8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017
Local
Burglaries
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Paradise Truck Wash lost $50 in cash, and Gene’s Mo-
bile Truck Repair was taken for $1,500 worth of items,
but no cash.
At first blush it appears the culprit was looking for
easy cash because larger, more valuable items such as
computers were left untouched.
Police have obtained physical evidence and are actively
pursuing the suspects in this case, said Newman.
OTEC to test
power poles
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
Tree City USA presentation with Tree Board members Mayor Downing and Teresa Gustafson.
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PAGE 5
She stated that their
group would be having a
meeting to discuss ideas.
“That meeting is sched-
uled for May 11th at 6 p.m.
at Lefty’s Tap house to dis-
cuss this and figure out if
the community might sup-
port this. He left me some
invitations that I can pass
out to you. I’m excited. I
will keep you updated on
any progress that’s made.”
said Nudd.
Warner then said, “I
didn’t know if any Coun-
cilors had any questions
about the list of goals. If
you are so inclined we
have a resolution to adopt
the goals.” Mayor Down-
ing asked Council if there
were any questions or
discussion regarding the
goals. Hearing none, he
stated, “I think you did a
great job getting these on
paper.”
Council voted unani-
mously to adopt the goals
by passing resolution 3791.
Appoint Volunteers to
the 911 Advisory Board
The City and the County
recently adopted a new 911
Intergovernmental agree-
ment for 911/Consolidated
Dispatch services.
This agreement call for
the appointment of two
additional board members.
At a meeting last week, the
County Commissioners
approved the appointment
of Diane Arvey and Robert
Gentilli. The matter was
now before Council to
approve.
Both Arvey and Gentilli
were present at the Council
meeting to answer any
questions and for Council
to meet.
Council had no ques-
tions for Arvey or Gen-
tilli and upon a motion by
Councilor Abell that was
seconded by Joseph, a
unanimous vote was cast
appointing them to the
board.
Downing abstained from
the vote as he stated he
was an employee of the
911 Center thus making it
a potential conflict of inter-
est for him.
Aquifer Storage and R
covery (ASR)Well Usage
Report
Public Works Director
Michelle Owen kept this
matter quite brief stat-
ing that an annual public
meeting is required by the
permit issued in 2009 to
inform the public of plans
are for injection as well as
usage.
“I just want to let Coun-
cil know we are allowed to
store 200 million gallons
underground. We have
already met that level. I
am also to give a guess
as to how we may use the
well during the summer
months,” she explained.
“I guess we will use it as
needed.”
She indicated that the
City has been able to use
the streams and diversions
and hasn’t needed to use
the well thus far.
“I do anticipate needing
to use the well during the
summer to meet peak daily
demand as we typically
have in August and Sep-
tember,” she said.
She advised Council
that recently staff visited
Goodrich (in the water-
shed) to get an idea of how
things looked there.
The lake there is expect-
ed to fill, with an estimated
six feet of snow still on the
ground in the area. Owen
stated that the six feet of
snow is more typical of
February and it is now
mid-April.
She asked Council to en-
sure that public comment
be heard prompting Mayor
Downing to officially open
a public hearing. With
no one at the meeting to
comment Downing im-
mediately closed the public
hearing.
Modifying Downtown
Parking Discussion
Owen advised Council
that she wasn’t prepared to
go forward with the matter
currently. “I haven’t been
able to accomplish what I
had hoped to bring this as a
full discussion,” she said.
The matter was prompt-
ed by a business owner
recently and is in regard to
time limit parking on 1st
Street between Valley and
Auburn.
A new downtown organi-
zation that is working with
the Main Street USA pro-
gram has been formed with
a newly created board.
Nudd has been working
with downtown businesses
to get this program in
place.
She said, “We officially
have a new downtown
organization Baker City
Downtown. They held
elections last Wednesday
the 19th.”
The organization has
five board members: Tori
Brown, Beverly Calder,
Heather Isaacson, Jenny
Mowe-Joseph, and Rick
Stout.
That board will meet
next week and according to
Owen she intends to take
the matter before them as
she felt it important for
them to weigh in.
She said after that meet-
ing she would be prepared
to come before Council
for consideration of any
changes.
Watershed Letter to
the USDA Forest Service
As discussed in a prior
meeting City Manager
Warner and Councilor An-
dersen worked together to
draft a letter to the For-
est Service in an effort to
begin moving forward in
efforts to better manage
conditions of the City’s
watershed.
Andersen added he had
asked the County’s Natural
Resources Advisory Com-
mittee for a letter in sup-
port, and they had agreed,
but County Commissioners
had opted to wait until the
Council talked about the
issues further.
