With another fire season almost here, the Burns City Council voted to move forward with leasing a 3,000-gallon fuel truck to boost the fuel supply at the Burns Municipal Airport.

City Manager (CM) Dauna Wensenk told the council the city could lease the truck for three months at a cost of $1,500 a month. Wensenk explained that the city’s current fuel supplier has just one driver to bring fuel to the airport and during a fire last year, the fuel didn’t arrive in time to supply the aircraft fighting the blaze.

“If there’s a fire this year, there’s a chance that could happen again,” she said.

She stated that it is a bit of a gamble, not knowing if there’s going to be a fire.

An added benefit of having the fuel truck is that it would be able to drive out to aircraft to refuel them, avoiding some of the congestion near the fuel pumps.

The airport has a 10,000-gallon tank, and the additional fuel truck would give a fuel supplier ample time to arrive should the current supply run low.

“The issue of fuel and capacity of storage has been an issue from day one of me being on the council,” Mayor Jerry Woodfin said. “It is not a new issue. It is an issue that’s never been resolved.”

The council voted to move forward with leasing the fuel truck, based on negotiations with the fuel supplier, with Councilor Forrest Keady casting the lone nay vote.

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At a previous council meeting, representatives from the High Desert Biomass Cooperative asked the council to waive the franchise fee for five years. Before making the decision, the council asked to see financial statements from the cooperative, which were provided for the June 27 meeting.

Woodfin stated that after looking at the statements, he felt the council would be hindering a nonprofit from moving forward by not granting their request.

Keady disagreed, pointing out that if the fees paid to the city were under the “taxes and fees” line item, it’s an insignificant amount.

“My question, if they want to come and speak to the council, would be, are they asking for some type of adjustment on their interest rate with these large loans?” Keady asked. “Because that is a huge expense.”

Councilor Dennis Davis reviewed the profit and loss statement, and said the issue isn’t a revenue problem, it’s the expenses. He noted that the largest expenses are interest and property taxes, and those are foreseeable costs.

“Generally speaking, when you have a start-up business, it takes about five years before you get to the break even point. So no one should have been expecting from day one that they opened the doors they were going to start showing a profit,” Davis said. “All of this should have been forecasted in their business plans. These are all foreseeable numbers. They’re not new; they’re not unexpected; they were easily calculable…for doing the  analysis for this project. I don’t see where their issue is.”

Councilor Liz Appelman reminded the council that the cooperative representatives mentioned being hit with a large, unexpected tax bill from the state, but Keady pointed out that is not represented in the financial statements.

The original franchise agreement, adopted in February 2016, showed the original owners, Harney Community Energy, was to pay $1,500 a quarter. The last payment received was in May 2017, and the council questioned who was responsible for the payment?

CM Wensenk pointed out that the franchise agreement does not show that the agreement was transferred to High Desert Biomass Cooperative.

The council agreed there were still too many unanswered questions and will ask the biomass representatives to attend another meeting.

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Denise Rose from the Harney County Economic Development office presented the council with a written quarterly update, and said she will continue to provide the updates every three months.

The council asked that she provide a couple packets of information for city hall to hand out if needed, and requested a one-page synopsis for those not wanting the full packet.

Keady said a resident was turned down for two grant requests, and one of the reasons was “lack of local support.” He asked Rose if she knew exactly what that meant, and if there was anything the city could be doing to help?

Rose said she would look into it.

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In other business:

• the council approved Resolution 18-653 adopting the 2018-2019 budget in the amount of $6, 593,563, making appropriations, and imposing and categorizing taxes;

• the council approved a deed of dedication from Floyd H. and Suzanne K. Garland;

• the council approved an intergovernmental agreement for right-of-way services, contingent upon review by legal counsel. CM Wensenk stated that the project is funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation and includes putting in sidewalks on both sides of D Street from Broadway to South Egan, and on the east side of North Grand, and along Monroe Street. There will be a public hearing in August, and letters will be going out to residents on North Grand as some of them are using the right-of-way for personal use;

• the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) asked the city to complete a ballot listing issues identified by eight policy committees as priorities for the upcoming legislative session. CM Wensenk asked the council to vote for their top four issues and return the ballot to her so she could tally the votes and submit the results to the LOC;

• Councilor Appelman reported a committee met with the contractor about replacing the restrooms at Washington Park. She said he agreed to their wishes, and would bring back the plans once they are finished. The work is expected to begin after this year’s county fair;

• the council voted to accept financing from Umpqua Bank to purchase a mini-excavator in the amount of $55,851.06;

• Dave Vickstrom thanked the public works department for mowing along the nature trail between Burns and Hines, and the county for spraying weeds along the trail;

• Mel Dixon told the council his neighbor was defecating outside in the yard, and was living in an RV. Dixon said the neighbor was cited previously and he thought the problem was solved, but it continued. CM Wensenk stated that the matter went to justice court and Burns Police were still working on the issue;

• Councilor Davis said he gave a presentation about the economic situation at the airport during the previous meeting, and he wanted it to be clear that the economic situation at the airport has nothing to do with the management capabilities of Walt and Pat Sitz, the airport managers. He said nothing about the presentation indicated anything derogatory toward the airport management;

• the council approved Resolution 18-652, setting water and sewer rates for the city. The new rates will reflect a 2 percent increase in both the water and sewer rates.