SATURDAY
PROJECT NEARS COMPLETION ON HIGHWAY NEAR STARKEY: PAGE A5
In SPORTS, A6
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
August 21, 2021
Local • Outdoors • Sports • TV
IN THIS EDITION:
$1.50
No Haircut
Perry
resigns
from City
Council
 Jim Howerton vowed not to cut his hair for four years, until
the four boys he mentored had graduated from Baker High
Councilor, elected
in 2018, cites
health issues
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Carolyn
Palmer of Baker City.
Four Years, Four Boys,
Oregon, A3
Facing a sharp surge in
COVID-19 infections that
threatens to swamp Oregon
hospitals, Gov. Kate Brown
ordered a double dose of
mandatory vaccination
mandates on Thursday,
Aug. 19.
All K-12 educators, school
staff and volunteers must
be vaccinated no later than
Oct. 18.
“COVID-19 poses a threat
to our kids, and our kids
need to be protected and
they need to be in school,”
Brown said.
BRIEFING
County
commissioners,
Baker City Council
to meet Aug. 25
The Baker County Board
of Commissioners and
Baker City Council will
have a joint work session
on Wednesday, Aug. 25 to
discuss the Request for Pro-
posals for operating a visi-
tor center in Baker City. The
meeting will start at 6 p.m.
at the Baker County Event
Center at 2600 East St.
WEATHER
Today
71 / 40
Ready
for fall
sports
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
They were eighth graders at Baker
Middle School that spring. All four
had played football for Howerton, who
has coached Baker City youngsters, in
Little League, YMCA and other venues,
since 1987.
Howerton said he was convinced
each of the boys had great potential.
“I knew the kind of character they
had,” he said. “They are strong boys.”
But he was also concerned.
“I was worried about the paths they
were taking,” Howerton said.
Rasmussen, who’s now 18, said How-
erton had a keen sense of the situation
at that time.
“In middle school we were just not
great kids,” Rasmussen said.
Baker City Councilor
Lynette Perry announced
her resignation on Wednes-
day, Aug. 18,
citing health
issues.
Perry was
elected in
November
2018 to a
four-year
Perry
term.
“There
are many issues that will be
coming before the Council
that I feel strongly about
and would like to represent
the city population by being
able to vote on their behalf,
however the time has come
that I just must cut back on
my stress level,” Perry said.
“Stepping down from Council
was a very hard decision, but
one that had to be made.”
Perry wrote in her letter
of resignation, sent to City
Manager Jon Cannon and
her six fellow councilors, that
she believes that when you
agree to serve your com-
munity or any organization
that you “give one hundred
percent of yourself to the
task at hand.”
See, Mentor/Page A3
See, Councilor/Page A3
Contributed Photo
From left, Ethan Myers Jensen, Carlos Delarosa,
Jim Howerton, Shawn Rasmussen and Kadin
Palmer in May 2017 in front of the Baker Middle
School gym.
Contributed Photo
From left, Ethan Myers Jensen, Carlos Delarosa, Jim
Howerton, Shawn Rasmussen and Kadin Palmer in
June 2021, replicating their photo from four years
earlier.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Jim Howerton was used to having
the sort of haircut that a Marine Corps
drill sergeant would appreciate.
He even went bald for a couple years.
And so it was no minor matter for
Howerton, 55, a longtime Baker City
youth sports coach, to not sacrifi ce a
single strand to the scissors or the razor
for four years.
Yet with every inch added to his
brown hair, as it reached his shoulders
and beyond, Howerton’s bond became
ever stronger with the four boys who
inspired him to ignore his previous af-
fi nity for bristles rather than tresses.
“Lots of people would ask me about
my hair,” Howerton said on Tuesday,
Aug. 17, about a month after he fi nally
Before
After
succumbed to the scissors. “ ‘Are you a
biker?’ they’d ask. It’s amazing what
people assume based on looks.”
Howerton, though, wasn’t offended
by such queries.
Indeed he was happy to explain his
hirsute appearance.
It all started late in the spring of
2017, with those four boys, all close
friends — Ethan Myers Jensen, Carlos
Delarosa, Shawn Rasmussen and
Kadin Palmer.
