JOSEPH — The city of Joseph has a new administrator with the hiring of Dan Larman during the Thursday, July 7, city council meeting.

Larman’s hiring brings to a close a situation ongoing since April 2021 when former Administrator Larry Braden resigned citing claims of harassment that prevented him from doing his job.

Larman, who moved from Elgin in March, has been working with interim Administrator Brock Eckstein since then.

The hiring came after a recent interview of four applicants for the job. Eckstein said via Zoom that one of those applicants decided to take a job elsewhere and the council opted for Larman. He was voted in on a unanimous decision.

The council has yet to negotiate a permanent contract with Larman. In the meantime, Eckstein recommended Larman be compensated under the current provisions for a city administrator.

“I appreciate the chance to throw my hat in the ring and I’m looking forward to working with everybody and helping out where I can,” Larman said to the council. “We’ve got a lot of projects on board and I’m ready to get going.”

In another position change, Public Works Director Levi Tickner is stepping into a role primarily as operator of the water and sewer plants while Michael Harshfield takes on the other duties Tickner has overseen.

Mayor Lisa Collier thanked Tickner for continuing the tradition of hanging posters of this year’s high school graduates downtown.

“I think that’s so cool and despite COVID, it’s something we need to keep going,” she said.

Ordinances enforced

The council also heard a report from Douglas McKinnis, the city’s ordinance enforcement officer, who said he has removed at least seven nonoperational vehicles from around town and he expects more to be removed in August.

He also has been contacting city residents who have not been keeping up their yards. He said some of the homes are those of deceased residents or part-time residents and the challenge has been finding out who is responsible for the homes. He also mentioned a couple houses that are damaged and have been condemned that need to be removed.

McKinnis also said a citywide cleanup day will be held probably in late August after the majority of tourists have left. Anyone interested can contact City Hall for more information.

RV park

In another matter, the council held a public hearing on a request by John Zurita to change zoning at 709 N. Main St. from commercial to general residential. Zurita wants to locate a small RV park at the site, which is on the corner of Main Street and Russell Lane.

The council ended up tabling the matter after hearing several comments from the public in opposition to Zurita’s plans. Opposition was expressed based on the possibility of traffic congestion caused by residents turning into the RV park and the alteration of the downtown character by having such a park just as drivers enter the town.

Zurita was asked if the Oregon Department of Transportation had been asked if it could install a turn lane at the site of his planned park. He said he has discussed it with ODOT, but the agency wants to know what the city will do before sending anyone to look over the site.

That issue and others in which the city needs more information led to it being tabled.

Transient license

The council also heard from Alicia Hayes, who owns and operates All-American Coffee, a mobile coffee vendor who is based in Enterprise but hopes to do business in Joseph. However, Hayes said, the cost of the city’s transient business license fee is prohibitive. At $475 a year for a business that doesn’t maintain a year-round presence in Joseph, Hayes said she has done research into what other towns charge and found Joseph’s fee considerably higher.

However, others who spoke said their brick-and-mortar permanent businesses pay taxes for city services and the transient fee is a way to tax transient businesses.

The council agreed this was another issue it needs to address in a work session.