REGION
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Tour highlights technical school’s off erings
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — A
rainy day didn’t deter the
Baker Technical Institute
from welcoming state leg-
islators, county commis-
sioners, Blue Mountain
Community College repre-
sentatives and company rep-
resentatives from around the
region for a tour on
Monday, March 28.
State Sen. Lynn Findley,
R-Vale, whose district
includes Baker County, had
visited Baker Technical
Institute, which is based
at the Baker High School
campus, a couple years ago.
Findley, along with BTI
President Doug Dalton,
worked with the Eastern
Oregon Workforce Board
to plan the tour showcasing
what BTI has to off er stu-
dents and adults. About 20
people participated in the
tour, including Sen. Bill
Hansell, a Republican from
Athena, in Umatilla County.
“I toured BTI about
two years ago and was so
impressed with this facility
and what you guys do up
here,” Findley said.
The facility, which
started about eight years
ago in the Baker 5J School
District, off ers a heavy
equipment operator school,
a truck driving school, a
health care program and
training in agriculture, nat-
ural sciences and natural
resources, and it recently
partnered with Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative to start
a utility worker training
center.
Sandy Mitchell, pro-
gram coordinator for BTI,
explained that BTI is a tech-
nical college.
“We contract back with
the Baker School Dis-
trict and provide all of
the (grades) 7-12 career
technical education pro-
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
State Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, tries his hand at a truck-driving
simulator at Baker Technical Institute on Monday, March 28, 2022.
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Patrick Raimondo, manager of Behlen Country’s livestock equipment factory in Baker City, takes his turn
operating a heavy equipment simulator at Baker Technical Institute on Monday, March 28, 2022.
grams and then we also are
licensed as a technical col-
lege in the state of Oregon
through HECC, Higher
Education Coordinating
Commission,” Mitchell said.
She said BTI partners
with industries across the
Pacifi c Northwest to take
BTI training programs to
other communities.
“Right now, we’re in
Eastern Idaho. In Idaho
Falls, we have 20 students
that we’re training in con-
struction,” Mitchell said.
“So, last week they actually
poured concrete and they’re
learning concrete masonry
at a rest area. We do com-
munity projects and our
instructors will go in and
teach them.”
She said all 20 of the stu-
dents learned skills in blue-
print reading, construc-
tion math, how to fi nd the
volume, what you need for
concrete and how to order it.
Mitchell said BTI
instructors also set up
remote location mobile
classrooms with trailers
that contain simulators that
students use to learn how
wto operate heavy equip-
“I toured BTI about two years
ago and was so impressed with
this facility and what you guys
do up here.”
— State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Vale)
ment such as backhoes and
excavators.
“We feel really strongly
about getting students as
many certifi cations as pos-
sible,” Dalton said.
In health care, Dalton
said BTI has mobile labs
that allow instructors to
work inside hospitals across
the region, including in
Pendleton, Heppner, Wal-
lowa, John Day, Burns and
Ontario.
“We’re now building labs
to be able to teach medical
classes from here into even
smaller rural communities,”
Dalton said.
Hands-on training
Participants in the
March 28 tour experienced
the mobile heavy equip-
ment simulators, including
truck driving and logistics
training.
“These trailers go all over
the Northwest,” Dalton said.
Patrick Raimondo, plant
manager at Behlen Country’s
livestock equipment factory
in Baker City, attended the
tour along with the plant’s
human resources manager,
Stacy DeLong, and Angi
Boruch, quality and safety
manager.
DeLong and Boruch
chose the truck driving sim-
ulator. Users settle into an
authentic truck seat that
moves just as a real truck
would depending on terrain
and road surface.
Three screens showed
the view through the wind-
shield, windows and rear-
view mirrors.
An instructor chooses
diff erent driving scenarios
for the student to deal with,
including inclement weather,
a deer leaping into the road
Police called to disturbance during
GOP forum at Baker Elks Lodge
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Two
Baker City Police offi cers
responded to a complaint
about audience behavior
during a forum featuring
several Republican candi-
dates for Oregon governor
Friday, March 25, at the
Baker Elks Lodge.
Offi cers Justin Prevo
and Jonathan Parsons
responded to the Lodge, at
1896 Second St., around
6:09 p.m., according to the
dispatch log.
They escorted a few
people from the Elks Lodge
early in the forum, which
started about 6 p.m. Police
didn’t make any arrests and
no charges were fi led, Police
Chief Ty Duby said.
Duby said on March 29
that he “doesn’t feel really
comfortable” with what
happened.
“It puts us in a bad situa-
tion,” Duby said.
He said he doesn’t
believe police are respon-
sible for ensuring people
attending an event such as
the forum, which took place
at a privately owned venue,
comply with the audience
rules.
So long as people
attending aren’t acting in a
threatening way, Duby said
he doesn’t believe police
offi cers should be involved.
Greg Baxter, Baker
County district attorney,
said he is awaiting reports
from the Baker City Police
to determine whether there
is anything to pursue with
possible charges.
Rick Rienks, of Baker
City, who along with his
wife, Penny, was escorted
from the Elks Lodge by
Prevo and Parsons, contends
that the situation didn’t war-
rant summoning police.
Rienks said he and his
wife, who are registered
Republicans, attended the
forum because they wanted
to hear from the candidates.
Rules cause confl ict
The confl ict stemmed
in part from rules that the
Baker County Republican
Party, which organized the
forum, set, including a pro-
hibition on people videoing
the event or applauding
while candidates were
speaking.
Kerry
McQuisten,
Baker City
mayor and a
Republican
gubernatorial
candidate who
McQuisten
attended the
forum, said some candidate
forums this year, including
one in Pendleton on March
24 and one on March 26 at
Vale, had similar rules.
