FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
LOCAL & STATE
County’s complaint about gated road continues
By Samantha O’Conner
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Commission-
ers on Wednesday resumed
their discussion about a
disputed locked gate on a road
through private property near
Lookout Mountain in east
Baker County.
Commission Chairman Bill
Harvey said commissioners
met Tuesday with attorney
Larry Sullivan in an executive
session (closed to the public)
also attended by two histori-
ans that Sullivan has brought
in to research the history of
roads in that area.
“They said they had not
had complete research due to
some papers missing in the
archives so they are recon-
tacting Seattle Archives and
Washington, D.C., for fi nal
documentation,” Harvey said.
He said the county will
schedule a public hearing on
the issue once the historians
have compiled all the data.
“That will be a meeting by
itself and we will give you all
updated time and date on
that,” Harvey said.
Commissioners have
instructed Sullivan to fi le
an amended motion on the
county’s suit against Todd
Longgood, who owns the prop-
erty and installed a locked
to those that use property
taxes to pay for the library
and for noxious week and
mosquito control.
Several people attended
Wednesday’s meeting to
comment on the parks budget
problems. Revenue from the
two parks dropped by about
$13,000 annually during the
past two fi scal years com-
pared with the previous two.
“It’s very important to this
whole county those parks stay
open,” said Theron Hampton
of Richland, who owns a motel
in the town of 175 on the Pow-
der River arm of Brownlee
Reservoir.
Richland, about 43 miles
east of Baker City, is the
closest town to Hewitt and
Parks department budget Holcomb parks, but Hampton
shortfall
said Richland isn’t the only
Commissioners also dis-
community that benefi ts from
cussed potential ways to raise the parks attracting anglers
money to operate the county- and boaters.
owned Hewitt and Holcomb
Lots of people shop in
parks on Brownlee Reservoir Baker City before they go out
near Richland.
there,” Hampton said.
Among the possible op-
He suggested if there is a
tions are selling three county taxing district, it would go
parcels with the revenue
county wide.
dedicated to the parks depart-
Wanda Holcomb of Rich-
ment, soliciting Idaho Power land told commissioners her
Company to operate the parks mother and father-in-law
on the county’s behalf, and
donated the property for
asking voters to approve a
Holcomb Park, which is
special taxing district similar dedicated to their son, John
gate across the road about
two years ago.
The road leads from the
Lookout Mountain road east
through Sawmill Basin to
Connor Creek Road, and
eventually connects to the
Snake River Road along
Brownlee Reservoir between
Huntington and Richland.
In its lawsuit the county
contends that the road is an
historic public route that can’t
be blocked.
Longgood’s attorneys
disagree, citing historic maps,
property deeds and other
records as evidence that the
gated road was built after
the land was converted from
public to private.
DANGEROUS
be forwarded to Lakewood. The city
has an ordinance similar to Baker
Continued from Page 1A
City’s regarding dangerous dogs that
Sawyer has served as hearing
will require Baltzell to meet certain
offi cer since the city established a
standards for protecting his own
dangerous dog ordinance in 2014.
community if he keeps the dog.
Karen Spencer, 52, owner of the
And if he brings the dog back to
schnauzer, attended the hearing
Baker City, Baltzell will be required
to tell her story about the Nov. 3
to follow the requirements of Baker
incident in which her 13-year-old
City’s ordinance, which calls for,
dog Gizmo, was attacked by a large among other things, that the animal
unleashed pit bull along Foothill
be kept inside or when outside that
Drive about 2 o’clock that afternoon. it be maintained within the bound-
The owner of the pit bull, Branden aries of a 6-foot-tall fence. Baltzell
Baltzell, 24, of Lakewood, Wash-
also must maintain a minimum
ington, did not attend the hearing,
$100,000 liability insurance, have a
Duman said. Baltzell also did not re- microchip implanted in the animal
spond to calls from Spencer regard- and keep its rabies vaccination up
ing the incident.
to date.
Duman said that as a result of
If Baltzell fails to meet all require-
Sawyer’s ruling, a written order will ments of the ordinance and brings
Noble Holcomb, who was
killed in Vietnam in 1968 and
was posthumously awarded
the Medal of Honor, America’s
highest military honor.
“I have a personal interest
in not wanting that park to go
away,” Wanda Holcomb said.
