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THURSDAY, JUNE 11,2015
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June 12 - 18
JURASSIC WORLD
PG-13
22 years after the events of Jurassic
Park, Isla Nublar now features a fully
functioning dinosaur theme park,
Jurassic. World.
Adam Kerns, his wife Ori, and little Thomas were
present at the assembly and drew rounds of
applause. Many grateful tears were shed during
the presentation.
»
Fire Chief John proudly said, "All of our agencies
work together everyday like this."
Head Teacher Nanette Lehmen reminded
students that police, firemen, and EMTs are here
to help them.
Sheriff Ash said that if Kiley, Wesley, and Caleb
had not responded in the responsible, timely way
they did, the outcome may likely have been much
different.
Thomas Kerns has made a full recovery and is
a darling, active, happy little boy.
FRI - THURS (4:00) 7:00 9:40
A, Bi
Thomas Kerns and his mbther, Ori
(Below) From left: Gary Timm Fire Division
Manager for Baker County Emergency Man­
agement, Tom Everson Assisant Baker City
Fire Chief, Baker City Fire Chief Mark John,
EMT Sarah Blair, Deputy Eric Colton, and
Sheriff Travis Ash.
SPY r
Comedy. A desk-bound CIA analyst
volunteers to go undercover to infil­
trate the world of a deadly arms
dealer.
FRI-THURS (4:10)7:10 9:45
ENTOURAGE r
Movie star Vincent Chase and his
boys are back in business on a risky
project that will serve as Vince's di­
rectorial debut.
FRI - THURS
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7:20 9:50
SAN ANDREAS pg -13
After a massive earthquake in Califor­
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FRI-THURS (4:20)
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Public Lands Resolution 15-01
is Heated Discussion Topic
at June 5 Meeting
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Bill Harvey's First Friday with the
Commissioner meeting June 5
had several more in attendance
than usual. Harvey sat next to his
newly appointed Natural Resource
Advisory Committee. Chairman,
Doni Clair Bruland, during the
meeting. Bruland was appointed
by Harvey earlier to replace Jan
Kerns who served as NRAC
Chairman for the past several
years.
The possible listing of sage
grouse and possible delisting of
the wolf in eastern Oregon, as well
as the county’s Natural Resource
Committee have all been recent
topics of interest. However, the
topic dominating Friday's conver­
sation was the Public Lands Trans­
fer Resolution 15-01 which had
been read by Chuck Chase of the
Baker County Republicans at the
May 20 Commission meeting dur­
ing the Citizen Input portion of the
agenda. Questions had arisen as
to why the important topic with in­
terest and strong opinions on both
sides, was not included as part of
the May 20 agenda.
On May 12, 2015, at 3:34 p.m.,
Suzan Ellis Jones, Chairman of
the Baker County Republican
Central Committee, wrote the fol­
lowing on the Forest Access For All
page: "The Baker County Repub­
lican Party passed a resolution.
(15-01) to promote the transfer of
public lands back to local control.
Our next step is to take to the
Baker County Commissioners and
hope they will pass a similar reso­
lution." The resolution states it was
passed by the full Republican Cen­
tral Committee. No definition of
"full committee" was provided.
Not everyone present at the
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Thursday, June 11,2015
meeting was in agreement with the
concept of such a transfer, includ­
ing Arvid Andersen a forester and
member of the Baker County Re­
publican Central Committee who
asked, “How could the county pos­
sibly take care of the Federal
Lands? There’s all the staffing, the
money, and even Cliff Bentz, our
Representative, said it couldn’t
possibly be done.”
Dave Hunsaker, retired from the
BLM having worked for 41 years
throughout seven western states
in natural resource management,
was another citizen who ex­
pressed deep concern. Prior to his
retirement as the Associate State
Director for the BLM in Colorado,
he spent several years as the di­
rector for the Oregon Trail Interpre­
tive Center here in Baker City. He
is a very active within Baker
County; he is a Lions Club mem­
ber and holds board positions with
the Baker Heritage Museum and
Baker City Bandstand Committee.
Hunsaker spoke from his profes­
sional standpoint regarding the
turning over of public lands to state
and local governments. His con­
cern lies with the way the turnover
is being presented to the public
and he feels that local ownership
of public lands would be financially
and logistically ill-fated.
