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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2019)
MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019 BAKER CITY HERALD — 3C YEAR IN REVIEW FEBRUARY ■ High Temperature: 48, on the 3rd • Low Temperature: 4, on the 7th State Lawmaker Fears Legislation Could Harm Ash Grove Cement’s Durkee Plant Cap, trade, trouble? • Total Precipitation: 1.92 (avg.: .63) Neighbors hold pair at gunpoint until police arrive Cindy Fortin, who is the Phil- FEBRUARY 20 — An alert lipses’ neighbor, Durkee resident who noticed a said Lessie called car parked in the driveway of her and asked a home that was supposed to her to drive her to Loos be empty, and then went to the the home, which house armed with a shotgun, is just across the led to the arrest of two Idaho freeway, on Van- residents on trespassing and decar Road. other charges Monday night. Fortin said Olive Phillips, a commercial they jotted down truck driver, noticed the car in the car’s license Adair the driveway when he exited number and Interstate 84 at Durkee, an also saw at least unincorporated community one person, a man, inside the about 23 miles southeast of home, which was dimly lit. Baker City. They returned to their The house belongs to a rela- homes, and Phillips called tive of Phillips’ wife, Lessie. Baker County Dispatch. By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com S. John Collins / Baker City Herald fi le photo Ash Grove Cement’s Durkee plant southeast of Baker City employs about 115 workers. Representatives, Findley said that if Oregon lev- FEBRUARY 8 — Baker County’s ies a carbon tax on Ash state representative contends that a Grove, it could result bill intended to reduce Oregon’s car- in more cement being bon emissions could have the opposite imported from China. Findley effect globally and also threaten one “It would make it of the county’s largest private employ- harder to compete with ers. China because China doesn’t have Rep. Lynn Findley, a Republican the same land use, same environ- from Vale, said during a fl oor speech mental regulations that Ash Grove at the Capitol on Jan. 31 that House complies with,” Findley said. Bill 2020, the carbon “cap and trade” Ash Grove employees about 115 bill, could have what he described in a people at the Durkee plant with an press release as “unintended conse- annual payroll of $13 million, accord- quences.” ing to the company, which is based in Among those is the potential to Overland Park, Kansas. make Ash Grove Cement, which (Some of the Durkee plant em- operates a plant near Durkee, about ployees live in Malheur County or in 27 miles southeast of Baker City, less Idaho.) competitive against Chinese cement Ash Grove is the third largest makers. property tax payer in Baker County, During his speech to the House of having paid about $739,000 last year, By Casey Crowley ccrowley@bakercityherald.com Ranchers seek money to cover losses from wolves By Casey Crowley ccrowley@bakercityherald.com FEBRUARY 15 — The Baker County Wolf Depredation Committee recommends the state pay Panhandle ranchers almost $66,000 for cattle injured or killed by wolves last year, or that went missing. The committee met Wednesday to review ap- plications from several ranchers through the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s compensa- tion program. Typically state of- fi cials pay ranchers for the full market value of animals that state wild- life biologists confi rm were killed or injured by wolves. Three ranchers in the Halfway area about 50 miles east of Baker City — Dean Tucker of Pine Valley Ranch, Barry DelCurto and Chad DelCurto — combined requested $10,584 for 12 animals that were either killed or injured in April 2018 by wolves from the Pine Creek Pack. Those three ranchers, along with three others, also submitted requests for compensation for missing cattle they believe might have been killed by wolves. Those requests total $55,399. according to County Assessor Kerry Savage. (The two with higher property tax bills are DE Shaw Renewable Inv. LLC, which owns wind farms in the county and has appealed its bill, totaling $1.9 million; and Idaho Power Company, which paid almost $1.3 million last year.) Findley contends that the car- bon emissions bill could potentially prompt the closure of the Durkee plant, which he estimates would lead to 600 lost jobs in Baker and Malheur counties. That includes jobs that depend on the plant but aren’t with Ash Grove directly. The bill would limit — hence “cap” — carbon emissions for companies. Firms that exceed the cap would trade credits with companies that are under the cap in order to avoid fi nes from the state. ccollins@bakercityherald.com FEBRUARY 18 — Baker schools have been taking turns sending out letters to parents this winter alerting them of the high rate of absenteeism linked to illness. Baker High School Principal Greg Mitchell said the letters were distributed by his school last week as a preventive measure designed to keep more students from getting sick. Mitchell noted in the letter that many Baker County residents have been sick over the past month. By Casey Crowley ccrowley@bakercityherald.com FEBRUARY 8 — The Baker County Board of Com- missioners voted 3-0 Wednes- day to fi le a legal challenge seeking to force a landowner to remove a locked gate across a road near Lookout Moun- tain in eastern Baker County. The gate, installed in Au- gust 2017, is near the upper end of the road that starts at the mouth of Connor Creek at Brownlee Reservoir. The road, which commissioners believe is a public right-of-way, connects to the Daly Creek Road northeast of Lookout Mountain. The legal complaint names property owners Todd Long- good and Dennis Hansen as defendants. In a July 2018 letter to the county’s attorney, Larry Sullivan of Vale, Longgood and Hansen’s lawyer, Charles Hudson of Lane Powell in Portland, disputed the coun- ty’s contention that the section of road running through his clients’ property is public. Hudson cited historic maps and property deed records as evidence that the gated road was built after the formerly public land was transferred into private ownership, and thus can’t be deemed a public right-of-way based on the 1866 one-sentence federal statute that the county refer- enced in its complaint. School board members visit D.C. By Chris Collins ccollins@bakercityherald.com FEBRUARY 6 — Kevin Cassidy and Andrew Bryan have taken their roles as school board members to a higher level. They not only represent the Baker School District as board members, but for the past several years both men have represented all of Eastern Oregon — and at times, all of Oregon — as representatives from the region in their respective roles with the Oregon School Boards Association. This year Cassidy, 48, a 1988 Baker High School graduate, is president-elect on the OSBA Board. He will step into the president’s role next year and will remain a Board offi cer the year after that in the position of past president. Bryan, 53, serves as the Schools deal with illness By Chris Collins County asks judge to open gated road “A lot of students and teachers in our school are sick with the fl u also,” he wrote. “We hope they will all get better quickly. At this time, the county health department tells us that stu- dents who are not ill can safely come to school. “Schools will remain open,” he stated. “We will keep you updated with any important information.” Mitchell’s letter is similar to those sent out by other Baker schools in the past several weeks as the fl u season has made its way through the community, said Assistant Super- intendent Betty Palmer. Submitted photo Baker School Board member Kevin Cassidy, left, met with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. Eastern Oregon representa- tive on the association’s Leg- islative Policy Committee. He is the longest tenured member of the 5J Board. Bryan was appointed to fi ll an unexpired term in July 2010 and was fi rst elected to a four-year term in 2011. Bryan is completing his second full term on the Baker School Board this year. Cassidy began his service on the 5J board in July 2013. He was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2017. His term will expire in 2021. It has been a pleasure to serve you. Have a wonderful year! Joint construction of the scenic hand painted in oil view, tracks of the replica rail road and Sumpter Junction Restaurant took over a year. This replica rail road is a world class attraction, with train enthusiasts from around the world seeking out Baker City to see this amazing work of art. The original train was hand built in Europe and is a collectable. There is roughly 1000 feet of track. The train makes one lap approximately every 5 minutes. The Sumpter Junction Restaurant is open 363 days a year, 16 hours a day. That equals 192 laps per day or 36.36 miles. Every year the train runs 13,199.76 miles. To date the train has covered 382,793.04 miles. 33 Years
