8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015
Local
Huntington food bank gets 1-63 heats up
donation from Ore-Ida
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
• A PALLET OF
FRENCH FRIES WILL
GO TO THE NEEDY
BY EILEEN DRIVER
Eileen@TheBakerCountyPress.com
The Huntington Food
Bank was the grateful re-
cipient of a pallet of frozen
crinkle cut french fries
in a donation from H. J.
Heinz Company’s Ore-Ida
plant in Ontario, Oregon.
“This donation will
go a long way toward help-
ing us feed the low income
families in this area,” said
to Food Bank Coordinator
Allan Driver.
The Heinz Frozen Food
Company was founded in
Ontario, Oregon in 1951.
The company purchases
1.1 million pounds of
potatoes annually from 250
potato growers in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho.
The Ontario Ore-Ida
plant employs about 1000
local workers and has an
annual payroll of over 17
million dollars. The Ore-
Eileen Driver / The Baker County Press
An Ore-Ida employee operates the forklift to unload the pallet of frozen fries
received at the Huntington Food Bank.
Ida employee who loaded
the pallet onto the pickup
for the food bank was a
very shy man named Lalo
who told Allan Driver to
“Come back any time, we
enjoy giving back to the
community.”
The Huntington Food
bank, sponsored by the
Huntington Christian
Church and the Huntington
Lion’s Club who run the
day to day operations, has
had an increase in need for
supplemental food over
the past several months
and will continue to look
for donations of food
and funds to meet that
need from other generous
companies such as Ore-Ida
who believe in supporting
their communities.
League of Oregon Cities
meets in Sumpter
• SMALL CITIES
FORUM NETWORKS
RURAL AREAS
BY EILEEN DRIVER
Eileen@TheBakerCountyPress.com
The League of Oregon
Cities (LOC) Small Cities
Forum quarterly meeting
for Eastern Oregon Region
8 was held on Thursday,
April 16 at the Sumpter
Community Center, the
Old School House in
Sumpter at 11:00 a.m.
These meetings are
essential for small rural
city officials to network
together to find help and
advice on problems facing
their respective communi-
ties or to report projects
that are going right and
how they made it happen.
The meeting was called
to order by Sumpter Mayor
Melissa Findley with,
“We in Sumpter are very
pleased to host this meet-
ing and to have you all
attend.” She then intro-
duced Charles Conrad, the
LOC Research Coordinator
who started off the meeting
with a discussion of City
Budgets and how each
city handles the budget
process. Both John day
and Halfway reported that
they use a CPA to prepare
their annual budgets and
find the expense to be well
worth it. All cities reported
that finding ways to make
the City dollar stretch and
keep up with ever-chang-
ing state regulations is get-
ting harder all the time.
Explaining the City bud-
get to the populace so they
can understand it was also
of concern. The consensus
was that good communi-
cation about any changes
that need to be made to
the budget and why those
changes need to be made
are very helpful in stream-
lining the whole process.
Other topics discussed
were the complexities of
the new marijuana laws
as well as cities’ possible
income from local taxes
on marijuana sales, the
benefits of hiring a grant
writer versus writing
grants themselves, hav-
ing monthly dump fees
or a per-use dump fee,
the percentages of prop-
erty taxes countywide, the
pros and cons of system
development charges as
well as how they work and
the gearing up of the whole
region for the upcoming
tourist season. One of the
main concerns of many of
the cities but especially
the City of Halfway is the
possible closure of forest
roads, which will virtually
end their tourist trade as
hunting, fishing and cam -
ing will no longer be as
accessible or in some cases
totally cut off to the people
who come there for that
purpose.
All of the cities repre-
sented at the meeting are
very concerned about the
fact that new state laws
are not helping Eastern
Oregon to recover from the
economic downturn and
they all need help to find
new ways to survive.
Also included on the
agenda was an explanation
by Charles Conrad of the
tools available to all
League of Oregon Cities
members on the LOC web-
site including the Finance
Toolkit for creating charts
and graph, the budget
resource page, the water
rate study report and the
marijuana laws research
pages. The new Regional
Representative for Baker
County of the Infrastruc-
ture Finance Authority
(IFA) Shauna Bailey was
present and introduced as
well.
