Joseph council passes measure barring ‘formula’ stores

Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, June 11, 2024

JOSEPH — The Joseph City Council has passed an ordinance barring so-called “formula businesses” — essentially, chain stores — from opening inside the city’s commercial zone.

City officials said the action, taken at a council meeting on Thursday, June 6, was prompted by the continuing controversy over a Dollar General store that has opened near the outskirts of the city of Wallowa — and by rumors that the discount store operator was seeking property in Joseph for another location.

The ordinance defines a formula business as “a business that is required by contractural or other arrangement to adhere to prescribed standards and features, particularly for exterior color schemes, signs or architectural design.”

And, except for a few limited exceptions, the ordinance bans formula businesses in the city’s commercial zone.

“We want smaller stores, locally owned stores, specialty boutiques, mom and pop shops,” said Joseph Mayor Lisa Collier in an interview the Friday after the council action. “We want to protect that commerce (so that) it will be local.”

The ordinance does not specifically mention Dollar General — or, for that matter, any individual business.

But it was the Dollar General controversy over that store’s construction on the outskirts of Wallowa that prompted the city to begin work on the ordinance.

Collier said that’s when city officials started working with the city’s attorney, Wyatt Baum, on the Joseph ordinance. And the rumors that the store was looking for locations in Joseph to build another store threw fuel on that fire. (Dollar General officials have said they have no plans to build in Joseph.)

“Wyatt knew our goal and was working with other cities,” she said. “He found some other cities that have passed similar ordinances. And, really, the municipality gets to dictate what it will and will not allow in town.”

The ordinance passed Thursday as an emergency measure, so it went into effect as soon as Collier and City Administrator Dan Larman signed it at the end of the meeting.

The ordinance didn’t go through a public hearing — but Collier said she has received plenty of feedback from residents of Joseph and from county residents at other meetings and hearings regarding the Dollar General case to have a good sense of public opinion on the matter.

“The message we were getting from the public was, ‘you need to act on this now,’” she said.

“Citizens would reach out by phone, text, email or in person,” Collier said. “And they had the opportunity to talk to me at those meetings, because I’ve been to most of them.”

Joseph residents “let us know how they felt. But they didn’t beat us over the heads with it. They told us how they felt. And then they trusted us to do it, which felt good.”

Typically, an ordinance must be read at two different City Council meetings before approval — but the council used an provision in its ordinances that allowed the business ordinance to be approved at one meeting. That provision allows the first and second reading of an ordinance to occur at the same meeting in some emergency circumstances.

“It really did allow us to cut a month off because we don’t have to wait for July’s meeting to read it again,” Collier said.

All the councilors present Thursday voted to approve the business ordinance. Councilor Michael Lockhart was absent.

Fire update

At the Thursday meeting, councilors got an update on the Sunday, May 26 fire at the Joseph Community Events Center, which likely has closed the center for at least the summer.

Larman said the fire has left the center’s nursery, both of its bathrooms and the northwest corner of the basement as “a total loss.”

He said investigation by Fire Chief Jeffrey Wecks found a conduit that had not been installed properly and came apart, resting on top of the wires on a vent fan in the women’s bathroom. Eventually, Larman said, the casings on the wire wore out and the resulting short-circuit started the fire, “which just crept along the tresses and found an empty stud bay and burned down through the floor of the nursery and down to the basement.”

The fire could have been worse had not city worker Damian Salarno noticed smoke coming from the building after he reported early for his Sunday morning shift. The blaze was reported at 7:07 a.m.

The city’s insurance claim is moving forward, Larman said, and he has contacted Wellens General Contractors to begin work on the building. He said state law gives him the ability to make a direct hire in an emergency situation rather than putting a project up for bids.

Larman said the goal is to reopen the center by the fall, although he noted it’s possible that workers could isolate the area that needs repair to allow use of the main meeting room before then.

In another matter, the council approved $5,000 in matching funds to support the July 4 “Shake the Lake” fireworks display at Wallowa Lake.

More Coverage

• INSIDE: The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners postpones a decision on Dollar General appeals, paving the way for a fresh traffic study on the site: Page A3