Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 2020)
LOCAL & STATE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020 County hears wedding venue appeal By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com Baker County Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the county Planning Commission to address concerns raised by residents who object to a proposed outdoor wedding venue in Baker Valley. The 3-0 vote followed a public hearing at the Courthouse. “We really do need a lot more clarifi ca- tion,” said County Commission Chair- man Bill Harvey. At issue is the application from Gerald and Cindy Endicott for a home occupation permit to operate an outdoor wedding venue on their 9.2-acre property at 42268 Pocahontas Road. That’s near Brown Road, about 6 miles northwest of Baker City. Commissioners heard testimony both for and against the Endicotts’ application Wednesday morning. On Aug. 11 the county Planning Commission unanimously approved the couple’s application. Adjoining property owners Rodney and Sandra Smith and Ned and Cindy Ratterman appealed that decision, lead- ing to Wednesday’s public hearing. During the hearing, Gerald Endicott told commissioners that the couple had a wedding on their property as a trial, and they learned a lot from the experience. “It was my brother’s friends, we thought it’d be a good trial run, it was a double wedding, we had no idea they had like 50 kids,” Endicott said. In written testimony, Endicott noted that the couple have hosted multiple events over the past 15 years or so including reunions, anniversary parties, weddings and birthdays. He said they plan to have maybe two weddings a month during the summer, subject to the requirements the Planning Commission set out. Those include having a maximum of 20 vehicles on the property a day, no noise after 9 p.m. and requiring guests to leave by 11 p.m. Ned Ratterman, who attended Wednesday’s public hearing, said he’s concerned about noise made by guests and a music DJ. Ratterman said another resident, who lives about 3/4 of a mile away, on Salmon Creek Road, told a member of the Planning Commission that the DJ’s voice during an event at the Endicotts’ property was clearly audible. Ratterman also raised concerns about traffi c, and about people mistakenly turning into his driveway. “When people go to parties they drink and they could end up where they shouldn’t end up. That concerns me,” Ratterman said. Rodney and Sandra Smith submitted written testimony, referencing an Aug. 22 wedding at the Endicotts’ property. “The noise started around 10 a.m.,” the Smiths wrote. “Later it became louder, then the DJ and music started, it was horrifi c, we went from our deck into the house, closed the windows, turned up the TV but it followed us right in.” The Smiths also wrote that they’re concerned that there is no proposed limit on the number or type of events. The Endicotts submitted emails from two other nearby residents who said they haven’t heard noise from the Endicotts’ property. Jeff Nelson, Baker County business adviser with Blue Mountain Community College’s Small Business Development Center, urged commissioners to approve the wedding venue permit. Nelson said weddings help support an estimated 27 local businesses. “Everything from caterers to rental equipment, supply houses, jewelry stores, tuxedo rentals, sanitation, fl orists, among several others,” Nelson said. Ron Guyer, who lives south of the property and is Gerald Endicott’s uncle, offered to allow the couple to use his property for traffi c overfl ow. Greg Sackos told commissioners he believes a majority of concerns expressed by opponents are outside the bounds of what the county can require for the venue. “I’m totally in favor of this and when it comes to sound, no, I’m not sure what the traffi c count is on Pocahontas,” Sackos said. “Both of the properties face Pocahontas and it would be interesting to see what that noise issue is and that’s 24/7, 365. So to suggest that a periodic piano or even a DJ playing music for a wedding is totally egregious, I have to disagree with that.” ROAD Continued from Page 1A Although the road is extremely rough and ac- cessible only to four-wheel drive vehicles and ATVs, it is a popular access route for hunters, campers and other recreationists. For about 2.5 miles the road runs through property that David McCarty bought earlier this year. After McCarty, who lives in the area, bought the 1,560- acre property he installed a metal gate at his property boundary, near the base of the mountains. At times the gate has been locked, although that was not the case as of Wednesday. Joelleen