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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2019)
Experience autumn aboard a steam train WEDNESDAY BAKER SCHOOL DISTRICT SECURES STATE GRANT IF BOND PASSES: 3A Page 7 NORTHEAST OREGON OCTOBER 9, 2019 www.gonortheastoregon.com Also inside: Haunted House, Page 3 Music of John Coltrane, Page 6 GO! Magazine Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com October 9, 2019 IN THIS EDITION: Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50 QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Ken Rockwell of Baker City. BRIEFING Frequent Rains Foil Forest Service’s Prescribed Burning Plans Fire Plans Fizzle Heritage Museum extends deadline for exhibit nominations The Baker Heritage Museum has extended through the end of Octo- ber its open nominations for extraordinary women to be included in the Museum’s 2020-21 Central Gallery exhibit — “Extraor- dinary Women of Baker County & North Powder.” The original deadline for nominations was Oct. 1. Nominations are lim- ited to women who have passed away. Nomination forms should list reasons why the nominee made a difference in the history of the Baker County or North Powder areas. You can drop off nomi- nations at the Heritage Museum, 2480 Grove St., which is open daily through Oct. 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nomina- tions can also be sent by email to museum@ bakercounty.org, or mailed to the Museum. More information is available by calling the Museum at 541-523-9308. WEATHER Today 42 / 17 Mostly sunny, breezy and chilly Thursday 49 / 20 Sunny but chilly Full forecast on the back of the B section. 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. Your guide to arts and entertainment happening around Northeast Oregon Council waits on plan to rehire Warner By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com S. John Collins/Baker City Herald A prescribed fi re near Goose Creek, about 20 miles northeast of Baker City, produced a plume of smoke Monday afternoon. It’s one of the few prescribed fi res the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has lit this fall but frequent rain and snow are making fuels too damp to carry fl ames. prescribed fi re, though — broadcast burning. Steve Hawkins is starting to get a Those are projects where crews trifl e annoyed by the rain. seek to let fl ames spread across And, on occasion, by the snow. relatively large areas — typically 100 About every time acres or more in a “Every three or four days day. he’s been ready to burn this autumn, Broadcast burning we’ve had rain or snow. another wintry depends on the fi ne It’s been a diffi cult year Pacifi c cold front fuels Hawkins men- to plan and to get things rolls in and fouls tioned — grass, pine everything up. needles and other done.” Hawkins is the forest litter left dry — Steve Hawkins, fuels fuels program by summer’s heat — program manager, Wallowa- manager for the being relatively dry. Whitman National Forest Wallowa-Whitman Generally those National Forest. fuels need four to He helps to plan the Wallowa-Whit- fi ve days of dry weather to reach that man’s annual fall prescribed burning level, he said. program, and this year’s version, with But the weather hasn’t often up to 15,000 acres on the slate, is granted quite that long an interval. ambitious. An exception was Monday, when But a series of storms over the crews burned about 450 acres near past couple weeks has dampened Goose Creek about 20 miles north- Hawkins’ enthusiasm. east of Baker City. More to the point, they’ve damp- Hawkins said that fi re, which ened the grass and pine needles in included some areas that had been the areas scheduled for prescribed logged several years ago, was success- fi re this fall. ful. “Those fi ne fuels need to be dry But the storm that arrived Tuesday enough to carry fi re,” Hawkins said morning started the cycle anew. on Tuesday afternoon, just as the Hawkins said it’s still possible, if latest entry in the parade of pre- more typical October weather pre- cipitation was pelting the Wallowa- vails, that Wallowa-Whitman offi cials Whitman. will be able to make progress on the “Every three or four days we’ve prescribed burning schedule. had rain or snow. It’s been a diffi cult “The burning window usually goes year to plan and to get things done,” through October,” he said. “We’re just Hawkins said. waiting for the weather to give us an The metronomic meteorologic opportunity.” pattern has foiled only one type of Among the places that would be By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Fall(ing) temperatures The vigorous cold front that brought rain, gusty winds and chilly temperatures to Baker County on Tuesday was the latest in a series of Pacifi c storms that have made the fi rst two weeks of autumn feel closer to winter than summer. Tuesday was the 14th day in the past 15 with a high tempera- ture that was below average at the Baker City Airport. The National Weather Service is forecasting mostly dry weath- er for the next several days, but the dry spell will also have a breezy and chilly start. Temperatures tonight could plummet to near record lows. The predicted low at the Baker City Airport tonight is 17. The record low for Oct. 10 is 19, set in 2001. A gradual warming trend is forecast into the weekend, though, with high temperatures rising into the 50s from Friday through Monday. prime candidates for broadcast burn- ing later this month are the Foothills project in Washington Gulch, about fi ve miles west of Baker City. See Burning/Page 6A MOUNTAIN LAKE IS PART OF BAKER CITY’S WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM Crews stabilize Goodrich slope Baker City Public Works Department crews had to contend with snow last week while building a retaining wall below Go- odrich Lake, a drinking wa- ter source in the Elkhorn Mountains. The project was prompted by a slide in early July caused by water seepage from springs. Two engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers examined the dam on July 5 and found no structural problems. Engineers recommended the city clear debris from Photo by Tom Fisk, Baker City Public Works the outlet pipe below the Baker City Public Works employees installed a new outlet pipe below Goodrich dam. See Goodrich/Page 3A Lake recently. TODAY Issue 65, 22 pages Business ...........1B & 2B Calendar ....................3A Classified ............. 3B-6B Baker City Manager Fred Warner Jr.’s proposal to retire from the state’s retirement system and then be rehired on a one-year con- tract remains just that — a proposal. The City Warner Council took no action Tuesday on Warner’s offer. Instead, councilors sched- uled a work session for Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First St. Warner’s proposal is to retire Dec. 31 from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). Under state law he could continue to work in the same position while he starts receiving pension payments. See Council/Page 3A Baxter, judge’s son, files for D.A. The son of the retiring Baker County Circuit Court judge has announced that he will fi le for the position of Baker County district attorney. Greg Baxter, 34, is a 2003 Baker High School gradu- ate and the son of Gregory L. and Karen Baxter of Baxter Baker City. Matt Shirtcliff, the current Baker County district attorney, has been appointed to take the elder Baxter’s place as 8th Circuit Court judge on Nov. 1. Baxter announced in July that he would retire on Oct. 31. The younger Baxter currently serves as Union County’s chief deputy dis- trict attorney. “I believe that I am uniquely qualifi ed to return to Baker County and serve in this important position,” Greg Baxter stated in a press release. For the past two years, he has served as the chief deputy district attorney in Union County where, in addition to carrying a case load, he has managed the work of the other deputy district attorneys. See Baxter/Page 2A Comics ....................... 7B Community News ....3A Crossword ........5B & 6B Dear Abby ................. 8B Horoscope ........5B & 6B Letters ........................4A Lottery Results ..........2A News of Record ........3A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Sports ........................5A Weather ..................... 8B FRIDAY — LONGTIME BAKER CITY RESIDENT CELEBRATES A CENTURY