McQuisten said she
believes the “disturbance”
during the forum at the
Baker Elks Lodge was
“scripted and preplanned.”
McQuisten, whose
mother, Suzan Ellis Jones,
is chair of the Baker County
Republicans, said that prior
to the forum she overheard
a group of people talking
about their plan to speak out
in opposition to the rules.
McQuisten said some of
the people she overheard
were carrying campaign
signs for Marc Thielman,
who is also seeking the
Republican nomination in
the May 17 primary.
Thielman called the
forum rules “weird” and
said he was disappointed
that some candidates drove
for hundreds of miles to
attend the forums with a
goal of “getting their mes-
sage out” and meeting
voters, only to have dis-
turbances
interfere.
Thielman
said there’s
“no validity”
to McQuis-
ten’s implica-
tion that his
Thielman
supporters
conspired to disrupt the
Baker City forum.
In a March 28 letter
responding to the incident at
the forum, the six-member
executive committee of the
Baker County Republican
Party blamed the disruption
on Baker County United,
the local group formed last
summer that has objected to
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s
executive orders requiring
mask wearing and vaccina-
tions during the pandemic.
“Law enforcement was
made aware that we may
have an issue at this event,”
the letter reads. “We hoped
not.”
The executive com-
mittee consists of Jones; vice
chairman Julie McKinney;
treasurer Joanna Dixon
(who is also treasurer of
McQuisten’s campaign com-
mittee and, like McQuisten,
a member of the Baker City
Council); secretary Justin
Langan; and delegates Tom
Van Diepen and Keith Jones.
The letter states that the
ban on livestreaming the
forum, except for hosts, was
added after “ugly behavior”
at a forum in the Port-
land area when someone
“used their recording/live-
streaming to bash other
candidates with slander and
name calling.”
Suzan Ellis Jones said
the organizers’ video of
the forum will be posted
online.
The letter states that
during the Baker City forum,
one couple was recording the
event and, after being asked
to stop, declined. Jones said
she believes Langan, who
was part of the security
detail along with Van Diepen
and Sharon Bass, then called
police.
Rienks said that when
offi cers Prevo and Parsons
arrived, he told them that
he was there to listen to the
candidates and did not feel
there was any reason for
him and his wife to leave.
He said he considers the
episode a “betrayal” of the
candidates who attended,
and he intends to send an
apology letter to each of
them.
or a blown tire or other
mechanical problem.
“I’ve got to give it to the
truck drivers. This is not
easy,” Boruch said after her
turn on the simulator.
“This is wild,” DeLong
said.
Agriculture, health
care off erings grow
Dalton led the tour from
the simulators to the FFA
greenhouse, where stu-
dents were tending to fl ower
baskets for the Mother’s
Day sale. It will be held in
person.
The BTI president said
that “90% of our ag program
is directed at high school stu-
dents, (the) FFA program
here. We’ve got a full plant
science pathway and a full
animal science pathway. And
then we off er ag business and
ag technology and innova-
tion classes.”
The BTI ag program was
voted program of the year
for Oregon and the region.
BTI also has an
ESports team, the fi rst in
Oregon. The team partic-
ipates in electronic sports
tournaments.
In health care, BTI has
courses focusing on rural
medicine, including
wilderness fi rst aid.
“We train everybody
from physicians that need
continuing ed, and we’re
approved through the Amer-
ican Medical Association to
give them rural life support
skills,” Dalton said.
Dalton said BTI has a
student base of about 2,000
students around the area and
the school is continuing to
grow.
“We have a contract with
the Baker School District.
We do all their high school
(career technical education)
and we ship middle school
students up here to get
started,” he said. “So, they
are earning industry certifi -
cations here as high school
students, which is awesome.
We’ll train about 400 during
the day here up until after-
noon, and then at about 2:30
the adults start coming in.”
Dalton said the average
starting salary for students
who had completed classes
was $56 per hour. He said
BTI students learn to pre-
pare resumes, go through
mock interviews and learn
about entrepreneurship and
fi nancial record-keeping.
“We celebrate work ethic
and we talk about it every
day,” he said.
Irrigon police department
will have one offi cer
East Oregonian
IRRIGON — Irrigon is
not renewing its contract
with the Morrow County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce for law
enforcement services.
The city council at its
meeting Tuesday, March
15, voted instead for the
city to establish a one-
person police department.
City Manager Aaron
Palmquist in a memo to
the council explained this
has been a topic of discus-
sion in the town.
“As Irrigon grows and
may desire to take charge
of their destiny, should they
continue down the road
of contracting or begin
the step in moving in the
direction of having their
own law enforcement,”
according to the memo.
He said Mayor Mar-
garet Anderson wanted
the council to address the
issue because “we are at a
good time for all parties to
make any adjustments if
needed and desired.”
The Irrigon City
Council voted unani-
mously not to renew.
The small town on the
Columbia River has been
paying the Morrow County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce more than
$95,000 a year in a con-
tract for services, plus the
purchase of a car for the
sheriff ’s offi ce every three
years, which the sheriff ’s
offi ce returned to the city
after three years.
Irrigon now is searching
for a new chief, who will
be the only offi cer in the
department. The city also
will purchase a new car
and renovate an offi ce
in city hall for the new
department.
Under the plan, there
will not be 24/7 police cov-
erage for the town of more
than 1,800 people, but per
Oregon law, the county still
will have to provide some
services. Code enforcement
and complaints, however,
would be solely the city’s
responsibility.
“This may be an oppor-
tunity for Irrigon as we
continue to grow and
become more resilient,”
Palmquist told the council
in the memo.
Additionally, he con-
tinued, the Irrigon Munic-
ipal Court “has been a good
addition and is working
through to strengthen lrri-
gon’s presence and strength
in the region.”
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