Showers possible
Sunday
81 / 41
Mostly sunny
Monday
77 / 37
Mostly sunny
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Protesters: No masks in schools
Protest started just
before Baker School
Board discussed
COVID protocols
Board member Travis
Cook said he is concerned
about the possibility of school
workers resigning due to the
vaccine mandate.
“If the governor mandates
this, how many teachers,
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com transportation personnel,
While parents and others food service personnel, are
marched through downtown just going to say ‘we’re done’
Baker City on Thursday eve- and move to Idaho or what-
ning, Aug. 19, protesting the ever,” Cook said.
Superintendent Mark
state mandate that students
Witty said that is an topic
wear face masks this fall,
the Baker School Board was of heated discussed among
school offi cials statewide.
meeting by Zoom to discuss
“That’s a real concern,”
that and other COVID-19-re-
Witty told the board. “It is
lated protocols.
The board met just hours here locally. I’m, again, just
preaching for patience so we
after Gov. Kate Brown an-
can actually understand how
nounced that teachers and
all other school staff, includ- this actually is implemented
ing volunteers, must be vac- and I am hopeful that there’s
cinated by Oct. 18 (see related opportunities for those that
have chosen not to take the
story on Page A3).
vaccine to be able to continue
working.”
The state mandate
includes two exemptions to
the vaccination requirement:
medical and religious.
The medical exemption
should be relatively straight-
forward, Witty said.
“We anticipate that that
would be going in to your
medical health provider and
having that discussion with
them and then they’d fi ll out
the paperwork and if they
believe in their opinion it’s
not safe for you to take the
vaccine, then you’d put that
on fi le with the district offi ce,”
Witty said.
The details about the
religious exemption are less
clear, he said.
When it comes to students’
vaccination requirements,
parents can sign a religious
exemption.
“That is the current prac-
tice that is in place and I am
hopeful there is a little bit of
latitude there but I want to
get the rules before I can say
consequently exactly how
that’ll play out,” Witty said.
Lindsey McDowell, the
district’s public information
and communications coordi-
nator, wrote in an email to
the Herald on Friday morn-
ing, Aug. 20, that she did not
know of any resignations
“specifi cally tied to the new
mandates.”
“We have a good relation-
ship with our two unions
and are working closely with
them,” McDowell wrote.
Witty said the district’s
contracts with its two unions
— one representing mainly
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Debbie Henshaw partici-
pated in a protest of the
school mask mandate on
Thursday, Aug. 19 outside
the David J. Wheeler Fed-
eral Building in Baker City.
teachers, the other repre-
senting other staff — pro-
vide 80 hours of paid leave
See, Masks/Page A5
Chamber will operate visitors center after county contract expires
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The Baker County Cham-
ber of Commerce will con-
tinue to operate the visitors
center at 490 Campbell St.
after its contract with Baker
County ends Aug. 31.
Shelly Cutler, the Cham-
ber’s executive director, said
Baker County Commission
Chairman Bill Harvey told
TODAY
Issue 44, 12 pages
her in a phone call Wednes-
day morning, Aug. 18, that
the county won’t extend the
contract beyond the end of
this month.
“We’re not to the end of the
(tourist) season,” Cutler said.
“We want to maintain that
continuity.”
County commissioner
Mark Bennett applauded the
Chamber’s decision to oper-
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
Community News ....A3
ate the visitors center while
commissioners await propos-
als for the new contract the
county hopes to award by
early October.
“I certainly am appre-
ciative that the Chamber
has stepped up and will be
furnishing the service for
this limited amount of time,”
Bennett said on Thursday,
Aug. 19.
Crossword ........B3 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Bennett said he would
have been leery of letting the
contract with the Chamber
expire Aug. 31 had the coun-
ty not had a timeline in place
to award a new contract little
more than a month later.
County commissioners de-
cided in early March of this
year to extend the contract
with the Chamber through
Aug. 31, with a goal of award-
Jayson Jacoby ..........A4
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Outdoors ..........B1 & B6
Senior Menus ...........A2
TODAY — BAKER COUNTY’S 19TH COVID-RELATED DEATH, PAGE A2
ing a new contract by then.
But earlier this month the
county released a Request for
Proposals for the visitor cen-
ter contract that sets a dead-
line of Sept. 17 for prospec-
tive contractors to submit a
proposal. The schedule also
calls for the county to issue a
notice of intent to award the
See, Visitors/Page A3
Sports ........................A6
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B6