance 2018-83 in the matter of amending the Harney County Comprehensive Plan to establish public lands goals, objectives, policies, and policy actions.

The ordinance was read twice by title only. It was read for the first time during the previous county court meeting (Nov. 21) and the second time during the Dec. 5 meeting;

• approved Resolution 2018-19 in the matter of closing the Harney County Clerk’s Office due to fiscal emergency.

“We opted to be closed Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as requested as furlough days by the employees to help with a discovered budget challenge,” Runnels explained. However, he added that, “The clerk’s office can’t be closed four days in a row without a resolution declaring it [is] due to a fiscal emergency;”

• appointed Jerry Staley and Chance Peila to another term on the Harney County Fair Board.

Harney County Commissioner Mark Owens said he likes Staley’s idea of building a multipurpose expo center, and he believes it can be accomplished if the fair board becomes a nonprofit. Runnels said Peila’s letter of interest “was from the heart,” and Dorroh said she was impressed with his “totally transparent approach to everything;”

• adopted Ordinance 2018-84, which accelerates the redemption and imposition of fines for properties subject to waste and abandonment.

“It is how we can have local enforcement for a public safety and health issue,” Owens said regarding the ordinance. “Right now, we have no way to exercise that local authority.”

Runnels explained that the ordinance puts procedures in place (including a hearing) that will allow the county to move forward.

The ordinance has an emergency clause, which allowed the court to read it twice by title only and adopt it;

• discussed water use requests;

• received an update from Owens regarding the Blue Mountains Forest Plan resolution meetings.

“I was very impressed with the Washington office. Their intention, desire, and willingness to learn and understanding that there’s a disconnect with this plan and the local community and local governments was very good to see,” he said;

• received an update from Susan Christensen, executive director of the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation (GEODC).

The county used grant funds to hire GEODC to create a “road map” for strengthening middle-class housing in the community, and Christensen is exploring finance options.

The next meeting of the Harney County Court will be held Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m. in Runnels’ office at the courthouse.