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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2019)
FRIDAY WHAT’S NEW AT THE LIBRARY, 3A OUTDOORS, 1B PEDALS AND PINES Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com August 30, 2019 IN THIS EDITION: Local Health & Fitness Outdoors TV • • • $1.50 QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Karen Frakes of Baker City. Oregon, 5A SALEM (AP) — Oregon taxpayers will see the larg- est-ever state income tax refund next year, thanks to state revenue coming in at more than 9% above pro- jections, state economists said Wednesday. The median refund will be $346. Traffi c Projects Planned On 10th Street, At Pocahontas Intersection Talking About Traffic BRIEFING Fiddlers to perform at Sumpter during fl ea market The Blue Mountain Old- Time Fiddlers will be at the little white schoolhouse in Sumpter this weekend during the Labor Day fl ea market. The show starts at 1 p.m. Saturday. Entry is $5, or $4 for members of the Blue Mountain Fiddlers. Ages 12 and younger are free. Bingo starts on Sunday at St. Francis Cathedral Weekly bingo games are planned every Sunday afternoon from September through May in the social hall at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral, 2235 First St. Doors open at 1:30 p.m., with bingo from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. WEATHER Today 87 / 52 Mostly sunny Saturday 93 / 52 Mostly sunny Sunday 91 / 50 Mostly sunny The space below will be blank on issues delivered or sold from boxes. The space is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. S. John Collins/Baker City Herald The Oregon Department of Transportation is planning to revise this intersection at the north of end of town where 10th Street meets Pocahontas Road, at left, and Hughes Lane, at right. The project, which includes “squaring off” the intersection that’s now offset, is planned for 2024. By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com A project that would change the way traffi c fl ows on the 10th and Broadway street business districts, and resdesign the intersection of 10th Street and Pocahontas Road/Hughes Lane, is tentatively planned for 2024. Offi cials from the Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation (ODOT) and the city have discussed the project for several years, and ODOT made a presentation to the City Council dur- ing its Tuesday night meeting. ODOT plans to combine several smaller projects into one so it can award a single contract. The estimat- ed total cost is about $9 million. “What we call the 10th street project, we’ve been talking about it for several years with ODOT,” said Mi- chelle Owen, the city’s public works director. “It is currently in the 2024 STIP — State Transportation Im- provement Program — and so we’re scheduled for construction in 2024.” One of the project’s components involves the traffi c confi guration on 10th Street from Broadway to Poca- hontas, and on Broadway from Main to 10th. ODOT plans to change from the current striping, with two travel lanes in each direction, to a single lane in each direction with a center turn lane that would be at least 14 feet wide. ness owners as well as city and state offi cials, to gather opinions about possible traffi c changes. “But it’s time to renew that and put in more of a formal study,” Owen said. — Michelle Owen, Baker City’s The initial impetus for the 2015 public works director meetings was concern about the intersection of 10th Street and Poca- That’s the confi guration in place hontas, which had a higher-than- now on Campbell Street from Main average crash rate based on ODOT Street east to Birch Street. data, Owen said. According to ODOT data, in “I think the biggest factor is safety,” the fi ve years after Campbell was she said. “We’re after safety fi rst and restriped to three lanes in 2000, the foremost at that intersection, Hughes number of crashes on that section and Pocahontas and 10th. That fl ash- of street dropped 15%, from 62 to ing light hasn’t done enough and it’s 53, compared with the previous fi ve really an offset intersection, so that’s years. what they’re looking to make some On-street parking would be al- improvements there, maybe square it lowed on the restriped sections of up, put appropriate turn lanes in.” 10th and Broadway, and a bicycle The 2015 conversations also lane would be added. included the possibility of improving “The state’s focus is on all forms pedestrian access from Baker High of transportation and they have to School