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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
January 21, 2021
IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Larry
Smith of Baker City.
Oregon, 3A
SALEM (AP) — Oregon
is expecting to receive
federal stimulus money
this week to help pay for
its COVID-19 vaccination
program.
BRIEFING
Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50
Baker Middle School, Baker High School Students To Expand In-Person Class
Schedule From 1 Day Per Week To 2 Days Starting Jan. 25
Students To Spend
More Time In Class
Blood drive fully
booked, but
donors can get on
waiting list
The American Red
Cross is sponsoring a
blood drive on Jan. 25
from noon to 6 p.m. in
the Fellowship Hall at the
Nazarene Church, 1250
Hughes Lane in Baker City.
Although all appointments
are booked, donors can
be placed on a waiting list,
in case of cancellations,
by calling Myrna Evans at
541-523-5368.
WEATHER
Today
38 / 26
Mostly cloudy
Friday
39 / 22
Partly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Jobless
rate
drops
steadily
■ County has
regained many of
the jobs lost last
spring, but leisure
and hospitality
industry struggles
with restrictions
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
COVID-19 testing
clinic Jan. 27 at
Halfway
HALFWAY — Baker
County is hosting a free
drive-thru COVID-19 test-
ing clinic on Wednesday,
Jan. 27, from 2 p.m. to 5
p.m. at the Halfway Lions
Club. Pre-registration is en-
couraged but not required.
To pre-register, which will
shorten the wait time,
go to www.doineedaco-
vid19test.com
Biden
becomes
president
Chris Collins/Baker City Herald
From left, Eowyn Smith, Tucker Magee and Hannah Lay wait patiently Wednesday morning for the doors to
open to begin their one day of in-person instruction this week at Baker Middle School.
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
As students waited for doors to Baker Middle School to
open Wednesday morning to admit them to their one day a
week of in-person instruction, a small sampling of them said
they were eager for next week, when their classroom time
will be doubled.
Baker School District Superintendent Mark Witty an-
nounced Tuesday that students at the middle school and at
Baker High School will start attending in-person classes two
days a week when the second semester begins on Monday,
Jan. 25.
Those students have been taking in-person classes once a
week since Nov. 9.
The district’s elementary school students, from kinder-
garten through sixth grade, have been attending in-person
classes each day in the district’s four-day weekly schedule,
since Oct. 14.
In a Tuesday press release, Witty said the District can
expand in-person classes at the middle school and high school
based on new guidelines the Oregon Department of Educa-
tion released earlier in the day.
The revised guidelines increase the size of the cohort group
that students can be in contact with weekly from the current
50 to 100, Witty said.
Hannah Lay, a BMS eighth-grader, said she’s excited to
have a second day of in-person classes in the next semester.
“I like getting out of the house,” she said.
Eowyn Smith, another eighth-grade student, said she
welcomes the change as well.
“I’m excited because I’ll be able to see people,” she said.
Cierra VanDyke also was among those gathered
Wednesday on the sidewalk outside the school with her
eighth-grade friends Taleana Pugel and Katherine Macias
waiting for the doors to open.
They agreed that more time in school will be a good
thing.
Getting out among their friends was also a main attrac-
tion for the three girls, but they believe that the in-person
Chris Collins/Baker City Herald
Cierra VanDyke has her phone to keep her occupied
while waiting for friends to join her at school.
instruction also will be a benefi t for them.
“It gives me a better chance to learn because I’m a
visual learner,” Katherine said.
Cierra agreed.
“It’s harder to learn online than it is in person,” she said.
See Schools/Page 3A
County on pace to stay in extreme
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Baker County’s rate of new CO-
VID-19 cases over the past 10 days
puts the county at risk of remaining
in the extreme-risk category, and thus
subject to the most stringent business
restrictions, at least through Feb. 11.
The county, after being in the high-
risk category from Jan. 1-14, returned
TODAY
Issue 108, 22 pages
to extreme risk on Jan. 15.
The county will be at the extreme
level at least through Jan. 28.
The county’s category for the period
Jan. 29-Feb. 11 will be based on its
COVID-19 case counts and test posi-
tivity rate from Jan. 10-23.
As a county with a population
between 15,000 and 30,000 (Baker
County has about 16,800 residents),
Business .............. 1B-3B
Calendar ....................2A
Classified ............. 4B-6B
Comics ....................... 7B
Community News ....3A
Crossword ........4B & 6B
Baker is in the extreme-risk category
if it exceeds either of two measure-
ments:
• a test positivity rate of 10% or
higher during a two-week measuring
period
• 60 or more new cases over the
two-week measuring period
Baker County has
recovered most of the jobs it
lost early in the COVID-19
pandemic, but the county’s
unemployment rate, driven
by continuing struggles in
the restaurant and hospital-
ity industry, remains higher
than it was for the years
2017, 2018 and 2019.
That three-year period
marked the lowest jobless
rates for the county since the
Oregon Employment Depart-
ment started tracking that
statistic in 1990.
The annual seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate
for the county was 5.5% in
2017, 5.3% in 2018 and 4.6%
— a record low annual rate
— in 2019.
In December 2019 the
monthly jobless rate reached
an all-time low of 3.8%.
The rate rose slightly,
to 4.1%, for the fi rst three
months of 2020.
Then the pandemic
started.
Its effects were almost
immediate.
In April the county’s job-
less rate more than tripled, to
13%. That was higher than
in any month during the na-
tional recession that started
in 2008 and persisted in
Baker County for four years.
The county’s annual
jobless rate ranged from
10.3% to 10.9% for the period
2009-12.
Starting in 2013 the
county’s jobless rate declined
for each of the next seven
years, reaching the record-
low of 4.6% in 2019.
As the spring of 2020
progressed, with many local
businesses remaining closed
or subject to state-mandated
restrictions, Baker County’s
jobless rate peaked in May at
13.2%.
The county’s number of
private, nonfarm jobs fol-
lowed a similar trajectory.
There were 4,210 private,
nonfarm jobs in March 2020
— the most ever during that
month, according to Oregon
Employment Department
records.
The pandemic’s effect was
most acute in April, when the
number of private jobs plum-
meted to 3,910, a decline of
7.1%.
But private, nonfarm jobs
rose to 4,050 in May — a
3.6% jump.
See COVID-19/Page 3A
Dear Abby ................. 8B
Horoscope ........4B & 6B
Letters ........................4A
Lottery Results ..........2A
News of Record ........3A
Obituaries ........ 2A & 3A
SATURDAY — BLAZING THE 566-MILE BLUE MOUNTAINS TRAIL
See Jobs/Page 5A
Opinion ......................4A
Sports ........................6A
Weather ..................... 8B