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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 2020)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A LOCAL & NATION REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CONCLUDES WITH PRESIDENT’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH Trump offers vision of optimism Trump sought to project a sense of normalcy by throwing caution about Associated Press the coronavirus aside. WASHINGTON — President All week long, Republicans at the Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden as nonconvention convention tried to a hapless career politician who will create the illusion that the pandemic endanger Americans’ safety as he is largely a thing of the past. The accepted his party’s renomination rows of chairs on the South Lawn Thursday on the South Lawn of the were inches apart. Protective masks White House. While the coronavi- were not required, and COVID-19 rus kills 1,000 Americans each day, tests were not administered to Trump defi ed his own administra- everyone. tion’s pandemic guidelines to speak The president spoke from a setting for more than an hour to a tightly that was both familiar and controver- packed, largely maskless crowd. sial. Despite tradition and regulation Facing a moment fraught with to not use the White House for purely racial turmoil, economic collapse and political events, a huge stage was set a national health emergency, Trump up outside the executive mansion, delivered a triumphant, optimistic dwarfi ng the trappings for some of vision of America’s future. But he said the most important moments of past that brighter horizon could only be presidencies. The speaker’s stand was secured if he defeated his Democratic fl anked by dozens of American fl ags foe, who currently has an advantage and two large video screens. in most national and battleground Trying to run as an insurgent as Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images-TNS well as incumbent, Trump rarely state polls. “We have spent the last four years President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the includes calls for unity, even in a time Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White of national uncertainty. Presenting reversing the damage Joe Biden House on Thursday. infl icted over the last 47 years,” himself as the last barrier protect- Trump said, referring to the former ing an American way of life under senator and vice president’s career in the fi nal stretch of the campaign, a will soon resume campaign travel. siege from radical forces, Trump has Washington. race now fully joined and, despite the Teasing once more that a vac- repeatedly, if not always effectively, When Trump fi nished, a massive pandemic, soon to begin crisscrossing cine could arrive soon, the president tried to portray Biden — who is con- fi reworks display went off by the the country. Trump’s pace of travel promised victory over the coronavirus sidered a moderate Democrat — as a Washington Monument, complete will pick up to a near daily pace while pandemic that has killed more than tool of extreme leftists. with explosions that spelled out Biden, who has largely weathered 175,000 people, left millions unem- He mocked his opponent’s record “Trump 2020.” the pandemic from this Delaware ployed and rewritten the rules of soci- and famous empathy, suggesting that His acceptance speech kicked off home, announced Thursday that he ety. And, in the setting for his speech, “laid off workers in Michigan, Ohio, By Jonathan Lemire, Michelle L. Price and Kevin Freking VIRUS AID Continued from Page 1A The fi ve members of the Committee are City Councilor Doni Bruland; Robin Nudd, the city’s human resources and community development director; Chris Knoll, man- ager of Umpqua Bank’s Baker City branch; Andrew Bryan, a member of the Baker 5J School Board; and Dave Hun- saker, a Baker City resident. The city has received $292,000 from the federal CARES Act, which Congress passed in late March. The city has to spend the money by Dec. 31. Wednesday’s fi rst presen- tation was by Joe Hayes of Community Connection of Baker County, which operates the Baker City Senior Center, Meals on Wheels, the Baker City Trolley and several other services. The Baker City Council in late July voted to award Com- munity Connection $50,000 from the city’s share. But the prevent child abuse and ne- glect. The program offers home visits to help educate parents. • Baker Technical Institute, $18,200 The Committee awarded the Relief Nursery $4,807. • Community Connection, $10,000 Via Zoom, Angela Lattin, • The Salvation Army, $10,000 director of the Baker School District’s new Early Learning • Child Care Resource & Referral, $10,000 Center at the former North • Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, $6,000 Baker School building, and • Harvest Church, $5,000 