Linstrom, who lives with McCarty, said Mc- Carty believes he is justifi ed in restricting access on the road because neither the title report he received before buy- ing the property, nor the deed, shows a public road or any public easement through his property. County commissioners contend the road is a county road that must be open to the public. On Wednesday morning commissioners discussed the Pine Creek Road during an executive session (closed to the public). After returning to an open session, Commission Chair- Contributed Photo David McCarty installed this gate across the Pine Creek Road at his property boundary. The gate was unlocked as of Wednesday. The road passes through property that McCarty bought earlier this year. man Bill Harvey said: “All we addressed was discussion with our attorney. We asked him to continue the process and we will be back in touch with him if there is any prog- ress in the process.” Linstrom said McCarty’s sole request of the county is that it provide documentation proving the road is public. She said she was “very disappointed” that the county commissioners voted 3-0 on Sept. 30 to order the county road department to remove the lock. Linstrom said a video cam- era that McCarty installed near the gate showed a county employee cutting the lock at the gate on Oct. 1. Linstrom said on Wednes- day that the lock wasn’t actually engaged, so it wasn’t necessary to damage the lock to remove it. She said county offi cials didn’t notify McCarty before removing the lock. “I’m really disappointed we didn’t get any notifi cation,” Linstrom said on Wednesday. During their Sept. 30 meet- ing, commissioners referred to an 1891 county document that describes the surveying of a road along Pine Creek. The document includes a map of the route that, based on the township, range and sections shown on the map, appears to follow the route of the exist- ing road through the eastern portion of McCarty’s property, although it doesn’t show a VACCINE route through the western part of the property. Linstrom contends the 1891 document fails to estab- lish that the eastern section of the road is public because the document was never of- fi cially recorded. Linstrom said there has been quite a bit of traffi c on the road recently. She estimated, based on images from the camera at the gate, that about 1 in 20 people who have gone through the gate have also called the cell number for McCarty that’s listed on a sign attached to the gate. Linstrom said McCarty has told all the callers to go ahead. She said McCarty has never objected to people walking on the road, but he was more concerned, when the fi re danger was high, about people traveling in vehicles. Linstrom said another camera on the property has shown people trespassing on McCarty’s property by traveling off the road. Linstrom said that on Tuesday a group of people on the road took a phone from McCarty and “choked” him. Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash said the Sheriff’s Offi ce is investigating the in- cident, which was reported to the dispatch offi ce Tuesday afternoon. workplaces, classrooms, offi ces, meeting rooms and workspac- Continued from Page 3A es, unless someone is alone Topping the list of who will in an offi ce or in a private receive the vaccine are medical workspace, according to health professionals, essential work- offi cials. ers, long-term care facilities, The revised guidance people with underlying health requires that people wear conditions, people older than face coverings in outdoor and 65, ethnic and racial mi- indoor markets, street fairs, norities, tribal communities, private career schools and at 10 am PDT prisoners, homeless, colleges public and private colleges and universities, people living and universities. Wearing a in group settings, people with face covering instead of a face disabilities and people without shield is recommended with insurance, according to the the exception of limited situa- plan. tions, such as communicating Gratefully sponsored by Christian Science churches in Boise, Caldwell, The Food and Drug Admin- with someone who is deaf or Moscow, Payette, Ketchum, Cody, Jackson Hole, Sheridan, istration has authorized the hearing impaired and needs to Baker City 2210 Washington Ave, 523-5911 use of two vaccines under an read lips. Emergency Use Authorization, but it is unknown if both drugs “Advertising in the local newspa- per is as important to my mobile or just one will be approved. In the 136-page Oregon computer repair business as plan, the state outlines its antivirus software is to your preparations for two main online safety.” scenarios for vaccine release, one for if the state receives a ~Dale Bogardus minimal order of 1,000 doses, ‘Living the Dream!’ and one for a large volume. Expanded face-covering rules Until the vaccine is widely distributed, Oregon offi cials on Monday expanded the state’s face-covering guidance to include private and public 1761 Broadway St, Baker City 541-297-5831 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A MALHEUR Continued from Page 3A Poe said the department needs to hire two nurses by the fi rst of the year. Ideally, she’d like to employ three nurses and a nurse practitioner to fully handle her agency’s duties. The county also has struggled with making use of local nonprofi ts. State authorities over the summer invited nonprofi ts across the state to help with the pandemic, serving as contractors to provide community education, contact tracing or “wraparound” services to provide food and other necessities for those needing to live in isolation because of an infection. The state awarded the contracts based on statewide needs. “We were never consulted about what we need to do,” Poe said. State offi cials started talks with nonprofi ts in July but getting them under contract in some instances took more than two months. And some in Malheur County were hired to do contact tracing — a service Poe said her agency has enough help to do. She hasn’t seen a growing need to help people who are supposed to quarantine. Poe thinks people in Malheur County tend to be self-suffi cient and reluctant to seek government help. “We have not seen a large uptick in the acceptance of those services,” Poe said. Saito of the health authority acknowledged the state could have done better, but speed was important. “We needed to put the pieces into place quickly,” Saito said. “It’s going much better than initially.” One trouble spot in Malheur County has been Snake River Correctional Institution, where more than 400 inmates and 100 employees have been infected with COVID-19. The prison’s infection cases are included in the daily count for Malheur County. In August, Poe wrote to state authorities that “SRCI numbers are concerning and I get daily calls wanting to know how many of our cases are from SRCI and if they are hurting our metrics.” Poe asked whether the prison’s cases could be excluded if Malheur County’s infection rate otherwise dropped enough to allow schools to reopen. She didn’t get a direct answer. Instead, a state health official told her in an Aug. 21 email that if she wanted consideration of that, “you are welcome to send us an email requesting that conversation.” Poe’s department recently added a chart to its website that separates community cases from those attributed to the prison and to nursing care facilities. She said she wants to see more testing at the prison, particularly of employees. She noted state rules are more demanding for testing in nursing homes than the prisons. “They don’t have rules in place for testing of staff,” Poe said. Such testing would help more rapidly identify the virus spreading among the prison workers. Jennifer Black, communications manager for the state Corrections Department, said employees are checked for symptoms as they report for duty each day. She said the agency’s union contracts don’t allow the state to require COVID-19 testing. She said agency offi cials haven’t asked union offi cials to agree to all-employee testing. More than 20 Mayors from across Oregon HAVE ENDORSED REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS & NON-AFFILIATED ALL AGREE JEFF IS THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB! s out Tear thi your p with and kee l it’s time nti ballot u te! to vo Including Baker City Mayor, Loran Joseph! All politics are local, and local mayors overwhelmingly choose Jeff Gudman for State Treasurer! Brian Hodson, Mayor of Canby Jeff Dalin, Mayor of Cornelius Kent Studebaker, Mayor of Lake Oswego Tom Potter, Former Mayor of Portland George Endicott, Mayor of Redmond Stan Pulliam, Mayor of Sandy Bill King, Former Mayor of Sandy Keith Mays, Mayor of Sherwood Jason Snider, Mayor of Tigard Russ Axelrod, Mayor of West Linn Tammy Stempel, Mayor of Gladstone Keith Swigert, Mayor of Molalla Steve Uffelman, Mayor of Prineville Hank Williams, Mayor of Central Point Lori DeRemer, Fmr. Mayor of Happy Valley Frank Bubenik, Mayor of Tualatin Lou Ogden, Former Mayor of Tualatin Sean Drinkwine, Mayor of Estacada Casey Ryan, Mayor of Troutdale Riley Hill, Mayor of Ontario Larry Rich, Mayor of Roseburg Cathy Clark, Mayor of Keizer Loran Joseph, Mayor of Baker City Visit JeffGudman.org to learn more! Paid political advertisement by Friends of Jeff Gudman