to 10th Street and north to incorporate something other than Pocahontas. just vehicular traffi c movement when “When we went through our TSP they work on a roadway,” Owen said. in 2013 (Transportation System “It’s kind of required now that you Plan) we identifi ed that we wanted to consider bicycles and pedestrians have some multi-use paths or some because not everyone has a car. sort of pedestrian, bike-ped, connec- Owen said public meetings will be tion to that end of town because of the scheduled next year to outline the health department, YMCA, medical proposed changes. facilities.” In 2015 a series of meetings took See Traffi c/Page 3A place, involving 10th Street busi- “We’re after safety fi rst and foremost at that intersection, Hughes and Pocahontas and 10th.” ERIN GRUWELL,WHO INSPIRED THE FILM ‘FREEDOM WRITERS,’ SPEAKS TO BAKER TEACHERS A teacher’s inspirational tale By Lisa Britton For the Baker City Herald Erin Gruwell watched videos of Baker kids fl ying drones, coloring with chalk, and building robots during the school district’s summer programs. Then she took the stage to talk about her kids, the students who showed up to her class — some with no parents, some with no food in the pantry, some with no homes. Gruwell spoke to school district staff Tuesday morning. She shared her story from Long Beach, Califor- nia, a tale that later made it to the big screen in the 2007 fi lm “Free- dom Writers.” “When I started this journey I was an ordinary teacher walking into a chaotic place,” she said. “I had extraordinary students — but they didn’t know they were extraordi- nary.” It was 1993. She was teaching English at Woodrow Wilson High TODAY Issue 48, 14 pages Group to help 5J with bond ideas ■ Voters last November rejected a measure to build a new school, but district officials are looking at a less- expensive option By Chris Collins ccollins@bakercityherald.com Superintendent Mark Witty has appointed a new committee to provide guid- ance on developing a bond measure to fund school im- provements that he hopes will fi nd favor with Baker School District voters. The committee includes representatives of the business and agriculture communities, the medical community, senior citizens and parents. Committee members are: Martin Arritola, Tori Brown, Jess Blatchford, Travis Cook, Stacy DeLong, Riley Hall, Coby Mastrude, Bob McKim, Lynette Perry, Wes Price, Angela Robb and Danae Simonski. “Some of these people, I’m pretty confi dent, voted no on the original bond, and some voted yes,” Witty said in speaking to the Board at its Aug. 15 meeting. “We’re trying to cover various sectors.” See Bond/Page 3A Probation for mother of toddler who shot himself By Chris Collins “I had extraordinary students — but they didn’t know they were extraordinary” ccollins@bakercityherald.com The mother of a 2-year-old Baker City boy who died in November 2018 after shoot- ing himself in the head with a handgun he got control of has been placed on three years’ formal probation. Diana Goodman, 33, of Baker City will avoid an 18-month prison term and possibly be able to raise her surviving son, who is about a year old, if she’s success- ful on probation, District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff said Thursday. Two-year-old Liam Mankins died Nov. 4, 2018, when a loaded .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol he was playing with discharged at his father’s home. — Erin Gruwell School in Long Beach. Her 150 students came from rough backgrounds. Some had joined the Los Angeles riots the year before; many had attended funerals of friends who had been killed. One girl came with an ankle bracelet and probation offi cer. They all were, she said, “wonder- ing if I’m going to be another name- less statistic.” “I was getting 150 kids who weren’t supposed to make it. They didn’t think they’d make it to their 16th birthday.” She spoke of two students in par- ticular: Carlos and Sharaud. Calendar ....................2A Classified ............. 4B-7B Comics ....................... 3B Blue Mountains near Ukiah Submitted photo See Teacher/Page 2A Community News ....3A Crossword ........7B & 8B Dear Abby ................. 8B Erin Gruwell Horoscope ........7B & 8B Jayson Jacoby ..........4A News of Record ........2A See Probation/Page 3A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Outdoors ..........1B & 2B Senior Menus ...........2A Sports ........................6A Weather ..................... 8B MONDAY — OREGON, OREGON STATE, BOISE STATE FOOTBALL RESULTS