“And I do see a lot of people
do come into that park in the
summer.”
Wanda Ballard of Baker
City noted that one of the fac-
tors contributing to declining
revenue at the parks — low
water levels in the reservoir
during the spring and sum-
mer — “is not new.”
“People that use that
resource they know and they
usually schedule around it
and some of them don’t care
as long as they can get their
boat in,” Ballard said.
In some years, depending
on the mountain snowpack,
Idaho Power Company, which
owns Brownlee Dam, is
required by the Army Corps
of Engineers to lower the
reservoir to make room for
snowmelt and reduce the risk
of downriver fl ooding.
Idaho Power also releases
water during the summer to
help push anadromous fi sh
down the Snake and Colum-
bia rivers to the Pacifi c Ocean.
Fluctuating water levels
the dog back to Baker City, he could
be cited and the animal could poten-
tially be seized, Duman said.
“It is the owner’s responsibility to
follow the rules of this community,”
Duman said.
Spencer said she was thrilled with
the results of the hearing.
“I’m happy with the restrictions,”
she said. “I hope they are adhered
to.”
Gizmo, who was taken immedi-
ately to the Baker Animal Clinic
after the attack in which the pit bull
bit him in the left shoulder, belly and
neck, has recovered.
Spencer said the veterinary bills
totaled nearly $600. She does not
plan to seek restitution from Baltzell
because of the expense involved
with no guarantee of recouping the
can make it diffi cult or impos-
sible to launch boats at the
parks, and can also affect
fi shing.
Ed Elms, chairman of the
Parks Department Advisory
Board, said a special district
would be an option to look at.
“It would be a small
amount,” he said, referring
to the property tax rate that
likely would be required.
Elms raised concerns about
funding for a few months
until they fi nd a solution.
“I think even if Idaho Power
was to say ‘hey, we’d be inter-
ested in doing it’, they’re not
going to start January fi rst or
February fi rst,” Elms said.
Commissioner Mark Ben-
nett addressed rumors that
the county is considering clos-
ing the parks or selling them.
Neither is true, Harvey
said.
“Baker County will not sell
or give the property away,”
Harvey said “We will always
have ownership of the prop-
erty. So it is our responsibility
to do the best that we can
with what we have.
“We do have to make some
hard decisions.”
Karen Spencer, the parks
department coordinator, told
commissioners that Mark
Millsap approached her two
expense, she said.
Sadly, after more than 25 years of
walking almost daily through Baker
City neighborhoods, she no longer
feels safe and will not walk her two
dogs in town again, she said.
She recently took Gizmo and her
Italian greyhound, Bullet, out to
Virtue Flat for a walk through the
sagebrush.
In her initial call to Baker City
Police, Spencer was told that offi cers
could not take action against Balt-
zell because he would be taking his
dog back to Washington.
Duman took another look at the
dangerous dog ordinance, which was
established in 2013 after 5-year-old
Jordan Ryan was mauled to death
by a pit bull. The chief, who has been
leading the police department since
weeks ago about leasing
the former Sumpter Valley
Railroad depot on Broadway
Street, where the parks de-
partment has its offi ce, for use
as a nanobrewery.
“That’s one thing that we
looked at just within the last
couple of weeks and we think
that’s a viable option,” Spen-
cer said.
The Commissioners post-
poned further discussions on
the parks budget until their
next meeting Dec. 18.
In other business Wednes-
day, commissioners:
• proclaimed the week of
Jan. 26, 2020, to Feb. 1, 2020,
as School Choice Week.
• heard from Watermaster
Marcy Osborn and assistants
Luke Albert and Nathan
Petrucci about water rights
regulations during the past
irrigation season.
• heard a yearly update
from Nancy Staten, admin-
istrator of the Baker County
Health Department. Staten
said that last fi scal year,
which ended June 30, 2019,
the department gave 4,300
immunizations.
“Just FYI, if anybody needs
their fl u shot, we still have fl u
vaccines, so we’re ready and
able to give you that,” Staten
said.
July 1, found that the ordinance
authorizes police to investigate all
dog complaints and to proceed with
further action if appropriate, includ-
ing a hearing before Sawyer.
Spencer also took her concerns
before the City Council in Novem-
ber.
And she has offered to serve as
a hearing offi cer to substitute for
Sawyer on cases in which Sawyer
is not available or has a scheduling
confl ict.
