COMMUNITY
THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
“We’ll continue checking people at the doorways and
making sure they’re healthy.”
— Mark Witty, Baker School District superintendent
SCHOOLS
Continued from Page 1A
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce/Contributed Photo
A 1998 Ford Ranger pickup truck driven by Craig Monteith, 17, of North Powder, rolled over Tuesday, March 23.
Teen cited for reckless driving
in rollover crash on gravel road
“He was driving too fast negotiat-
ing the corners,” Ash said of Monte-
A 17-year-old North Powder boy was ith. “He was out of control for about
cited on a charge of reckless driving
60 yards.”
after his pickup truck failed to negoti-
The vehicle came to rest on its top
ate corners on the graveled McCarty
at the side of McCarty Road near
Bridge Road, careened into an embank- Conro Road near North Powder. Ash
ment and rolled at least twice Tuesday was dispatched to the crash at about
afternoon, March 23.
2 p.m. A Baker City ambulance crew,
Craig Monteith was the driver of
North Powder quick response unit
the 1998 Ford Ranger pickup truck in- and the Haines Fire Department also
volved in the crash, said Baker County responded.
Sheriff Travis Ash.
A passenger in the front seat of
Monteith was wearing a seatbelt and the pickup, Aaron Clinkenbeard, 20,
was not injured.
of Kennewick, Washington, who was
Ash attributed the cause of the crash not belted in, remained in the vehicle
to speed.
as it rolled. Clinkenbeard was taken
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
CHIEF
“After much consider-
ation, I believe Lt. Duby
Continued from Page 1A
has the ability, commitment
Since January 2021, Du- and leadership qualities to
man’s title has changed to
continue leading our Police
interim police administrator Department and address
because as of Jan. 1 he is no the issues affecting Baker
longer a certifi ed police of-
City, its residents and visi-
fi cer. In order to retain that tors,” Cannon stated in a
certifi cation, the 62-year-old press release.
Duman would be required
Duby was hired by the
to return to the police acad- Baker City Police Depart-
emy. Instead, he will retire. ment in 2019 after retiring
He was hired in July
from a 25-year career with
2019, as interim police
OSP.
chief, to replace former
“It is apparent Ray
Chief Dustin Newman, who Duman, current adminis-
resigned to accept a position trator of the department,
with the Polk County Sher- and Lt. Duby worked
iff’s Offi ce.
well together over the
last two years to create
a very cohesive depart-
ment,” Cannon said. “They
reestablished the Baker
County Drug Task Force
and consistently looked for
ways to strengthen our city
ordinances.”
Duby’s law enforcement
career includes service as
an OSP patrol trooper, de-
tective, patrol sergeant and
criminal division sergeant,
in addition to his role as
lieutenant with the Baker
City Police.
Duby grew up in the
Unity area and received an
associate degree from Blue
Mountain Community
VACCINE
and it will give the second shot
to hundreds more this Friday
Continued from Page 1A
at Baker High School. Because
Yet as gratifying as the
those residents are already
numbers are, Baker County
counted as partially vaccinated
Commissioner Mark Bennett, on the OHA database, their sec-
the county’s incident command- ond inoculation won’t increase
er throughout the pandemic,
the county’s total.
said he doesn’t believe as many
The health department has
county residents have been vac- had large vaccination clinics at
cinated as the state database,
BHS every other Friday since
available on OHA’s website,
early February.
shows.
But some of the numbers
“We aren’t there,” Bennett
don’t add up.
said on Tuesday. “We’re trying
For instance, according to the
to sort it out. It’s intriguing.”
OHA database, a total of 1,101
Which is not to say that
people age 80 or older have
Bennett isn’t pleased with the
been partially or fully vacci-
county’s progress.
nated in Baker County.
The Baker County Health
Yet a spreadsheet that Ben-
Department administered 717 nett obtained from the state
doses of vaccine on March 12,
lists the number of residents
HARDY
Continued from Page 1A
Hardy said most students at her uni-
versity grew up in Virginia, and had more
knowledge of the local history around the
Revolutionary War, Civil War, and civil
rights.
“I had a lot of catching up to do,” she
said. “It was amazing to learn what I didn’t
know. If you’re at these historic sites, you
get so many more details than from history
books.”
