City appoints new Ward 1 alderman, City nixes payroll tax holiday proposal moves to fill vacancies Staff Report
Michael Loutzenhiser has been sworn in as the new Ward 1 alderman for the city. Loutzenhiser became the newest member of the City Council on the morning of Sept. 17, when he was sworn in at City Hall by Mayor Steve Zachmann in the lobby of the Fallon County Courthouse. The City Council decided to appoint him at their Sept. 16 meeting. After being sworn in, Loutzenhiser was able to be a full voting participant at the Sept. 23 special meeting of the city council to help fill the vacancy for the city public works director. “The reason for the special meeting is to fill two vacancies in the Public Works Department,” the mayor explained Tuesday. “And it is to revisit the recommendation to hire the public works director.” The decision to select the new director had been tabled by the council at its Sept. 16 meeting until there could be a full city council. “The Wednesday meeting (Sept. 23) will also be to open up a hiring process. We will be addressing the two open positions and whether to fill one or two and to solicit for applications,” the mayor explained. The foreman and one of the hands in the department resigned, prompting the council to decide if they would fill both vacancies and how the process would be handled, Zachmann
said. The process is to solicit applications by advertisement. “When we get those, we will decide on a closing date for applications. We will select qualified applicants, interview and then make a recommendation to the council for the hire or hires,” the mayor added. The vacancies would probably be addressed by the city by the middle of October at the earliest, he said New councilor Loutzenhiser, who works for Griffith Steel in Baker, was chosen over one other candidate, with both getting a chance to speak at the Sept. 16 meeting in the Fallon County Courthouse. A Baker resident who graduated from high school with the class of 1997, Loutzenhiser said he wanted to bring some fresh eyes to Michael Loutzenhiser being sworn in as Alderman for meeting the needs of his commu- Ward 1 by Mayor Steve Zachmann on Sept. 17, 2020. nity after he got the appointment the next position came open anyway. Sept. 16. “It just came sooner than I thought it After graduation, he spent three years in the U.S. Army, stationed mostly at Ft. was going to,” he added. He admitted that one of his first jobs in Carson in Colorado. “I have lived in Baker for pretty much the new position would be to help the city my whole life – 41 years,” he said after meet its budget. “They have some shortfalls in the budget. I have fresh eyes and the meeting ended. “I have had lots of ideas and I figured can see if there is something that I spot, now was the time to implement it. I was ask questions and see if there are things going to put my name in the ring when that we can change,” he explained.
Staff Report
The City of Baker decided not to approve a federal payroll tax holiday in the Sept. 16 meeting of the city council. According to Kevin Dukart, the city treasurer and clerk, the holiday would create problems not only for the software the city uses, but also for the employees. The holiday proposal was declined by a unanimous 3-0 margin, with the council still shorthanded and awaiting the appointment of a new alderman for Ward 1. The federal tax holiday plan was part of the COVID-19 response, Mayor Steve Zachmann told the council members. “The proposal is that the employer could waive the payroll taxes for the remainder of this year,” the mayor explained. Dukart said that if the employee makes less than a certain amount in their semi-month pay period the social security could be waived through the end of the year. “But after the end of the year, it would have to be paid back. With that in mind and with all our payroll being done with software... it would be fairly hard to reconfigure our software to do this. It would be a risk for the city if they allow this. The employee doesn’t get a choice – it is the city’s choice. “If the employee quit, the city would have to pay that money back. “In my opinion, it is not in the
best interests of the city,” Dukart said, noting that the employees would even have to pay the taxes later. According to the city attorney, Rich Batterman, the city employees would see a short time benefit, but he recommended against the payroll tax holiday in part because the employees would have to pay the money back in the first months of 2021. For the employees that rely on a paycheck each and every month, there would be a 6.5 percent benefit if adopted, but it would have to be paid back in the first five months of 2021, Batterman explained. “It causes a heck of a mess for the employers to track,” he said. “It will cause a mess for the employees that rely on a paycheck each month. “The recommendation is to maintain the status quo. I don’t believe the ‘tax holiday’ is really a holiday.” In addition, Batterman said that with the unpaid federal payroll tax the employee is essentially being punished for not receiving their contribution to Social Security. “We need to protect our employees’ retirement benefits,” he added. Tracey Goerndt made the motion to decline the payroll tax holiday and it was seconded by Pat Ehret. The decision to decline was approved by a 3-0 margin, with Brittany Hoversland providing the third vote.
