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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 2021)
COMMUNITY THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2021 BAKER CITY HERALD — A3 Morgan Lake closed LA GRANDE — The La Grande Fire Department has closed Morgan Lake because dry conditions are creating extremely high fi re danger. La Grande Fire Chief Emmitt Cornford said the closure was prompted in part by someone recently lighting a fi re at the lake, Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce/Contributed Photo A Baker City man, David Krieger, was critically injured Tuesday afternoon, July 20, on Old Trail Road near Baker City when his motorcycle crashed into an irrigation wheel line that fell from a dolly. 2 Baker City men critically hurt in separate motorcycle crashes By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Two Baker City men riding motorcycles were critically in- jured in separate crashes over a one-hour period Tuesday afternoon, July 20. The fi rst was reported at 3:13 p.m. on Old Trail Road near Lake Bob, about two miles north of the Baker City limits. David Krieger, 60, was rid- ing north on the road, behind a pickup hauling an irrigation wheel line on a dolly, when WATER the line fell off the dolly, said Ashley McClay, public infor- mation offi cer for the Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce. Krieger, who was riding alone, crashed into the wheel line, McClay said. He was taken by LifeFlight to Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, where he was in critical condition Wednesday morning. The second crash happened at about 4:20 p.m. on Camp- bell Street near Cedar Street. Michael Stephen Blount, 48, was riding west on Camp- bell Street when his motor- cycle collided with a Toyota pickup truck driven by Terris Blain Webb, 49, of Baker City, according to a report from Oregon State Police, which handled the accident because the Baker City Police Depart- ment was involved with another call. Webb, who was driving east on Campbell Street, was turning into the Maverik parking lot from the center turn lane when the collision happened, according to the report. Blount was taken by am- bulance to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City, and then fl own from there to Saint Alphonsus in Boise. Blount was in critical condition Wednesday morn- ing, according to a hospital spokesman. Webb sustained minor injuries. Campbell Street was closed to traffi c for about an hour after the crash. enacted Phase 2 of the water curtailment plan, residents were in general comply- Continued from Page A1 ing with the recommendation of shifting The city asked residents to volun- outdoor watering to the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. tarily limit lawn and garden watering to — Michelle Owen, Baker City public period. between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., which reduces works director But daily use continued to remain at evaporation. about 5 million gallons. The city went to Phase 1 — the alert lion gallons a day,” Owen said on July 8. On July 16-18, however, the daily stage — on June 28. “That’s what it comes down to.” average dipped to just under 4.6 million The city’s water use during June The city started tapping one of its two gallons. totaled 129.9 million gallons, a 45% supplementary sources — a well fortifi ed “I think we have some compliance, and increase over June 2020 and a daily aver- with water diverted from the watershed that’s great, if we can continue to encour- age of 4.3 million gallons. during winter and early spring — earlier age that,” Owen said. “It makes me feel In early July, with the heat wave that than usual. that people are at least cognitive of the started the last week of June continuing, And Owen said she’ll probably need to fact that there is a region-wide drought.” the city was averaging about 5 million start using water from the other source She also urges residents to water gallons per day. — Goodrich Lake — next week. lawns only every other evening. At the same time, the city’s main water The city typically waits until August The city has also reduced irrigation at source — springs and streams in its to start using water from the lake, which city parks, Mount Hope Cemetery and 10,000-acre watershed on the east slopes holds about 200 million gallons. the city-owned Quail Ridge Golf Course. of the Elkhorn Mountains — was declin- Owen’s fear was based on simple math. Owen said she hopes to avoid having ing due to the drought. Assuming a daily average of 5 million to move to Phase 3 — something the city Owen said the daily production from gallons persisting through the sum- has never done. At that phase the city the watershed has dropped from about mer, she said the city would have little bans all outdoor watering, and, unlike 4.5 million gallons per day in June to margin for error — a broken pipeline, for in phase 2, the city would enforce the around 3.5 million gallons now. instance, or a problem with the pump at restriction and potentially levy fi nes of up