She graduated from the University of
Mary Washington in 2019 with a degree in
historic preservation and music, and a mi-
nor in museum studies. That summer she
came home to work at the Eltrym Theater,
where she’d worked during high school.
In July 2019 she left for a study abroad
program in Paris, France. The next month
she and her mom, Kelly Hardy, drove
across the country from Baker City to
Fredericksburg.
“I’ve done that trip many, many times,”
Gracie said.
She begin her internship at the National
Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle,
Virginia, that same month.
“They have the capacity to do huge pro-
grams,” she said. “I gained experience there
I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
That internship ended in December
2019. Although she’d hoped to be hired as
an assistant, budget cuts eliminated all the
assistant positions.
So she worked as a substitute teacher
by ambulance to Saint Alphonsus
Medical Center. No information
about his condition was available in
time for this report.
A third passenger, Natalia Bol-
lander, 15, of North Powder, who also
was wearing a seatbelt, sustained
bumps and bruises on her head, Ash
said. Her parents picked her up at
the scene.
The three also were traveling with
a goat.
Ash said they were all lucky to
have survived the crash, especially
Clinkenbeard.
“The whole passenger side of the
roof was caved in,” Ash said.
College. He has received
his basic, intermediate,
advanced and supervisory
certifi cates from the De-
partment of Public Safety
Standards and Training.
When he’s not on the job,
he’s an avid outdoorsman.
“My goal for the Depart-
ment is to continue to
provide excellent service
to this community and
maintain accountability of
our members,” Duby stated
in the press release. “I look
forward to continuing to
work with and lead our
dedicated group of offi cers,
detectives and volunteers
as their chief.”
in the county who are 80 and
older at 1,028 — 51 fewer than
the number of people shown as
vaccinated.
Bennett said he doesn’t be-
lieve the county has vaccinated
every one of its residents 80 and
older.
Nor is the 80-and-older
category the only one with such
a discrepancy.
The OHA database shows
that 984 residents ages 75 to 79
are partially or fully vaccinated.
Yet the spreadsheet pegs the
county’s population in that age
range at 876.
For the age range 70 to 74,
the vaccination total is 1,311,
but the estimated population
is 1,264.
The source of the differ-
“The thing I like about Baker, that I
didn’t fi nd anywhere else, is the sense
of community.”
— Gracie Hardy
for a while, then got hired at a children’s
museum in Richmond, Virginia.
“I worked there for one week and then
COVID hit and we got shut down,” she said.
And, in her words, “COVID dragged on.”
“For the fi rst time I couldn’t visit my fam-
ily whenever I wanted,” she said.
Finally, in August 2020 she and her boy-
friend, Paul King, came home to visit.
Her mom showed her the job opening at
the Baker Heritage Museum.
And then she ran into Terry McQuisten,
the Museum’s director, who also told her
about the job opening.
“I said ‘Terry, I’m not moving back to
Baker,’ ” Hardy said.
She and King returned to Richmond, and
he encouraged her to at least apply for the
museum job.
So she applied.
And she was offered the job.
She and King moved to Baker City in
January 2021.
“The thing I like about Baker, that I
didn’t fi nd anywhere else, is the sense of
community,” she said. “And I like going to
the grocery store and seeing people I know.”
See the current issue of GO! magazine,
included with today’s issue, about new exhibits
at the Baker Heritage Museum.
ences is not apparent.
Timothy Heider of the
OHA wrote in an email to the
Herald that information on the
agency’s website “is provided
to us by the local public health
authority. We report the figures
provided by them.”
Bennett pointed out that the
health department is not the
only vaccine provider in the
county.
Saint Alphonsus Medical
Center-Baker City, St. Luke’s
Clinic Eastern Oregon Medical
Associates and the Pine Eagle
Clinic in Halfway also adminis-
ter vaccines.
So do the pharmacies at the
Albertsons, Safeway and Bi-
Mart stores in Baker City.
Baker County’s rising vac-
cination rate has been driven
largely in the past week or so
by doses of the Pfizer vaccine,
according to OHA figures.
