2A — THE OBSERVER
Today in
History
Today is Thursday, april 1, the
91st day of 2021. There are 274
days left in the year. This is april
Fool’s day.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On april 1, 1954, the united
States air Force academy was
established by president dwight d.
Eisenhower.
ON THIS DATE:
in 1789, the u.S. House of Repre-
sentatives held its first full meeting
in New york; Frederick Muhlenberg
of pennsylvania was elected the first
House speaker.
in 1933, Nazi Germany staged
a daylong national boycott of
Jewish-owned businesses.
in 1945, american forces
launched the amphibious invasion
of Okinawa during World War ii.
(u.S. forces succeeded in capturing
the Japanese island on June 22.)
in 1970, president Richard M.
Nixon signed a measure banning
cigarette advertising on radio and
television, to take effect after Jan.
1, 1971.
in 1972, the first Major league
Baseball players’ strike began; it
lasted 12 days.
in 1975, with Khmer Rouge
guerrillas closing in, Cambodian
president lon Nol resigned and fled
into exile.
in 1976, apple Computer was
founded by Steve Jobs, Steve
Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
in 1977, the u.S. Senate followed
the example of the House of
Representatives by adopting, 86-9,
a stringent code of ethics requiring
full financial disclosure and limits on
outside income.
in 1984, Marvin Gaye was shot
to death by his father, Marvin Gay
(correct) Sr. in los angeles, the day
before the recording star’s 45th
birthday.
in 1987, in his first speech on the
aidS epidemic, president Ronald
Reagan told doctors in philadelphia,
“We’ve declared aidS public health
enemy No. 1.”
in 1992, the National Hockey
league players’ association went
on its first-ever strike, which lasted
10 days.
in 2003, american troops
entered a hospital in Nasiriyah,
iraq, and rescued army pfc. Jessica
lynch, who had been held prisoner
since her unit was ambushed
March 23.
Ten years ago: afghans angry
over the burning of a Quran at a
small Florida church stormed a u.N.
compound in northern afghanistan,
killing seven foreigners, including
four Nepalese guards.
Five years ago: World leaders
ended a nuclear security summit in
Washington by declaring progress
in safeguarding nuclear materials
sought by terrorists and wayward
nations, even as president Barack
Obama acknowledged the task was
far from finished.
One year ago: president donald
Trump acknowledged that the fed-
eral stockpile of personal protective
equipment used by doctors and
nurses was nearly depleted, and
he warned of some “horrific” days
ahead for the country. Resisting
calls to issue a national stay-at-
home order, Trump said he wanted
to give governors “flexibility” to
respond to the coronavirus.
LOCAL/REGION
Nobody hurt in ODOT building fire
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Nobody was hurt in a
fire Monday, March 29,
at the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation
sign shop building in La
Grande, although the blaze
caused the structure’s roof,
ceiling and garage doors to
collapse.
Firefighters had to deal
with high winds during the
fire, which was reported at
10:58 a.m.
“The wind was quite a
factor,” said Emmitt Corn-
ford, chief of the La Grande
Fire Department.
The wind accelerated
the fire but did not spread
any embers from the
building between Island
Avenue and Mulholland
Drive to nearby buildings
or property, Cornford said.
He said firefighters were
positioned upwind of the
blaze to prevent flames or
embers from blowing at
them.
Twenty-two firefighters
from the La Grande and
Malheur Enterprise via AP StoryShare
ONTARIO — A state
judge last week ordered
officials at Snake River
Correctional Institution in
Ontario to devise a plan
to enforce mask use at
the prison and to deploy
mass testing after finding
the state’s treatment of
two inmates reflected
indifference during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Multnomah Circuit
Court Judge Amy Baggio
issued her findings and
orders after two inmates
sued prison officials in
Malheur County Circuit
Court. Local state judges
recused themselves from
the case.
“Certain SRCI staff
view mask wearing as
an issue of politics rather
than one related to health
and welfare during a pan-
demic,” Baggio con-
cluded. “Mask failures
by staff are particularly
troubling considering the
very nature of their jobs:
to oversee a large, congre-
gate environment.”
Her findings came
in civil cases filed by
inmates Mark Lawson and
Don Skelton, who claimed
they received poor med-
ical care that put their
lives at risk. They claimed
the care was so bad that
it violated their constitu-
tional rights.
Baggio ordered the
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Firefighters with the la Grande Fire department respond to a structure fire at the Oregon department of Trans-
portation sign shop the morning of Monday, March 29, 2021. There were no reported casualties.
the La Grande Rural fire
departments responded
to the emergency. The La
Grande Fire Department
sent a ladder truck and
an engine and La Grande
Rural sent two engines.
Nobody was in the
building when the fire
started. A malfunction of
a ceiling heater exhaust
system in the building’s
attic caused the fire. Corn-
ford and Deputy State
Fire Marshal Casey Kump
made the determina-
tion after conducting an
investigation.
