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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2019)
LOCAL & STATE BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A UNIQUE FUNDRAISER WILL HAPPEN SEPTEMBER 21 AT CHURCHILL SCHOOL Baker’s School District’s Outdoor School moves to Anthony Lakes FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 Great Salt Lick has new site poem (this year’s theme): fi rst, $100; second, $75 Whit Deschner really wants salt • Best Forgery: fi rst, $100; licks. second, $75 And not just any old salt licks, • People’s Choice: $100 but ones sculpted into artistic forms All entries need the name of the for the 13th-annual Great Salt Lick person submitting and the name contest and auction. of the block, as well as the name This year’s event will be held at and species of animal that licked Churchill School, a location change the block, name of ranch, and from previous years to accommodate category. the crowd. Entry forms are available at “It just gets bigger,” Deschner said whitdeschner.com. Submitted photo of the event. Salt blocks can be submitted Artistic salt licks will be auctioned The Great Salt Lick contest is at Richland Feed and Seed or Saturday, Sept. 21. Viewing and judg- Sept. 21 in Baker City to raise money Oregon Trail Livestock Supply in for Parkinson’s disease research. ing begins at 5:30 p.m. Food will be exchange for a new block. prepared by women from Recovery Entries can also be taken to Village, and beverages will be avail- All proceeds raised from the auction Churchill, but those will not receive a able from Barley Brown’s and Copper go to the Parkinson’s Center at Oregon replacement. Belt Winery. Health and Science University. Since So far, the block submitted from far- The live auction to sell all the licks it began, this event has raised nearly thest away is one created in Scotland. starts at 7 p.m. with auctioneer Mib $140,000 for Parkinson’s research. The Great Salt Lick contest has Dailey. Deschner, 65, was diagnosed with appeared on NPR, OPB’s Oregon Art The offi cial deadline to submit an Parkinson’s 20 years ago. Beat, and the front page of the Orego- entry is Saturday, Sept. 14. However, Deschner has secured $1,000 in nian. It’s been featured in a Ripley’s Deschner said the unoffi cial deadline prize money from local sponsors. Here Believe it or Not book called “Odd is is the day of the event. are the categories and corresponding Art” and National Geographic Kids But he’d like entries early to be prize money: “Weird But True.” logged into the contest and be avail- • General: fi rst, $150; second, $100; Most recently, a story appeared in able for viewing next week from 11 third, $75; fourth, $50 the Smithsonian Magazine’s web page. a.m. to 6 p.m. in Churchill’s art gallery. • Best General Poem with Block: For more information about the Blocks from past events will also be on fi rst, $100; $75 second contest, contact Deschner at 541-519- display. • Best “Expose Yourself to Salt Lick” 2736. By Lisa Britton For the Baker City Herald WATER Continued from Page 1A “The EPA’s release of the fi nal rule, which abolishes the Obama-era rule, is welcome news across rural Oregon,” said Walden, a Republican who represents all of Oregon east of the Cascades. Baker County Commis- sioner Mark Bennett, who also owns a cattle ranch near Unity, said the 2015 rule was a “phenomenal overreach” of the government’s authority to regulate water use. “It wasn’t practical,” Ben- nett said. He said ranchers already MEMORIES Continued from Page 1A Johnson recalled how his phone was ringing off the hook with calls from friends and family members con- cerned for his safety as a member of the military. “It was a rough day on the job,” he remembers. After completing his military service, Johnson trained to be a paramedic and fi refi ghter. While working as a reserve fi refi ghter with a Central Oregon department, he participated in an observance of 9/11 with a ceremony that included reading the names of the fi refi ghters and law enforcement offi cers who died on Sept. 11, 2001. A bell was rung in honor of each of them. He says he has made it a point to take a moment every year on Sept. 11 to pause and refl ect on that day and those who sacrifi ced their lives in service to others. Johnson joined the Baker City Fire Department two year ago this December. He was promoted to lieutenant in May. Because of staffi ng limita- tions, he knew an elaborate ceremony wouldn’t be possible in Baker City, but he wanted to do something more memo- rable this year, he said. “I wanted to make it a little shorter, but to have a profes- sional observance as much as possible,” he said. As it has a tendency to do, time passed quickly by and Johnson didn’t realize until Sunday night that Patriot Day (the designation given to Sept. 11) was just three days away. He worked until 2 a.m. putting together Wednesday’s program and delivered it to Chief John Clark on Monday. Johnson said Clark approved the plan and then distributed the outline for the memorial service throughout the com- munity. Clark explained how differ- ent elements of Wednesday’s have a strong incentive to protect water. “Clean water is valuable for what we’re doing,” he said. Walden said uncertainty with how broadly the 2015 rule could be applied con- tributed to his constituents’ concerns. “They worried that the intermittent stream or irriga- tion ditch would be subject to burdensome new federal regulation,” Walden said. The 2015 rule, published in the Federal Register in June of that year, makes it clear that intermittent streams tributary to navigable streams are defi ned as “Waters of the United States” and subject to Clean Water Act regulation. The rule reads, in part, “All tributary streams, includ- ing perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral streams, are chemically, physically, and biologically connected to downstream rivers...” As for ditches, the 2015 federal rule states that certain ditches are not subject to federal regulation under the Clean Water Act. “The agencies add exclu- sions for waters and features previously identifi ed as gener- ally exempt (e.g., exclusion for certain ditches that are not located in or drain wetlands),” ceremony refl ected what was happening on the ground the day of the 2001 attacks. “Dispatch had a big tie-in that day and today,” Clark said Wednesday after the ceremony. Dispatch airwaves were enlisted to ensure that Wednesday morning’s ceremo- ny began at 8:45 sharp (the actual attack began a minute later in the Eastern time zone 18 years ago, but Johnson said he adjusted the schedule to the Pacifi c Time Zone to accommodate Wednesday’s audience). He expressed his apprecia- tion to the law enforcement offi cers who came to join the ceremony and especially the efforts of Baker County Un- dersheriff Jef Van Arsdall and the dispatch crew who helped pull it all together. “Without the undersheriff and the dispatch coordina- tion it wouldn’t have been the same,” Johnson said. Corrina Jacobs, lead dis- patcher at the Baker County Dispatch Center, spoke over the radio airwaves at the fi re station to pay tribute to those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. Reading from a script, she provided this record of the sacrifi ces made on that day: “On this day 18 years ago, September 11, 2001, on American soil, hijackers initi- ated the deadliest terrorist at- tack in human history. 