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.