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.’”