SATURDAY
BAKER VOLLEYBALL OPENS SEASON BY SWEEPING POWDER VALLEY: A5
In SPORTS, A6
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
August 28, 2021
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IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Harold
Huntington of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Baker County
Garden Club to
meet Sept. 1
The Baker County
Garden Club will meet
on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at
10:30 a.m. at Oregon Trail
Nursery, 600 Elm St.
The topic will be plants
for sale this time of year,
and Lisa Constantine will
be the speaker. Please
bring a sack lunch and
a chair.
$1.50
Murder trial set for Sept. 8
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Judge Matt Shirtcliff of
Baker County Circuit Court
has declined to dismiss
murder charges against
Shawn Quentin Greenwood
in the January 2020 shooting
death of Angela Parrish in
Baker City.
Shirtcliff issued a writ-
ten ruling Thursday, Aug.
26, two days after a three-
hour hearing in Circuit
Court. The judge did rule
that district attorney Greg
Baxter will not be allowed
to use certain evidence dur-
ing a trial, which is sched-
uled to start Sept. 8 at the
Baker County Courthouse.
Greenwood’s attorney,
Jim Schaeffer of La Grande,
fi led a motion on June 25,
2021, seeking dismissal of
charges, or suppression of
evidence.
Schaeffer contends
that dismissal of charges
is the appropriate remedy
based on allegations, which
Baxter has not contested,
that Detective Shannon
Regan of the Baker City
Police Department listened
to fi ve phone calls between
Greenwood, 50, of Vale, and
Schaeffer on Sept. 14, 2020.
Regan is on paid admin-
istrative leave during a
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back of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
criminal investigation into
the matter.
Baxter said he will not
call Regan, the lead inves-
tigator in Parrish’s murder,
as a witness during trial.
In his fi ve-page written
decision on Schaeffer’s motion,
See, Charges/Page A3
A cow, a
missing
tongue, and
a mystery
Biologist perplexed
by scene in eastern
Baker County
Suicide Awareness
Walk planned for
Sept. 11 in Baker
Baker County Safe
Communities Coalition
is sponsoring a Suicide
Awareness Walk on Satur-
day, Sept. 11, in honor of
World Suicide Awareness
Day. The organization
invites the community to
“come show your support
and help raise awareness
about suicide prevention.”
The walk starts at 5:30
p.m. at Geiser-Pollman
Park. For more details,
visit the Facebook page for
Baker County Safe Com-
munities Coalition.
Baker
soccer
begins
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
they had tested positive or
had been exposed to some-
one who did.
In a post on the Vale
District’s Facebook page on
Wednesday, Aug. 25, Super-
intendent Alisha McBride
wrote that “If we do not act
now, it is possible that our
children will be forced into
distance learning shortly
after the school year begins.”
To avoid that outcome in
Baker, Witty said the district
will employ most of the
same tactics used during the
previous school year. That
includes asking any students
and staff who feel ill to stay
home, conducting daily
health checks of students at
the start of the day, encour-
aging frequent handwashing,
and following a three-foot
social distancing protocol.
Brian Ratliff has sliced
open and probed the innards
of quite a number of cows, but
he’s never come across a case
as confounding as the missing
tongue.
“This is a stumper,” Ratliff
said on Thursday, Aug. 26. “I
don’t have an answer.”
The mystery started the
day before for Ratliff, the
district wildlife biologist at the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Baker
City offi ce.
A ranch manager found
the carcass of a three-year-old
cow that morning on a public
grazing allotment near the
head of Fox Creek. That’s near
Lookout Mountain, about 14
miles north of Huntington.
Ratliff investigated the
case as a possible wolf attack.
Wolves from the Lookout
Mountain pack have killed
three head of cattle, and
injured three others, this sum-
mer several miles to the west.
Wolves didn’t kill the cow
at Fox Creek — Ratliff is sure
about that.
He’s also confi dent in his
conclusion about why the cow
died.
Almost the whole of the
cow’s tongue — at least a
couple pounds of fl esh — was
missing.
