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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2017)
LOCAL: Main Street Business Program discussed in meeting. PAGE 8 The PUZZLES: Word search and crosswords every week! PAGE 9 Baker County Press TheBakerCountyPress.com 75¢ All local. All relevant. Every Friday. Friday, March 10, 2017 • Volume 4, Issue 10 City holds interim Budget Board meeting BY GINA K. SWARTZ Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com Tuesday night the Budget Board for the City com- prised of City Councilors and appointed community members met. As the bell rang at 6 p.m. Rosemary Abell, Vice Mayor, called the meeting to order in the absence of Mayor Mike Downing. Julie Smith, City Recorder, called roll with Councilors Loran Joseph and Adam Nilsson present. Absent were Councilors Dan McQuisten and Arvid Andersen. For the Budget Board present were Jeff Petry, Debra Bainter and Vern Hull. Budget Board members absent from the meeting were Ryan Chaves and Andrew Bryan. Councilor Jim Thomas and Budget Board member Kim Mosier arrived after the roll call. City Auditor, CPA Kent Bailey was also present for the meeting. City Finance Director Jeanie Dexter then took over facilitating the meet- ing. She began by welcom- ing all that were present and explained the purpose of this meeting. “This is considered an interim budget meeting, not the formal and ‘legal’ budget- ing meetings that will take place in May,” she said. “This meeting has pa- rameters of things we can discuss, things we can’t discuss. It is not meant to be a meeting where we talk about what we are going to do in the upcoming year’s budget. In fact, we are pre- cluded legally from talking about that type of specifi c information.” SEE INTERIM BUDGET BOARD Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press Baker City Finance Director Jeanie Dexter, center, facilitates the meeting. PAGE 5 Ribbon-cutting draws crowd on Main Street Wolf accidentally poisoned Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press Friends, family, customers and fellow small business owners from up and down Main Street gathered to attend the ribbon-cutting at The Sycamore Tree, now under new ownership. BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER Samantha@TheBakerCountyPress.com March 1st through 4th, The Sycamore Tree held a launch party to celebrate its 29th anniversary and new ownership. Owners held a ribbon- cutting March 3rd. They had daily door prizes, tast- ings, and a raffl e drawing for a $100 gift card. Josey Gaslin became the offi cial new owner of the business effective January 1st and this is the fi rst busi- ness she has owned. Gaslin grew up in Baker City and loved The Syca- more Tree. “All through middle school and high school I just knew when I got older I wanted to have a store like the Sycamore Tree,” Gaslin explained. “I went off to Newberg to Friday Wolf OR48, a Shamrock Pack adult male, was found dead on Feb. 26 on private land in northeast Oregon after an unintentional take by the US Department of Agricul- ture’s Wildlife Services. The wolf died after encountering an M-44 device, a spring-activated device containing cyanide powder. The device was in place as part of Wildlife Services opera- tions to control coyotes and prevent coyote-livestock confl ict on private land in northeast Oregon. “The death of this wolf shows the risk involved when wolves are in areas where Wildlife Services conducts these types of operations,” said Doug Cottam, ODFW Wildlife Division administrator. “This is a situation we take seriously and we’ll be working with Wildlife Servic- es with the goal of preventing it from happening again.” ODFW and Wildlife Services are evaluating the inci- dent and discussing how to prevent unintentional capture or take of wolves while addressing livestock damage problems. “Wildlife Services’ specialists care about wildlife and work hard to prevent the unintentional take of animals when addressing human-wildlife confl icts,” said Dave Williams, state director for USDA Wildlife Services in Oregon. “We have begun an internal review of this inci- dent to see if any changes to our procedures are neces- sary.” Wolf OR48 was collared on Feb. 10 of this year in Wal- lowa County and was part of the Shamrock Wolf Pack. At the time of collaring, he weighed over 100 pounds and was estimated to be just under two years old. Wolf OR48 was not the breeding male of the pack. Baker City man arrested on meth charges Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press Josey and Rob Gaslin (center) cut the ribbon held by Baker City Mayor Mike Downing (left) and Baker County Commission Chair Bill Harvey (right). go to college and, over in the Portland area, it’s just too overwhelming to even think about opening up a little shop like this with all of the big retailers to Mostly sunny and mild. Highs in the upper 50s. Friday Night: Partly cloudy with lows near 30. compete with. “So, my husband, my family and I moved back to Baker in 2008 and I was raising my kids and just never had the opportunity to really think about open- ing up a store or anything.” SEE RIBBON-CUTTING PAGE 3 Your weekend weather forecast for Baker County. Our forecast made possible by this generous sponsor: Saturday Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Highs in the mid 50s. Night: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Lows near 40. Sunday Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Highs in the mid 50s. Lows in the mid 30s. On March 3, 2017 at approximately 10:40 a.m. the Baker City Police Department (BCPD) conducted traffi c stop on Cedar near Hughes Lane Baker City, OR. The ve- hicle that was stopped was part of an ongoing drug inves- tigation. During the traffi c stop, K9 Capa was deployed and alerted to the presences of controlled substances. Subsequently, BCPD offi cers located over four ounces of methamphetamine, other drug paraphernalia and cash. The driver and lone occupant, Steven Whitney, was ar- rested at the scene and lodged at the Baker County Jail. This investigation is ongoing and further arrests are likely. Steven Whitney (7/16/1966) 820 Campbell Street Baker City, OR 97814 1 count of unlawful delivery of methamphetamine 1 count of unlawful manufacturing of methamphet- amine 1 count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine 1 count of attempting to bribe police offi cers ALSO IN THIS ISSUE So I was thinking... by Jimmy Ingram Pushback against 5-day school week Offi cial weather provider for The Baker County Press. High School art winners 8 breeding wolf pairs identifi ed Richland man arrested Homemade Goodness by Eileen Driver Page Page Page Page Page Page 4 5 7 7 8 8