From March 15 to March 22,
about 64% of the doses admin-
istered in the county — 2,049 of
3,199 — were Pfizer, according
to the OHA database.
Staff must still maintain
6 feet of physical distancing,
however, “as best they can,”
Witty said.
The 6-foot distancing also
must be maintained when
students are eating or when
students from different
classrooms are passing in
hallways between periods.
The passing periods will not
put students within close
proximity for 15 minutes, the
guideline for determining
whether those who come in
close proximity with a person
who has tested positive for
COVID-19 must quarantine
or isolate themselves from
others, Witty said.
Staff and students also will
be required to continue wear-
ing masks.
Witty said the April 12
return to full-time classes
will allow a two-week buffer
between the March 29 return
from spring break and any
increase in COVID-19 cases
that might result from travel
during the week-long vaca-
tion.
Nine Baker School District
students have tested positive
for COVID-19 since classes
started in September. None
of those students contracted
the virus at school, accord-
ing to the school district and
the Baker County Health
Department. The most recent
case, a middle school stu-
dent, was reported Feb. 5,
and there have been just two
student cases since Dec. 9.
There will be no change to
the schedule for children in
kindergarten through sixth
grade, who returned to four
days of in-person instruction
weekly on Oct. 14.
The secondary level stu-
dents went back to in-person
classes one day per week on
Nov. 9, and to two days per
week on Jan. 25.
Overall, a total of 4,266 doses
of the Pfizer vaccine have been
give in Baker County. That’s
considerably more than the
number of Pfizer doses admin-
istered in nearby counties such
as Union (325 doses), Umatilla
(1,994) and Malheur (1,795).
The Baker County Health
Department mainly uses the
Moderna vaccine, along with
some of the single-dose John-
son & Johnson vaccine, because
they don’t have to be stored at
such a low temperature as the
Pfizer vaccine, Bennett said.
Baker City Safeway and
Albertsons stores have been
administering only the
Moderna vaccine at their
pharmacies, Jill McGinnis,
director of communications
and public affairs for the
company that owns both
stores, wrote in an email to
the Herald.
McGinnis wrote that the
stores’ pharmacists have
administered Pfi zer doses at
external clinics, in conjunc-
tion with the county, but she
Witty said comprehensive
distance learning would
remain in place for those who
choose not to return to the
classroom. The Baker Virtual
Academy will continue to
operate providing livestream-
ing classes and Eagle Cap
Innovative High School will
provide online classes for
students to work at their own
pace to serve families that
make that choice, he said.
While many students
choosing the online option
have continued to do well in
their studies, many will be
happy to return to the class-
rooms full time, Witty said.
“Most kids — including
me — do better in person,”
he said.
The routines for sanitizing
surfaces, washing hands and
staying home when you’re
sick that have been estab-
lished throughout the year
will continue to serve the
schools well as the second-
ary students return to full-
time classes, Witty said.
“We’ll continue check-
ing people at the doorways
and making sure they’re
healthy,” he said. “We’ll keep
doing our routines, and I’m
confi dent that will continue
to work.”
Witty worked closely with
partners across the state,
including the governor’s of-
fi ce, to push for changes that
would allow the schools to
return secondary students to
more time in the classroom,
the press release stated.
“As community risk lowers
via greater numbers of vac-
cinations, we need to rebal-
ance and focus on the social,
emotional, and academic
needs of our students,” Witty
stated in the press release.
“I am thrilled that we are
now able to plan for our
secondary students to have
the opportunity to be back
in school full time before the
end of this school year.”
Baker dropping
to lowest risk
Baker County will
drop from moderate to
lowest risk level for CO-
VID-19 spread on Friday,
March 26. The county’s
two-week new case total
dropped by 44 to 24. The
county reported six new
cases on Tuesday, March
23, the most since seven
on March 4.
didn’t have any numbers or
other details.
St. Luke’s Eastern Oregon
Medical Associates is admin-
istering the Moderna vaccine
only, Joy Prudek, public rela-
tions manager for St. Luke’s,
wrote in an email to the Herald.
Bennett said the health de-
partment doesn’t require people
at vaccination clinics to prove
they live in Baker County, so
people from outside the county
could be inflating the numbers
somewhat.
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