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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2017)
FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5 Local Irish musicians perform BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER Samantha@TheBakerCountyPress.com On Thursday, April 27, Crossroads Carnegie Art Center welcomed two award-winning musicians from Northern Ireland. Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde and Declan Mc Clafferty arrived in Baker for a one night perfor- mance of traditional Gaelic music as part of their North West Tour. Megan McGuiness, a new member of the Cross- roads Board, introduced the Bhríde and Clafferty. Baker City was their second to last stop fol- lowed by Pocatello, Idaho where they performed at a University and held Gaelic speaking workshops with the university students. Bhríde and Clafferty are from Donegal, Ireland and arrived in Seattle, Wash., to begin their tour. They then went to Vancouver, BC and through Oregon to Idaho. This is Bhríde’s second tour, Clafferty’s first, and their first year performing in Baker City. They also performed at the Main Event for their Open Jam session. Bhríde plays the Uil- leann Pipes, or Irish Pipes, the accordion, and sings sean-nós an Irish singing style. Clafferty plays the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Burnt River teacher Tonia Humbert informed everyone that NASA and Virgin Galactic will be at the school dur- ing the eclipse. Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company within the Virgin Group developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions. They will spend a day setting up and then thirty scientists will be doing experiments with students. Because of the number eclipse visitors and traffic, the school grounds will be closed for the safety of the students. Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde and Declan Mc Clafferty played some tradi- tional Irish tunes at Crossroads. acoustic guitar and sings as well. For the performance at Crossroads, Bhríde sang and played the accordion with Clafferty playing on his acoustic guitar. Bhríde and Clafferty have played and sung all their lives and they re- cently began performing together. Bhríde formed and directs a Gaelic choir at his home called Cór Thaobh a’ Leithid. He has been directing for ten years and he also teaches singing and workshops. Bhríde is also a co- author of a book, ící Pící, a book that comes with a CD that teaches kids Gaelic, which was available at the event. Clafferty is a member of a Donegal Folk Rock band called In Their Thousands, who just recorded an album. He performs with his brother and his cousin and they have played together since they were children. For the event, Bhríde mostly performed in Gaelic and a few songs in English. They are planning on coming back to tour in Oregon the same time next year and will stop in Baker City. Elkhorn Swingers dance at Spring Fling BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER Samantha@TheBakerCountyPress.com From April 28th to the 30th, Elkhorn Swingers Dance Club held their an- nual event “Maintaining a Tradition… Spring Fling at Baker City!” at the Com- munity Connections. The club has held this tradition since 1979, mak- ing this the 38th year they have held it. Debbie and Paul Taylor of Cle Elum, Wash., were the featured cuer couple and Darin Keith of Nampa, Idaho was a featured caller. According to Esa Mur- rell, there were two square dance groups in Baker City. The two merged together when they became smaller and created the Elkhorn Swingers Dance Club 38 years ago. “Last year was sup- posed to be the last spring fling,” explained Murrell, “and the club was going to disband and a couple of us and, fortunately Deb- bie, decided that we could keep going and just do this every year. ‘So a small group of us are going to keep this alive just for the Spring Fling and Debbie and Paul and then Darin, the caller, have agreed to do percentage splits to make it work.” The weekend in- cluded square and round dances, welcoming danc- ers throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and other states dancers traveled from. “A lot of these people are from Boise,” explained Debbie Taylor. “They come and support it. Next year, we’re not sure what date we are going to have it on, we’re going to try NASA coming to Burnt River Assault CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Johnston was able to keep Kruger out of the house but she ultimately injured his foot with the door. Johnston attempted to reason with Kruger outside of the residence, and she struck him in the face, causing minor injury. Kruger was arrested at 2:35 a.m. for Assault IV- Do- mestic and Harassment. Kruger was transported to the Baker County Jail where she was booked and lodged. Burglary suspect arrested Baker City Police Lt. Dustin Newman said via email last week that the Department is investigating if Derek Michael Cole, age 34, who was arrested Thursday eve- ning just after 5 p.m., had ties to the multiple burglaries and burglary attempts that occurred all over Baker City at the end of last month. Cole was arrested for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle plus three past burglaries from 2012, according to Newman. "At this time the BCPD is aggressively investigating his possible involvement with the recent burglaries in Baker City," he wrote. No additional information has been released to media since that arrest as the investigation is ongoing. Cole is lodged in the Baker County Jail. Scenic bikes committee to meet in John Day Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press Debbie and Paul Taylor show off their dance moves. The pair teaches dance in Yakima and Seattle typically. and get it off from the fourth weekend because Yakima has a square dance weekend on the fourth weekend of April, so we’re going to try and get it off from that weekend so that it’s on two different week- ends so that the Yakima group could possibly sup- port coming down for it.” Beginning the weekend, they had Phase 4-5 Pre- Rounds followed by Phase 2-3 Pre-Rounds, and ended with Mainstream Dance with Phase 2-3-4 Rounds. They are working to get the word out about the event to build up the group and get more people involved. On Saturday, they had Phase 3-4 Round Dancing, Square Dance Workshops, Phase 2-3 Round Dancing, Phase 3-4-5 Pre-Rounds, and ended with Main- stream Dance with Phase 2-3-4, and they ended the weekend with Phase V Round Dance Workshop. The Taylors began danc- ing in 1981, beginning with square dancing, and Debbie wanted to teach dancing after three round dance lessons. They have been with this event for two years. They teach a group in Yakima every Thursday, a group in Seattle every Sunday, they cue at square dances in the Seattle area on Fridays and Saturdays, and they teach at all na- tional conventions. They also do an Al- zheimer’s benefit dance every year in the Seattle area. In ten years, they have raised $50,000 towards finding a cure for Alzheim- er’s. They also teach at the ICBDA, International Choreographed Ballroom Dance Association, and their convention is in July and will be in San Diego this year. “Dancing is so good for you, not only mentally but physically,” said Debbie Taylor. “Get dancing! It’s good for you.” The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s Scenic Bikeways Committee will meet from 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday, May 24 at the John Day Fire Department, 316 S Canyon Blvd. The meeting is open to the public. The committee will meet to fulfill the Oregon Admin- istration Rules requirement for conducting a five-year review of the Old West Scenic Bikeway. The agenda includes an overview of the Oregon Scenic Bikeways program. Committee members will also review past suc- cesses, discuss challenges and opportunities to improve and promote bikeways, and talk about how to bring greater economic benefit to Grant County. For more information on the Oregon Scenic Bikeways Program or about this meeting, contact Alexandra Phil- lips, Bikeways Coordinator, at 503-986-0631 or alex. phillips@oregon.gov. EOU gets ‘tree campus’ recognition Eastern Oregon University has been recognized as a 2016 Tree Campus USA® from the Arbor Day Founda- tion. The honor was announced last Friday during EOU’s celebration of National Arbor Day, which featured plant- ing a Douglas fir on the future site of a new grove of trees and native grasses. David Yoder, campus grounds coordinator and ISA certified arborist, has been championing the cultivation of EOU’s urban forest and convened the tree advisory com- mittee responsible for devising a long-term plan. David Lageson, director of facilities and planning, Gary Keller, professor of business, students Mitch Staeffler and Victor Dias, and Brian Kelly, a consulting arborist and restoration director for the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, sit on the committee.
