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Friday, October 9, 2015 • Volume 2, Issue 41
Government transparency
the topic of ORP tour
• CORRUPTION,
WASTE AND DELAYS
DISCUSSED
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
“Power does not check
itself,” said Anne Ma-
rie Gurney, Chair of the
Oregon Republican Party’s
(ORP’s) Government
Transparency Committee.
Gurney brought the party’s
Transparency and Listen-
ing Tour to Baker City
Tuesday night.
The meeting, held at
the Sunridge Inn, featured
ORP Chair Bill Currier and
State Representative Cliff
Bentz, and was attended
by a small group of local
residents. Among those in
the audience were several
Precinct Committee People
from the party at the
county level, Baker County
Commission Chair Bill
Harvey and ORP Treasurer
Ken Taylor.
Rep. Greg Barreto, origi-
nally scheduled to attend,
was held up by an ear-
lier engagement in Union
County, which ran over.
Currier said the tour
was focused on discussing
“waste, corruption, collus-
tion and secrecy,” par-
ticularly in the wake of the
scandal involving former
Governor Kitzhaber and
live-in girlfriend Cylvia
Hayes.
Topics of interest tossed
out to the audience began
with the ease, or in most
cases, the diffi culty receiv-
ing public records requests.
“I’m working on a stone-
wall,” Gurney said. “The
agency won’t call me back.
It’s simple information. Or
they send me a really big
bill for a ream of paper...
The public needs access to
their government.”
Gurney said the idea of
pushing for transparency
isn’t a new one. In fact,
one Oregon Democrat led
a similar tour in 2010.
Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press
Anne Marie Gurney, Chair of ORP’s Government
Transparency Committee, introduces ORP Chair Bill
Currier.
SEE TRANSPARENCY
PAGE 5
Training
officials
meet at PD
Chandler Herefords
inducted in Hall of Fame
Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press
DPSST Director Eriks Gabliks, center, leads the
discussion in the training room at the Baker City
Police Department.
Brian Addison/ The Baker County Press
Sixth generation Chandler Herefords rancher Duane Chandler pictured here with one of his prized bulls.
Chandler Herefords enters its 126th year of continuous operation. The Chandlers have recently been
inducted into the National Hereford Hall of Fame.
• FAMILY TO TRAVEL TO MISSOURI TO
ACCEPT AWARD THIS MONTH
BY BRIAN ADDISON
Brian@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Chandler Herefords enters its 126th year of operation
this year ranking it as the oldest continuously managed
Hereford cattle operation in the nation. The longevity and
tradition of producing award-winning cattle have recently
earned the Chandlers an induction into the National Her-
eford Hall of Fame, and the family plans a trip to Kansas
City, Missouri this October to accept the award.
The Chandlers have called Baker Valley home since
Charles Chandler I, wagon-master, arrived here in 1862
when the discovery of gold fi rst brought settlers to the
county. By 1889, Charles began the ranching operation
on land several miles north of Baker City branding his
fi rst Hereford with the same brand that has now been
passed down through six generations of the Chandler
family.
During the past 125 years, the Chandler Herefords op-
eration has maintained supremacy in the industry evolv-
ing from horse-pulled wagon trains to computer statisti-
cal programs and high-tech marketing techniques.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Mostly sunny and warm, highs in the low to mid
80s. Partly cloudy and cool at night with lows in
the mid 40s.
Your weekend weather forecast for Baker County.
Our forecast made possible by this
generous sponsor:
Sunny to start with increasing clouds late in the
day, high near 80. Cloudy with a slight chance of
showers and thunderstorms. Chance of precipi-
tation is 20%. Lows in the mid 40s.
Mostly cloudy and much cooler, highs near 70.
Partly clear, lows near 40 at night.
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
In the early days, top cowhands loaded select Chandler
Herefords cattle aboard rail cars pulled by steam-powered
locomotives and toured the cattle shows all across the
nation. “Wherever the tracks would take them,” said six-
generation ranch manager Duane Chandler.
The hands traveled in custom modifi ed rail cars with
cattle on the bottom and human living quarters above.
Tours covered the southern and northern portions of the
nation, Duane explained. The cowhands would return
after a six-month tour with a carload of awards and, one
can only imagine, a vast depth of stories to tell.
Chandler Herefords quickly gained a reputation as one
of the best breeding operations in the nation and the cash
awards from winning shows were enough to fi nancially
support the cattle and the employees on the long tours.
In 1917, and then again in 1958, Chandler Herefords
received the National Championship Car Load, the high-
est honor a breeder can achieve and an acknowledgement
of superior practices in genetics and animal husbandry .
The goal of a breeder is consistent, high-quality calves
and the carload award goes to the producer who shows
the most uniformity among a carload, 15 head, of their
cattle. Because of their understanding of select genetics,
the Chandlers were recognized, from 1910 to 1960, as the
most dominant Hereford ranchers in the nation.
SEE CHANDLER HEREFORDS PAGE 3
Offi cial weather provider for
The Baker County Press.
• LISTENING TOUR FOCUSES ON WHAT
WORKS AND DOESN’T WORK IN
OREGON LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
This was the week for “listening” tours in Baker City.
On the same day as the Oregon Republican Party’s listen-
ing/transparency tour, The Department of Public Safety
Standards and Training (DPSST) also sent some of its
leadership team across the state, visiting with constitu-
ents, i.e., members of local law enforcement agencies and
others, on its 2015 Listening Tour. Baker City was just
one stop.
Among other things, DPSST coordinates the 16-week
training academy, which offi cers must complete in order
to be certifi ed.
The two-hour meeting was held in the training room
at the Baker City Police Department (BCPD) on Auburn,
hosted by Baker City Police Chief Wyn Lohner and
Lieutenant Dustin Newman, with Deputy Will Benson of
the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce and Chris Galiszewski
from 911 and the Greater Bowen Valley Fire Department,
as well as private investigator Dennis Beyer present.
Other attendees aside from several DPSST staff in-
cluded representatives from the Malheur County Sheriff’s
Department and the Nyssa Police Department.
DPSST Director Eriks Gabliks of Salem led the discus-
sion. “These aren’t our programs. They’re yours,” he
said. “We’re just the stewards of them.”
SEE POLICE TRAINING PAGE 8
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Taste of Baker
Sam-O-Swim committee
County Commissioner coverage
Community Connection vanpool
Sumpter volunteers meet
Homemade Goodness: Pumpkin!
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