The wound severed two
arteries at the base of the
tongue, and Ratliff said a vet-
erinarian told him that a cow
with that injury would bleed
to death relatively rapidly.
That was the only injury
which happened prior to the
cow’s death, Ratliff said.
See, Schools/Page A3
See, Cow Tongue/Page A3
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
Frequent cleaning of desks will be a common task this year in Baker schools, as was the case last year. In
early March 2020, Stormie Stuart, 9, helped clean her third grade classroom at Brooklyn Primary School.
School chief ‘thrilled’
for classes to start
Baker students return
differently from last, Witty
acknowledges that “there
are challenges with the pan-
demic.”
A key one, naturally, is
striving to prevent the virus
on computer monitors in
By JAYSON JACOBY
their home when the school from spreading in schools
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
during the county’s biggest
year started — the same
“Normal” isn’t an adjec-
surge in cases during the
situation that prevailed
tive that any school offi cial
pandemic.
during the spring term in
is apt to use currently,
From Aug. 1-26, the coun-
2020, in the early stages of
but Baker School District
ty reported 254 cases, the
Superintendent Mark Witty the pandemic.
most in any single month,
Elementary students,
is excited about what schools
surpassing the 196 cases in
in grades K-6, returned to
will look like when classes
December 2020.
convene on Monday, Aug. 30. in-person classes for a full
Last year the district was
four-day weekly schedule on
They’ll look busy, most
largely successful at avoiding
Oct. 14, 2020.
notably.
the virus. During the school
Middle school and high
“We’re looking forward to
year, 36 staff or students
school students began at-
a new school year starting
tending classes one day per tested positive.
with students in person,”
Witty noted that the Vale
week on Nov. 9, 2020, moving
Witty said on Thursday
School District in Malheur
to two days per week on
afternoon, Aug. 26.
County, in its fi rst four days
That alone distinguishes Jan. 25, 2021, and to a full
of classes this week, had
the 2021-22 school year from four-day schedule on April
more than 50 students or
12, 2021.
its immediate predecessor.
staff members who were
But even though this
A year ago, Baker stu-
quarantining either because
dents were watching classes school year will start much
on Monday, Aug. 30
Elks collect $1,215 in donations during parades
Donations were much
higher than usual this year
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The $50 bill caught Staci Erickson’s eye as it
fl uttered onto the surface of the American fl ag.
The slip of currency also made her heart
swell.
Erickson is a member of the Baker Elks
Lodge. She’s also one of the Elks who hold the
huge fl ag that is at the front of local parades.
TODAY
Issue 47, 12 pages
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
Community News ....A3
Another of the fl ag-holders is Doug Riggs. He
exhorts parade-watchers to toss coins or bills
onto the fl ag to support a variety of veterans
programs that the Elks contribute to statewide,
Erickson said.
In 2021, following a 2020 when most parades
were canceled due to the pandemic, that fl ag col-
lected quite a lot more cash than in the past.
“The magnitude of generosity was over-
whelming this year,” Erickson said on Thursday,
Aug. 26. “This year for some reason there was
just such charity. It’s pretty amazing.”
In previous years the Elks collected a few
hundred dollars in donations during parades,
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Jayson Jacoby ..........A4
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
including the Haines Fourth of July, Miners
Jubilee and Shrine parades, Erickson said.
This year the total was $1,215.50.
That includes:
• Haines Fourth of July, $225.50 (including
that $50 bill, the fi rst Erickson has seen donated
during any parade)
• Miners Jubilee, $350 on July 19
• Shriners, $640 on Aug. 7
Erickson said the high volume of donations
was obvious as the Elks marched through
Haines and downtown Baker City.
See, Elks/Page A2
Opinion ......................A4
Outdoors ..........B1 & B2
Senior Menus ...........A2
Sports .............. A5 & A6
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B6
TUESDAY — GRIM NEWS FOR BAKER COUNTY’S BIGHORN SHEEP HERDS