J Record-Courier
THURSDAY, APRIL 14,2016
Lemonade for Succulents
12th ANNUAL BAKER COUNTY
FIRE SERVICE TASK
PERFORMANCE EXERCISE
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Photo by Gina Perkins
These three industrious, entrepreneurial minded youngsters
had a lemonade stand to raise money to purchase.....
succulents. Yes, plants. How awesome is that? From left are
Ellie Lamb, Paige Marlia and Landon. Marlia (holding sign).
Located on the high desert
country of northeastern Ore
gon, the Freeman Angus
Ranch began as a homestead
southeast of Baker City in
1908. It was settled by J.Q.
Freeman, father of J.W. (Joe),
grandfather of Dave and Dan,
great grandfather of Seth Free-
• man. The first seed stock was
a gift of two purebred heifers,
purchased from Joe’s father-in-
law, W.B. Riley of Sumpter, by
J.Q.’s stepfather, J.J.Bryant, in
1932. Joe and Wilma, in part
Photo by Gina Perkins
nership with J.Q., increased the
Dave Freeman
herd and raised six children
while the original homestead
was gradually expanded to
accommodate the growing herd.
Photo by Gina Perkins
Sutton Creek School located on the Freeman Ranch
In the early 1970s, Dave and Dan entered the cattle operation,
their only business. For 15 years the ranch was operated in a
three-way partnership with Joe and Wilma, Dan and Susan, Dave
and Twila. Dave and Dan continued together until 2003 when the
brothers chose to split the corporation. Presently the Freeman
ranch is owned and operated by Dave and Twila and oldest son,
Seth and his wife Jennifer. After 105 years, the ranch remains in
the same location.
In 1950 the herd was the first purebred Angus in Oregon to join
with Oregon State College beef cattle improvement program. This
was prior to the American Angus Association establishing their
A.H.I.R. program. In 1960 the herd joined the AAA program,
selecting replacements for quality, weight, conformation and
production ability. Their herd sires have been selected with AHIR
standards from outside and within the Freeman bloodlines.
The Freeman cattle are expected to thrive under range
conditions similar to local commercial herds, then come on and
be competitive in the many phases of the industry, whether it be
performance, carcass or show ring.
Photo courtesy of Baker County Library.
Sutton Creek Students from 1897 - On the back of the photo is writ
ten by Ethel Edwards: 'My first schoolmates 7 miles from Baker,
Ore." It not known which child is Ethel.
The Freemans are hopeful that the upcoming generation of
Freeman children will bring forth at least one future Angus
breeder to carry on with the Freeman Angus Ranch.
On Saturday April 16, Federal,
State and fire agencies from
around the county will come to
gether to participate in the
Twelfth Annual Baker County
Fire Service Task Performance
Exercise, also know within the
fire service as the Scavenger
Hunt.
Originally created in 2005, the
event was developed to bring
fire agencies together to prac
tice skills and mitigate realistic
incident scenarios. An added
bonus was to highlight the need
to find new volunteer firefight
ers for Baker County fire agen
cies. In 2016, the goals have
not changed - departments
benefit greatly by coming to
gether to participate in scenario
based exercises, and the fire
service is always interested in
bringing on new personnel.
Those interested in joining a
local fire department/district,
should contact their local
agency.
This year’s Fire Service Task
Performance Exercise will have
several structural related task
performance stations, and a
wildland-urban interface sta
tion. The event will begin with
Fire agencies being dispatched
to a skill station and upon ar
rival, perform a variety of fire
fighting tasks. While we
develop new scenarios each
year, past skill stations have in-
’cluded - radio communications,
technical scene size-up, appa
ratus operation, working with
equipment such as ladders, hy
drants and fire tools. Each of
the teams will have to success
fully complete all scenario
based stations.
As in prior years, each team
will be required to work through
the emergency situation pre
sented and will be scored on
safety, coordination and organ
ization, communications and
appropriate completion of the
scenario based incident. The
realistic scenarios will chal
lenge the crews, but in the end
valuable lessons will be
learned.
“Each year we create realistic
and challenging scenarios -
but the overall goal is to allow
agencies to evaluate and im
prove response skills, and ulti
mately -enjoy the day," said
Gary Timm of Baker County
Emergency Management.
“While this exercise could be
seen as a fire service pre
paredness exercise, I’m hoping
it will also be viewed as dedi
cated local firefighters coming
together from around the
county to enhance their abili
ties to respond to all-risk inci
dents
within
their
own
communities, and during mu
tual-aid responses,” added
Timm.
Past Winners of the Baker
County Fire Service Task
Performance Exercise
2005 Keating Rural Fire
Protection District
2006 Baker City Fire
Department
2007 Baker Rural Fire
Protection District
2008 Keating Rural Fire
Protection District
2009
Baker Rural Fire
Protection District
2010 Baker Rural Fire
Protection District
2011 Baker City Fire
Department
2012
Baker Rural Fire
Protection District
2013
Baker City Fire
Department
2014
Eagle Valley Fire
Protection District
2015
Baker Rural Fire
Protection District