MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019
BAKER CITY HERALD — 7C
YEAR IN REVIEW
JUNE
■ High Temperature: 88, the 12th
• Low Temperature: 32, the 22nd
SWAT Team Called In Wednesday Afternoon To Arrest Robbery Suspect
Standoff Ends Safely
•
Total Precipitation: .71 (avg.: 1.29)
Motels reopen
■ Super 8 and Motel 6 had been closed since
Monday due to fire safety code violations
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The two motels in Baker City
closed Monday due to fire safety
code violations reopened Thurs-
day after fixing the problems,
Baker City Fire Chief John
Clark said.
Clark closed the Super 8
motel and Motel 6 on Monday
after inspecting the buildings
and finding multiple violations,
including the disabling of the
alarm system at Motel 6 and
the partial dismantling of the
sprinkler system at the Super 8.
A complainant, whom Clark
has declined to name, reported
the violations to the Fire De-
partment Monday morning.
Clark said this morning that
the family that owns both mo-
tels brought in two contractors
this week, one of which worked
about 16 hours on Thursday, to
fix the problems.
He allowed both motels to
reopen Thursday evening.
E.O. Media
Group plans
to buy Herald
By Kathleen McLaughlin
WesCom News Service
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
SWAT members arrested Brent Alexander Breshears, 28, at approximately 3 p.m. Wednesday.
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
JUNE 28 — Baker City Police
had hoped to make a routine arrest
before dawn Wednesday when they
approached an apartment house
where a man they held an arrest
warrant for had reportedly been
staying.
Instead, Baker City Police Sgt.
Wayne Chastain said he received a
call from the night-shift offi cers at
about 3 a.m. telling him they had
confi rmed that the
subject of the war-
rant, Brent Alexander
Breshears, 28, was
in an apartment at
1701 Fourth St., but
Breshears
they were not allowed
inside to arrest him.
The actual tenant
at the apartment,Tamara Fine, 46,
refused to let the offi cers enter with-
out a search warrant.
“So they backed out of the
establishment, set up a perimeter
and started making phone calls,”
Chastain said.
During the night, Fine left the
apartment through a window and
police let her go.
“She wasn’t the primary focus,”
Chastain said.
In the meantime, Breshears had
barricaded himself inside Fine’s
basement apartment in the fourplex
building and refused to communi-
cate with police.
JUNE 5 — Two Oregon
media companies want to buy
most of Western Communica-
tions’ community newspapers
for a combined price of more
than $1.1 million, according
to motions fi led Tuesday in
bankruptcy court.
The East Oregonian Com-
pany, known as EO Media
Group, would pay $775,000 for
The Observer in La Grande
and the Baker City Herald.
Country Media Inc., which
owns newspapers on the
Oregon Coast and in Montana
and North Dakota, would pay
$350,000 for the Del Norte
Triplicate in Crescent City,
California, and the Curry
Coastal Pilot in Brookings.
The proposed buyers have
requested hearings on June
27 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court
in Portland, according to mo-
tions fi led Tuesday. Closings
would occur days after the
court orders the sales.
Competing bids may be
submitted no later than June
21.
“Both of them are really good
fi ts,” Western Communications
Chairwoman Betsy McCool
said of the proposed buyers. “I
wish them all luck. I’m hoping
they’ll serve their community
and employees well. I have no
doubt that they will.”
Saddled with debt from its
Bend headquarters building,
Western Communications
fi led in January for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection.
Police chief leaving Addison settles
■ Dustin Newman returning to Polk County Sheriff’s Office
JUNE 17 — Baker City
Police Chief Dustin New-
man will be returning to the
Polk County Sheriff’s Offi ce
in Western Oregon where he
worked for 14 years before
moving to Baker City in 2014.
Newman has been Baker
City’s police chief for the past
year. His last day will be July
8, Baker City Manager Fred
Warner Jr. said
this morning.
Warner said
he planned
to meet with
Newman, 43,
Newman
this morning
to discuss the
police department’s staffi ng.
Warner appointed Newman as
interim chief on May 11, 2018,
and removed the interim title
about a month later.
Warner said the police
department is fully staffed,
although Newman, who
served as lieutenant before
being appointed as chief, has
not replaced his former posi-
tion. When Newman started
as chief he had to fi ll three
vacancies.
County officials: Smith
issue is money, not work
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
JUNE 12 — Baker County
Commission Chairman Bill
Harvey and Commissioner
Bruce Nichols say their deci-
sion to not extend the county’s
contract with economic
developer Greg Smith is based
on declining revenue, not on
Smith’s performance as the
county’s contractor over the
past several years.
Both commissioners also
said they were not concerned
about potential confl icts of
interests based on Smith’s
contracts as an economic
developer with adjacent coun-
ties, or his service as a state
legislator.
The Baker County Eco-
nomic Development Council,
which advises Harvey, Nichols
and the third commissioner,
Mark Bennett, voted Thurs-
day not to renew Smith’s
$96,000-per-year contract
when the new fi scal year
starts July 1.
The reason, both Harvey
and Nichols said on Monday,
is that revenue from a tax col-
lected from guests at motels
and other lodging establish-
ments has dropped substan-
tially over the past fi scal year.
That lodging tax revenue
is the source of the money for
Smith’s contract.
The contract, which took
effect July 1, 2018, was slated
to continue through June 30,
2022. The contract includes a
clause allowing either party
to cancel the agreement with
60 days written notice. That
clause also allows the county
to end the deal if “funding
from federal, state or other
sources is not obtained and
continued at levels suffi cient
to allow for the purchase of the
indicated quantity of services.”
lawsuit for $155K
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
JUNE 14 — Baker City’s insurance
company will pay former local journal-
ist Brian Addison $155,000 to settle a
lawsuit he fi led against the city and its
former police chief in 2015.
The settlement was fi nalized Wednes-
day in U.S. District Court in Pendleton.
The lawsuit, which had been scheduled
to go to trial in August, was dismissed
with prejudice, which means the mat-
ter cannot be brought before the court
again.
The city and Addison will be responsi-
ble for their own costs and attorney fees,
the stipulated agreement states.
In signing the agreement, City Man-
ager Fred Warner Jr., former police chief
Wyn Lohner and Addison agreed to re-
lease all parties from any further liability
in the matter.
Addison did not reply to a request for a
comment in time for this story.
Addison, who formerly worked as a
Gregg Hinrichsen Insurance Agency Inc.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!
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541-523-7778
32 Years
reporter for The Record-Courier newspa-
per, alleged in the lawsuit that the City
and Lohner had retaliated against him
after he wrote an editorial criticizing
the police department. The editorial was
published in 2008 in The Record-Courier,
a longtime weekly newspaper that has
since ceased operation.
Addison’s lawsuit sought monetary
damages to be determined at trial on
claims that the City and Lohner retali-
ated against his freedom of speech rights
by harassing him for what he had writ-
ten in the editorial.
Addison stated his belief that the police
department’s use of its drug-detecting
dog during the Class 1A state basketball
tournament at Baker High School was
a violation of constitutional protection
against unreasonable search and seizure.
In his lawsuit, Addison claimed that
the City and Lohner interfered with
his job opportunities, defamed him and
deprived him of due process because of
what he had written.
Thatcher’s
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21 years
...and still going strong!
2200 Resort Street, Baker City • 541-523-3371
Mon-Fri 7-6 • Sat 8-6 • Sun 9-5