And that volume will continue to the well, could put the city into a crisis to $500 to violators. dwindle as summer progresses, she said. situation. Jayson Jacoby contributed to this story. “We cannot run all summer at 5 mil- For the fi rst few days after the city “I think we have some compliance, and that’s great, if we can continue to encourage that.” MCPHERON “In my mind, what he accomplished was amazing.” Continued from Page A1 — Ken Helgerson, talking about Ken McPheron, who started the Baker City bull and bronc riding competitions The competitions also raised about $750,000 for a variety of local charities, Shane said, including the Coats for Kids program, the Baker Community Literacy Coalition and many others. “Neither Ken nor my mom ever made a dime,” Shane said. “Thank you was enough, and that’s why he did it.” Or, rather, why they did it. Shane said Ken and Shirley were a team from the start. “It couldn’t have happened without her,” he said of his mother, who lives in Baker City. Although Ken made his fi rst visit to Baker County when he was about 50, he was a horseman almost his entire life. He was born in Greeley, Colorado, the youngest of six children, and his father was a cattle buyer, Shane said. As a boy, Ken spent many days at the Denver stockyards with his dad — probably, without knowing it, seeing some Baker County ranchers who also attended the big an- nual stock show there, Shane said. When Ken was a teenager his family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and he started competing in a variety of rodeo events, including bareback riding, bull riding and saddle bronc. He was talented enough to win a rodeo scholarship to Colorado State University, Shane said. Ken’s goal was to become a veterinarian. But after being drafted into the U.S. Army in the early 1960s and serving in Vietnam, Ken’s career path veered in multiple directions. He worked as the cowboy boss for a couple of dude ranches in Wyoming, guiding guests on rides and hunting and fi shing trips in the Teton National Forest, Shane said. Some of the cowboys he supervised later became corporate executives, but their ties to Ken were such that they attended most of the bronc and bull riding events in Baker City, Shane said. “He built bonds with people that are spectacular,” Shane said. Ken’s skills in the saddle also brought him work con- nected to Hollywood. In the late 1970s he managed a Southern California ranch where he helped teach actors such as Dean Martin and Mel Tillis how to sit a horse with- out looking as though they had never been in a saddle. Around that time Ken also became acquainted with Darrell Winfi eld, the original “Marlboro Man” featured in TV ads for the cigarette brand. That led to Ken being one of a group of six cowboys who worked on Marlboro ads for about a decade, Shane said. And it was that job which is responsible, in no small way, for so much that came later — Ken and Shirley’s fortuitous meeting, and the bull and bronc riding competitions among them. What happened is that in 1989, Ken traveled to the Bar C Bar ranch, in the Sumpter Valley north of Phillips Reservoir, for a photo shoot for Marlboro. During that visit he met Shirley. And from that moment, Shane said, Ken’s future was forever linked to Baker County. Shane, who had just gradu- ated from high school when his mother met Ken, said he recognized immediately the strength of the couple’s bond. But the connection wasn’t limited to just Ken and Shirley. Shane said their children from previous marriages — Shirley’s two sons, Shane and Wayne, and her daughter, Lisa, and Ken’s two daughters, Kimm and Rayne — also be- came a family “from day one.” Shane said Ken remained friendly with his fi rst wife, Lana, his high school sweet- heart. “I think that’s a rare com- modity,” Shane said. “Ken brought people together.” A few years later, Ken had an idea to bring a lot of people together. He saw a way not only to resurrect the rather moribund rodeo arena at the fairgrounds in Baker City, but also to invigorate the local economy. “He had the right connec- tions in the rodeo industry to bring an event to Baker that could be successful,” Shane said. “He had a vision that it would work.” The fi rst two years, 1995 and 1996, Saturday’s bull riding competition was fol- lowed by pig mud wrestling on Sunday. But after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals objected, Ken and Shirley re- placed that event with a bronc riding competition on Friday evening. This was something of a gamble at the time because bronc riding events weren’t as common as they are now, said Ken Helgerson, who lives near Baker City and has been friends with Ken and Shirley for more than 20 years. But Ken was able to bring in some of the top broncs, and bronc riders, in the country to a small town that wasn’t on the main rodeo circuit. “It’s one of the highlight bronc riding events in the na- tion,” Helgerson said. Helgerson, the retired Baker County roadmaster, became acquainted with Ken and Shirley through his artwork. Helgerson drew a picture of a bull, using