2A — BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
STUDENTS
Continued from Page 1A
B AKER C OUNTY C ALENDAR
FRIDAY, FEB. 7
■ Live Music by Keith Taylor: Ragtime piano, 4:30 p.m. to
5:30 p.m., Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, 2020 Auburn
Ave.; no charge; continues most Fridays.
■ First Friday Art Shows: Baker City art galleries are open
late to showcase the month’s new artwork; opening times
vary between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Crossroads Carnegie
Art Center, Peterson’s Gallery and others.
MONDAY, FEB. 10
■ Baker County Library Board: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Riverside
meeting room at the library, 2400 Resort St.
■ Medical Springs Rural Fire Protection District Board:
7 p.m. at the Pondosa Station.
TUESDAY FEB. 11
■ Baker City Council: 7 p.m., City Hall, 1655 First St.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12
■ Lower Powder River Irrigation District Board: 6 p.m.
at Barley Brown’s, 2190 Main St.
TUESDAY, FEB. 18
■ Elkhorn Community Preparedness: 5:30 p.m. supper;
6:30 p.m. meeting; at the Sunridge Inn Restaurant, 1
Sunridge Lane.
T URNING B ACK THE P AGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
February 6, 1970
Employment in Baker and Grant counties continued to
decline during January. The heaviest contributors to the
decline have been the logging and lumbering industries.
Practically all logging was halted during the month by mild
and rainy weather.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 6, 1995
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative customers will receive
3-percent rebates on their 1994 bills next month as the
power company passes on its savings to members.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 5, 2010
SALEM (AP) — U.S. Rep. Greg Walden has been named
to a caucus position that House Minority Leader John
Boehner said would put Walden at the table in Republican
strategy sessions.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
February 6, 2019
That 2018 was the warmest year on record in Baker City
might not seem surprising to anyone who endured the
August heat wave that incinerated a record that had lasted
more than half a century.
But it turns out that typically chilly January played a big-
ger role than sizzling August.
The average temperature at the Baker City Airport dur-
ing January 2018 was 9.4 degrees above average.
August, despite all-time record highs being set on
consecutive days, was not quite 3 degrees warmer than
average.
Both July and May were also hotter, relative to the
long-term average, than August was — May’s average
temperature was 6.3 degrees above average, and July’s
was almost 4 degrees.
O REGON L OTTERY
MEGABUCKS, Feb. 3
1 — 11 — 14 — 22 — 39 — 43
Next jackpot: $3.2 million
MEGA MILLIONS, Feb. 4
32 — 48 — 50 — 51 — 64
Mega 10
Next jackpot: $187 million
WIN FOR LIFE, Feb. 3
42 — 51 — 57 — 65
PICK 4, Feb. 4
• 1 p.m.: 9 — 0 — 5 — 1
• 4 p.m.: 8 — 8 — 5 — 1
• 7 p.m.: 8 — 7 — 9 — 8
• 10 p.m.: 9 — 5 — 8 — 5
LUCKY LINES, Feb. 4
1-8-9-16-20-21-25-29
Next jackpot: $35,000
S ENIOR M ENUS
■ FRIDAY: Chicken-fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, carrots,
rolls, fruit ambrosia, lemon bars
■ MONDAY (Feb. 10): Barbecued pork ribs, au gratin
potatoes, mixed vegetables, rolls, broccoli-bacon salad,
brownies
■ TUESDAY (Feb. 11): Beef tips over fettuccine, broccoli-
blend vegetables, bread, cottage cheese with fruit, cake
■ WEDNESDAY (Feb. 12): Chicken cordon blue with
hollandaise, baked potatoes, peas and carrots, bread, beet-
and-onion salad, bread pudding
■ THURSDAY (Feb. 13): Baked ham, sweet potatoes, mixed
vegetables, rolls, Jell-O with fruit, cinnamon rolls
Public luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., 11:30
a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $4.50 donation (60 and older), $6.75 for
those under 60.
