Image provided by: Baker County Library District; Baker City, OR
About The Record-courier. (Haines, Baker County, Oregon) 1932-2016 | View Entire Issue (June 30, 2016)
i Record-Courier THURSDAY, JUNE 30,2016 U-Haul Trucks, Trailers Pull into J&M Country Store Weekly Live Music at Powder River Pavilion in Geiser-Pollman Park in Baker City. Brady Goss is currently on tour across America. Talented songwriter, singer, pianist, guitarist - impres sive, and unique improvisational style on piano and truly remark able vocals. Amazing stage performance with the energy and excitement of Jerry Lee Lewis http://eaglecapmediaproductions.com/brady/ CD's will be available at the concert. This week's music sponsor- Baker County Cultural Coalition. Baker County Has a Fishy Problem On Thursday, June 23, during a special session of the Baker County Commission, Commissioners Bennett and Kerns were brought up to speed on a very fishy and expensive dilemma facing Richland’s Hewitt-Holcomb Park. The problem: pumps designed to relocate park wastewater (including refuse from the fish cleaning station) were failing. Affluent was backing up into the system, rather than being dispersed into the drain field. It was causing a complete failure and a very big mess. For the week prior, Karen Spencer, Department Head for the Baker County Parks Department, had worked endless, difficult hours with numerous electricians, plumbers, contractors, and a representative from Idaho Power to locate the problem. There had been little success. Costs were climbing. Commissioners were asked to approve two resolutions that would trans fer $30,000 from the county’s contingency fund to the Baker County Parks Fund to help pay for emergency repairs. “To give a heads up, we have had to pump the tanks so many times, we’ve had to change motors, completely, and we have new floats in,” said Commission Chair Bill Harvey. “We are still in the middle of it. We are struggling, greatly, and they are giving it everything they got.” Harvey shared with Commissioners that he had been in contact with Spencer every day since the problems started. “I am in contact with Karen, daily. Our main goal is to get it fixed.” Harvey continued, “We have some bills associated with it and that is what this transfer is to address.” Commissioner Mark Bennett expressed concerns that approving such a transfer could alter next year’s opening fund balance. “Don’t get me wrong, we need to fix this,” said Bennett. “But we don’t want to start the new fiscal year eating too much money out of our opening fund balance. We are right up against the line. We may have to throttle back all expenditures to get that thirty, forty, possibly fifty thousand dollars that we will need back into that fund.” County Administrator Christina Cook acknowledged that $30,000 may not be enough to solve the problem. Three days prior to the Commission meeting, the County had already expended $20,000. Bennett again shared his interest in fixing the problem, but was con cerned that if spending in other departments was not slowed down, Baker County could get to November and run out of money, “We need to make sure we keep ourselves solvent by managing the situation responsibly.” “I’m still holding my breath with the law enforcement discussions, and that might be positive, or we might have a bigger discussion” said Bennett. “We need to start talking about a plan about how we manage the financial aspects of this issue, and I think our next meeting would be a good time to do that.” Commissioners agreed it was the prudent course to monitor the financial aspects of the situation and encouraged pulling back on expenditures that were not absolutely necessary. Throughout the past week or so, the wastewater has been pumped from the holding tanks and dumped into the Richland sewer lagoon. This served as the only way to remove the affluent and allow the park to stay open. With the holiday weekend approaching it was not a popular option to consider closing a park down that is referred to as “Fisherman’s Paradise.” More ironic that it was the fish cleaning station that served as the potential culprit for the shut-down. On Friday, Commissioner Tim Kerns traveled to Hewitt-Holcomb Park. “Someone needed to go out there and get an eye on things,” said Kerns. Kerns, however, did not go alone. Kerns contacted Dan Axness, a Baker County native who has a Masters in Engineering and has worked exten sively in the area of irrigation engineering. He now works for Idaho Power Company. As luck would have it, Axness was headed to the area for the weekend. Upon his' arrival, Kerns found people “working like crazy.” Alex Sackos and numerous other contractors had changed pumps, installed new back-flow valves, and done everything they could think of to address the problem. They too, understand closing the park would cause serious chal lenges. “Karen was working her heart out,” exclaimed Kerns. “It was a tough, dirty, smelly job, but she did whatever she needed to do to keep things flowing.” For now, the problem seems to have been addressed. Kerns has been in contact with Axness several times since the visit, and believes Idaho Power can be helpful in looking at options that will prove beneficial in the long run. “’Frankly, I think things just started to wear out, and the fish grindings are very hard on the system” said Kerns. “They are a problem but if we don’t have a working grinder we will have those dam things thrown every where.” Kerns believes Hewitt-Holcomb Park plays an important role in the County’s economic and recreational opportunities. “We need to make the system more user friendly,” said Kerns. “We can’t close this outfit down, but we are working our Parks Director to death. Something has to change.” Photo from Baker County Website Hewitt-Holcomb Park U-Haul Company of Oregon is pleased to announce that J&M Country Store has signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer to serve the Huntington community. J&M Country Store at 40 W. Washington St. will offer U- Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, support rental items and in-store pickup for boxes. Hours of operation for U- Haul rentals are 6 a.m.