Andersen stated that he
would “expect the Com-
missioners to support the
decision if we decide to
move forward.”
Councilor Joseph moved
to approve the signing
of the letter and obtain
approval from the County
Commissioners.
A second was heard by
Councilor Thomas. Coun-
cil voted unanimously.
City Manager/Director
Comments
Warner quickly men-
tioned that he had sent a
letter to the City’s third-
party ambulance billing
company, stating that their
contract would not be
renewed.
He also stated he had
just that evening received a
copy of the tentative bud-
get that he would be going
through in the next couple
of weeks in preparation of
budget sessions.
He also advised of an
economic development
meeting scheduled for
Thursday at Baker Techni-
cal Institute followed by a
tour of the facility.
Owen added, “Yes we
are doing work on Auburn
and we will continue to
do work on Auburn until
September.”
She also apologized that
it was a little inconvenient
to get to the meeting due to
work on Auburn Street by
City Hall.
Council Comments
With no Council Com-
ments Downing adjourned
the meeting.
Over the next few months, OTEC power poles will be
getting a spring cleaning …of sorts.
Osmose Utility Services, a contracted service with
OTEC, will begin inspecting and testing approximately
4,300 power poles in the southern and western areas of
La Grande, all of the south Baker/Pleasant Valley area,
along the Sumpter Highway, portions of the Hines area in
Harney County and the area between Mt. Vernon to the
end of the line in Dayville.
“They will be all across our 4-county service territory,”
said OTEC’s Director of Operations and Engineering
Ned Ratterman. “The testing requires digging around
our power poles and this means that in some instances
Osmose employees will be working in OTEC members’
yards and maybe even driving a 4-wheeler across open
fields testing each power pole.”
Ratterman noted the workers will be wearing clothing
clearly identifying them as Osmose employees and their
trucks will also have OTEC contractor signs.
“Osmose crews will be going from pole to pole to
pole,” added Ratterman. “And some poles are right be-
hind houses. With 3,032 miles of line on the OTEC sys-
tem and a grand total of 43,667 power poles to inspect,
that is a lot of fields, yards and grazing land to cover.”
“OTEC and Osmose will both be doing their very best
to make contact with each property owner,” said Ratter-
man. “But if a rancher is out irrigating in the fields or a
family isn’t home for one reason or another, we are just
wanting to give a heads up that they will be working in
the area.”
OTEC’s power pole plan calls for each poles to be
inspected and treated on a 10-year cycle. Approximately
10 percent of the system is inspected each year to identify
any poles that need to be replaced and to extend the lives
of those poles that remain in service. “This inspection
helps to safely maintain reliability and keeps costs down
for our members,” Ratterman said.
If members have any questions or concerns, please
contact your local OTEC office.
Grant deadline
announced
The Baker County Cultural Coalition is welcom-
ing grant applications for the current round of Cultural
Participation Grants with funding made possible by the
Oregon Cultural Trust. The deadline is May 15, 2017.
The Baker County Cultural Coalition is a nine-member
planning committee appointed by the Baker County
Commission to serve the goals of the Oregon Cultural
Trust. A primary purpose of the coalition is to re-grant
funds it receives from the Cultural Trust to local arts,
humanities and heritage projects. Applicants may only
receive grant awards once during the year. New grant
applications will not be considered if grant reports from
prior awards have not been received. All recipients must
submit a grant report indicating how funds were used by
October 31st.
The Oregon Cultural Trust designates one-third of the
funds it distributes as Cultural Participation Grants to
cultural coalitions in Oregon's 36 counties and nine fed-
erally recognized tribes. These funds are to be used for
cultural activities and priorities, and local programs that
increase access to cultural resources and opportunities.
To obtain a grant application, visit www.bakercounty.
org/cultural_plan/grants.html. Forms must be completed,
hand delivered to a Coalition Board Member or e-mailed
(preferred) to bccc@bakercounty.org by May 15th.
Thank you!
The family of Ann “Bebe” Ellis Racey would like to give thanks to the wonderful
nursing staff and Drs. Richards, Lamb and Carroll at St. Alphonsus Medical Center—
Baker City for their kindness and care.
We would also like to thank everyone for their compassionate calls, texts, emails,
cards, letters, flowers and food during our time of sorrow.
Special thanks go to Bebe’s longtime friend and CPA, Dale Bingham, who spoke so
well graveside, as well as to casket bearers Keith Jones, Mike Pace, Mark Bennett,
Dennis Kiely, Charlie Wendt, Arvid Andersen and Wyn Lohner, and finally to honor-
ary casket bearers Don Bishop, Larry Bishop, Gary Bishop, and Congressman Greg
Walden. You are all appreciated more than you know.