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Friday, October 30, 2015 • Volume 2, Issue 44
Former Baker City man
sentenced to 35 years
• SEX OFFENDER
WORKED AT YMCA,
NORTH POWDER
CHARTER SCHOOL
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Benjamin Nelson, age
27 and formerly of 1201
Reservoir Road in Baker
City, was sentenced this
week to 35 years in prison,
and must register as a sex
offender, according to
Multnomah County of-
fi cials.
District Attorney Matt
Shirtcliff said that Nelson
will also plead guilty to a
charge in Baker County
involving an elementary-
school-aged child.
Nelson was accused this
May of sexually abusing a
number of underage chil-
dren, using the babysitting
site care.com as a way to
lure the children to him.
He was arraigned at that
time and eventually pled
guilty in August to charges
of attempted sex abuse,
sodomy and encouraging
child sex abuse.
As part of that plea deal,
several additional charges
were dropped.
The Multnomah County
crimes were committed
in January through April
of this year, with a third
victim somewhere between
June 2014 and May 2015.
His confessed victims
included a boy under age
12, a boy under age 14 and
a third victim with undis-
closed details.
According to Shirtcliff,
“Nelson has agreed to a
joint plea agreement with
our county as part of the
deal. He has one count of
Sex Abuse in the First De-
gree here in Baker County.
The victim was age 7 at
the time of offense. He
(Nelson) will be trans-
ported to Baker this week
and is scheduled to plead
guilty and be sentenced to
75 months in prison.”
Photo courtesy of the Multnomah County Sheriff.
SEE SEX OFFENDER /
PAGE 5
Convicted sex offender Benjamin Nelson.
Baker County
affects state
political
platform
Dredge celebrates another season
• LOCAL DELEGATION HELPS SHAPE GOP
GOALS FOR OREGON
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press
Ranger Garrett Nelson leading the dredge tour during the end-of-season event in Sumpter.
BY MEGHAN ANDERSCH
Meghan@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Saturday, October 31st will be the last day this year to
visit the dredge in Sumpter. The Sumpter Valley Dredge
State Heritage area closes for the season on November
1st. The Last of the Season event October 24th and
25th featured dredge tours, discounted merchandise in
the Friends of the Dredge gift shop, and free coffee and
pastries for dredge visitors.
Visitors over the weekend included Buzz and Bubba
Howard. Their father, “Stubby” Howard, worked on the
dredge as winchman and later as dredge master. The
winchman was responsible for steering the boat and
worked on the second story of the boat in the winch
room.
Buzz Howard worked on the dredge as a stern oiler,
keeping things in the rear portion of the boat lubricated.
He explained that he was also educated in the head oiler’s
job, and said if the head oiler didn’t show up, the other
man would be responsible for doing the entire job. He
remarked, “You always hoped the other fellow would
show up!”
Howard also shared the memory of a favorite practi-
cal joke. He said if you climbed to the top of the dredge
while someone was using the privy and dropped a rock
just right, the water would splash up through the seat. He
explained this saved on toilet paper.
SEE SUMPTER DREDGE PAGE 8
Friday
Cloudy with a chance of rain. Highs in the lower
50s, chance of precipitation is 40%. Lows at
night around 40.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with a chance for stray showers
throughout the day. Highs in the lower 60s,
chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy and rainy. Highs in the lower 50s,
chance of precipitation is 40%. Lows at night
around the freezing mark.
Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press
Bubba (at left) and Buzz Howard stand in front of the
Sumpter Dredge.
“I feel like we really made a huge difference and
represented the people of our county,” said Baker County
Republican Chair Suzan Ellis Jones.
A local delegation of elected precinct committee people
(PCPs) from Baker County traveled to Bend at the end
of last week to attend the Oregon Republican Party’s
biannual platform convention, which was followed by the
state meeting. The goal of the convention was to draft the
“planks” that make up individual sections of the statewide
platform—the collection of guiding principles adhered to
by the party.
Jones, Secretary Carole Dyke, Vice Chair Kody Justus,
and PCP Heidi Justus were among the locals to attend.
Jones also serves as the Alternate Chair for Congressional
District 2 (CD2) and heads up the State Party’s Natural
Resources Committee. Dyke serves as CD2 Secretary. As
such, Jones chaired the Natural Resources Caucus, which
formed the plank for those issues. Dyke was Vice Chair
of the Education section. Kody Justus participated in the
Natural Resources caucus along with 37 others to start,
which grew to 50 delegates by the end. Delegates sign up
for the section in which they’d like to participate.
According to state Sen. Doug Whitsett, “The Natural
Resources and Environmental Stewardship plank unam-
biguously supports a number of values that I strongly
endorse. Delegates voted unanimously to oppose the
breaching of dams. They support including all current
and future hydropower generation in Oregon’s Renew-
able Portfolio Standard and strongly encourage expanded
water storage through construction of new or enhanced
reservoirs. The delegates recognize that storage must be
suffi cient to provide sound water management and hydro-
electric power generation while maintaining appropriate
environmental policy based on reproducible, verifi able
science.”
Jones went on to add, “We were also successful in
clarifying and strengthening the transfer of federal public
lands to local control onto that plank. This is not to be
confused with privatizing public lands by any means.
We’re talking local government control, excluding sov-
ereign nations, as provided for in the Constitution. As a
party we advocate, along with groups like Forest Access
for All, for multiple use of our public lands. We under-
stand the economic importance of our forests, livestock,
agriculture and tourism industries in Baker County. We
also added a new section supporting the coordination
rather than cooperation process between local govern-
ment entities and the Feds.”
SEE PLATFORM PAGE 8
Your weekend weather forecast for Baker County.
Our forecast made possible by this
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The Baker County Press.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Soroptimists sponsor art contest
Economic Dev talks groceries
City: wastewater, grafi tti
Lions install fi tness equipment
NRAC meeting coverage
Chamber needs awards nominations
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