FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
L OCAL B RIEFING
BHS Vespers concerts set for Sunday
RESTORE
Continued from Page 1A
“It’s lottery money that
pays for it, it’s a volunteer
tax,” Phillips said. “Those that
wish to play the lottery, that’s
where the money is going.”
Phillips used the grant to
buy the steel beams, which
cost $20,000.
“It started out at $10,000
and by the time the tariffs
and all of the political ma-
neuvering was being made,
I ended up paying twice as
much,” she said.
Other projects in restoring
the building’s 5,000-square-
foot second fl oor include get-
ting water connected to the
bathrooms and kitchen.
“That is not tied in with
what the grant and contrac-
tors are doing,” Phillips said.
She anticipates work
will start next spring on
installing four skylights. The
original skylights were re-
moved when a new roof was
installed in the past.
“The rest of it is getting
all the mechanical stuff and
then painting and patching,”
Phillips said. “Lots of patch-
ing.”
The second fl oor, which
once served as the Baker
Elks Lodge, has several
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
rooms, a small kitchen area,
The 50-foot-long beam is carefully maneuvered into the ballroom of the Haskell build-
and a viewing platform
overlooking what used to be a ing Wednesday morning by Justin Gyllenberg, at window, and a crew inside. Brent
Gyllenberg is at the controls of the crane.
dance fl oor.
MURDERS
farm, making sure only offi cial vehicles
could enter.
Continued from Page 1A
He recalls that they were relieved
Buzz said he and his father peered
around dusk by another pair of Posse
into the house but saw nothing un-
members.
usual.
Buzz said Posse members partici-
They walked to a small shed nearby. pated in the subsequent search for the
Buzz said he went to the rear of the
.22 caliber revolver that police believed
structure and looked through a gap in Hull had used to shoot Darlene Hull
the weathered boards of the dilapidated and her daughter.
building.
He said searchers eventually found
He saw two bodies.
the gun in one of the quarry ponds east
Buzz yelled for his father.
of Interstate 84.
They ran to their vehicle and used
Buzz said he and his father testifi ed
the CB radio — no cellphones during
during Hull’s trial.
the Ford administration — to call the
Buzz said that although he knew
Sheriff’s Offi ce.
who Donald Hull was in 1976, he
Buzz said he and his father spent
wasn’t acquainted with the man.
most of the rest of the day stationed
Buzz said he was surprised to learn
at the start of the road leading to the
this week that Hull had died in prison.
TOWER
Continued from Page 1A
In an email to the Herald
this morning, Heidi Flato,
public relations manager for
Verizon Consumer Group,
wrote that “We are disap-
pointed by the Planning
Department’s decision to deny
our conditional use permit ap-
plication in Baker City. We’re
evaluating our next steps.”
During Wednesday’s meet-
ing commissioner Larisa
Bogardus fi rst made a motion
to approve the 70-foot tower,
with an added 5 feet for green,
tree-like “branches” that
would be added to try to cam-
oufl age the single pole tower.
Commissioner Tim Collins
seconded the motion, but it
failed by a 5-2 vote.
Commissioners Marvin
Cassidy, Shelly Cutler, Ken
Rockwell, Alan Blair and
Aaron Still voted against
the motion to give Verizon a
conditional use permit.
The city’s zoning rules
would allow the company to
install a tower up to 50-feet
tall on the industrial property
just north of D Street.
But in its application,
Verizon contends that its
engineers determined a 70-
foot tower was the minimum
height required to meet the
company’s needs for improv-
ing cell coverage and allowing
for future capacity.
After the 5-2 vote against
the motion to approve the
permit, commissioners delib-
erated further.
Rockwell, the Commission’s
vice chair, read a statement at
the start of the meeting.
Rockwell noted the testi-
mony from local residents, as
well as a petition opposing
Verizon’s application and
signed by 142 people.
“I believe nobody from the
community testifi ed they
wanted the 70-foot cell tower
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“I fi gured he had died by now,” Buzz
said during an interview at his Baker
City home on Thursday afternoon.
According to stories from the Baker
Democrat Herald (now the Baker City
Herald), Dr. John Higgins, the Baker
County medical examiner, determined
that both victims had been shot once
in the head. A small-caliber bullet was
recovered from each of the bodies.
A witness at Donald Hull’s trial testi-
fi ed about seeing him on the morning
of the murders in Washington Gulch,
about 5 miles west of Baker City, beat-
ing on a young girl and chasing her
in a blue pickup truck, according to
the transcript of an Oregon Court of
Appeals decision from May 8, 1978, in
which the Court rejected Hull’s appeal
of his murder convictions.
and the lone supporter was
the applicant,” Rockwell said.
“What I was trying to indi-
cate is that it’s not so much
that we’re opposed to the cell
tower itself, it’s the height and
location that are a problem,”
he said.