Coastal fires create inland haze, health alerts
Sunsets, even in Baker and neighboring North Dakota, have become brilliant red and watchable to the naked eye because of the massive firestorms ranging across the Pacific states. PHOTO/Brad Mosher
By Brad Mosher
bmosher@countrymedia.net
The firestorm roaring through the western states is leaving a mark thousands of miles away from the battle to protect homes and communities.
Even residents of Montana and North Dakota are feeling the impact of the disaster. It is evident in the hazy skies shrouding the usual panoramic view of the Badlands and the mountains. That same haze which has brought brilliantly red sunsets has also threatened people. Air quality from Washington, Oregon and California has reached unhealthy levels in some parts of the Intermountain and Great Plains regions. According to the air quality index, the numbers of 0 to 50 are considered to be good as far as air pollution, while the next level is moderate (50-100) with some health restrictions. The next level is unhealthy for sensitive groups (100-150), while 150-200 is unhealthy and 200 to 300 is considered very unhealthy. An air quality index of 300 to 500 is described as hazardous. But some communities have even exceeded that mark, with the California resort community of Mammoth Lakes having scores of 466 and 604 Sunday according to testing reported Sunday. Both scores would qualify as the air being hazardous to the health. By comparison, the inland states have escaped the worst of the air quality problems. The worst air quality reading in Bowman was in late August when it hit 51, just over the line into moderate air quality (51-100) and came close over the weekend when it hit 49 again. In Baker, just a short distance west of border, the Montana city has been in the the unhealthy range several times. In late August, Baker hit 51, then over the past week it reached 49. Over the weekend, the air quality index was 53. Montana covered in smoke In Billings, the National Weather Service office said that there are weather trends which will lessen the impact even more. About two weeks ago, Billings had air quality index readings of 156, which made the air unhealthy for all residents in the area. By Monday morning, it was down to 38. Meteorologist Nickolai Reimer said Friday that a front would be coming through the area which would clean the air up. “But, over all for at least the next week you are going to have us right in that line for the smoke (from the coast) to keep working in here. It still looks like we are going to see more of this continueing. “There is a lot of things that could factor into how much of that gets down to the ground where we see it start to affect visibility and we might be able to smell it,” he said. “I can’t say with much confidence how much we would actually see on the ground, but the pattern definitely looks like we will still see it aloft and are going to still see those orange to red sunsets that you can look at without worrying about burning out your eyes with no protective equipment,” he said.
“It still looks like we are going to be in a pattern where it will still be coming our way (east). There is not much changing weather-wise. We’re probably not going to see much changing with the fires. “I really don’t have much good news,” he said. “The main bulk of the smoke will stay off the ground,” he added. If people are interested in following the the air quality levels in the Treasure State, they can visit the Department of Environmental Quality’s online site, the meteorologist said. He did admit one side effect has been the haze and smoke has had a slight cooling effect on the weather. Flirting with unhealthy For the Bowman area, air quality has fluctuated. It was measured as high as 51 in late August, but it also hit a recent low 22 a week ago. Still, Bowman County hit its highest level over the weekend when it reached 53. By Monday, the level had dropped slightly to 47. At the National Weather Service office in Bismarck, a meteorologist said the air quality and weather trends are tied together. Meteorologist Todd Hamilton said that it (the haze) has had some effect on temperatures. “It depends on the amount of smoke in the area,” he said Friday. “For example, this past Tuesday (Sept. 15) we had quite a bit of smoke over all of western and central North Dakota. Our temperatures on Tuesday ended up being seven to ten degrees cooler than what we had forecast, like even the day before. “When you do get that widespread smoke and it is dense … where it looks cloudy but there are no clouds … it will affect the daytime high temperatures,” he said. “We had visibility in the five to seven mile range over southwestern North Dakota, but at the surface we didn’t really see the effects of it too much in North Dakota. As you went farther west in Montana, you saw some areas where the visibility was down to one to three mile range... and persisted for quite some time.” In North Dakota, there was a visual impact to the haze, he explained. “If you normally could see a butte about 20 miles away … and now you can’t even see it. So it did affect visibility to the extent it was an issue for aviation flying purposes. But it didn’t get quite that extensive or smoky at the surface to really reduce visibility to that extent. Hamilton said that several years ago, it was Canadian wildfires which sent massive amounts of smoke across the border. “We saw visibilities down to the one to three mile range over western North Dakota for awhile,” he said. “Right now, it looks like mid to high level smoke making it over the mountains into North Dakota,” he added. The smoke can go as high as about 15,000 to 20,000 feet. “It could go up to the top of the boundary layer, that level closest to the earth,” he said. “Nearer the fires, it is all the way down to the surface.”