C ONTACT THE H ERALD
1668 Resort St.
Open Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Telephone: 541-523-3673
Copyright © 2020
Fax: 541-833-6414
Regional publisher
Christopher Rush
crush@eomediagroup.com
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.
com
Jayson Jacoby, editor
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Advertising email
ads@bakercityherald.com
Classifi ed email
classified@bakercityherald.com
Circulation email
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ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays except Christmas Day by the
Baker Publishing Co., a part of EO Media
Group, at 1668 Resort St. (P.O. Box 807),
Baker City, OR 97814.
Subscription rates per month are:
Baker City (97814), $10.80; all others,
$12.50.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
the Baker City Herald, P.O. Box 807, Baker
City, OR 97814.
Periodicals Postage Paid
at Pendleton, Oregon 97801
The lower percentage is de-
rived when enrollment at the
Baker Web Academy, which
is nearing 2,500 students, is
included, Virtue said. Web
Academy students attend a
blend of online and face-to-
face classes with instructors
in areas throughout the state,
and most of those students
don’t live in Baker County.
Virtue, 67, retired from
her longtime employment
as a teacher and guidance
counselor for the District in
2015, but she is still looking
out for students as she heads
into a new decade as home-
less liaison.
Virtue says she is encour-
aged by money that districts
throughout the state will
receive via the Student Suc-
cess Act.
The Legislature approved
an additional $2 billion for
schools last May, with a por-
tion of the money to be raised
by taxes on larger businesses.
An estimated $1.5 million
will come to the Baker School
District through the Student
Investment Account, and
the Student Success Act will
provide the District with an
added $640 per student.
The Student Investment
Account funds will be used
in helping specifi c groups of
students, including those who
do not have stable housing
and are considered homeless
by the state Department of
Education.
“It’s exciting,” Virtue says.
“It’s been a long time since
we’ve seen any dollars at-
tached (to helping children
recognized as homeless by the
state).”
Assistant Superintendent
Betty Palmer is schedul-
ing meetings with students,
parents and community
groups, such as the YMCA,
Headstart, Anthony Lakes
and health care providers, to
gather information about how
Baker School District can
make the best use of the new
funding.
Palmer said she asks those
participating in the sessions:
“What are we not seeing that
you see that we should be
doing better?”
A 90-page document that
details how the Baker School
District will spend the money
is due to the state by the end
of March, she said.
The money is earmarked
“Kids identifi ed as coming from a homeless situation
tend to not achieve as well, to not have as high an
attendance rate and tend not to graduate at the same
rates. We haven’t as a district — and probably as
a nation — found a way to help people who fi nd
themselves in those situations.
— Betty Palmer, assistant superintendent, Baker School District
for, among other things,
helping improve academic
achievement for students
who historically have not
performed as well in school as
their classmates.
That group can include
homeless students.
“As we look at our disag-
gregated data, kids identifi ed
as coming from a homeless
situation tend to not achieve
as well, to not have as high
an attendance rate and tend
not to graduate at the same
rates,” Palmer said.
“We haven’t as a district
— and probably as a nation
— found a way to help people
who fi nd themselves in those
situations,” she said.
Virtue looks forward to be-
ing able to use some of the ad-
ditional money to lend a hand
to the children and families
within her purview.
She begins offering that
help annually during August
registration.
“All the partners are there,”
she says of the two-day
Kiwanis Resource Fair that is
part of Baker School Dis-
trict registration at the high
school.
And Virtue is among those
partners who are working
with students who can use a
little extra help navigating
the school year successfully.
“I make sure the students
don’t pay school fees, and that
they have PE clothes and can
register without any costs,”
she said.
In Baker, 90% of the 197
students recognized as home-
less are “doubled-up,” which
means they are sharing a
home with others because
they’ve lost their housing, suf-
fered an economic hardship
or are in some similar situa-
tion, Virtue says.
