FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
Opinion / Local
County Commissioners 17th Festival of Trees held
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PAGE 3
Amendment No. 3, to
Oregon State Intergov-
ernmental Agreement
No. 148056, between the
County and the Oregon
Department of Human Ser-
vices, For The Financing
Of Community Develop-
mental Disability Services
Amended And Restated,
was approved, with a mo-
tion from Nichols, and a
second from Bennett.
Amendment No. 1, to
Oregon State Intergov-
ernmental Agreement
No. 153115, between the
County and the Oregon
Health Authority, For The
Financing Of Community
Mental Health, Substance
Use Disorders, And Prob-
lem Gambling Services,
was approved, with a mo-
tion from Nichols, and a
second from Bennett.
Parade
CONTINUED FROM
PAGE 1
“We’ve been doing
things the same way for a
very long time,” explained
Wroe. “Now, some things
don’t need to change, some
things do, and we just
thought we might get more
participation if it was more
fun for people to do.”
The inspiration behind
the change in the parade
theme came from Pinter-
est.
Wroe said, “Baker is
changing a little bit. We
like to keep the good parts,
the good traditions, the
things that everybody re-
ally loves which of course
is the parade and the
Christmas tree lighting but
there’s no reason we can’t
have a lot of fun while we
do it”
They have decided to do
a different theme every
year, depending on what
the community thinks of
this year. The Christmas
parade is traditionally
short, due mostly to the
weather.
“With everything that
goes on downtown now,
there’s no reason that you
just have to go immedi-
ately home,” stated Wroe.
“There’s all kinds of things
to do downtown, you can
stop, you can get dinner at
any number of places, you
can go through a couple of
art galleries.
“You can take the kids
through Crossroads,
and all of the downtown
businesses, they gener-
ally do something big for
the holidays and at least
once a week, they have
art walk, first Friday, and
Amendment No. 1, to
Oregon State Intergov-
ernmental Agreement
No. 149635, between the
County and the Oregon
Department of Human
Services, for vocational
rehabilitation services, was
approved, with a motion
from Bennett, and a second
from Harvey.
An Intergovernmental
Agreement, between
Baker, Union, Wallowa,
and Grant counties, in
support of a Community
Development Block Grant
administered by Business
Oregon, Infrastructure
Finance Authority, was
approved, with a motion
from Nichols, and a second
from Bennett.
The grant is for the
purpose of management
of a housing rehabilitation
revolving loan fund, to
provide assistance to low
income homeowners to
repair their homes.
Nichols began a discus-
sion about a letter received
from Bill Currier, of the
Oregon Republican Party.
The letter was regarding
the resignation of Senator
Ted Ferrioli from State
Senate District 30, on No-
vember 17, 2017, leaving a
vacancy.
According to the letter,
the vacancy must be filled
by appointment no later
than December 22, 2017
(three potentials have been
chosen so far, including
Cliff Bentz and Suzan Ellis
Jones).
The Board discussed the
process (noting some con-
fusion), and Bennett said
that the Board will need to
get some clarification from
the office of the Secretary
of State.
Editor’s Note: See the
article on page 1 for more
information.
third Thursday.
“So, there’s lots of things
to do, so we really want
people to instead of just
coming out for the big
festivals, the really estab-
lished things, if we can get
people to come out and
spend more time just on a
regular basis, it would be
really great.”
This year, there were
several new participants
and some who had partici-
pated in the past.
Among those who were
participating for the first
time was Rob Dennis,
whose float’s theme was
“National Lampoon’s
Christmas Vacation.”
“We’re The Baker
County Safe Communities
Coalition,” explained Den-
nis. “We are community
members that are working
to make Baker a safe and
positive community.
“We already are a safe
and positive community,
but everybody knows there
are things that we could
be doing better, and that’s
what we want to do.
“Our primary focus is
substance abuse preven-
tion, but we are also the
movies in the park this
summer.
“We’re trying to do one
this winter as well, obvi-
ously not in the park but
trying to do some sort of
family friendly thing and
just give the community
more family friendly, posi-
tive things to participate
in.”
Holly Clary, with DH
Wagon and Carriage
participated in the parade
for the first time with their
horses
“We watched it last
year and we just started
our carriage business this
year and, so, we figured
it would be a good way
for some PR work for
the community and just
have fun and participate,”
explained Clary. “We love
parades and we do several
a year.”
Robin Nudd and other
Baker City Employees’
theme was “How the
Grinch Stole Christmas”
with the Grinch in the
sleigh and Cindy Lou Who
on the float.
Other city employees
and children handed out
candy.
Jim Bjork with D&B has
in the parade for five years,
and this year’s theme was
“The Polar Express.”
“We come down to
promote our one day sale
that’s on December 6th,”
explained Bjork.
Jay and Kelly Tanzey
participated for their first
year with their son Traxton
and their dog Bella.
Their theme was the
“Rzr Christmas,” as they
were in a Polaris Rzr with
Rudolf on the car.
Hells Canyon Jr. Rodeo
princesses Emma Beard
and Aamaya Melchlor
participated for their first
year.
Their theme was the
“Nightmare Before Christ-
mas.”
The Baker County Fair
and Panhandle Rodeo
Queen Kelsei Kiser and
Princess Kachira Phillips
also participated in the
parade.