Lunch was served and
included baked chicken
and mushrooms with gravy
served over rice as well as
a green salad and fudgy
brownies for dessert.
City officials and
employees from Haines,
Halfway, Huntington, John
Day, Seneca and Sumpter
were present as well as
representatives from An-
derson Perry Engineering,
the Department of
Environmental Quality,
Holaday Engineering and
Infrastructure Finance
Authority.
Everyone was reminded
of the Mayors Meeting,
which will be held on May
21 in Halfway.
The next Small Cities
Forum meeting was set for
July 16 in Huntington and
the meeting was adjourned
at 2:20 p.m.
— Obituaries —
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
William F. Shelley
Baker City, 1921-2015
William F. Shelley, age
94, passed
away on
April 14,
2015. He
was born
on March
29, 1921 in
Yreka, CA.
William
After a
Shelley
childhood
spent mostly
in Yreka, William joined
the Army Air Corps and
served from Sept 1939 to
Sept 1945. During his time
in the military he flew 39
missions as an aerial pho-
tographer. He was awarded
numerous honors including
medals for Good Conduct,
American Defense Service,
Asiatic Pacific Campaign,
European African Middle
Eastern Campaign, Distin-
guished Flying Cross, and
World War II Victory.
Returning from war
found him also returning to
school. He received bach-
elors and masters degrees
from Eastern Washington
University and University
of Washington, respective-
ly. William spent his career
in education in Washington
State. Initially as a teacher
and later in administra-
tion, ultimately as a school
district superintendent. He
was especially proud of the
music programs and stud-
ies that showed students
taking music classes had
improved test scores in
other subjects.
William moved to Or-
egon in the early 90s, Flor-
ence and later Baker City.
He enjoyed a lifelong love
of airplanes, flying, music
and photography. In semi-
retirement he continued to
do some travel and model
portfolio photography for
many years.
Always an avid reader,
it was difficult when much
of his eyesight was lost to
macular degeneration. He
possessed a remarkable
attitude and the ability to
adapt and make the best of
any situation.
He retained an inter-
est in national and world
events, and appreciated
the Congressional Talk-
ing Books program that
enabled him to continue
reading. He maintained a
lifetime membership of the
Masonic Lodge in White
Salmon, WA.
Known most of his life
by the nickname Bill, at
91 years of age he chose to
use Will instead, because
why not?
Cherished as a man with
a very generous, giving,
kind, and unselfish nature,
William will be greatly
missed by many friends
and family. He had an
innate ability to positively
touch the lives of virtually
everyone who knew him.
A potluck celebration
to remember him will be
held at 5:30 p.m. on May
7, 2015, at Settler’s Park,
2895 17th St, Baker City,
OR.
In lieu of flowers, don -
tions can be made to Casey
Eye Institute, Macular
Degeneration Center, 1121
SW Salmon St. Suite 100,
Portland, OR 97205, or
send them through Gray’s
West & Co. Pioneer
Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave.,
Baker City, Oregon 97814.
Part of the “yes on 1-63” committee is Democrat Elliot
Averett, who said his involvement has been limited to
creating the group’s online campaign presence. Averett
declined to answer how he initially became involved.
Averett is a college student and Baker City native who re-
sides in St. Paul, MN. “I care deeply about what happens
to Baker County and would love to live there should the
local economy allow for it after I graduate,” Averett said.
Averett and Joseph referred this reporter to the remain-
ing committee members: Kate Rohner, Sharon Defrees,
Mary Jane Guyer, and Hayden Perkins. The group
emailed back a decision via Averett to decline response to
the questions asked, and referred to their web site, which
contains prepared statements and a letter from Rohner
describing her family’s roots in the area. “We care about
Baker County! That’s why we’re encouraging everyone to
vote yes on Baker County Measure 1-63,” Rohner writes.
“My love for Baker County is based on the people who
make this community great, not its politics. A nonpartisan
commission will give voters who don’t identify with the
two-party system a greater voice in our future.”