In his written statement,
Rockwell noted that the nega-
tive impacts of the proposed
tower can’t be mitigated by
applying aspects of the city’s
zoning rules.
“I believe the only way to
partially mitigate the aes-
thetic and visibility concerns
at this location is for the tower
to be limited in height to what
is permitted outright, 50 feet,”
he said.
Collins, however, a retired
longtime attorney for the city,
said he’s concerned that the
Commission’s rejection of the
applications suggests that
“decisions are made on who
shows up, not what’s best for
the community.”
He pointed out there are
around 6,000 adults in Baker
City, and that a relatively
small percentage actually
expressed their opinion to
the Commission about the
proposed cell tower.
“I think it’s our decision to
make based on the criteria
and the law as it stands,” Col-
lins said.
He said he would rather
have a 70-foot tower that is
designed to resemble a tree
than a 50-foot, undisguised
pole.
Bogardus noted that
Verizon in 2015 applied for
conditional use permits to
build two 100-foot towers.
The Planning Commission
rejected both applications.
“They’ve come back and
said ‘we still feel like there’s a
need for that, for this location,’
” which tells me that they re-
ally see that need,” Bogardus
said.
She also said she believes
The performing arts students at Baker High School
will present Vespers concerts for the holiday season
on Sunday, Dec. 8 in the BHS auditorium, 2500 E St.
The two performances will be at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
(the program is the same for both times — a second
concert was added several years ago due to large at-
tendance). Admission is free.
The concerts will feature presentations from the
vocal and instrumental music programs as well as a
performance of “A Christmas Carol” from the theater
students.
Advent service Dec. 8 at Lutheran Church
The community is invited to join members of the
First Lutheran Church congregation for their 48th
annual Advent Scripture and Song Service on Sunday,
Dec. 8. The service will begin at 11 a.m. at the church
at Third Street and Valley Avenue in Baker City. The
Advent and Christmas season will be celebrated with
candle lighting and Scripture readings along with
choir anthems and carol singing, Choir Director Julie
Jeffs stated in a press release.
Bluegrass group to perform at St. Stephens
The Episcopossoms, a local, bluegrass-themed group
will play the hymns for morning prayer service at 9
a.m. at St. Stephens Episcopal Church this Sunday,
Dec. 8.
The group is made up of churchgoers who have been
learning to play different instruments. The Episcopos-
soms have been asked to play at the annual confer-
ence for the Eastern Oregon Diocese for the past two
years. All are welcome to attend.
St. Stephens is at 2177 First St. in Baker City.
Ladies Golf & Bridge Christmas party set
The Baker Ladies Golf and Bridge Association will
have its annual Christmas Party on Wednesday, Dec.
11 at Quail Ridge Golf Course, 2801 Indiana Avenue.
The party will start at 11:30 a.m., and there might be
bridge games afterward.
This will be a potluck, so please bring a salad or
dessert. There will also be a gift exchange, so please
bring a gift worth less than $15. More information is
available by calling Nancy at 541-519-6774.
The front page of the Aug. 17, 1976, issue of the Demo-
crat Herald (now Baker City Herald) included a photo
of the abandoned farm building near Baker City where
Buzz and Frank Colton found the bodies of murder
victims Darlene Hull and Tamera Shove on Aug. 14, 1976.
Donald Douglas Hull was convicted of the murders.
Verizon showed good faith
by offering to camoufl age the
tower, though the city doesn’t
require that.
Bogardus recalled living in
an area where large wildfi res
and cell system failures made
it impossible for people to call
for help or to check on loved
ones.
“I don’t want to see that
happen here, I don’t want to
see that happen anywhere,”
Bogardus said.
“And because of those
things, in accordance with the
code, I feel like this is reason-
able, and appropriate, and
worthwhile,” she said.
Board Chairman Alan Blair
said his chief concern about
Verizon’s proposal is that the
2.12-acre parcel, although
zoned industrial, is in an area
dominated by residential
neighborhoods.
“In my opinion, this little
industrial zone area is sur-
rounded on three sides by
residential, one side by com-
mercial, and it’s not very big,”
Blair said. “If you go to the
center of the zone property,
you still don’t, in my opinion,
have an adequate buffer to
the edge of the residential
zones.”
Cutler, who is executive
director of the Baker County
Chamber of Commerce, gave
her perspective in working to
attract residents, and busi-
nesses, to Baker City.
“None of my marketing
materials ever say, move to
Baker County because we are
at the top of our telecommuni-
cations game,” Cutler said.
She said they see thou-
sands of tourists annually,
none of them saying they
were disappointed in the cell
service.
Cutler said she is not op-
posed to cell towers in general.
But she doesn’t want towers
to block visitors’ views of the
Elkhorn Mountains.
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