SATURDAY
BAKER SCHOOLS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR TALKS CORONAVIRUS EFFECTS: PG. 6A
In OUTDOORS, 1B
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
March 21, 2020
IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Ethan
Wolston of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Leo Adler
Foundation
extends scholarship
application
deadline
The Leo Adler Founda-
tion, which awards college
scholarships to graduates
of high school in Baker
County and Powder Valley
High School, has extended
the application deadline
from April 1 to April 3 at
11 p.m. PDT. To complete ei-
ther a fi rst-time or renewal
application, go to www.leo-
adler.org. Adler, a longtime
Baker City philanthropist
who died Nov. 2, 1993, left
his estate for scholarships
and grants for community
projects. Since 1995, a total
of 8,977 students have re-
ceived scholarships totaling
$21,891,373.
Local • Health & Fitness • Outdoors • TV
School
Learning & Playing
chief’s
work a
‘blur’
Parents Deal With Unexpected School Closure
■ Families try to stay busy at home and with trips to outdoor parks
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
City Council cancels
March 24 meeting
The Baker City Council
has canceled its March 24
meeting due to coronavirus
concerns. City Manager
Fred Warner Jr. said there
was no pressing business
on the agenda. A pre-bud-
get meeting set for March
31 has also been canceled.
Planning commission
meetings related to a devel-
opment code update will be
delayed until May.
WEATHER
$1.50
Cures for
cabin
fever
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Brieanne Bain enjoys a Thursday visit to Geiser-Pollman Park along with daughter Brylee, 10,
on swing, son Cooper, 8, and daughter Emma, 6.
Mark Witty did something Thursday that
he hadn’t done for the past three weeks.
He stepped away from his offi ce for an hour-
long lunch break.
As anyone who’s spent much
time around the Baker School
District superintendent can tes-
tify, he’s a busy man. And while
he says it’s not unusual for
administrators to eat lunch at
Witty
their desks, Witty acknowledges
he has been more deskbound
than usual this month.
“It is a bit of a blur,” Witty said of the early
morning to late night schedule he’s worked
under since schools were put on alert to
prepare for the coronavirus about three weeks
ago as it began moving through the North-
west.
Gov. Kate Brown announced on March 12
that instead of the usual week-long spring
break, schools would be closed from March 16
through March 31. Then came Brown’s March
17 order closing schools through April 28.
Witty and his administrative staff have
been meeting daily since to plan ways to help
ease the burden of students and families
affected by the closures and to fi nd ways to
ensure that educational instruction continues.
See Schools/Page 6A
Today
By Samantha O’Conner
57 / 25
With schools, libraries, the YMCA,
and other places closed due to the
coronavirus, Baker County parents
are striving to fi nd ways to keep their
children safe and entertained.
Harmony McAlpine, 45, decided not
to go back to work and is staying home
with her children.
A concern McAlpine shares with
other parents is her children’s educa-
tion.
“We’re more concerned about the
school, if they are going to put them
online for right now,” she said.
“Them having their education is
highly important to me,” said Ashlyn
Gazley, 29, who is working with her
children to learn at home while Oregon
public schools are closed through at
least April 28.
Many parents are working on help-
ing their children continue to learn
outside of school with math, reading,
and other subjects.
Sunny
Sunday
63 / 34
Partly sunny
Monday
57 / 27
Rain showers
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
soconner@bakercityherald.com
See Parents/Page 3A
Union, Grant
counties
each have 1
virus case
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Ashlyn Gazley says she lost her waitress job due to
restrictions related to the coronavirus.
Two of Baker County’s neighboring coun-
ties — Union to the north and Grant to the
west — each reported its fi rst confi rmed
case of coronavirus on Thursday.
The Union County resident “had a recent
history of international travel and is not
considered to have acquired it from com-
munity spread,” according to the Center for
Human Development in La Grande.
The Grant County resident has not been
hospitalized, and is staying home and self-
monitoring for symptoms, according to the
Grant County Health Department.
CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS TAKE TOLL ON RESTAURANT, BAR INDUSTRY
Brewer offers meals to idled food workers
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
For a couple of hours Wednesday
evening, during a week of unprec-
edented upheavals for the restau-
rant and bar industry, Tyler Brown
was again doing what he loves to
do.
Serving food to customers.
Which is not to suggest the situ-
ation at Barley Brown’s Brew Pub
in Baker City was anything like
normal.
TODAY
Issue 144, 12 pages
Indeed Brown uses the adjective
“eerie” to describe the experience of
working at his pub on the second
day of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s or-
der that allows only takeout and de-
livery service from restaurants, one
of a myriad of measures designed to
curb the spread of coronavirus.
Instead of the usual scene —
people sitting shoulder to shoulder
in booths and at tables, a cacophony
of laughter and conversation —
Brown saw customers standing
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outside, at arm’s length or more,
waiting for their food to arrive in
boxes rather than on plates.
But amid circumstances that
Brown calls “devastating” to the
restaurant and bar business, he
said there was a moment of lev-
ity after he and other employees
served to-go meals from 4 p.m. to 8
p.m.
“The best thing was that at the
end of the night, everybody was
happy again,” said Brown, whose
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family also owns the Sumpter
Junction restaurant in Baker City.
“This was kind of fun. We’d rather
be busy than sit around with food
rotting in the cooler.”
Brown, who said both the Sumpt-
er Junction and Barley Brown’s Tap
House, across Church Street from
the pub, are closed, emphasized
that the takeout service in no way
makes up for the losses due to the
statewide order.
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