One declined question included mention of the open
primary measure in Salem right now that would open the
primary to NAVs (non-affiliated voters) in the primary
without changing Baker County’s County commissioner
positions, and asked if the group could get behind that
measure instead. Another question asked simply how they
each became involved in this effort.
One final question the committee declined to answer
was, “Have you considered a county home rule structure
as opposed to our current county structure? Would that
structure have negated a need, in your opinion, for the
1-63 movement?”
County Commission Chair Bill Harvey, wasn’t hesitant
to weigh in, however. He said, “I am absolutely against
the nonpartisan push for County Commissioner. The par-
tisan system has worked for over 240 years and continues
to serve us well in presidential, congressional, gubernato-
rial and County Commissioner elected positions. Any po-
litical party gets to chose their candidates for the primary
election. Every single voter gets to vote in the general
election. I would hope that unlike the 2014 Primary
election, the Democratic, Liberal and Independent parties
would bring forth their candidates in the next election.”
Baker County Republican Chair Suzan Ellis Jones
explained how they entered the fight to oppose 1-63. “In
the spring of 2014, Chief Petitioner Randy Joseph, who
is also an unsuccessful County Commissioner candidate,
along with his wife and other Democrats filed and started
to circulate petitions. The Baker County Republicans
discussed this issue at length and voted to oppose it and
also adopted a resolution that passed unanimously against
nonpartisan commissioners.”
Local businessman Tom Van Diepen heads the Re-
publican’s subcommittee against 1-63. “When I found
out about the nonpartisan initiative, I became concerned.
Russia in 1917 came to mind and Germany in 1936.
1948 in China was not a happy day for freedom. More
recently we can consider North Korea and Iran. I am sure
there are other examples of single party developments in
the world, but these were enough for me to see a trend. I
think it should be stopped now,” he said.
Jones added, “Nonpartisan candidates have a lack of
accountability to the voters as they are not tied to a plat-
form or core beliefs of an organized party. To ignore the
fact that political philosophy guides decision-making is
a thinking error! Baker County is a conservative county.
We need to maintain that culture and vote against this
move to a one-party system.”
Jones said, “The ‘yes’ crowd does not even seem to
understand the different forms of County government.
They mix apples and oranges when they talk about how
so many counties have nonpartisan commissioners. The
surrounding counties who went nonpartisan— one has a
County Court system and the other two are like Baker:
general law county commissioners. Those who lived in
those counties last fall when they went nonpartisan say
this issue got lost in the middle of the election of candi-
dates, and now they are looking at how to reverse those
nonpartisan decisions.”
A third type of county government is “home rule,”
which allows a County to set many of their own rules
of operation, such as an open primary but with partisan
commissioners while still maintaining local representa-
tive control during any necessary appointment of a new
commissioner should one leave office midstream
Regarding such a replacement, one sticking point for
opponents is the statement on the proponents’ web site,
“there is no change to the current process” for when a
Commissioner resigns. The site cites ORS 236.225.
“I don’t think any of that committee has ever been
through a nominating convention to replace a county
commissioner, and it’s apparent they don’t understand
the process,” said Jones. “We, however, have all been
through the process just two years ago when Carl Stiff
resigned. We know in person and from experience how it
works—how amazingly well it works. The 1-63 commit-
tee should have looked at ORS 236.215, ORS 236.217,
and so on. If 1-63 passes, it will eliminate much of our
local representative appointment process. Right now up
to 50 people elected from all corners of Baker County
screen, interview and nominate the finalists for a commi -
sioner replacement, then present those nominees to the
County. That representative process will go away.”
Van Diepen said, “The community seems to agree
(with us) because when some saw a ‘no on 1-63’ sign
next to my office, they began to come in and ask for signs
to put up. They had seen some yes signs and felt they
needed representation for their position. I was able to
hand out about ten signs to people. I wish we had more
signs. I fervently hope this bad idea goes down in May.”
Ballots hit the mail on April 29 for the May 19 elec-
tion.