FRIDAY
BAKER BOYS WITHSTAND WEISER’S EARLY ONSLAUGHT TO WIN, 71-61: PAGE 6A
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
January 3, 2020
IN THIS EDITION:
Local • Health & Fitness • Outdoors • TV
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber John
Busch of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Adopted Wild Horse A Fixture At Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
The Name’s Norm
Applicants sought for
Baker City Council
Baker City residents
interested in serving on
the City Council have
until 4 p.m. on Jan. 6 to
submit an application.
To be eligible, applicants
must be registered to vote
in Oregon and have lived
within the Baker City limits
for at least 12 months prior
to being appointed. The va-
cancy on the seven-mem-
ber City Council results
from Councilor Ken Gross
resigning at the end of this
month due to his job being
moved. The remaining six
councilors plan to meet
with applicants during a
work session on Jan. 8,
and then to appoint Gross’
replacement on Jan. 14. To
apply, go to www.baker-
city.com and download the
City Councilor application.
Submit the application
and a letter of interest to
Katie LaFavor at City Hall,
1655 First St. The person
appointed will serve
through December 2020,
and would be eligible to
run for a four-year term in
November 2020.
Today
40 / 33
Partly sunny
Saturday
42 / 27
Rain or snow showers
Sunday
39 / 27
Rain or snow showers
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mailed.
Rape
suspect
in jail in
Idaho
■ Bill David
Gonyer, who lives
near Baker City,
awaits extradition
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
A horse called Norm, an adopted wild stallion, is very affectionate with owner Debbie Henshaw and others.
By Samantha O’Conner
soconner@bakercityherald.com
WEATHER
Baker’s Riley
Flanagan goes to
the basket Thursday
Nearly six years ago, visitors to the
Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near
Baker City met a new volunteer who
loves peppermints.
He also likes to give kisses.
Norm is an 11-year-old wild mus-
tang gathered from public land near
Murderers Creek in Grant County.
His owners, Debbie and Calvin
Henshaw of Baker City, adopted Norm
in 2014, when he was 6.
“It was a mutual bonding,” said
Debbie, 55.
She’s been raising horses for 35
years. Calvin, 59, did all of the training
on the horses and she does “back up
training.”
Debbie brought Norm to the
Interpretive Center on July 4, 2014, to
introduce him to people.
“We liked it so much that fi rst time
that we took him up just to expose him,
that we just kept doing it,” Debbie said.
As a wild horse, Norm needed time
to become accustomed to being around
people.
“Back then, for a couple of years,
we did a program called Horse Sense,
where we taught how horses use their
instincts to survive in the wild,” said
Debbie, who works to promote the
adoption of wild horses gathered from
Oregon and other states in the West.
See Arrest/Page 3A
Idaho
robbery
suspects
arrested
in Baker
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Norm stands easy for owner Debbie Henshaw as he gets his hooves
See Norm/Page 2A trimmed and fi led by farrier Alan Elsberry Thursday morning.
Bull & Bronc Riding will be on TV
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
One of Baker City’s biggest events
— the annual bull and bronc riding
competition in July — will continue in
2020 for its 26th year, but under new
management.
And for the fi rst time the rodeo, a
major draw during Miners Jubilee,
will be televised.
This year’s bronc and bull riding
competitions will be the fi rst in which
Ken McPheron won’t be involved,
said his son, Shane Pierce.
Pierce said his dad, who is in his
TODAY
Issue 111, 14 pages
A Baker County man is
in jail in Idaho, awaiting
extradition to Oregon on
charges that he raped and
sexually abused a minor
girl.
Bill David
Gonyer, 73,
was arrested
Dec. 28 in
Ada County,
Gonyer
Idaho, on a
Baker County
warrant that includes
fi rst-, second- and third-
degree rape, sex abuse and
sodomy, using a child in
display of sexually explicit
conduct and other charges.
The incidents, which are
alleged to have happened
in Baker County between
May 1, 2019, and Dec. 20,
2019, involve a girl known
to Gonyer, according to
court documents.
He is being held in lieu
of $1,128,000 bail as he
awaits extradition, the
documents state.
80s and has overseen the event as a
volunteer, has been looking to retire
from that position for the past fi ve
years.
The Baker City Bronc and Bull
Riding events have joined the Chal-
lenge of Champions Tour, a series of
18 rodeos in Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, California and Nevada.
This year’s Baker City competitions
will both be televised on The Cowboy
Channel, Pierce said. The cable net-
work is affi liated with RFD-TV.
“We’re super excited,” said Pierce,
who is a member of board of directors
Calendar ....................2A
Classified ............. 3B-6B
Comics ....................... 7B
Community News ....3A
Crossword ........5B & 6B
Dear Abby ................. 8B
for Baker City Bronc & Bull Riding
Inc.
Pierce said that although he would
have liked to take over for his father,
that wasn’t possible given his work
and family obligations.
But he said the volunteer board,
which includes McPheron, Ken
Helgerson, Rich Lien, Greg Ham-
mond and Nick Lien, was committed
to making sure the bull and bronc
riding events continue into a second
quarter-century.
See Rodeo/Page 3A
Horoscope ................. 5B
Jayson Jacoby ..........4A
News of Record ........2A
Opinion ......................4A
Outdoors ................... 1B
Senior Menus ...........2A
Two Idaho robbery
suspects were arrested
Thursday at a Baker City
laundry and are being held
at the Baker County Jail
awaiting extradition to
Idaho.
Police were notifi ed by
the Caldwell Police Depart-
ment that the suspects,
Guillermo Pascual, 29, of
Caldwell, and Jennifer
Dodgson, 24, of Nampa,
were in Baker City, Police
Chief Ray Duman stated in
a press release.
Offi cers and detectives
from the Baker City Police
Department and Oregon
State Police troopers arrest-
ed the pair without incident
at 12:44 p.m. Thursday at
the Elm Street Laundry at
944 Elm St.
The two are accused
of robbing a convenience
store at the corner of Ustick
Road and Cleveland Boule-
vard in Caldwell Wednes-
day night.
Dodgson allegedly as-
saulted a female cashier
and then forcibly took
money out of the register,
Duman said.
Sports .............. 5A & 6A
Turning Backs ...........2A
Weather ..................... 8B
MONDAY — BAKER HIGH SCHOOL WEEKEND SPORTS ROUND UP