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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2015)
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5 Local Jayo joins the Sheriff’s office Reality series features cabin • FORMER OSP DETECTIVE TAKES ON NEW ROLE BY MEGHAN ANDERSCH Meghan@TheBakerCountyPress.com Earlier this month, the Baker County Sheriff’s Of- fice welcomed Joey Jayo, a former detective with the OSP Criminal Division in Baker City, as their new Patrol Lieutenant. Lieutenant Jayo fills the position vacated by Travis Ash when he became sher- iff earlier this year. Jayo started with the State Police in 1988 in the Patrol Division and Baker City was his first assigned duty station. (Jayo got an interesting and memorable introduction to Baker City, recalling that as he and his wife were driving into town, the high school was burning.) He served at the Baker City office in all divisions, including the Fish and Wildlife Division, and as a detective investigating major crimes. Jayo said he was at the end of his career with the State Police and the op- portunity came up to apply with the Sheriff’s Depart- ment, so he took it. He spoke with sev- eral different sheriffs and undersherrifs to get a good Submitted Photo. Dale and Betsy McGreer smile from their Snake River retreat. Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press Lt. Joey Jayo says he’s proud to be part of his new team. idea of what duties and ob- stacles the position would entail. Jayo’s duties include supervising deputies that work patrol, including Ma- rine Board, participating in community events, and working with the sheriff and county commissioners on budgeting and expen- ditures. He said he has never worked on the budgeting aspect of things, so this will be a new hurdle for him Jayo said he is most looking forward to getting back into being closer to the community. He worked as a DARE officer from 1991 to 1995 and said he really enjoyed being part of community events, activities, and orga- nizations. For the last nine years with the State police, Jayo was tasked with conduct- ing criminal investigations, mostly in Eastern Oregon, but also throughout the state, and lost the close connection with Baker County. He said his new position will let him get back into that. When asked what he would like people to know, Jayo said, “So far, in my time here, I’m finding the people I work with and around are doing a great job and work extremely hard. I’m proud to be a part of this team.” ‘Chalk it up to Art’ event sees another colorful year BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com Strolling up and down Main Street, pedestrians may notice some creative chalk art work on the side- walk. That art still remains after last Saturday’s com- munity event that uses city sidewalks as the canvas for one of a kind art created by local artist’s young and old. “It’s a fun event,” said Ann Mehaffy who is involved in organizing the yearly event. ‘Chalk It Up To Art’ is sponsored by Crossroad Arts Center, The Short Term Gallery and The Baker Art Guild and sup- ported financially by the Baker County Cultural Coalition. The Baker County Cul- tural Coalition is a nine- person planning committee appointed by the Baker County Commissioners to serve the goals of the Oregon Cultural Trust by re-granting funds received from the Cultural Trust to local arts and cultural projects. The local coalition is made up of Board Chair- man Ginger Savage, Aletha Bonebrake, Treasurer, Chris Cantrell, Secretary, Lynne Burroughs, Alyssa Peterson, Jeff Sizer and Brian Vegter. The purpose of the chalk art event is to inspire and unite our community in the creation of art on the side- walks outside downtown businesses. “We got permission from public works director Michelle Owen to do it,” Mehaffy said. “She enjoys it and it is only once a year.” The annual event, which has been occurring for approximately the last five years happens the third week in July. There is no cost for the event and the chalk is provided so all participants need to supply is imagina- tion, creativity and time. A donated waffle break- fast was also provided to the artists this year as well as water and snacks throughout the day/ “We want to keep those artists happy and well fed. I think everybody loves it,” she said. This year about 20 local artists partici- pated. “We contact anyone and everyone we can through Baker Art Guild, Crossroads Art Center, and Facebook, just to let people know the event is happening, how to register that sort of thing,” said Mehaffy. She added that this year’s event drew “some children, some teenagers, it is open for any and all. We would like to build it so we have more people. I mean having the 19 or 20 artists this year, we had a lot of different drawings but it would be great to have Main Street just filled up with chalk art everywhere.” The art remains until it is washed away natu- rally by rain, worn away or removed by store owners that may have a concern about chalk being tracked into their businesses. “Most people aren’t walking on the chalk art at all. And that is the only real criteria that we have, don’t do it in the path of (foot) traffic. We don’t specifically ask businesses to keep the art work on the sidewalk, whatever happens, happens. Some businesses love having it and want to keep it as long as they can,” she said. The event is not judged; it is simply for fun. Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press Top: Artist-for-a-day Stan Smith. Below: Art in front of Kicks Sportswear. Mehaffy said, “It’s not a competition, so there are no prizes. It’s just a time for people to have fun. I think that’s why we have a lot of artists participate, because there is no right or wrong way to do chalk art.” Those who would like to donate to the Oregon Cultural Trust can contact the organization at www. culturaltrust.org or contact the local Baker County Cultural Coalition by phone at 541.523.5369. Information regarding grants, activities and pre- sentations is also available. Visit the Baker County Cultural Coalition web- page on the BakerCounty. org website for informa- tion on the committee, tax and donation benefits and criteria and instructions on applying for funds from grants. A list of former grant recipients is also available. Submitted Photo. Truffles the goat gets a boat ride to the cabin. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Brian recalled, “Dad and Pam camped out up river as part of the construction crew.” Jan Alexander added, “Ken took the Jeep Willys up there. I stayed home for that, but he helped haul the logs up the hill one at a time.” “Ken was really a lot of help during the construction,” Betsy said. Both Brian and Jan remember Pam, still a kid herself at the time, performing camp cook duties. Friends and family like the Alexanders who are famil- iar with the cabin will likely get a chuckle out of some scenes in the final show. For example, though the home has power via a generator by evening, producers only allowed the family testing out the cabin to use kerosene lamps. Also, the house does indeed have indoor plumb- ing—but for some reason the couple with their three kids were told to use the outhouse. Betsy speaks of another production head-scratcher. “We have an outdoor shower in the rocks. They converted it to a chicken coop!” The steps of the filming itself happened in rapid succes- sion. Betsy said, “Within two days, Tom Evans, Producer for BLAST Films flew in from London, came up river and fell in love with the place. Tom shot three hours of video and declared that BLAST wanted to use it in a pilot film.” June 28 was the day the McGreers met the crew— a producer, director, production assistant, sound tech, and lighting tech. The McGreers understood they’d receive no compensa- tion for letting the crew use their property, but hoped the show would catch the eye of just right person somewhere in the audience, who might want to purchase the cabin. By June 29, they’d gone through and cleaned the house spotless, and by June 30, had been talked into building a goat pen—for the new goat brought in by the show. The goat was named Truffles. Brian noted, “They shipped in goats to a place that has about an acre of grazing land for about a month out of the year.” Writes Betsy in her journal, “Our builder, Sparky, ar- rives at Heller Bar, loaded with $400 in building materials freshly purchased at Home Depot, which we stuffed into our 24-foot jet boat, along with a ton of tools. By 11 a.m. as the thermometer is kissing 90, a skeptical Sparky and an annoyed Dale began construction on the goat pen, with me as carpenter helper. Pick and rock bar to level the ground, move rocks, eat dust, pick-up nails and screws discarded during the recent deck replacement project (not good for goat feet). It took all of the hot afternoon to get it 95% complete.” The rock outdoor shower became a chicken coop the very next day. Then the chickens’ nests were padded with store-bought eggs. Said Betsy, “Our boat has carried many interesting things, like a claw-footed tub and a giant moose head, but I think the poor goat and the terrified chickens might take the prize.” Betsy said they built the cabin by hand “when we had more energy than money.” That equation reversed as the years passed, she said, and they had a new home con- structed in the area. Jan took a moment to reminisce. “It was quite a lot of work building that cabin—but also quite a lot of fun.” She hopes to visit her sister’s new home sometime soon. “All I can say is it was one hell of a way to hold an open house,” Betsy concluded. For those interested, the cabin at 17197 Snake River Rte, Lewiston, ID 83501, is listed on Realtor.com with an asking price of $425,000. The home features two bed- rooms, one bathroom, and 1,152 square feet. Brian said, “I’ll miss it when they sell it, but they did build a larger place right next door—so we all can still go ‘up river.’”