The Baker City Council is meeting Tuesday evening, Feb. 25, at Quail Ridge Golf Course.

The meeting, like the Feb. 11 meeting, was moved from Baker City Hall due to water damage in council chambers from a leaking roof.

Main Street traffic pattern and parking discussion

City Manager Barry Murphy said he has heard multiple concerns about the issue during his 14 months in the position, including potential danger to pedestrians crossing four lanes of traffic.

In a report to councilors, Murphy recommends the city appoint a working group to discuss Main Street options for traffic patterns and for parking. The group should include representatives from the city, Main Street business owners and Baker City Downtown, the nonprofit that promotes downtown events and works to represent and revitalize the historic downtown district.

One potential change, Murphy wrote, is changing the current Main Street traffic configuration — two travel lanes in each direction — to one travel lane in each direction with a center turn lane. The street would remain the same width, 70 feet from curb to curb.

Beverly Calder, a former city councilor and Main Street business owner, said she recently had a conversation with several other downtown business owners, and pedestrian safety on Main Street was a main topic, as was the need for more parking.

“This is a real opportunity,” Calder said. “A huge opportunity.”

She said she strongly supports changing Main Street from four lanes to three.

“I know there will be people who won’t like it,” Calder said. “But it’s safer. It will allow pedestrians to feel much more comfortable. We have a really wonderful downtown.”

Calder said parking is a complicated topic. There is a need for more parking, she said.

She said changing to angle parking, instead of the current parallel parking on Main Street, would significantly increase the number of parking spaces. Calder said she understands that angle parking is controversial, citing the city’s decision more than 20 years ago to switch to angle parking on sections of First Street.

She urged the council to “be bold.”

“We need more parking,” Calder said.

Calder volunteered to serve on the working group Murphy suggested.

Ariel Reker, executive director of Baker City Downtown, said the group conducted a downtown parking survey last year. 

Reker said she received four emails from business owners Tuesday, with two in favor of angle parking and two opposed. All four supported changing Main Street from four lanes to three.

Councilor Gratton Miller said he has been approached by multiple downtown business owners, and they told him they supported the city at least discussing the issues, including angle parking, parking permits for downtown residents, and changing the traffic striping.

“In my opinion this is an opportunity we should take,” Miller said.

He pointed out that the Oregon Department of Transportation has offered to pay to paint new stripes should councilors choose that option.

Councilor Doni Bruland said she supports the change to three lanes, but she said she would not endorse angle parking on Main Street.

Councilor Helen Loennig said “we definitely need to increase parking.”

She also mentioned the need to have sufficient disabled parking spots.

Mayor Randy Daugherty said that based on councilor comments, there is a consensus to appoint a working committee as Murphy proposed.

“Barry will take the lead on this,” Daugherty said.

Other streets, and cities

ODOT changed Campbell Street east of Main Street in 2000 from four travel lanes to three, one of those a center turn-only lane.

According to ODOT, benefits of changing from a four-lane to three-lane street can include:

• Reduction of rear-end and left-turn crashes due to the dedicated left-turn lane, since drivers no longer have to stop in a travel lane while waiting to make a turn.

• Reduced right-angle crashes as side street motorists cross three versus four travel lanes.

• Fewer lanes for pedestrians to cross.

Restriping typically is done on streets with an average daily traffic count of less than 25,000, according to ODOT.

The average volume for Main Street in downtown Baker City is 3,800 to 6,300, according to ODOT. Campbell Street’s average is 5,000 to 11,200.

Murphy wrote in his report to councilors that the current configuration on Main Street “leads to vehicles having excessive speed through this downtown corridor. The speed of the traffic impacts some residents’ comfort level with parking on Main Street, and the crosswalks that are not at a traffic signal can be hazardous if there are cars parked that block the view of oncoming traffic or if vehicles are speeding. The four lanes of traffic are also a long distance for pedestrians using crosswalks, especially at night. Crosswalks that cover a shorter distance are safer and can be more comfortable for people enjoying the downtown business district.”

Murphy recommends councilors, with the proposed working group, look into the possibility of changing Main Street from four lanes to three.

He included with his report a 2018 ODOT study of several cities, including Baker City, where thoroughfares were reconfigured from four lanes to three, a tactic known as a “road diet.”

On Adams Avenue in downtown La Grande, where the change was made in 1986-87, traffic crashes dropped by 52% in 1988, and there were 45% fewer crashes in 2016 compared with 1985.

After ODOT restriped Highway 20 through Hines, just south of Burns, in 1998, crashes over the next five years dropped by 62% compared with the five-year period before the change, according to ODOT.

