BUSINESS: Tasty Bake operations nearly
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LOCAL: Pinwheel garden marks child abuse
prevention month. PAGE 12
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Friday, April 8, 2016 • Volume 3, Issue 15
Rising police, fire needs
focus of presentations
• CITY COUNCIL
HEARS STAFFING
WISH LIST AT GOAL
SETTING SESSION
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
On Monday evening,
about a dozen attendees in-
cluding several City Coun-
cil members, City Manager
Mike Kee, and department
heads, gathered in the City
Hall Council Chambers to
begin outlining Council
goals for the coming year.
The meeting lasted just
under four hours and
focused on goal-setting for
streets, government and
administration, water and
wastewater, public parks,
economic development,
and public safety.
While the prevailing
sentiment in the room was
that personnel costs should
continue to be kept to a
minimum for the sake of
local taxpayers, and most
City departments were cur-
rently adequately staffed,
the area of public safety
was the singular exception.
Baker City Police Chief
Wyn Lohner and Baker
City Fire Chief Mark John
each pointed to a sharp and
continued increase in com-
munity needs and demands
on their respective depart-
ments.
Kerry McQuisten /
The Baker County Press
Fire Chief Mark John
hopes for additional
staffi ng.
SEE GOAL-SETTING
PAGE 2
Rollover
kills three
‘Pinocchio’ comes to Pine Eagle
Carmelita Holland / The Baker County Press
The Missoula Children’s Theatre of Montana brought a classic play to the Panhandle last weekend.
BY CARMELITA HOLLAND
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
In the original old fairy tale, Geppeto, the wood carver,
fashioned a puppet he named Pinocchio in the image
of a small boy, unaware the wood under the chisel had
come from an enchanted tree. The story was re-written
and brought to the Panhandle by the Missoula Children’s
Theatre of Montana.
On Saturday afternoon, students of Pine Eagle Charter
School, from grades K through 12, demonstrated to a hall
fi lled with families and friends, their version of the story.
Adding to enjoyment was pianist Dona Schmidt ac-
companying the performances, and frequently providing
an exciting, suspense-fi lled setting for the drama.
Introducing the fi rst act was theatre actress, Mandy Cor-
bett, who verbally set the stage with Pinocchio, played by
Vincent Goracke beginning as a wooden puppet.
An energetic Jimmy Cricket was played by Hunter
Simpson.
The beautiful Blue Fairy who “watched from afar, and
gave to the puppet the gift of life” was played by Darby
Shouse.
The whole cast wore colorful costumes. Seth Butler
played the unsavory fox. Katelyn Thomas played the cat.
Chad McCall was Candlewick, and the crew who
traveled the road to Pleasure Isle with Pinocchio were
Maddie Morgan, Morgan Holton, Liz Cantrell, Will Seg-
german, and Chris Millhollin.
The friendly urchins who helped tell the story were
Alexis Marshall, Kiley Chetwood, Kerri Stutzman-Row-
en, Coy Butner, Jazmine Marshall, Bryce Ransom, Chase
Butner, McKenna Olsen, Sammy Pollock and Kandice
Holland.
Warming the hearts of the audience were eighteen
“school kids” from lower grades, and a dozen “toys” all
in full costumes, including a number of toy soldiers in red
uniforms.
All of the local actors were chosen from students who
volunteered on Monday to audition. They had four days
to learn their parts.
This play has been an annual project partially supported
by the National Endowment for the Arts, in part by a
grant from the Montana Arts Council, and local spon-
sors including Jacob’s Dream, the Pine Eagle Education
Foundation, and more.
Man arraigned on first
degree sex abuse charges
On Tuesday, April 5,
2016, Antoine Mulder,
born November 30, 1949,
of 2306 Church Street in
Baker City, was arraigned
on a Grand Jury Secret
Indictment alleging one
count of Sexual Abuse in
the First Degree, a Class B
Friday
Felony.
The charge is an Oregon
ballot measure 11 offense,
with a possible maximum
75-month sentence upon
conviction, according to
District Attorney Matt
Shirtcliff.
The alleged victim in the
Sunny and warm with highs in the mid 70s.
Partly cloudy with lows in the low 40s.
Saturday
Increasing clouds with highs near 70. Mostly
cloudy and cooler at night. Lows in the mid 30s.
Sunday
Mostly sunny and cooler. Highs in the mid 60s.
Partly cloudy at night with lows in the mid 30s.
case is a ten-year-old girl
known to Mulder.
Circuit Court Judge Greg
Baxter set bail at $50,000.
An entry of plea date
was set for April 26, 2016.
Mulder previously re-
sided in Washington State.
Photo Courtesy of the
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce.
Antoine Mulder.
Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press
Police Chief Wyn Lohner says while reports,
responses and arrests have risen signifi cantly,
staffi ng and overtime remain at a decreased level.
Oregon State Police (OSP) Troopers are continuing the
investigation into this Monday morning’s fatal crash on
Interstate 84 westbound near Baker City, near milepost
306.
Preliminary information indicates on April 4, 2016, at
5:34 a.m., a 2006 Chevy Cobalt was traveling westbound
and for unknown reasons, left the roadway and rolled
several times, ejecting a child passenger, three-year-old
girl.
The child and an adult passenger, Wayne A. Owens,
age 35, from Portland, suffered fatal injuries and were
pronounced deceased at the scene. The driver, Samantha
P. Harper, age 22, from Portland, received serious injuries
and was fl own by Life Flight to Saint Alphonsus Region-
al Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Harper was 13 weeks
pregnant, and the couple’s unborn child also lost his life.
One westbound lane of Interstate 84 was closed for ap-
proximately four hours following the crash.
OSP was assisted by the Baker City Police Department
(BCPD), Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)
and Baker County Fire Department. Due to the early
morning time of the accident, BCPD offi cers Shannon
Regan and Blake Hawkins were on duty, arriving fi rst at
the scene.
ORP adopts
Transfer of
Public Lands
resolution
• TWO BAKER COUNTY DELEGATES
ATTEND STATE MEETING
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Baker County Republican Chair Suzan Ellis Jones
and Baker County Republican Corresponding Secretary
Carole Dyke traveled to Medford last weekend for the
Oregon Republican Party’s (ORP’s) state meeting.
Jones is Alternate Vice Chair of Congressional District
2 (CD-2), composed of central and eastern Oregon coun-
ties. Dyke serves as CD-2 Secretary. Jones also heads the
state party’s Natural Resources Committee.
At the meeting, the party voted to adopt a resolution
that came from the Natural Resources Committee—a
resolution that supports the Transfer of Public Lands,
those lands currently under Federal management—back
to state-level control. The idea follows the actions of sev-
eral states east of the Rockies that have already resumed
control of those lands successfully. The resolution is iden-
tical to the one adopted in 2014 by the national party.
SEE TRANSFER OF PUBLIC LANDS PAGE 4
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
CPR training in New Bridge
Man arrested for strangulation
Huntington: new cakery opens
Forest resiliency meeting
County Commissioners coverage
Sumpter’s community breakfast
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