CaSandra Zeller of Child Care Resource & Referral, requested • Relief Nursery, $4,807 $66,000 to provide child care • Baker City Backpack Program, $2,971 for kids kindergarten age and younger. Zeller said there is an in- Council rescinded that decision pack Program, which provides creasing demand for child care after deciding to form the Com- kids with food to take home on as parents return to work after mittee and ask groups to make weekends. being off due to the pandemic. presentations. The Committee awarded the The Committee awarded The City Council has allocat- program $2,971, slightly more $10,000 for child care. ed $75,000 to the Committee than the request. Ginger Savage, director of thus far. Crowell said the volunteer the Crossroads Carnegie Art On Wednesday Hayes program served about 200 Center, requested $24,000 to requested $10,000 to help students per week last year, help with utility and main- residents pay for utilities, giving each three breakfasts, tenance costs at the Center groceries and other necessities. two dinners and snacks each for 10 months. Savage said The Committee granted the week. Crossroads, which occupies full amount. Kelli Wright with New the historic Carnegie Library Courtney Crowell made Directions Northwest made at Second Street and Auburn a presentation via Zoom on a request on behalf of Relief Avenue, just west of City Hall, behalf of the Baker City Back- Nursery, a program that helps said the Center’s income has COVID-19 AID RECIPIENTS “I really don’t like self-promotion; it makes me feel weird. But this isn’t self-promotion. It’s really for the kids.” ditional food and other supplies to post offi ces along his route — wherever that might be. Gettle’s fundraising goal is $2,000. As of Friday he had raised $953.65. Donations can be made through his — Andrew Gettle, who plans to ride his bicycle for several hundred miles during page on the Great Cycling Challenge September to raise money for research website — https://greatcyclechallenge. into treatments for child cancer com/Riders/AndrewGettle Back on the bicycle Gettle chuckles when he talks about how he ended up planning a multistate Continued from Page 1A bicycle trip. Gettle registered with the Great Cycle The topic amuses him because he’s Challenge, a nationwide event that never been much of a bike rider. raises money for research into treat- “I was a skateboarder,” said Gettle, ments for childhood cancer. who graduated from Baker High School Participants set a personal bicycling in 2009. “I was not a bicycle guy at all.” goal to achieve during September. Gettle was a top wrestler at BHS. The campaign, which started in 2015, He also competed in cross-country — has raised more than $24.6 million, “mainly to get in shape for wrestling,” according to its website, greatcyclechal- he said. lenge.com “I like to physically exert myself,” he Gettle, 30, planned to leave Baker said. City either this evening or on Sunday But that simply wasn’t possible for a morning for the starting point of his long time after April 26, 2018. ride, Winchester Bay on the Oregon That’s the day Gettle crashed while Coast just south of Reedsport. riding his motorcycle on Highway 30 From there he’ll pedal south on High- between Baker City and Haines. way 101. Gettle’s wife, Lea, said in a 2018 Although Gettle’s goal of 400 miles interview with the Herald that doctors sounds signifi cant considering he has a told her that night that her husband prosthetic left leg below the knee, he has probably wouldn’t survive. even more ambitious expectations for Gettle suffered a traumatic brain himself. injury. He was in a medically induced “I plan to do at least 50 miles a day,” coma for 21 days. He underwent three he said. surgeries to alleviate pressure on his And he intends to keep riding brain. throughout September. His other injuries, though not as im- Gettle said he doesn’t know exactly mediately critical, were severe, includ- where he’ll go after he visits the red- ing a broken back, cracked elbows and woods in northern California. broken legs. He’s packed freeze-dried meals and a Doctors were unable to save his left butane stove in his bicycle’s saddlebags. leg. It was amputated below the knee. His grandmother, Linda Lang of Gettle was released from the hospital Baker City, will mail packages with ad- in Boise on June 29, 2018. BICYCLE Although he was able to return to another of his favorite pursuits — art — Gettle couldn’t immediately resume his physically active lifestyle. Earlier this year he and Lea rented bicycles. Gettle noticed that although he could get the bike moving easily enough, when his left leg — the one with the prosthetic — reached the top of each pedal stroke he struggled to push the pedal down. “It was annoying,” he said. Gettle said he still hasn’t pinpointed the cause. He suspects, though, that bicyclists typically fl ex