Campbell Street in Baker City had a smaller decrease in crashes after it was restriped from four lanes to three —15% for the five-year period after the change compared with the previous five years.

There was a larger drop in injury crashes, however — 34%.

In 2015 there were eight crashes on that section of Campbell Street, a drop of 35% compared with the five-year period before the lane change.

New fire chief

Murphy said the new chief, Michael Carlton, will start April 1.

Ambulance backup

Murphy told councilors that having the city fire department respond with an ambulance when Pioneer (formerly Metro West) has all of its ambulances on other calls would benefit the city as well as Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City.

Murphy said one goal is to free up Pioneer to transfer patients from Baker City to other hospitals. With the city’s ambulance available, Pioneer would be able to assign one of its ambulances for an out-of-town trip without reducing coverage within the city.

In a report to councilors, Murphy wrote that work is under way to make the Baker City Fire Department the official backup to Pioneer Ambulance if Pioneer’s ambulances are all on other calls.

The city has dispatched an ambulance a few times since 2022, when a previous city council decided to discontinue the ambulance service.

Baker County commissioners, who by state law are responsible for choosing ambulance providers, hired Metro West in June 2022.

The fire department still has an ambulance, and all firefighters are either paramedics or EMTs.

County commissioners have approved the first reading of a county ordinance that allows the city to serve as a backup to Pioneer.

On Feb. 19, Murphy and Tim Novotny, regional manager for Pioneer, signed an agreement under which Pioneer, when there is a projected delay of 10 minutes or more to respond to an emergency, can ask the fire department to respond if possible.

Under the agreement, which would be in place from April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, Pioneer would pay the city 100% of the amount billed for an ambulance response.

Murphy wrote that other steps are needed, though, before the city can start responding to calls from Pioneer.

The city needs to obtain an ambulance license from the Oregon Health Authority. County commissioners sent a letter to OHA supporting the city’s application for a license.

Fire department employees will also need to train with Pioneer on its protocols.

“All of this is now in the works as we wait for the license to come through,” Murphy wrote in his report to councilors.

Daugherty said he’s pleased with the situation.

“We’re making progress after two years,” Daugherty said.

Dog impound

Murphy said the Baker Veterinary Clinic has received several dogs since taking over the contract with the city previously held by the Animal Clinic of Baker.

Councilor Doni Bruland asked whether the city could allow the veterinary clinic to collect impound fees for the city at times when city hall is closed, to avoid situations when an owner can’t reclaim a pet during the weekend.

Murphy said it might be possible to do so, but he said he endorses the idea only at times when city hall is closed.

Dementia Friendly Baker County presentation

Councilors heard about the program that started in the county in 2022. Its goals include helping residents with dementia live independently as long as possible, and supporting both people with dementia and those who care for them.

The program is run by volunteers and supported by grants.

Public safety fee — assisted living facilities

In a report to councilors, Murphy wrote that the owner of commercial properties in the city asked the city to review the public safety fee, which the council imposed in June 2024, and specifically whether the city’s policy of charging the $20 commercial rate for assisted living facilities, rather than the $10 residential rate for each unit in such facilities, is consistent.

The city does charge the residential rate for each unit in larger apartment complexes.

In his report, Murphy recommends that the council continue to charge the commercial rate for assisted living facilities. He wrote that based on a city ordinance, a unit in an assisted living facility “does not appear to fit the intended definition of a ‘residential unit.’”

Murphy wrote that assisted living facilities “are not intended primary as residential units. They are intended as medical facilities that help residents with varying degrees of abilities to live independently.”

Daugherty, along with Councilors Miller and Bruland, both agreed with Murphy that assisted living facilities should not be treated as residential units.

Murphy said the city will not change how it assesses the fee for assisted living facilities.

The council approved the public safety fee to offset a projected shortfall of about $900,000 in the city’s general fund for the fiscal year that started July 1, 2024. Councilors wanted to avoid possible cuts in the police and fire departments, which make up about 57% of the general fund.

The public safety fee generates about $750,000 per year. The ordinance setting the fee states that the money collected “shall be used for expenses in Public Safety Departments and for no other purpose.”

Public works materials bid

Joyce Bornstedt, the city’s public works director, said bids for pipe were less expensive than the city expected.

The city has two main projects planned this year. One is continuing a project, started more than a decade ago, to replace the aging concrete pipeline that brings water to town from the city’s watershed. The city plans to replace about a mile of concrete pipe, with PVC pipe, from Elk Creek to Little Salmon Creek.

The second is installing a larger stormwater line, 21 inches in diameter compared to the current 12 inches, from Campbell Street to B Street to increase the capacity to handle runoff.

The $490,000 bid is from Core and Main of Meridian, Idaho.