Another 7% of the total
are considered “unsheltered”
because they live in trailer
parks or are camping in the
yards of family or friends.
And the remaining 3%
are considered “sheltered.”
However, because there are
no homeless shelters in the
community, in Baker City the
term comes to mean they are
BRIDGE
Continued from Page 1A
“We are getting some donations from
the community to help pay for some of the
costs of this, so it is a community wide proj-
ect and we greatly appreciate the support,”
Commission Chairman Bill Harvey said.
Miners from that area have donated
$385 toward the new bridge, which is a few
miles from the site where the film “Paint
Your Wagon” was filmed in 1968.
Several trails into the Eagle Cap Wilder-
ness start in the area as well.
living in motels rooms.
Virtue said she received
fi ve calls on Jan. 6 from
families in need of a place
to stay. That Monday was
planned as the fi rst day back
from Christmas break, but
school was canceled because
of snowy and icy road condi-
tions.
Virtue said she reached out
to the Compassion Center for
short-term housing help for
the people who had called her.
Community Connection
has a variety of funding
available on a fi rst-come,
fi rst-served basis for housing
assistance.
School district money
cannot be used for housing,
Virtue said. However, private
donations to help provide
emergency housing may be
made through Marla’s Mall.
Members of St. Stephen’s
Episcopal Church, where
Palmer and retired school
administrator Beth Bigelow
and their families attend, con-
tributed to the housing fund
with donations that came
in during the church’s fi rst
Groundhog Day Festival on
Feb. 1. The church collected
$541.50 for that purpose, said
the Rev. Aletha Bonebrake.
She said the church
organized the festival as an
outreach project, with the
funds to be split between its
own food pantry, which sits
outside the church building,
and the emergency housing
fund at Marla’s Mall.
“There’s a lot of need out
in the community that isn’t
just food — it’s also housing,”
Bonebrake said. “We decided
we can take care of our food
bank OK and this (money)
can help the people at Marla’s
Mall help people with hous-
ing.”
The mall is located in the
former North Baker School
building at 2725 Seventh St.
Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 11:30
a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Thursday.
Through the mall, named
in memory of former long-
time teacher Marla Cavallo
who died of cancer in 2007,
the school district provides
The new bridge will be longer and
stronger than the current structure, with
an 80,000-pound capacity.
The current bridge, which the county
owns, has a value of $10,000, and the
county will store it in Baker City in case it’s
needed as a temporary structure.
Harvey said the current bridge doesn’t
meet Forest Service standards, so the
agency wasn’t interested in taking the
structure.
Construction on the new bridge will
start this summer.
In other business Wednesday, commis-
families help with clothing,
household goods and other
items for no charge. Marla’s
Mall is kept stocked with
items donated by community
members.
The inventory also includes
hygiene products, and boots
and shoes, along with small
furniture and appliances,
cooking tools and backpacks.
At this time, Marla’s Mall is
in need of winter items, such
as new or used boots of all
sizes, snow pants, coats, blan-
kets and household goods,
Virtue said.
Food is not part of the offer-
ing at Marla’s Mall but Virtue
seeks donations of nonperish-
able food items to keep on
hand for her students and to
fi ll food pantries placed in the
community to help those in
need.
Products such as boxed
macaroni and cheese, canned
chili or noodle cups are al-
ways welcome, she said.
The generosity of the com-
munity continues to amaze
Virtue year after year.
“It not about people not car-
ing,” she says. “People are so
generous — everybody wants
to help.”
For many years people
have helped students get
ready for the return to school.
The Salvation Army spon-
sors its Backpack Program,
collecting school supplies,
including stacks of pencils,
pens and paper donated for
the new year.
As winter approached this
year, hand-knitted hats were
donated to Marla’s Mall by a
group of women who attend
church together, enjoy needle-
work and wanted to help out.
Donations of socks and gloves
also came in.
The items were distributed
during a Christmas open
house.