a photograph from the Baker City bull rid- ing event as inspiration. Randy Daugherty of Baker City gave the drawing as a gift to Ken. That led to a conversation, which soon became a lasting friendship. “We became good friends,” Helgerson said. “Ken was a mentor of mine.” Helgerson, who later became a member of the board of directors for the bull just west of La Grande, even though fi res have been prohibited there be- cause of high fi re danger. This is the second straight year Morgan Lake has been closed because of extreme fi re danger. It was also closed from Sept. 11, 2020, through Oct. 4, 2020. CHARGES Continued from Page A1 In addition to the murder and assault counts, Green- wood is charged with solicitation for allegedly trying to hire someone to kill Brown. Greenwood was initially scheduled to stand trial in late January 2021, but Schaeffer in December 2020 requested a delay due in part to forensic evidence that was forthcoming, as well as surging numbers of CO- VID-19 cases. Judge Matt Shirtcliff of Baker County Circuit Court on Dec. 23, 2020, granted Schaeffer’s motion to postpone the trial. In a June 25 document supporting his motion to dismiss the charges against Greenwood, Schaeffer wrote that in November 2020, at Greenwood’s request, he asked offi cials at the Baker County Jail, where Green- wood has been incarcerated since his arrest in January 2020, whether any of Greenwood’s phone conversations with Schaeffer had been recorded. Schaeffer wrote that a jail deputy told him that four calls, one each in June, July, August and September 2020, had been recorded. Schaeffer wrote that jail offi cials gave him copies of the recording, and told him that law enforcement had not accessed or listened to any of the calls, and that Schaeffer’s cellphone number, which Greenwood had called, had been “blocked” and that future calls from Greenwood to that number would not be recorded. But then, in June 2021, Schaeffer wrote, after “further investigation and inquiry,” he learned that several of the phone conversations had been accessed and heard by at least one law enforcement offi cer. Schaeffer wrote that a jail offi cial gave him a comput- er disk with the recorded calls and a “printout outlining when and who accessed the calls.” Those calls, Schaeffer wrote, “contain conversations of a substantive nature about the current case and would clearly prejudice my client and be a breach of the attor- ney/client relationship that was not waived.” Schaeffer describes the conduct of law enforcement as “outrageous.” In a document that Baxter, the Baker County district attorney, wrote on July 16 in response to Schaeffer’s motion to dismiss the charges, Baxter wrote that he had spoken to jail staff about Schaeffer’s allegations regard- ing the phone calls. Baxter wrote that staff told him the phone numbers for Schaeffer’s offi ce and cellphone were blocked, and that calls to either number were not recorded. But Greenwood had called a different cellphone num- ber that was not blocked, so those calls — fi ve, rather than four — were recorded. Baxter wrote that he has enlisted help from the Or- egon Department of Justice to investigate. “These are serious allegations,” Baxter wrote. “A thorough investigation needs to happen by an outside agency.” and bronc riding events, said he learned much from Ken, including the importance of striving to do your best at whatever task you take on. “He demanded perfection,” Helgerson said. “He wanted everything just so, and the event had to run a certain way. He wasn’t afraid of a chal- lenge by any means. I learned from Ken that I wanted to do absolutely the best as I could.” That emphasis included the offi cial posters that Helger- son drew for more than two decades for the Baker City rodeo events. But Helgerson said he cherishes even more a portrait of Ken that he drew, and that Shirley still has. Over the years, Helgerson said, his family became “very close” with Ken and Shirley, sharing birthdays, weddings and other special occasions. Helgerson said he had a fi nal visit with Ken in his hospital room last week. That was just a few days before the bull and bronc riding events, now part of the Challenge of Champions tour of rodeo competitions across the West, returned to the fairgrounds after a one-year hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic. “We did talk about the event, and what it meant,” Helgerson said. “In my mind, what he accomplished was amazing.” He said Ken was also a “very, very talented” sheet rock contractor. Ken was named Baker County Man of the Year for 2003. Yet for all that he accom- plished both in his profession- al life, and as the promoter of events that have contributed much to the Baker County’s economy and its philanthropic efforts, Ken’s greatest legacy, from Shane’s perspective, is decidedly personal. “Ken and I had disagree- ments — but we could have them and still have a civil conversation,” Shane said. “He taught me those things I needed to be a successful adult. He didn’t have to. 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