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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2020)
TUESDAY STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY COVID-19 ‘ON THE MARCH AGAIN’: PAGE 3A In SPORTS, 6A Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com October 20, 2020 IN THIS EDITION: QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Barbara Sherman of Baker City. BRIEFING Prescription drug drop off Saturday at Sheriff’s Offi ce Residents can drop off expired, unused or unwanted prescription medications this Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce, 3410 K St. There is no charge. Local • Home & Living • Sports $1.50 BHS teams adjust to pandemic limitations Burning Remembering The planned Mayor of Wingville this fall in forest Longtime Rancher Howard Payton Dies At Age 83 ■ Unincorporated community dates to Baker County’s 1862 founding ■ Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has new interactive online map for its prescribed fire program City’s COVID-19 relief committee meets Wednesday By Jayson Jacoby Baker City’s Coronavirus Relief Fund Committee will meet Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First St. The committee will discuss applications for some of the $292,000 in federal COVID-19 aid mon- ey the city has received. jjacoby@bakercityherald.com The “window” has opened for lighting prescribed fi res on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, but forest offi cials want to prevent the resulting smoke from waft- ing through real, rather than fi gurative, windows. This fall’s prescribed fi re strategy calls for burning in areas farther from, or downwind from based on prevailing winds, populated areas such as Baker City. Commissioners to hear appeal of approval of wedding venue See Burning/Page 5A The Baker County Board of Commissioners will have a public hearing Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 9:30 a.m. at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St., to hear an appeal of a decision by the county Planning Commission approving an outdoor wedding venue on Pocahontas Road. Planners approved a home occupa- tion permit for Gerald and Cindy Endicott. The appeal was fi led by Rodney and Sandra Smith and Edward and Cindy Ratterman. Orpheum renovation could receive state grant By Lisa Britton For the Baker City Herald The Baker Orpheum Theater project could receive another boost thanks to the Cultural Advocacy Coalition. The Coalition has endorsed 11 capital construction projects to receive Cultural Resources Economic Funds. One of the proj- ects is Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre’s renovation of the Baker Orpheum Theatre for a requested amount of $295,000. But fi rst it has to be approved by the Oregon governor and the Legislature. WEATHER Today 60 / 37 Partly sunny Wednesday See Orpheum/Page 5A 54 / 25 Rain showers The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File Photo, 2007 Howard Payton, shown here in 2007, goes through a binder of historical records from the Wingville Grange. Payton and his wife, Sandy, bought the building, which is next to their home, after the Grange disbanded in 2002. By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Wingville has never been a town in the offi cial sense, but so long as Howard Payton was living there the community in the heart of Baker Valley had its own mayor. Payton’s title was ceremonial but his position was pretty prominent just the same. “If you needed to know something, you went to How- ard,” said Sean Lee, who has lived in Wingville for about 15 years and considers Payton, a longtime rancher, one of his mentors. “He was a huge histo- rian for the area, and he could answer any question. Everyone called him the mayor.” Payton, whose family’s roots in Baker County extend as far back as the county’s founding TODAY Issue 69, 12 pages in 1862, died Sunday in a Boise hospital. He was 83. Payton spent almost the whole of his life on the fam- ily ranch at the intersection of Wingville Lane and Old Wingville Road, about 7 miles northwest of Baker City. He and his wife, Sandra, were away for two years while How- ard attended college. His great-grandfather Brown settled in the valley in 1862, the same year the Or- egon Legislature created Baker County. A year later his great-grand- father Payton arrived to start a farm. Casey Vanderwiele of Baker City was just a boy, maybe 5 years old, when he met Payton. Later, as a teenager, Vander- wiele and his dad, Cass, both Calendar ....................2A Classified ............. 2B-4B Comics ....................... 5B joined the Baker Rural Fire Protection District as volun- teers. Casey Vanderwiele, 50, describes Payton as one of the “founding fathers” of the vol- unteer district, which started in 1985. “He was a mentor and leader for anyone involved” in the district,” Vanderwiele said. “He took it seriously.” And although Payton eventually relinquished the chief’s job, Vanderwiele said his retirement was defi nitely of the “semi” variety. “He told me, ‘don’t be losing my phone number,’ ” Vander- wiele said. He had dinner with the Pay- tons just a few weeks ago. Community News ....3A Crossword ........2B & 4B Dear Abby .................6A New store offers a little of everything By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com Friends, family, fellow store owners, and Baker residents gathered to celebrate the grand opening of A Little of This and That (ALOTT) Bargains store on Friday morn- ing, Oct. 16. The new store, owned by Valerie Dun- can and her husband, Scott,, is at 2013 First St. Although the store is new, the business isn’t. Valerie said she and her husband have been selling items since last year, mainly at temporary venues such as Christmas bazaars and the fl ea markets in Sumpter. But 2020 hasn’t been a good year for that business model. “With COVID and all of the events be- ing closed, we kind of had to shift what we were doing,” said Valerie, 34. See Payton/Page 5A Home ................1B & 2B Horoscope ........3B & 4B Letters ........................4A See Opening/Page 5A Lottery Results ..........2A News of Record ........2A Obituaries ........ 2A & 3A Opinion ......................4A Sports ........................6A Weather ..................... 6B THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
