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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 2020)
WILDFIRES RAVAGE PARTS OF WESTERN OREGON: PG. 5A KEEPING YOU CONNECTED. THURSDAY Wireless Service Where You Live & Play. Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com September 10, 2020 IN THIS EDITION: QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Wanda Smith of Baker City. BRIEFING Free school pictures offered this afternoon Baker County Safe Communities Coali- tion and New Directions Northwest are offering free school photos for all local students, including home- schoolers, today from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at New Directions’ new offi ce, 3425 13th St. Social dis- tancing will be followed. Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50 Baker School District Students, Parents Adjust To Online Learning A New Meaning For ‘Homeroom’ By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Photo courtesy of Heather Matheny Baker City siblings Nikki Williams, left, an eighth-grader, and Isaac Williams, a seventh-grader, take online classes Tuesday morning. Their mother, Heather Matheny, bought the 4-foot-high dividers to give her kids separate work spaces. Matheny’s younger daughter, Aryana Leos, a kindergartner, also takes online classes. By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com WEATHER Today 83 / 39 Sunny Friday 87 / 40 Sunny Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. 8 new cases were from care center ■ Eight new cases reported Sunday are residents at Meadowbrook Place assisted living community in Baker City, bringing the total cases there to 24 Veterans Appreciation Day Sunday at Quail Ridge Golf Course Veterans and their spouses/partners and de- pendents from Baker and Union counties can play a free round of golf Sunday, and enjoy a free barbe- cue lunch at Quail Ridge Golf Course in Baker City. The inaugural Veterans Appreciation Day will take place at the 18-hole course at 2801 Indiana Ave. Golfers are encouraged to call ahead to schedule a tee time between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help with social distancing guidelines. Quail Ridge’s phone num- ber is 541-523-2358. The barbecue will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Halfway • 541-540-6115 Richland • 541-893-6115 Gissel Loza’s dining room table turned into a classroom Tuesday morning. With her fi ve children, ranging from pre-kindergartner Victoria Loza to sophomore Geovanny Loza, attend- ing classes online, Gissel had to make adjustments to the family’s home near Haines as the school year started in an unconventional way due to the coronavirus pandemic. But even though having fi ve students, each watching a separate computer screen and all sitting at the same table initially, sounds chaotic, Gissel said she was pleased by how smoothly Tuesday proceeded. Well, relatively smoothly. “It’s overwhelming at fi rst,” Gissel said with a chuckle during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. At one point she was trying to si- multaneously help two of her children who couldn’t sign in to their classes. And although Gissel was gratifi ed for the Wi-Fi hot spot device that the Baker School District provided to accelerate her sluggish internet con- nection, with fi ve laptops humming away the bandwidth was stretched, fi guratively speaking. “There was some blurriness,” she said. The fi ve students aren’t all online at the same time throughout the day, fortunately. Geovanny and his younger brother, Leonardo, who is an eighth-grader, have a longer schedule, with classes extending into the afternoon. (Geovanny picked up his materials for high school classes Tuesday and started classes today, Gissel said.) Ricardo, who’s a sixth-grader, along with Bernardo, a fourth-grader, and Victoria, have morning classes. “I think they did pretty good con- TODAY Issue 52, 16 pages The eight new COVID-19 cases that Baker County reported on Sunday are all residents at Meadowbrook Place assisted living com- munity in Baker City, and none has shown symptoms, according to the Baker County Health Department. Meadowbrook is the site of the county’s only out- break, which started Aug. 9, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). The eight new cases bring the total to 24, including res- idents and staff. The Baker County Health Department would not say how many of the people who tested posi- tive are residents and how many are employees. See COVID-19/Page 3A Council buys new ambulance By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com Photo courtesy of Gissel Loza Victoria Loza had her fi rst day of pre-kindergarten Tuesday. centrating,” Gissel said of her children. “They don’t get distracted. For the fi rst day I think it went pretty well.” After starting classes at the same table, the Loza children dispersed around the house later in the day. Business .................... 1B Classified ............. 2B-4B Comics ....................... 5B MORE INSIDE ... Baker school offi cials give their impressions of the fi rst two days of online classes. Please turn to Page 3A for the story. See First Day/Page 3A Community News ....3A Crossword ........2B & 4B Dear Abby ................. 6B Baker City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to buy a new ambulance for $169,400. The 2021 model, built on a Ford F-350 four-wheel drive chassis, will come from True North Emergency Equipment, which has an offi ce in Hillsboro. Installing radios and add- ing logos and other miscel- laneous equipment will cost about $5,000, according to a report to councilors from Fire Chief Sean Lee. The City Council bud- geted $180,000 for the ambulance purchase during the fi scal year that started July 1. Councilors Randy Schiewe and Larry Morrison were absent Tuesday. See Council/Page 2A Horoscope ........2B & 4B Lottery Results ..........2A News of Record ........2A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Senior Menus ...........2A Sports ........................6A Turning Backs ...........2A Weather ..................... 6B SATURDAY — PLANNERS APPROVE COMPOSTING FACILITY AT LANDFILL