The fire did not harm
any of the signs in the shop,
but some may have sus-
tained damage from the
collapses of the roof and
ceiling and the water used
to fight the blaze.
Craig Kretschmer,
chief of the La Grande
Rural Fire Department,
said the fire was partic-
ularly difficult to tackle
because the fire started in
the ODOT building’s attic.
This meant it was inevi-
table the structure’s roof,
ceiling and garage doors
would collapse. For safety
reasons, firefighters could
not aggressively attack
the blaze until all three
occurred.
“Any time you cannot
get to the seed of a fire you
are delayed,” Kretschmer
said.
Firefighters first focused
on containing the blaze.
“We were in a defensive
posture at the start,” Kret-
schmer said.
Once the roof, ceiling
and garage doors col-
lapsed, crews were able to
attack the blaze and extin-
guished the flames by
about 12:15 p.m.
Baker City’s backhoe goes on the auction block
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Baker
City’s most famous backhoe
is finally on the auction
block.
And it’s there with the
approval of city voters, an
endorsement not typically
afforded to pieces of heavy
equipment.
Future sales of such
machinery, however, will
not be subject to the whims
of the electorate.
The story dates to 1952,
when Baker City voters
approved a city charter.
The document, among
much else, requires city
officials, before selling
land or buildings with an
estimated value of at least
$5,000, or vehicles and
other equipment worth at
least $10,000, put the matter
on the ballot.
The idea seems to have
been that voters might want
to have a say in whether
the city disposes of rela-
tively valuable, but publicly
owned, items.
Over the past 30 years or
so the city has sought voter
approval for more than half
a dozen sales, all involving
buildings or land. Voters
approved each of those
sales, and usually by rela-
tively wide margins.
Ontario prison must
enforce mask mandate
By LILIANA FRANKEL
THuRSday, apRil 1, 2021
Oregon Department of
Corrections to provide
her “documentation as to
how SRCI is enforcing the
masking policy, including
proof of specific enforce-
ment” and “consideration
of a plan to engage in
mass COVID-19 testing at
SRCI, particularly rapid
testing of staff prior to
entry.”
While she set no dead-
line, Baggio said she
would conduct a status
check in 30 days.
Court filings and the
judge’s orders paint a pic-
ture of a prison where,
despite heightened pre-
cautions such as locking
down inmates and elimi-
nating most programming,
the danger of COVID-19
is taken lightly by some
staff and inmates.
Dr. Garth Gulick, chief
medical officer for SRCI,
“testified that he is at war
with COVID-19 misinfor-
mation in SRCI,” the court
order said. “He described
how staff are on the whole
very conservative and
have doubts about the
virus and the vaccine.”
Referring to inmates
as adults in custody, the
order said that Gulick tes-
tified that “misinforma-
tion is totally engrained
in staff and some of the
AICs. He testified that
many staff believe that
masking is stupid and
that the virus is harmless.”
Tom Fisk/Contributed Photo
Baker City is selling this 1995 backhoe though an online auction. Voters
had to approve the sale on the May 2020 ballot. Voters that same election
also changed the city charter to allow the city to sell equipment without
voter approval, no matter its value.
But as the value of vehi-
cles and equipment has
increased, the potential
existed for property other
than real estate to meet the
monetary threshold in the
charter.
During the spring of
2020, city officials deemed
as surplus a 1995 Case
backhoe. They also pegged
its market value at $16,000.
And so it was that
the May 19, 2020, ballot
included, among the usual
political races, a measure
asking voters to decide
whether to authorize the
city to sell that digger.
Voters approved that
measure — which is to
say, the future sale of the
backhoe — by 92% to 8%.
But that wasn’t the only
unusual matter on the
ballot.
City officials also identi-
fied at least two other sur-
plus items that could con-
ceivably fetch more than
$10,000 — a 1990 Case
excavator and a 1988 Inter-
national dump truck.
To avoid larding future
ballots with measures
involving equipment sales,
the city also placed on the
May 2020 slate a mea-
sure that amended the city
charter, allowing the city,
without voter approval,
to sell surplus vehicles of
any value, so long as the
money goes to the city’s
equipment replacement
fund.
Voters also backed that
measure, although not
quite as enthusiastically as
with the backhoe sale. The
charter change measure
passed by 75.5% to 24.5%.
(The measure did not
affect the requirement that
voters approve the sale
of real estate; that $5,000
threshold remains.)
City officials initially
planned to sell the backhoe,
along with the excavator,
dump truck and several
dozen other surplus items,
via the online auction site
govdeals.com, in 2020, said
Tom Fisk, operations super-
visor for the city’s public
works department. But
officials decided to post-
pone the auction due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the auction
is conducted online, pro-
spective bidders sometimes
want to examine items in
advance. Also, buyers are
required to pick up their
lots. Fisk said it made sense
to wait until the pandemic
had eased.
