Baker City Council backs fee cuts, revises park charges for nonprofits

Baker City is weighing whether to keep nonprofit events affordable at Geiser-Pollman Park or push more of their costs onto the city budget and, ultimately, local taxpayers. The council came away from its April 14 discussion supporting a cut in the monthly public safety fee beginning July 1, but members also signaled they want to rewrite parts of the city’s park fee schedule before giving it final approval.

City staff is recommending the public safety fee be reduced from $10 a month to $5 for residential customers and from $20 to $10 for commercial customers starting July 1, 2026. The fee has been on water and sewer bills since June 1, 2024. Council also backed keeping water and sewer rates flat for the coming fiscal year.

The sharper debate centered on what Baker City should charge nonprofits that use Geiser-Pollman Park. Councilor Helen Loennig said the draft schedule would make nonprofit events too expensive, especially programs that depend on the park as a gathering place for the community. She pointed to the Powder River Music Review and the Sunday summer concert series, saying the proposed structure could amount to $100 per concert. Loennig also raised affordability concerns for Crossroads Carnegie Art Center’s Day of the Dance and the annual Community Night Out event. Councilor Gratton Miller agreed that nonprofit groups should not be priced out.

City Manager Barry Murphy said the city could make the rules clearer by charging a one-time fee for a multi-event series instead of billing each performance separately. He said he believed the current arrangement for the concert series had been a single fee, not a fee per show, and suggested the proposed schedule could be adjusted to reflect that. The broader issue, Murphy said, is that Baker City does not have a separate parks taxing district, so maintenance for parks comes from the general fund. His position has been that groups using city property should help pay some of the costs their events create.

The park fee debate comes after the council approved a steep increase for Miners Jubilee in March 2026, raising the Geiser-Pollman Park charge to $900 per day from $150 per day. For the four-day festival, that works out to about $3,600. Luke Brown, vice president of the Baker County Chamber of Commerce, said the increase would not threaten the city’s signature festival. The current park fee structure dates to a resolution approved in April 2024 and effective July 1, 2024. It includes a $150 nonrefundable park variance application fee and a $250 security deposit, which can be refunded.