2,977 people lost their lives. Of those, 343 fi refi ghters and 72 law enforcement offi cers gave their lives in the line of duty. “The evacuation signal you are about to hear marks the time of the fi rst airplane strik- ing the North Tower of the World Trade Center, at 8:46 Eastern Standard Time.” The silence of the solemn ceremony then was interrupt- ed by the blast of the airhorn evacuation signal followed by three rings of the fi re bell three times, a tradition that recognizes those who have gone home for the last time. Jacobs ended her role in the ceremony with this state- ment: “This is the last alarm for the 343 fi refi ghters and 72 law enforcement offi cers of 9/11/2001. Last alarm.” After a brief pause, she continued: “The last alarm for the 343 and 72 has now ended. They have gone home. May we never forget their sacrifi ce. Dispatch clear at 8:47.” About a dozen fi refi ghters and law enforcement offi cers from city, county and state agencies stood in forma- tion and saluted as the fi re station’s fl ag was lowered to half-staff by fi refi ghters Cam- eron Kiyokawa and Andrew Snodgrass, who also served as bell ringers. Members of the Baker Elks Drum and Bugle Corps played “Amazing Grace” as the fl ag was lowered. Buglers were Gary Timm, who also is the Baker County deputy director of emergency man- agement, on soprano bugle, and Steve Olsen and Dave Hinton, playing bass-baritone bugles. Johnson called for a mo- ment of silence and then brought an end to the offi cers’ hand salute as the ceremony came to a close. In talking afterward about the ceremony, Johnson ex- tended his gratitude to those in the audience who took time to be there on such short notice on a cool and windy Wednesday morning. “I would like to say thank you to all the community members who showed up to pay their respects,” he said. “That’s why we’re here, is for them.” The “may we never forget” phrase is the message John- son hopes people took away from the service. “It’s very important to me that we don’t forget — and don’t let time pass by — something that changed our country forever, without notice,” he said. For the third time in the past three years, the Baker Outdoor School this fall will be moving to a new location. The program, which operated as a day camp experience from 1992 to 2017, was moved to a three-night residential camp last year at Camp Elkanah, west of La Grande. The most re- cent daycamp rendition before that was staged at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area northwest of Haines. This year’s program, sched- uled for next week, will take place in the Anthony Lakes area, Dorothy Mason, longtime Outdoor School coordinator, stated in a press release. Mason is phasing out of her role and Luke Burton is learn- ing the ropes this year under her guidance. Burton joined the staff of South Baker Interme- diate School on March 4 as a child development specialist. The school serves students in Grades 4-6. Burton was hired May 1 on an extra-duty contract to work May through October as the rule reads. “The agencies for the fi rst time also establish by rule that certain ditches are excluded from jurisdic- tion, including ditches with ephemeral fl ow that are not a relocated tributary or excavat- ed in a tributary, and ditches with intermittent fl ow that are not a relocated tributary, or excavated in a tributary, or drain wetlands.” Curtis Martin, a North Pow- der rancher who’s also chair- man of the water resources committee of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said that although he’s pleased the 2015 rule is repealed, he the District’s Outdoor School program facilitator. Burton will earn $5,000 in that role. The Outdoor School program has historically been a rite of passage for Baker School Dis- trict sixth-graders. And because of this year’s larger-than-usual group of about 180 students, including those attending Haines and Ke- ating elementary schools, some schedule juggling was required to accommodate them. Students will attend camp for two nights in groups of 90 each and rotate back to school for the remainder of the week to attend additional sessions, Mason said. Group One will be staying Monday and Tuesday night, and Group 2 will be staying Wednesday and Thursday nights. Anthony Lakes Lodge will provide the place to stay, meals and logistical support. “This has been a big effort to make the transition and we look forward to watching how it works out,” Mason said. doesn’t see that as a fi nal act. Martin said he hopes the government will come up with a clearer defi nition of how far its enforcement authority extends. The debate over the defi ni- tion of Waters of the United States also extended to the division of government power. In January 2016 Con- gress passed a resolution to overturn the 2015 rule based on lawmakers’ belief that the rule constituted overreach by appointed offi cials rather than elected ones. President Barack Obama vetoed the resolution. In doing so Obama said: “Too many of our waters have been left vulnerable. Pollution from upstream sources ends up in the rivers, lakes, reser- voirs, and coastal waters near which most Americans live and on which they depend for their drinking water, recre- ation, and economic develop- ment.” On Feb. 28, 2017, the month after he was sworn in, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to review and potentially repeal the 2015 rule. Dream Home 9 2 3 1 5 7 6 8 4 Electrical By: E astern O regon E lectric, I nc. 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