TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
CHURCHILL
Continued from Page A1
But now, having received
a grant, the Vegters plan to
use the money to help repair
roofi ng and windows, several
of which have cracks in the
glass panes. It is important
that the windows are exact
replicas of what they were in
1926 when Churchill opened.
The window sills need
paint, and some require wood
fi ller. Many windows either
don’t open or are hard to open
after nearly a century of use.
Fixing the windows will also
make Churchill more energy
effi cient — the majority of the
building rarely dips below 80
degrees on hot days.
“For preservation stan-
dards, in order to maintain
your status on the historic
register, everything on the
exterior of the building needs
to basically remain the same
as it was when it was built,”
Vegter said.
Churchill was registered
on the National Register of
Historic Places in 2008. One
of the criteria for getting on
the register is that the build-
ing must have some historical
signifi cance, and Churchill is
one of two remaining build-
ings designed by Charles Lee
Miller, who built over 400
projects throughout his ca-
reer. It’s the only building he
designed that is still standing
in Baker County.
The building, on Broadway
Street between 16th and 17th
streets, operated as a school
from 1926 until 2002, when
the Baker School District
closed Churchill. The district
sold the building to Jim and
Pam Van Duyn in 2006.
Vegter said the school
didn’t have electricity for
much of the next dozen years,
during which it was vandal-
ized multiple times.
“We had a dollar and
we had a dream, and
this was a project that
we thought we could
undertake.”
— Brian Vegter, who with
his wife, Corrine, owns the
former Churchill School
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
When the Vegters bought
Churchill in 2018 they
needed three months to get
basic amenities installed,
including electricity, a work-
ing toilet and running water
in one sink.
The couple sold their Baker
City home and liquidated
their savings to pay for reno-
vations at Churchill. They
lived in a trailer until they
got electricity in the school
and moved in immediately af-
ter they had enough utilities
to do so. They worked from
dawn till dusk so they could
open as soon as possible, as
their cash was disappearing
fast.
“We had a dollar and we
had a dream, and this was a
project that we thought we
could undertake,” Vegter said.
“There’s lots of things that, if
we had that to do again, we
would totally do differently.
But at the same time, we
never regretted doing this.”
Many volunteers, includ-
ing local and out-of-state
residents, have helped the
Vegters with every project for
the building. However, Vegter
said that the more volunteer
hours Churchill has, the
less funding they get from
the state, so it was a hard
balancing act to decide which
projects need state funding
and which ones they can
accomplish with volunteer
work.
Churchill serves as an
integrative space for art-
ists to create and sell their
An illegal fi rework over Baker City on Sunday
night, July 4.
FIREWORKS
Continued from Page A1
Joanna Mann/Baker City Herald
Owner Brian Vegter said renovations to windows at
Churchill School will make the historic building, which
opened in 1926, more energy effi cient.
pieces, musicians to perform
and bikers and skiers to
rest while they’re in town.
The Airbnb space stands in
stark contrast to the rest of
the building with its modern
interior and remote control-
operated blinds, which cost
$1,000 each.
While fi xing the roofi ng
and windows with the state
grant is a one-time project,
there are other grants the
Vegters plan to apply for in
the future. There’s a lot of
tuckpointing that needs to be
done, which has to do with
color matching the mortar in
brickwork, that Vegter plans
to do when he has the money
for it. He hopes to be able to
hire somebody to do this kind
of work some day, but at the
same time, he really enjoys
doing these projects himself.
Fortunately, the Vegters
have made connections with
people who care about the
building as much as they do
and have helped fund vari-
ous projects out of pocket.
Charlie Ernst, who the Veg-
ters met at a Cycle Oregon
event, learned about the
project and gave them the
money to fi x part of the roof,
turning an $80,000 project
into a $12,000 one.
“Communities rally
around preservation in
general,” Vegter said.
“Through all the other stuff
that we do in the community,
we eventually developed
relationships with people
who are like, ‘Oh, yeah, if the
Vegters say they’re gonna do
something, they’re gonna do
it. And we want to be part of
that.’ ”
Firsthand view gives reporter fresh
appreciation for top-notch bicyclists
communicating with other race offi cials
about traffi c and tending to the needs of
I have never seen the limits of human the riders. Mostly I just sat in awe at the
endurance pushed so far as I did at the
unfl inching determination in front of me.
Baker City Cycling Classic June 25-27.
Starting at Baker High School on Fri-
Every year hundreds of bicyclists
day, June 25, the riders peddled through
fl ock to Baker City to battle it out in the North Powder, Union, Catherine Creek
three-day bicycling event, riding for three State Park and Medical Springs. Potato
to fi ve hours each day through nearby
sheds, cows, horses and the wonders of
towns, forests and fi elds in the athletic
the Wallowa-Whitman National For-
experience of a lifetime.
est whizzed by as the cyclists pushed
I had a front row seat for the show,
through over 70 miles at an average of
although fortunately not in the bike
20 miles per hour. Their close formations
saddle itself. I rode alongside the Men’s
made me nervous that they would crash
Cat 4/5 division race as a radio operator, into one another at any moment, but
By Joanna Mann
jmann@bakercityherald.com
they moved as one cohesive unit in a way
that resembled unique choreography
and well practiced teamwork.
The races were divided into 10 catego-
ries that grouped together riders of simi-
lar levels, and while men and women
raced separately, their payout was the
same for the fi rst time in the history of
the race.
On Saturday, June 26, the cyclists rode
laps through downtown Baker City as
spectators cheered and rang cowbells on
the sidelines behind yellow tape.
See Races/Page A6
Regan said there were no reports of fi reworks start-
ing fi res in Baker City.