This was Kiser’s first
year participating and
Philip’s third year.
Their theme was “Fro-
zen” with Kiser dressed
as Queen Elsa, her horse
dressed as the snowman
Olaf, Phillips dressed as
Princess Anna, and her
horse was dressed as the
reindeer Sven.
Ryleigh Phillips walked
with them, handing out
candy.
— Letters to the Editor —
Holding false witnesses
accountable
To the Editor:
How can we put a stop to all these
baseless accusations that are freely flying
around against Alabama Senatorial candi-
date Roy Moore and others? Why are we
condemning him and others in our minds
on the testimony of just one witness? The
facts should be established by the testi-
mony of two or three witnesses for each
alleged incident.
If a malicious witness comes forward
and accuses someone of a crime, then
both the accuser and the accused should
be closely questioned. If the accuser is
found to belying, she/he should receive
the punishment intended for the accused.
There should be punishment for bearing
false witness. Those watching would be
deterred from doing the same.
This timeless biblical principle is found
in Deuteronomy 19:15-20: “Never con-
vict anyone of a crime on the testimony
of just one witness. The facts of the case
must be established by the testimony of
two or three witnesses. If a malicious wit-
ness comes forward and accuses someone
of a crime, then both the accuser and
accused must appear before the priests and
judges who are on duty before the Lord.
They must be closely questioned, and
if the accuser is found to be lying, the
accuser will receive the punishment
intended for the accused. In this way, you
will cleanse such evil from among you.
Those who hear about it will be afraid to
do such an evil thing again.” (New Living
Translation)
Mary Andersen
Baker City
BY SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Samantha@TheBakerCountyPress.com
St. Alphonsus held their
17th annual Festival of
Trees, a three day event
at the Baker City Event
Center.
“I would like to say
thank you to all who
volunteered their time and
talents to the Festival,”
said Laura Huggins, the or-
ganizer for the Festival of
Trees. “We are extremely
honored by your participa-
tion.”
According to Hug-
gins, the Festival of Trees
included the Thursday Pre-
view under the Stars, the
Friday Evening Gala, and
the Saturday Family Day.
The Thursday event
was held November 30th
with appetizers being
served and miniature trees,
wreaths and baskets were
silent auctioned in the
evening.
“The Friday evening
Gala was held December
1st and included an elegant
buffet dinner provided by
Saint Alphonsus Medical
Center—Baker City’s own
Clinical Nutrition Ser-
vices—Thomas Cuisine,”
explained Huggins. “The
evening included a live
Christmas tree auction and
a silent wreath, basket and
miniature tree auction.
All of the trees, baskets
and wreaths were beauti-
ful, which highlights the
talents of so many Baker
City volunteer decorators.
The venue looked fabulous
thanks to the efforts of
Ginger Whitney and Jeff
Martin and his crew. Fol-
lowing the auction, there
was dancing until midnight
to the Color Blind Band.”
Family Day was held
Saturday, December 2nd
from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00
p.m. in the event center.
Those attending were
able to view trees deco-
rated by local businesses
and people.
There were several trees
decorated by Baker City
locals. Among them was
Samantha O’Conner / The Baker County Press
Walking in a Winter Wonderland by The Sycamore
Tree.
Josey Gaslin, owner of
The Sycamore Tree, and
she has helped decorate
trees in the past for several
years. Their tree theme
was “Walking in a Wood-
land Wonderland.” Their
tree was decorated with
owls, pinecones, and other
woodland ornaments.
“Each year, we kind of
look at what the trends are,
so we try to find something
that’ll appeal to everybody
if we can, or to a major-
ity of a crowd,” explained
Gaslin. “We live in Eastern
Oregon and everybody
here pretty much loves the
outdoors.”
Ginger Savage, Execu-
tive Director of Crossroads
Carnegie Art Center,
decorated a tree for the
festival. Their theme was
“On Broadway”.
“One of my committee
members for our Gala
Fundraiser, Katie Lamb,
suggested to me last year
because she’s also been
very involved with Festival
of Trees, is that we should
take our next year’s Gala
theme and do our festival
tree in that theme,” ex-
plained Savage. “And, so,
that tells the story, as soon
as they look at the program
they’ll know what next
year’s Crossroad’s Gala
theme is.”
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They were also able to
have their pictures taken
with Santa, hosted by the
Baker City Kiwanis Club.
The Saint Alphonsus
Foundation partnered with
Crossroads Carnegie Art
Center and offered “Make
It and Take It”, a family
craft event with different
projects for children to
make.
“I would like to give
special thanks to Jason
Yencopal and his crew for
doing such a fantastic job
of boxing everything up
and delivering the trees to
the buyers,” said Huggins.
“We are pleased to an-
nounce that the funds from
this year’s Festival of
Trees will go toward pur-
chasing a MyoSure hys-
teroscopic tissue removal
system,” said Huggins.
“The MyoSure system is
a fast, convenient way to
remove intrauterine pathol-
ogy, pairing direct hystero-
scopic visualization with
minimally invasive tissue
resection, to ultimately
preserve uterine form
and function. This new
equipment will be used
by Dr. Patrick Connor,
Gynecological Oncologist
who will be performing
gynecology procedures at
Saint Alphonsus here in
Baker City.”
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