The backhoe, and more
than 100 other surplus
items, are available for bid-
ding now at govdeals.com.
Search for “Baker City” to
summon the local items.
The online auction con-
tinues through April 2, with
a couple of items extended
through April 9.
As of Friday morning,
March 26, the Case
backhoe had drawn 12 bids,
the highest being $18,000.
Neither the exca-
vator, with a minimum
bid of $12,000, nor the
dump truck, minimum bid
$10,000, had yet attracted
a bid.
Among other interesting
items on the block:
• The tall slide that stood
in Geiser-Pollman Park
for decades before being
removed last year to make
way for the all-abilities
playground. As of Friday
morning the top bid was
$102.
• A four-sided steel
climbing structure and
slide, which also was
removed from Geis-
er-Pollman Park last year.
Top bid was $102.
• Fiberglass steps from
Sam-O Swim Center. Top
bid, $10.
• Two fire hydrants. Top
bid for each, $10.
• Three historic metal
street signs, two for Camp-
bell Street, one for Fifth
Street. Top bid for each, $5.
News Briefs
COVID-19 takes another
Union County life
LA GRANDE — Another person
died from COVID-19 in Union
County.
The Oregon Health Authority
on Tuesday, March 30, reported six
news deaths statewide, including an
80-year-old man in Union County
who tested positive on March 22 and
died March 29 at Grande Ronde Hos-
pital, La Grande.
He had underlying conditions,
according to OHA, is Oregon’s
2,380th COVID-19 death and the 21st
in the county. Union County’s total
number of COVID-19 cases now is
1,369.
Wallowa County had two news
cases to increase the total there to
149. Baker County had 10 more
cases, pushing its total to 743. Nei-
ther of those counties had new fatal-
ities from COVID-19 in Tuesday’s
report.
Oregon’s statewide death toll of
COVID-19 related deaths is 2,381,
and the total number of cases is
164,570.
Organizers nix Hells Canyon
Motorcycle Rally
BAKER CITY — The Hells
Canyon Motorcycle Rally in
Baker City won’t happen for the
second straight summer due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
A post on Monday, March 29, on
the Rally’s Facebook page reads:
“Thank you all for your patience
while we discussed the logistics of
this year’s Hells Canyon Motorcycle
Rally. We have come to the difficult
decision that we will not be holding
the rally this year. Due to of the state
of Oregon’s restrictions, we could not
find a way to safely host this event
while still being in compliance with
the state’s guidelines. We are devas-
tated to share this news with you.”
The message added that while
the notion “’The show must go on’
is in our DNA, we are now working
through the ramifications of this
unfortunate situation” and working
hard “to bring an even bigger and
better rally in 2022.”
Enterprise’s new police
chief approved
ENTERPRISE — Enterprise soon
will have a new chief of police, now
that Kevin McQuead has completed
and passed all required evaluations
and testing, according to a statement
Monday, March 29, released by a city
official.
“We have extended
the official offer of
employment as chief of
the Enterprise Police
Department, which
(McQuead) has accepted
with a start date of on or
McQuead
before April 19,” Jenni
Word, Enterprise City Council pres-
ident and Police Committee chair,
said in an email.
Word said McQuead will be sworn
in at the council’s next meeting,
Monday, April 12.
McQuead replaces Joel Fish, who
was elected Wallowa County sheriff
last year and was sworn in to the
position in January.
McQuead has served as a deputy
with the Wallowa County Sheriff’s
Office since February 2008, when
he resigned as an Enterprise police
officer to take the position, according
to Chieftain files.
He is the husband of the city’s
administrator, Lacey McQuead, but
the council “does not feel any nep-
otism or conflict of interest has
occurred with this hiring process or
will occur as the city of Enterprise
policies are followed,” a February
press release stated.
The chief reports directly to the
city council.
DMV to reopen in Eastern Oregon
counties in May
SALEM — The Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation plans to
reopen Driver and Motor Vehicle
Services offices in Eastern Oregon
counties in May.
Amy Joyce, the DMV adminis-
trator, said recently during a con-
ference call with the Association
of Oregon Counties the division is
reducing the number of appointment
slots in most of its Eastern Oregon
offices to expand to a “stand-by”
model.
Joyce said the appointment
system with the DMV never would
completely go away. She said
people who come in for appoint-
ments appreciate the consistency
that comes with having a scheduled
time.
She said the DMV’s future is a
hybrid system, where it will keep
appointments for some and have a
“walk-up” capacity for people who
do not want to make an appointment
or do not have access to the internet.
Joyce said renewal of driver
licenses, permits and identifica-
tion cards would be allowed online
beginning in early May. The DMV
expects the new feature to be avail-
able on DMV2U.Oregon.gov in
early May.
While some DMV services have
previously been available online,
most have been moved to appoint-
ment-only sessions at local DMV
offices during the pandemic. Timely
appointments can be challenging to
come by due to the reduced capacity
at DMV offices.
— EO Media Group