A back-to-school night was
scheduled at Marla’s Mall be-
fore classes began this fall to
help students upgrade their
wardrobes and supplies for a
new year of classes.
Virtue says her job has
been both rewarding and
heartbreaking over the years.
“We have so many success
stories of people who would
have had it really tough if we
hadn’t been able to help,” she
said.
The heartbreak is that she
can’t do more.
“As an old lady, I want to fi x
everything,” she says. “That’s
my job, but I can’t.”
sioners awarded a contract for performing
the county’s audit to Pauly Rogers & Co. of
Tigard, which has done the county’s audit
before.
The county received three bids for audit
services.
Christena Cook, the county’s adminis-
trative services director, said the county’s
budget committee unanimously agreed
that Pauly Rogers & Co. was the best
option.
Commissioners are scheduled to meet
Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. at the Courthouse, 1995
Third St.
N EWS OF R ECORD
FUNERAL PENDING
Leonard J. Redmond: 89
of Boise, a former Baker City
resident, died Jan. 23, 2020, at
his home. His memorial service
will take place on Saturday, Feb.
8, at 1 p.m., at Bowman Funeral
Home, 10254 W. Carlton Bay, in
Garden City, Idaho.
Charles Johnson: 75, of
Baker City, died Feb. 2, 2020,
at his home. Gray’s West & Co.
Pioneer Chapel is in charge of ar-
rangements. To light a candle in
memory of Charles, or to leave a
condolence for the family, go to
www.grayswestco.com
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
FELON IN POSSESSION OF A
WEAPON: Tamara Kay Fine, 46,
of Baker City, 11:24 a.m. Tuesday,
in the 1200 block of Washington
Avenue; jailed.
Crime reports
SECOND-DEGREE BUR-
GLARY: At the Eagle Cap Grill,
Exciting News!
Dr. Derek Blankenship is
joining Baker Vision Clinic
Baker Vision Clinic would like to welcome Dr. Derek
Blankenship. Dr. Blankenship will start seeing patients March
3, 2020. Derek was born and raised in Baker City. Following
high school, he attended George Fox University where he
graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science Degree. He then attended Midwestern
University Arizona College of Optometry where he graduated with a Doctorate of
Optometry in 2018. Upon graduation from Optometry school Dr. Blankenship has
been practicing in Pendleton, Oregon. Baker Vision Clinic is very excited to welcome
him back home!
Dr. Blankenship is warm and engaging. He easily connects with people through his
open honest desire to help others. He enjoys the outdoors and cannot wait to show his
wife and son all that is special to him about Baker.
Dr. Derek Blankenship is accepting patients now.
Please contact Baker Vision Clinic today at 541-523-5858 to make an appointment.
2915 10th St., between closing
Monday night and 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday, a burglar damaged a
door to gain entry to the busi-
ness and took an undisclosed
amount of cash, police said.
SECOND-DEGREE BUR-
GLARY: At the Eagles Lodge,
2935 H St., sometime between
Monday night and 9:19 a.m.
Tuesday, a burglar damaged the
door of the building to gain entry
and took an undisclosed amount
of cash, police said .
Baker County Sheriff’s
Offi ce
PROBATION VIOLATION
(Baker County warrant): Ethan
Kenneth Luebberke, 18, of Baker
City, 9:58 a.m. Tuesday, at the
Sheriff’s Offi ce; jailed.
THIRD-DEGREE THEFT (Baker
County Justice Court warrant):
Gage Michael Niehaus, 20, of
Haines, 2:05 p.m. Tuesday, on
Highway 30 near Haines; jailed.
Oregon State Police
FOURTH-DEGREE ASSAULT
CONSTITUTING DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE: Ronald Dale Newell,
57, of Boise, 7:35 p.m. Jan. 29, at
the Weatherby Rest Area; jailed
and later released.
FAILURE TO ANNUALLY
REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER:
Ricky Milan Cobb, 66, of 2475
20th St., 1:19 p.m. Jan. 30, at his
home; cited and released.