She said City Manager Fred War-
ner Jr. assured her that Duman has
met with his offi cers regarding how
future dangerous dog complaints
will be handled and the protocol
specifi ed in the ordinance.
“Hopefully we can turn this into a
positive,” she said.
Giant step back in time
Mammoth or Mastodon
Remains Now at EOU
remains of the creature.
“We will be working on
LA GRANDE — A fossil is this for three to fi ve years,”
a messenger from the past.
said Rory Becker, an EOU
Eastern Oregon University anthropology professor who
now has such a message-
led a group of students on
carrier on campus — the
a dig at the Prineville area
partially fossilized remains
site in October with fellow
of a mammoth or mastodon, anthropology professor Linda
recently recovered near
Reed-Jerofke and biology
Prineville by EOU students professor Joe Corsini.
and faculty.
The remains are of the
What information does
front quarter of the creature.
this creature, which is at
EOU professors and stu-
least 10,000 years old, have dents hope to fi nd out what
to share? The complete an-
happened to the rest of it.
swer may not be known until
“Where did the rest of it
the mid 2020s.
go? It is a bit of a mystery,”
Faculty and students from Corsini said.
EOU’s anthropology and
One possibility is the re-
biology departments are now mains were carried away by
beginning the long process
carnivores in Central Oregon
of painstakingly cleaning
when mammoths roamed.
and examining the partial
Corsini said the mammoth
By Dick Mason
The (La Grande) Observer
will be examined closely
for teeth marks that could
reveal another animal pulled
its remains away.
Construction workers
in a gravel quarry owned
by Craig Woodward, an
EOU alum, discovered the
prehistoric remains earlier
this year. He immediately
alerted Eastern about the
fi nd. Woodward died not long
after the bones were discov-
ered and his family carried
out his wish of making them
available to Eastern.
The bones were 30 feet
below the surface, according
to an EOU news release, but
only 6 inches of soil covered
them when the party from
EOU arrived. This meant
they had to be exceedingly
cautious about where they
DIck Mason / The (La Grande) Observer
Biology professor Joe Corsini, right, and Eastern Oregon University students Matthew
Wetzel and Erin Blincoe remove sediment Friday morning from the bones of what
could be a mammoth.
tread. EOU student Erin
Blincoe noted she was sur-
prised at one point to learn
she was nearly standing on
an ancient vertebrae.
“I had to be careful,” she
said. “I did not want to dam-
age it.”
The vertebrae were suc-
cessfully removed from the
site in addition to giant
front-leg bones, including
ulna, radius and humerus, as
well as tusks and a cranium.
Corsini said the animal may
have been a juvenile because
the ends of its long bones do
not appear to be fused at the
shaft.
To protect the bones found
at the Prineville area site,
they were packed in sedi-
ment and then covered with
plaster before being trans-
ported to La Grande.
Some of the smaller bones,
including teeth, may be
enclosed within the larger
sections that were carefully
packed out. Corsini said he
hopes the teeth can be found
because they would help
determine whether the crea-
ture is actually a mastodon
rather than a mammoth.
Mammoths and mastodons
were similar elephant-like
creatures.
The time period the mam-
moth or mastodon died will
be determined later by dat-
ing the age of the sediment
around it through a process
known as optically stimu-
lated luminescence. The OSL
dating work will be done
at a Utah State University,
Becker said.
The sediment samples
from the dig site have not
been exposed to light for
thousands of years. The sedi-
ment was placed in tubes in
a manner to prevent light
exposure.
While EOU faculty and
students don’t yet know how
far back in time they stepped
during their dig, the mag-
nitude of the opportunity it
provided is not lost on them.
Some, like EOU student
Hannah Wilhelm, were
students new to anthropol-
ogy who found themselves
thrust into a graduate level
atmosphere.
“It is a cool opportunity to
experience this in an intro
level class,” she said.
EOU student Lydia Hurty
knows she might never be a
part of something like this
again. She described it as “a
once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
DIck Mason / The (La Grande) Observer
Eastern Oregon University professors Joe Corsini, left, and Rory Becker talk while
standing next to a portion of the mammoth or mastodon bones they helped excavate
during a dig with students near Prineville. The bones are packed in the sediment they
were found in to help protect them.