WEDNESDAY
BAKER OVERCOMES SLOW START TO ROLL OVER VALE, 50-28: SPORTS, 5A
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
January 8, 2020
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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.
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or sold from boxes. The
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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