their ankle and foot with each rotation. “I don’t have a left foot,” he said. But then, about 4 months ago, a friend fortuitously offered to let him ride her fi xed-gear bicycle. On a fi xed-gear bike there is no free- wheel mechanism — the device that al- lows the rear wheel to spin even when the rider isn’t moving the pedals. Which is to say, the pedals spin at the same speed as the rear wheel. Gettle quickly realized that the pedaling problem disappeared while he was riding a fi xed-gear bike. “I was smiling so big,” he said. “I never thought I’d be able to ride a bike again.” Gettle went online and bought a basic bike for $200. He started fi xing it up. He named the bike Beatrice. But Gettle’s newfound love for bicy- cling was only the fi rst of his epipha- nies. Not long after he acquired Beatrice, he read about the Great Cycle Chal- lenge. Gettle said he can’t recall exactly where, although he thinks it was prob- ably online. Regardless, he felt an immediate con- nection to the fundraising campaign. New Hampshire, Pennsylvania” don’t “want Joe Biden’s hollow words of empathy, they wanted their jobs back.” In a week of racial tumult, Republi- cans have claimed that the violence that has erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and some other American cities is to be blamed on Democratic governors and mayors and would only grow worse under a Biden administration. That drew a stern rebuke from Biden. “The problem we have right now is that we are in Donald Trump’s America,” Biden said on MSNBC. “He views this as a political benefi t to him, he is rooting for more violence, not less. He is pouring gasoline on the fi re.” Both parties are watching with uncertainty the developments in Wisconsin and cities across the na- tion with Republicans leaning hard on support for law and order — with no words offered for Black victims of police violence — while falsely claim- ing that Biden has not condemned the lawlessness. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and New York City’s former mayor, declared that Democrats’ “silence was so deafening that it reveals an acceptance of this violence because they will accept anything they hope will defeat President Don- ald Trump.” dropped because of events be- ing canceled due to COVID-19. The Committee awarded Crossroads $6,000. Lead pastor Brad Phil- lips of the Harvest Church, along with Lorrie Harvey, the church’s administrative assistant, requested $5,000 to continue offering meals to residents each Wednesday, with curbside service. Phillips said the church has served about 5,000 meals so far. The Committee awarded the Harvest Church $5,000. Susan Bland with The Salvation Army in Baker City requested $25,000 for the organization’s variety of ser- vices, including help paying for electric service and rent. Bland said The Salvation Army is also considering adding as- sistance with paying for water and sewer service and trash collection. The Committee awarded The Salvation Army $10,000. The fi nal presentation was by Doug Dalton, president of the Baker Technical Institute (BTI). Dalton requested $31,225 for workforce training at BTI, which is at Baker High School. BTI offers training in skills such as welding and heavy equipment operation, as well as helping people learn to pre- pare resumes, search for jobs and do interviews. The Committee awarded BTI $18,200. Bryan Tweit and Jeff Nelson of the Baker County Economic Recovery Team asked for fi nancial aid for busi- nesses harmed by closures and other restrictions related to the pandemic. The Committee asked Tweit and Nelson to collect applications from individual businesses and present them to the Committee at a future meeting. The Committee has not scheduled its next meeting. Recipients can reapply for more money at later meetings if they’ve spent their initial allocation. Photo courtesy of Andrew Gettle Andrew Gettle plans to ride his bicycle, which he named Beatrice, for hundreds of miles during September as a fundraiser for research into treatment for child cancer. Gettle doesn’t have children, but he has friends whose kids have had health problems, including cancer. And he has family mem- bers who died from the disease. “It felt like it was meant to be,” he said, referring to sign- ing up for the Great Cycle Challenge. Gettle concedes that he was leery of setting up a page on the fundraiser’s website and asking people to contrib- ute. “I really don’t like self- promotion; it makes me feel weird,” he said. “But this isn’t self-promotion. It’s really for the kids.” Gettle, who celebrated his 30th birthday on July 19 by taking a 20-mile hike in the Elkhorn Mountains, said his experience with his new bike — training rides and now preparing for his month-long adventure — has helped him continue to adjust to his post- accident life. “It’s been empowering for me,” Gettle said. “I’m doing all right.”