“Instead of taking back the public
lands, we should work within the
laws that are passed by Congress,
which is a national representative
body on national public lands. It
[public land] is the greatest treas­
ure that we have in this country,
and the moment it goes into pri­
vate ownership, no trespassing
signs go up,” Hunsaker said.
Hunsaker also stated, “Instead of
voting no or voting yes, I would just
hope that the Commission
wouldn’t vote if a Resolution came
forward on this, and really explore
other options for us to get some
things done here.”
As he continued to address
points brought up in the meeting,
he summarized his thoughts by
asking the people to use the tools
already In reach, to get past the
petty details, and to start working
with one another and with the pub­
lic land management agencies to
address the logical issues through
cooperation and coordination.
Gary Dielman continued to ques­
tion the rationale of the Republican
resolution and inquired as to the in­
tent of the Commissioners.
Chairman Harvey replied, ‘The
resolution was taken in advise-’
ment; we didn’t know it was com­
ing.”
But as Harvey pointed across the
table from where he sat, he stated
to the audience that Chase was
the person who had presented the
document during the May 20
meeting.
Harvey then said, ‘They did
email us a copy earlier in the week
and because we didn’t have a
chance as Commissioners to sit
and discuss anything, we didn’t
discuss it. The Commissioners will
approach it as just information.”
Dielman turned to Chase with a
question regarding a segment in
the resolution which gives the
counties the power to veto any­
thing the state tries to do with its
newly acquired federal lands.
“Amen to that Brother!” Chase
said.
“With the way the state legisla­
ture is going right now I would be
desperately scared if this thing
went to the state. They could do
anything to it. I have a hard time
turning everything over to the state
legislature without the counties
having at least some say in how
things go,” Chase said,
Dielman broke in acjain, stating
that a specific clause in the resolu­
tion grants the counties a veto and
what Chase was describing was
not. Chase then said the resolution
does not contain the word veto, but
instead, it says there must be a
concurrence.
“What’s the practical difference,
Chuck?” Dielman pursued.
“Well, it’s like if they wanted to
come up here into Baker County
and turn everything that was public
lands into wilderness. The county
could come and say no you can’t
because we need those natural re­
sources to survive,” Chase an­
swered.
‘We would deal with the state the
way we’re dealing with the feds,
trying to convince them to do it olir
way," Dielman said, attempting to
summarize Chases’s example,
and to which Chase answered,
‘That’s right!”
Chase continued, “It’s got to be a
working relationship. We can’t just
have the state coming in arid
telling us, ok, this is a natural re­
source withdrawal and you can’t
do anything. It would have to be a
working relationship with the state
and the counties together.”
Art Sappington was the last of
the audience to speak. He said
that a lot of the data used by the
federal agencies is absolutely
made up, and there is no scientific
foundation for it. He recommended
the counties write and submit offi­
cial letters of challenge for specific
scientific studies, demanding to
see the data behind them.
Following the meeting, Sapping­
ton approached Hunsaker, chal­
lenging him to put forth the
documentation he referenced dur­
ing the meeting. Hunsaker re­
mained calm and even-toned as
he explained court cases and leg­
islation which had created barriers
to the transfer of Public Lands to
local governments. Sappington
kept pressing the matter, appear­
ing to lose his temper, regarding a
Memorandum of Law he said he
had submitted to the courts.
“It’s not opinion because I pre­
sented that to the court so it’s as
statute and it will uphold in the
court!” Sappington stated.
Hunsaker replied, ‘The Supreme
Court held that only the Federal
Government only can manage the
public lands.”
Sappington raised his voice and
stepped toward Hunsaker, de­
manding that he go get the court
case information documenting
what Hunsaker had just refer­
enced. After of being yelled at and
ordered to prove his facts, Huri-
saker finally turned away and
began a new conversation after
Sappington ignored his requests to
step back out of his personal
space.
Plans to return federal land to
local government are merely hypo­
thetical at this point and the finari-
cial repercussions are unknown.
Questions regarding how the
county would manage wildfire and
how much money would be re­
quired to battle potential environ­
mental lawsuits which government
agencies incur on a continual
basis, are among those which
have yet to be addressed.