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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2020)
WEDNESDAY BAKER OVERCOMES SLOW START TO ROLL OVER VALE, 50-28: SPORTS, 5A Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com January 8, 2020 IN THIS EDITION: Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50 QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Geri Bogart of Baker City. Oregon, 6A ELGIN — Jeff Smith, an Elgin computer program- mer running for Congress, believes his campaign is moving in the right direc- tion. Cell tower hearing delayed Baker City Couple Opens Six Stores Selling CBD Products Growing Business The Baker City Council postponed its Tuesday meeting to consider Verizon Wireless’ appeal of the de- nial of its request to build a cell tower, after the attorney representing the company was unable to attend. There was an issue with a fl ight for attorney E. Michael Connors, who fi led the appeal on behalf of Verizon, said Holly Kerns, Baker City/County plan- ning director. The Baker City Plan- ning Commission voted 5-2 on Dec. 4 to deny Verizon’s request to build a 70-foot tower near Leo Adler Field. BRIEFING Groundhog Day Festival set Feb. 1 at St. Stephen’s The fi rst local Ground- hog Day Festival is set for Saturday, Feb. 1 — the day before Groundhog Day — from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 2177 First St. Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, hashbrown casserole and applesauce will be served. Donations will be accepted, and proceeds will go toward keeping the St. Stephen’s food pantry for the hungry and homeless stocked. The Episcopossums will be playing music. See Appeal/Page 2A Garden Club meeting Jan. 15 The Baker County Gar- den Club will gather for a luncheon and meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15. The event will begin at 11 a.m. at Settler’s Park, 2895 17th St. WEATHER Today 39 / 27 Chance of snow showers Thursday 38 / 23 Chance of rain or snow showers Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below will be blank on issues delivered or sold from boxes. The space is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. Anna Carter goes to the basket Sabrina Thompson/The (La Grande) Observer A customer at La Grande’s Nugget CBD store, which opened in late December, talks with owner Jenny Long, left, of Baker City, and store manager Angela Lees. in Ontario and in four Idaho cities — Meridian, Boise, Nampa and Idaho Jenny and Justin Long opened Falls. the Nugget marijuana dispensary in Products in the Idaho stores must Sumpter in January 2017. contain 0% THC. Three years later that name — In Oregon the threshold is 0.3% Nugget — along with the image of a THC. gold-panning miner adorns six other “If that percent is exceeded, it is businesses the Baker City couple considered marijuana which is regu- operate or have licensed in Oregon lated by OLCC in Oregon,” Jenny and Idaho. Long said. “In Idaho, any trace of All six of those stores, including THC is considered marijuana and is the newest one in La Grande, which treated as a controlled substance.” opened in late December, sell prod- CBD products are legal nationwide. ucts containing CBD — cannibidiol “CBD is treated more as a vitamin — but not marijuana. supplement,” Long said. These CBD products, which include Nugget CBD enforces an age limit: lotions, edibles and vaping liquids, are Customers must be 21 or older to derived from industrial hemp, which purchase smokeable products, and 18 is related to marijuana but has less or older to purchase other products. than 0.3% THC, the substance that “We’ve chosen to limit who we sell produces the high associated with to for liability,” Long said. marijuana. CBD products can be sold in places Expansion history The Longs’ fi rst expansion came — including Baker City and La about when Ontario legalized mari- Grande — where marijuana busi- juana dispensaries. But the couple’s nesses are banned. Other Nugget CBD shops are open plan to open a dispensary in that city By Lisa Britton For the Baker City Herald — it would have been their second, joining their original dispensary in Sumpter — didn’t work out. Ontario offered licenses for dispen- saries on a fi rst-come, fi rst-served basis. “People camped out in front of the planning department,” Long said. Ontario also requires at least 1,000 feet between dispensaries. The loca- tion the Longs considered wouldn’t have met that standard. “That’s when we looked at selling CBD products,” Long said. Initially, in January 2019, the cou- ple started selling CBD items in their Sumpter cafe, which is in a separate part of the building that houses their marijuana dispensary. The Longs’ Ontario CBD store opened in March 2019. “It’s been crazy,” Jenny Long said of opening multiple stores in less than a year. Their fi rst spot in Boise was a kiosk at the mall. Baker City Council To Fill Vacancy On January 14 See Expand/Page 2A Findley will step in for Bentz By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Commissioners from Baker County and eight other counties voted today to appoint Lynn Findley, a Re- publican from Vale, to replace Findley Cliff Bentz as a state sen- ator representing Senate District 30. Commissioners chose Findley, who is a state representative for House District 60, over two other candidates picked Satur- day by Republican Party precinct committee mem- bers from the counties in District 30 — Rod Runyon of Wasco County and Eric Wattenburg of Sisters. See Findley/Page 3A Harper: First Baby of 2020 4 vie for Council seat The six Baker City Council members will have four applicants to choose from when they meet next week to fi ll the vacancy created when Ken Gross announced that he was moving away for work and would have to resign. Four people applied for the position — Jason Spriet, James C. Thomas, Richard Haynes Jr. and Larry Morrison. The six councilors will meet with the applicants during a work session tonight at 5:30 at City Hall, 1655 First St. The Council is slated to pick Gross’ replacement during TODAY Issue 113, 22 pages its regular meeting, set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14, also at City Hall. The new councilor will serve through the fi rst meeting in 2021. The seat on the Council will be open for election in Novem- ber, with the winning candidate then serving a two-year term starting in January 2021. (Although Gross was elected in November 2018 to a four-year term starting Jan. 1, 2019, the city charter requires that when a vacancy on the council is fi lled more than 90 days before the next general election — which Business ...........1B & 2B Calendar ....................2A Classified ............. 3B-6B is the case here — the appointed councilor serves only until the fi rst Council meeting in the year fol- lowing the election. In this case that means the fi rst meeting in January 2021.) Following are excerpts from each candidate’s ap- plication: Richard Haynes Jr. Haynes, who is retired, wrote that he wants “to help Baker City continue to offer a high quality of life and grow in a respon- sible way that benefi ts all citizens of our community.” See Council/Page 2A Comics ....................... 7B Community News ....3A Crossword ........4B & 6B Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City photo Harper Scott, the second daughter of Ashley Hughes and Logan Scott, was the fi rst baby born in 2020 at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City. Harper was born at 3:04 a.m. on Jan. 5. She weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and measured 19 1/4 inches. She has a big sister, Peyton. Saint Alphonsus presented Ashley and Harper with baby clothes, a blanket, an Alphonzo Bear stuffed animal, toys and other useful items for parents of newborns. Dear Abby ................. 8B Horoscope ........4B & 6B Lottery Results ..........2A Senior Menus ...........2A News of Record ........2A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Sports ........................5A Weather ..................... 8B FRIDAY — BAKER WRESTLERS IN KEY GOL DUAL AGAINST LA GRANDE
