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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2015)
10 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015 Local Sumpter recall petitions CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Patton’s statement in support of a recall is, “Fail- ure to abide by the City Charter and Ordinances.” The petition was turned in to Sumpter City Hall, stamped received by Sumpter City Recorder Julie McKinney, and submitted to Baker County Clerk Cindy Carpenter. After verification of signatures on the recall petition, the public officer must resign or submit a statement of justification. This statement will be printed on the ballot and a recall election is held “within 35 days of the ex- piration of the resignation period.” Per the Oregon Secre- tary of State website (sos. oregon.gov/elections/ Pages/recall.aspx), for public officeholders, other than state representatives or senators, a prospective recall petition may be filed only after the officeholder has completed the first six months of their current term. The chief petitioner has 90 days from the date the prospective petition is filed to gather and submit for verification the appropriate number of signatures (the number required is “15 percent of the total votes cast for governor, at the last election in the public officer’s district”). Carpenter verified the signatures on the recall petition and Findley was given the opportunity to respond or resign. As she stated in Sumpter’s July City Council meeting, covered exclusively by The Baker County Press, Findley declined to resign. Her response to the peti- tion states, “The allega- tions against me are false. The individuals initiat- ing and supporting this recall cannot point to one example of my knowing or intentional disregard of the City Charter or ordinances. I am new in the position of Mayor and have had much to learn in a short time. Along the way, I may have stumbled, but never inten- tionally. With the excep- tion of my husband, Coun- cilor Armbruster, the other members of the Council and staff have made almost no effort to help me learn the ropes. The reason is because they want to keep things the same as before and continue to support their favorites, disregard the niceties of the law, and take undisclosed actions, all with your money. It has been and will continue to be my intent to work with the community in an open, fair and account- able manner. I intend to apply those standards not only to myself, but also to all those involved with the City, even though they may not like it. If you want to return to the world of cronyism and financial irresponsibility, recall me. If you want truth, fair- ness, accountability and openness, vote ‘no’ on this recall.” The decision now goes to Sumpter voters. “Please think before you vote,” said Findley. “Sumpter is worth far more than the egos of a handful. Help me bring some sanity to the situation.” McKinney stated ballots will go out around August 6th. Then, three prospective petitions to recall City Councilors Ada Oakley, G. LeAnne Woolf, and Toni Thompson were filed on July 24th. The prospective petition to recall Oakley was filed by Chief Petitioner Melissa Findley. Findley’s statement in support of a recall is, “Councilor Oakley has contributed virtually noth- ing to the administration of the City and by blindly fol- lowing staff and Council’s requests she has allowed and voted for increases in City water and sewer charges to cover their mis- management of the City. She has consistently com- plained about the smallest matters, but offered no solutions to the greater problems facing the City. She has been vehemently against recording of City meetings even though that procedure is clearly legal and is designed to foster honesty and transparency in the conduct of City business and give a truthful reference source for the creation of accurate, unbi- ased and clear minutes of the proceedings. The fact that she increased the size and changed the nature of her residence without the appropriate building permits reveals her lack of respect for the rule of law.” Donald McKinnon is the Chief Petitioner on the prospective recall petition on G. LeAnne Woolf. His statement in support of recall is, “Councilor Woolf has consistently displayed a disregard for compliance with public purchasing law, costing the City unknown thousands in the procurement of sup- plies, repairs and services. She also has little regard for the public meeting laws and administration of City staff. She is one of the main reasons there is a lawsuit pending against the City, unnecessarily costing the voters thousands of dollars in legal fees. Most recently she has joined with Toni Thompson, President of the Council and Councilor Ada Oakley and tried to call an illegal meeting with the intent to undermine the position of the Mayor and take over her powers, all without public disclosure.” The last prospective pe- tition was filed by Timothy W. Peters to recall Coun- cilor Toni Thompson. His statement in support of recall reads, “Councilor Thompson, appointed to fill a vacant seat, voted for herself, along with Coun- cilors Woolf and Oakley to take the long-standing authority over City staff from the Mayor and give it to herself. In addition she has, as President of the Council, tried to take over the City government and exclude the Mayor from participation in deci- sions. Her history is one of working in the shadows and bending the truth to suit her needs and those of her favorites. She doesn’t even own property in the City, but wants to make all sorts of decisions that affect those of us who do. Most of the City’s financial and legal dilemmas can be traced directly back to her years of self-serving activities in the City. Her interest in City government is one of self-promotion and not the general welfare of the citizens.” McKinney explained the three petitions to recall City Councilors are still circulating. When they are turned in, she will stamp them as received by the City and send them on to Carpenter for verification of signatures. Once the verification process is complete, the Councilors will also have the opportunity to resign or give a statement of justification to be provided to Sumpter voters. Tigard youth group helps homeowners BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com For the past several years every summer, mem- bers from the youth group at Southwest Church of Christ, based out of Tigard, visit Baker City for a week at the end of