Joseph City Council extinguishes Shooters’ ‘smoking room’ request

Published 2:59 pm Friday, April 9, 2010

JOSEPH – The Joseph City Council Tuesday said no to a request to add a “smoking room” to a downtown business.

The council voted to deny a request from Casey Sidoti, owner of

Shooters on South Main Street, to construct a smoking room on the north

side of his building. Sidoti said the structure is important to his

business since the no-smoking law went into effect.

He said he would like to provide a comfortable place for patrons of his business to smoke legally.

The council consensus was that it would be unwise to set a precedent by allowing a structure to be built in the public right of way. Sidoti said it seems silly to have a 100-foot right of way there since the sidewalk is a dead-end on that block.

The council suggested he continue to explore ideas that might suit his needs and stay within city ordinances.

In another matter, the council approved a request from the Wallowa County Farmers Market Committee to close Joseph Street between the city library and the Baptist Church from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays from Memorial Day to Oct. 9 to make room for vendor booths.

The council approved the request with the suggestion that residents in the homes nearest this location be notified of the closure.

Other new business items included the approval to hire Lynn Price in the seasonal temporary Main Street maintenance position pending a satisfactory meeting with public works foreman Rowdy Smith and council members Troy Berglund and Jim Zacharias. They will discuss issues of vehicle use, coordination of volunteers, and reporting to city maintenance staff.

The council also approved the appointment of Michael Moore and Sharon Newell to fill two openings on the budget committee. Councilor Zacharias encouraged Joseph residents to attend the budget meetings and not wait until after the budget is approved to give input and ask questions. Meeting times will be publicized and posted at a later date.

Mayor Dennis Sands reported that the city Website Committee has met and looked at proposals for designing a new site. Sands said there are a lot of community members with talent who are willing to volunteer to construct the website.

Sands appointed Tom Bingham, Robert Proctor, and Sheila Ames to the committee and they will meet to make decisions within a couple of weeks. Sands also suggested the city set up a Facebook page to facilitate notifications of committee meetings or changes in scheduled meetings. Council members were undecided whether to move forward on the idea, with Teresa Sajonia and Zacharias weighing in on the negative side.

Sands offered to do more research into whether other cities are using social networking.

The council gave its approval for the first Dandelion Festival scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The purpose of the festival, according to Rotary representative Bill Finney, is to get non-profit organizations to do fundraisers and contribute the funds to community projects.

Announcements included a report from Smith on the planned improvements to Joseph City Park. The Keith Waters Memorial Fund is dedicated to be used for park improvements and the Waters family suggested the public barbecue area be rebuilt and modernized.

Smith said that concrete and needed fixtures have been donated to the project. New trees to mask the city shop building and to replace old, dying trees will add to the improvements.

Sands announced the City Clean-Up Day is scheduled for May 5. It will be a joint effort with the Joseph School District, but more volunteers are needed. More information and sign-up is available at city hall.

The next Joseph City Council meeting is scheduled May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Joseph Community Center.