-6 p.m Tuesday-Sunday. After hours drop-off is available for cus tomer convenience. Reserve U-Haul products at this dealer location by calling (541) 869-2007 or visiting https://www.uhaul.com/Loca- tions/Truck-Rentals-near- Huntington-OR-97907/012147 / today. J&M Country Store owner Jack Helm is proud to team with the industry leader in do- it-yourself moving and self storage to better meet the demands of Baker County. U-Haul and J&M Country Store are striving to benefit the environment through sustain- S p OJAY S t ? ability initiatives. Truck sharing is a core U-Haul sustainability business practice that allows individuals to access a fleet of trucks that is larger than what they could access on an indi vidual basis. Every U-Haul truck placed in a community helps keep 19 personally owned large-ca pacity vehicles, pickups, SUVs and vans off the road. Fewer vehicles means less traffic congestion, less pollution, less fuel burned and cleaner air. J&M Country Store is a great place to become U-Haul Famous®. Take your picture in front of a U-Haul product, send it in and your face could land on the side of a U-Haul truck. Upload your photo through In stagram using #uhaulfamous, or go to www.uhaulfamous. com to submit photos and leam more. Shirley Randall Generational Book of Ladies Hair By Sherrie Kvamme of the Hells Canyon Journal Shirley Randall of Eagle Valley has a family heirloom that is both unique and beautiful. The fragile pages are filled with snippets of hair from lady family members. “My great grandfather Robert Turner’s sister passed it on. Mary Stillwell passed it down to Kate Jackson, who was my grandfather Bob Turner’s sister. Then she passed it onto an aunt of mine, and she passed it on to my parents, and then I got it,” explained Shirley. “The Turners came over on the Mayflower, My great-grandfather was married three times, and this book comes through the last family. The only reason I have any of this history is that one of the children from the second family called me because she found my name in my father’s obituary in Ontario, and she called me. She is the one who produced what informa tion I do have. Kate made me a journal of the family, too. The hair book was started in the late 1800s.” When Shirley received the book, it was in dis repair, and the leather was totally “perished.” The sewn pages were broken at the stitching and had separated into several de tached pages. Shirley found a woman who spe cialized in book restoration to see what she could do. The restoration included work on the binding and reinforcement of the spine edge. New endpapers in a Renaissance style were added, as well as a new hinge. Covers were cut of Davey book board, slightly thinner than usual so the book would have some flexibility. Then the boards were covered with Kennet cotton binding cloth (a 100 percent starch-filled cotton book cloth), and ribbon ties were added to aid in keeping the volume closed. A title label was added, and the pages were reinserted between the new covers. There was a caution associated with the BLM INITIATES WILD HORSE RESEARCH IN OREGON The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Burns (Oregon) District today released its deci sion to initiate research, in cooperation with Ore gon State University, to develop and evaluate safe and humane methods to spay wild horse mares as a method for managing the growth of wild horse herds on public lands. The decision comes on the heels of the BLM's latest annual population estimate that shows approximately 67,000 wild horses and burros roaming public lands in 10 Western states. This most recent es timate is 15 percent -- equivalent to 9,000 addi tional animals -- more than what was estimated in 2015. The population of wild horses and bur ros on public lands is now more than double what the agency has determined is healthy for the animals and the rangeland resources on which they and many other species depend. The BLM's goal is to manage healthy horses on healthy rangelands. Managing the population of wild horse herds is essential to maintain the health of the animals and of public lands; With virtually no natural predators, herds can grow 15-20 percent per year, doubling in just four years if left unchecked. Overpopulation on the range can damage fragile rangeland resources and com promise animal health. In addition to the on- range population, the BLM is responsible for the care of 46,000 unadopted wild horses and bur ros in its off-range pastures and corral facilities. It costs nearly $50,000 to care for one un adopted horse in a corral over its lifetime. The BLM is tasked with overseeing the protection, management and control of wild horses and burros by the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 (Public Law 92-195). The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found in a June 2013 report there are no highly Shirley Randall Hells Canyon Journal photo restoration in that the book would always be fragile and would need to be handled with extreme care to ensure longevity. Pictures do not demonstrate the fine and intricate work of the design. In not being able to touch it, one loses the sense of fragility. It is indeed, a family heirloom. Throughout the decades, different lady family members had fancifully braided the lengths of hair and curled the shorter lengths, then placed them on a page of the book in pretty designs. They enhanced the hair with bits of rib bon or colorful dried wildflowers. They didn’t write dates, they just put the hair on the pages and signed their names. “I think we’ll try to con tinue adding to it,” said Shirley. We’ve talked about it, and I think the girls are in favor of it and want to keep it going. It’s a work in progress, and I’m pretty sure we won’t let it go.” effective, easily delivered, and affordable fertil ity-control methods available across the BLM's West-wide Herd Management Areas. As a result of these findings, the BLM aims to develop a va riety of new population management tools to re duce the number of animals that must be removed from the range as well as the number of animals that must be cared for in off-range fa cilities. As part of this effort, the decision an nounced today will initiate three of 21 research studies and projects with universities and the U.S. Geological Survey to develop new man agement tools and improve wild horse and burro management. Detailed information about each project has been posted on the agency's website (http://on.doi.gov/ IWDtWjt). The three research7 studies announced today are focused on investigating the safety and ef fectiveness of three methods of mare fertility control. The BLM has awarded a research grant to Oregon State University to conduct the stud ies, and the procedures will follow an animal care protocol approved by the university. Li censed and experienced veterinarians will con duct the procedures and provide post-procedure care. The research will start this summer at Oregon's Wild Horse Off-Range Cor ral in Hines, Ore. The BLM considered the Proposed Action to conduct the studies and the No Action alterna tives in Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM- OR-B000-2015-0055. The BLM has selected the Proposed Action. Copies of the Environmen tal Assessment, Finding of No Significant Im pact, and Decision Record are found on BLM's planning documents website: https:// eplan ning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/. To search for a document, you can use the map to locate Burns District or click on the "Text Search" tab and search by state, document type, year (2015), and program. For further information on the Spay Research project, please contact the BLM's Burns District Office at (541) 573-4400.