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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 2020)
SATURDAY SEARCHING THE WILDERNESS FOR A SINGING ROCK: OUTDOORS, PAGE 1B Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com November 7, 2020 Local • Sports • Outdoors • TV IN THIS EDITION: QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscribers Brian and Susan Watt of Baker City. Local, 3A Baker County commis- sioners on Wednesday awarded a bid with Baker County Heating and Cool- ing to replace three heating pumps in the Courthouse for $18,339. BRIEFING $1.50 2 students positive ■ Third-grader at Brooklyn, sixth-grader at South Baker positive for COVID-19 By Chris Collins ccollins@bakercityherald.com Two more Baker elementary school children — a third-grader at Brooklyn Primary and a sixth- grader at South Baker Intermediate — have tested positive for CO- VID-19, Superintendent Mark Witty announced on Thursday. Witty said the District was notifi ed of the cases late Wednesday and be- gan working with the Baker County Health Department to respond and to notify families and staff who will be required to quarantine. Those who have been in close proximity to one of the students who tested positive have been asked to quarantine. That applies to anyone who was within 6 feet of the person who tested positive for a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period. Digital Simulator Helps Deputies Practice Potentially Dangerous Encounters The American Red Cross has scheduled a blood drive on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9 and 10, at the Baker City Nazarene Church, 1250 Hughes Lane. On Monday, the blood draw will take place from noon to 6 p.m. at the church’s Fellowship Hall. On Tuesday the event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Family Life Cen- ter, the large metal build- ing at the northwest corner of the church parking lot. Call Myrna Evans at 541- 523-5368 to make, cancel or reschedule an appoint- ment. Donors also may register online at redcross blood.org By Chris Collins ccollins@bakercityherald.com Samantha O’Conner / Baker City Herald Snow showers possible late Sunday 39 / 15 Occasional snow showers Monday 43 / 24 Mostly cloudy Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. Error put foam in water ■ Firefighter pushed button by mistake Oct. 27 WEATHER 47 / 28 Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Baker County could have new restrictions due to recent rise in COVID-19 cases. Please turn to Page 3A for a story. See Students/Page 3A Blood drive planned for Monday and Tuesday Today 2-week ‘pause’ possible in county Offi cers from the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce used a digital simulator Wednesday afternoon to practice in situations involving the potential use of force. Tough Training The Range 3000 system was set up in the former Oregon Department of Any situation a police offi cer is Transportation maintenance station called to has the potential to end on South Bridge Street in Baker City. badly. Joining employees from the Sher- Police need to be prepared for iff’s Offi ce’s patrol, corrections and anything. parole and probation divisions were To that end, members of the Baker representatives from the District County Sheriff’s Offi ce and other lo- Attorney’s offi ce and Juvenile Depart- cal agencies, in collaboration with the ment. Oregon Department of Public Safety Baker County Undersheriff Jef Van Standards and Training (DPSST), Arsdall said the main takeaway from used a digital simulator Wednesday the scenarios was how fast things can afternoon to hone their skills in happen during an encounter. scenarios focusing on the use of force Among those participating and techniques to calm potentially Wednesday were Deputy Eric Colton harmful situations. and the Sheriff’s Offi ce’s newest By Samantha O’Conner soconner@bakercityherald.com patrol deputy, Matt Rosin, along with Lt. Ryan Downing and Deputy Rich Kirby of Parole and Probation. Colton and Rosin stood before a large video screen that displayed the scenarios. They spoke to the people shown on the screen as though they were having a real encounter during their work. Kirby and Van Arsdall controlled how the situation played out, includ- ing having the simulated subjects react — either aggressively or cooperatively — based on how the deputies responded. See Training/Page 3A Baker City offi cials have determined that city fi refi ght- ers connecting a hose to a dual-purpose port and inadver- tently pushing a button sent fi re-supression foam fl owing from a fi re truck into a fi re hy- drant, contaminating the city’s water system the morning of Oct. 27. Robin Nudd, the city’s hu- man resource director, said the investigation was completed this Tuesday, one week after the incident, after city offi cials met with the fi re department staff and other volunteer fi re- fi ghters who responded to the warehouse blaze. Nudd said Battalion Chief David Blair was the incident commander during the ware- house fire at 2330 10th St. that was reported at 3:13 a.m. on Oct. 27. After the hose was connected, someone pushed a button that sends foam through that port. See Fire/Page 3A High temp records fall during balmy start to November By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com variety of situations, includ- ing wildfi re evacuations. The experience on Oct. 27 prompted Yencopal and Bachman to work together on a campaign to encour- age residents across the county to enroll in the free service. The process, which can be done online, takes a couple of minutes. November’s a week old, but if not for a certain electoral matter that keeps hogging the headlines you might not have noticed the new month’s arrival. Had you stepped outside and sampled the air during the fi rst 5 days in particular, you wouldn’t have had much reason to believe we’ve en- tered the year’s penultimate month. November, which frequent- ly marks the transition to icy, frigid winter in Baker County, has instead put on a convinc- ing impersonation of some- thing that looks suspiciously like September. See Alerts/Page 2A See Records/Page 2A County residents urged to sign up for free emergency alerts By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Dennis Bachman and Jason Yencopal got a sur- prise on Oct. 27 after using Baker County’s emergency alert system to let Baker City residents know that fi re-suppression foam had accidentally entered the water distribution system. It wasn’t a pleasant surprise. They realized that the TODAY Issue 77, 12 pages water advisory went to just 250 cellphone owners. That seemed an awfully low number of these all but ubiquitous devices in a city with a population nudging the 10,000 mark, said Yencopal, the county’s emergency manager, and Bachman, who works for the city’s public works department. The alert also was sent to 1,178 landline accounts, Calendar ....................2A Classified ............. 2B-4B Comics ....................... 5B both residents and busi- nesses. The system calls those numbers automati- cally, Yencopal said. But one of the advan- tages of the county’s system is its ability to also reach people by email, cellphone call or text, or all three, he said. The system is also linked to a free cellphone app, AlertSense. The county uses the service to alert people to a Community News ....3A Crossword ........2B & 4B Dear Abby ................. 6B Horoscope ........3B & 4B Jayson Jacoby ..........4A News of Record ........2A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Outdoors ..........1B & 2B Sports ........................6A Turning Backs ...........2A Weather ..................... 6B TUESDAY — DUCKS, BEAVERS OPEN PAC-12 FOOTBALL SEASON