July to provide help the elderly or those in need. This year is no exception. Richard Shannon, one of the organizers of the group, is expecting a very busy and full week with a num- ber of different projects on the agenda. The group is divided into several teams that work on different projects throughout our community for the week they are here. Projects are decided upon around Labor Day when representatives from the group make a trip to Baker City to look for and evaluate projects. An energetic and enthu- siastic team arrived to help out Barbara Sherman who lives on the corner of Col- lege and D Street. The group is painting Sherman’s house and will be putting up railings on her front deck as well as a ramp to make things safer and easier for her. The deck, built with the help of Sherman’s niece, Jody, will not be replaced just modified and was proving a bit difficult for the teams to work with eat- ing up drill bits. Sherman said with a smile, “We were ama- teurs—we didn’t build it right.” Sherman said she is “just thrilled” with the help. “It’s absolutely great. I’ve had so many stop or drive by and tell me how nice it looks.” The work done mostly by the kids is overseen by adult crew leaders and is provided free of charge to the recipient. Crew leaders for this team are Walt Murfin, Lau- ren Smith, and in his first year David Godfrey who joked that he is not a vol- unteer but a “voluntold” as he is told when he has been volunteered for something else to do. Sherman was “nomi- nated” to receive help from the group by one of last year’s recipients who “just wanted to pay it for- ward, do a good deed for someone else who really needed it. It helped me out so much!” That recipient did not want to be identified but Sherman knows who it was as she gave permission to have her name submitted to the group for consider- ation. Sherman said, “One day she just knocked on my door and told me what she wanted to do. I said yes! I’d really like to thank her.” Natalee Riley, 16, who is on her second trip to Baker City said, “She (Sherman) told us this house is 115 years old and hasn’t been painted since in the 90s. She has lived here for over Log loader takes a roll Submitted by Donn Christy. A log loader turned over near the intersection of Anthony Lakes Highway and S. Rock Creek Monday. • A FIVE-HOUR JOB SENDS DRIVER BACK ON HIS WAY SAFELY BY KERRY McQUISTEN News@TheBakerCountyPress.com “I don’t think anyone even had a scratch,” said Donn Christy, owner of Superior Towing, LLC. Late Monday afternoon, a log loader took a turn a little too fast near Rock Creek Lane and the Anthony Lakes Highway on its way toward Haines. According to Christy, the loader, owned by Skidgell Logging, had “tipped onto its left side,” leaking diesel and perhaps a bit of hydraulic fluid onto the highway. “There was a little damage to it,” Christy said. But, after about five hours on the job, his company had righted the fallen loader, making adjustments to the piece of equipment that meant it could actually be driven away. Christy said Steve Ritch Environmental Company— SREC— was on site to “clean up the mess” and would return to the scene to finalize that effort so that nothing potentially hazardous would remain. High speed chase ends near NP Submitted by OSP. Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press The entire “College and D Street” crew helps to repair Barbara Sherman’s home at that address. 70 years.” Sherman said she moved into the house that was built in 1900 when she was only three. “I’ve got the original deed; it’s in a safe deposit box.” Before being repainted the kids have been busy scraping and applying primer. They definitely do the job right. The group, being on a highly visible corner in Baker City has had a lot of people stop by and comment on the work they are doing that is expected to take through Friday to finish. One person stopped and asked if they were going to have any extra time to provide additional help and another stopped and bought the entire team sodas from McDonald’s. Crew leader Walt Mur- fin, a painting contractor in the Portland area, said he even had a pastor from a local church stop and say he would sure love to get his youth group involved in doing similar projects. Morgan Blackwell, 16, has been participating for five years and says the project is “a lot of fun.” Not even an injury putting her in a wheelchair could stop her from helping with repairs. Being in such close proximity to the high school, Sherman’s nieces brought many friends over throughout the years many whom still call her “Aunt Barbara” when they see her. This house has a lot of memories and now it’s getting some well-deserved new life. This mustang’s high-speed run came to an end near North Powder Tuesday. On July 28, 2015 at about 10:35 a.m., Idaho State Police were in pursuit of a Grey 2014 Ford Mustang with temporary plates westbound on Interstate 84 at milepost 82, west of Mountain Home Idaho. The pursuit originally started as a driving complaint reporting reckless driving at milepost 82 and quickly evolved into a pursuit. Oregon State Police Troopers from the Ontario Area Command picked up the pursuit at the Oregon-Idaho line and attempted to spike the vehicle but were unsuccessful. The pursuit continued westbound on I-84 with speeds ranging from 58 MPH and 146 MPH. Troopers went into slack pursuit once an OSP aircraft was deployed due to two construction zones on I-84. ODOT was notified of the pursuit and relayed information to the construction workers so they could clear their construction zone area prior to the pursuit reaching their location. Baker County Sheriff's Office, Baker Police Depart- ment and Oregon State Police La Grande Area Command Troopers assisted as the vehicle continued near Baker City, Oregon. The vehicle was successfully spiked by an Oregon State Police Trooper on I-84 at milepost 295, near North Powder. A tactical vehicle intervention was conducted at milepost 292, near North Powder and the vehicle was brought to a stop and the operator was taken into custody without further incident. The driver was identified as Curtis Alvon Gentry, age 33 years old, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was taken to the Baker County Jail and lodged for Reckless Driving and Attempt to Elude-Vehicle. OSP Ontario Area Command Troopers and OSP La Grande Area Command Troopers were assisted by the Idaho State Police, Payette County Sheriff's Office, Ontario City Police, Baker City Police, and Baker County Sheriff's Office.