Then-city Administrator Larry Braden, right, swears in councilors before the Jan. 7, 2021, Joseph City Council meeting. From left are Kirsten Rohla, Stephen Barltow, Tammy Jones and Matt Soots. Bartlow was elected mayor Nov. 5.

JOSEPH — Joseph will get a new mayor when Councilor Stephen Bartlow is sworn into the post he won in the Nov. 5 election.

That will happen Thursday, Jan. 9, at the city council meeting that begins at 7 p.m. It will be held at the Joseph Community Events Center, and the public is welcome to attend in person or by Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82678505696?pwd=WGhFM2ppem40ZHYzeDVpeHM1dGNtUT09. The meeting ID is 826 7850 5696 and the passcode is 200391.

Bartlow said in a recent email that he doesn’t expect much to change under his leadership now that he’s taken the helm from former Mayor Lisa Collier, who was elected to the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners and sworn into that post Thursday, Jan. 2.

“We have been working closely as fellow councilors with the rest of the Joseph City Council, so as to matters of policy I think we are still in agreement,” Bartlow said. “I would like to introduce a little more formality into our council meetings.”

He did say he’d like to reorganize things a bit.

“I hope with the council’s approval to rework the current committees to focus on mandates for each committee and current needs of the city,” he said.

As to issues the city is currently facing, on Monday, Jan. 6, the council plans to hold a work session to come up with an ordinance for the governance of the new library. Joseph has purchased and remodeled a building to house the local library, which currently occupies cramped quarters in city hall.

Housing is another goal Bartlow hopes to tackle as mayor. He said he wants to meet long-term planning and development goals for the city’s future in that area.

“The city council, city hall and the planning commission are all involved with this project,” he said. “I am personally involved in making sure that we have plenty of community feedback for this project, including a ‘town hall’-style event that is projected for mid-February. There is a community survey that was completed Dec. 20 for which the results will be analyzed and available in April.”

He said he hopes the results of this information-gathering will be beneficial.

“How all these moving parts come together will do much in helping the Joseph City Council in shaping Joseph’s response to our housing situation, and I’m looking forward to being able to use our citizens’ feedback and the advice of experts in the field to craft a workable solution to any difficulty we identify,” Bartlow said.

Another issue the city has confronted was a recent ordinance banning “formula stores” prompted by the opening of a Dollar General store on the outskirts of Wallowa. When the Wallowa County Planning Commission considered enacting such a ban, the board of commissioners nixed the idea. But that would apply to unincorporated areas of the county, not within any of the county’s four cities.

Bartlow said that the decision was made for the county’s jurisdiction, so it doesn’t apply to Joseph. He does want to keep the Western motif in the look of the city as well as improving the appearance of downtown.

“I’m very interested in beautifying Main Street,” he said. “The flower boxes and some areas on the sidewalk could use improvements after all the time since their installation.”

The agenda for the council’s next meeting is online at https://towncloud.io/go/joseph-or/agendas/453.