“We know we’ve had a dry summer,” he said.
Baker City didn’t ban fi reworks, as was the case in
some Oregon cities.
The Dispatch Center’s log showed that the Haines
Fire Department extinguished a fi re about 10:05 p.m.
at the Haines Stampede Rodeo grounds. The log entry
listed the incident as “fi reworks offense.” No other
information was available.
Al Crouch, fi re mitigation specialist for the Bureau
of Land Management’s Vale District, said Monday
morning, July 5, that no human-caused fi res had been
reported during the holiday weekend on the district.
According to the Dispatch Center log, police didn’t
issue citations on any of the fi reworks calls.
That’s typical for Baker City Police, Regan said.
“The general approach the city police has taken,
although we let individual offi cers use their discretion,
is to take an education approach,” he said.
There were a few fi reworks complaint reports
on Saturday, July 3, and in the afternoon and early
evening on Sunday, but the majority happened after
8:30 p.m.
Regan said Baker City Police don’t patrol specifi -
cally for fi reworks violations.
“It’s complaint-driven,” he said.
Between 8:47 p.m. and midnight there were 16 calls
for potential fi reworks offenses, at locations includ-
ing: 2600 block of Grove Street; 1000 block of Resort
Street; Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street; McCarty
Bridge Road northeast of Haines; Broadway and Plum
streets; Fourth Street between A and B streets; the
Dewey Avenue railroad underpass; Carter Street be-
tween 12th and 13th Streets; Highway 7 and Indiana
Avenue; Clark Street and Washington Avenue; the
3400 block of Eighth Drive.
Although Baker City Police didn’t cite anyone spe-
cifi cally for fi reworks offenses, police did cite a Baker
City man on a charge of manufacturing a destructive
device.
Robert Steven Merritt, 47, of Baker City, was cited
at 9:14 a.m. Sunday in the 400 block of Spring Garden
Ave., Regan said. He said the device, which appar-
ently utilized gunpowder rather than disassembled
fi reworks, allegedly damaged a vehicle in the area.
N EWS OF R ECORD
POLICE LOG
Continued from Page A2
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
FAILURE TO APPEAR (Umatilla County warrant), POSSES-
SION OF METHAMPHETAMINE AND HYDROCODONE: Paul
Adam Heller, 50, 1:20 p.m. Saturday, July 3 in the 2300 block
of Resort Street; cited and released.
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce
Arrests, citations
SECOND-DEGREE CRIMINAL TRESPASSING: Jay Byron
Bishop, 41, Sumpter, 2:50 p.m. Sunday, July 4 in the 100
block of Mill Street in Sumpter; cited and released.
HARASSMENT: Casey Lyn Lick, 47, Baker City, 9:26 a.m.
Sunday, July 4 at 22097 Sumpter Stage Highway; cited and
released.
Oregon’s unusually hot summer political season
Legislature this year becomes law
91 days after the adjournment —
Summer is normally a relatively Sept. 25. A proposed ballot measure
quiet time in Oregon politics.
to overturn the restrictions needs to
But 2021 has been about as
gather 74,680 signatures by Sept.
abnormal as a year can be. The
24 to put the law on hold until a
Legislature adjourned June 26, a
vote in the November 2022 general
day before Salem recorded a record- election.
shattering high temperature of 117
• Veto deadline: The adjourn-
degrees.
ment of the House and Senate also
Politics remains broiling as well, started the countdown on how long
with a special session in September Gov. Kate Brown has to veto bills
to decide Oregon’s political map for or line-item veto specifi c appropria-
the next decade, electioneering for
tions in fi scal legislation. Under the
2022 gearing up, and the reopening Oregon Constitution, the governor
of the Oregon Capitol to the public. has 30 weekdays to act. Brown’s
Some of the front-burner issues in offi ce confi rmed Friday that the
the weeks ahead:
deadline is Aug. 6.
• Clock running on gun initiative:
• Capitol re-opening: The Oregon
A gun control bill approved by the
State Capitol in Salem will reopen
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
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to the public on July 12, though it
may look more like a massive home
improvement project than a mag-
nifi cent statehouse.
The Capitol won’t be very user
friendly for a while, with major
renovations going on through De-
cember 2022.
The public has been kept out of
the Capitol since March 2020, when
Senate President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, and House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, ordered the
shutdown at the outset of the CO-
VID-19 pandemic.
The Legislature has control over
the statehouse and for the past 16
months, access has been limited to
lawmakers, staff, journalists and a
skeleton crew of building workers.
The main entrance is fenced off,
the House and Senate wings will
be closed until winter, the back en-
trance will be torn up for another 15
months, and parking will be harder
to fi nd with the underground ga-
rage shut for an overhaul through
the end of next year.
• Redistricting road show: Leg-
islative hearings have been limited
to virtual testimony during the
pandemic, but a pair of key commit-
tees will be traveling the state in a
“road show” in September.
The House and Senate redistrict-
ing committees are expected to re-
ceive long-delayed 2020 U.S. Census
data in mid-August. The block-by-
block numbers will allow the Legis-
lature to re-draw the state’s political
maps with enough precision to
stand up to court challenges.
Lines will shift for the 60 House
and 30 Senate seats. New congres-
sional district boundaries will
also be up for revision, including
where to place Oregon’s new Sixth
Congressional District, added to
Oregon’s delegation because of the
state’s rapid population growth
since 2010.
The committees plan on traveling
the state for public hearings prior to
taking their plans to the Legislature
during a special session scheduled
to begin Sept. 20. The maps have to
go to the Oregon Supreme Court by
Sept. 27.
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See Legislature/Page A5
