BEAVERS FALL TO PURDUE (PG. A7); DUCKS WIN (PG. A6)
TUESDAY
In SPORTS, A5
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 7, 2021
Local • Home & Living • Sports
IN THIS EDITION:
$1.50
Harvey fi ned
for ethics
violations
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Dave
Richards of Baker City.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Local, A8
STARKEY — Rocky
Mountain elk in Northeast-
ern Oregon may fall prey
to climate change.
U.S. Forest Service re-
search biologist Mike Wis-
dom and Casey Brown, a
research biologist with the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, are among a
growing number of people
who are concerned about
the role climate change is
playing in nature. Wisdom
and Brown are helping
conduct a Starkey Project
study aimed at determin-
ing if climate change will
hurt Rocky Mountain
elk reproduction.
The Haines Fire Protec-
tion District board will
meet Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. at
the main station, 616 Cole
St. All residents of the dis-
trict are welcome to attend.
COVID-19 safety protocols
will be in effect.
Red Cross plans
blood drive in
Baker City on
Monday, Sept. 13
The American Red Cross
has scheduled a blood
drive for Monday, Sept.
13, 2021, at the Baker City
Nazarene Church, 1250
Hughes Lane, from noon
to 6 p.m. To schedule an
appointment, call Myrna
Evans at 541-523-5368, or
go to redcrossblood.org.
See, Water/Page A3
See, Harvey/Page A3
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Donnie Tholen tosses a zucchini to his wife, Cheryl, from within their garden.
Baker City couple transforms
empty fi eld into a thriving garden
unless he’s in heavy clothes,”
she said on the evening of
the fi rst day of September.
After Donnie snaps a
picture of the pumpkin, he
leans down again and comes
pumpkin — a big one.
By LISA BRITTON
“Take a picture with your up with a zucchini. He
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
tosses the veggie to Cheryl,
phone!” his wife, Cheryl,
Donnie Tholen wades
through the sea of pumpkin calls from beyond the patch, then picks his way past
where her work clothes are the ornamental broomstick
vines, then looks up with
cornstalks waving high
safe from the spiny vines.
a grin.
above his head.
“He won’t go out there
He just found a white
This patch of earth
hasn’t always been a
swath of green.
The Tholens bought
this empty lot near their
east Baker City home in
2016.
“There was nothing. Ab-
solutely nothing,” she said.
“We called it ‘the fi eld.’ ”
See, Garden/Page A3
City’s water use drops
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
WEATHER
Today
93 / 45
Sunny and hot
Wednesday
91 / 49
Mostly sunny
Baker City Public Works/Contributed Photo, File
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
crisis, said Owen, the city’s
public works director.
“I’m so pleased with the
way the community has
pulled together to reduce
their water consumption
during this drought,” Owen
wrote in an email to the Her-
ald on Sept. 2. “The reduction
of irrigation use clearly made
a difference this year.”
Residents used 23% less
water during August than
they did during July, and
14% less than in June, ac-
cording to city fi gures.
Baker County Commis-
sion Chairman Bill Harvey
has agreed to pay a $1,000
civil penalty
to the Oregon
Government
Ethics Com-
mission for
hiring his son
to do work for
the county
Harvey
in 2020 and
for receiv-
ing reimbursements from
the county for meals and fuel
that exceed what’s allowed by
county policy.
Harvey signed a stipulated
fi nal order with the Ethics
Commission in August.
The Ethics Commission
is scheduled to approve the
settlement during its meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 8.
By signing the fi nal order,
Harvey waived his right to
seek a judicial review of the
Commission’s preliminary
fi nding, which it made on June
11 of this year, that Harvey
violated state ethics laws.
“Once approved, this agree-
ment shall be the fi nal disposi-
tion of the matter and shall be
binding upon all parties,” the
stipulated fi nal order reads.
The order states that the
total fi ne is $1,250, but the
state will reduce the penalty to
$1,000 if Harvey “requests and
completes online ethics train-
ing from the Commission’s
training staff prior to Septem-
ber 8, 2021.”
Harvey said in a phone
conversation on Monday, Sept.
6 that he did complete the
online training to reduce his
fi ne to $1,000.
He said he wanted to
defend himself in a formal
hearing.
“They assume everything
their investigator says is true,”
Harvey said. “You pay a fi ne
and it doesn’t matter whether
you’re guilty or not. They run
the show.”
The Ethics Commission
contends, as part of the fi nal
order, that had the matter
gone to a contested case
hearing, with exhibits and
testimony, the Commission
From
empty
to plenty
BRIEFING
Haines Fire District
board to meet on
Sept. 13
Cougars
claw
Bulldogs
Goodrich Lake, shown here in 2020, is one of Baker
City’s two supplementary water sources.
There’s likely more
brown lawns than usual
in these waning weeks of
summer in Baker City,
and Michelle Owen is
grateful for those who
sacrifi ced their usual lush
turf.
Residents heeded the
city’s advice and cut back
on their water use during
August.
Their voluntary action
has helped avoid what
could have been a much
more serious water supply
Landowner seeks dismissal of county’s road lawsuit
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The attorney representing
Baker County in its lawsuit
seeking to force a landowner
to open a gated road in the
eastern part of the county has
fi led a motion to extend by one
week a deadline to respond
to the defendants’ motion to
dismiss the case.
Larry Sullivan, a Vale at-
torney, fi led the lawsuit on the
county’s behalf more than two
years ago, on Feb. 7, 2019.
On Monday, Aug. 30, Sul-
livan fi led a motion in Baker
County Circuit Court seeking
to extend, from Sept. 8 to Sept.
15, a deadline for the county
to respond to the defendants’
motion for summary judg-
ment — in effect, a request to
dismiss the case.
TODAY
Issue 51, 16 pages
The defendants — Timber
Canyon Ranch LLC, Kennerly
Ranches LLC and Forsea
River Ranch LLC — are
represented by Charles F.
Hudson of Portland.
Hudson, of the Lane Powell
fi rm, fi led the motion for sum-
mary judgment on Aug. 19.
Sullivan, in his motion
seeking an extension to
respond, wrote that “The
parties have continued
settlement discussions since
the settlement conference
on August 6, 2021, and are
making progress. Granting
the requested extension will
allow the parties to continue
to pursue those discussions
without spending time and
attorney fees on a matter that
may prove to be unnecessary.
Defendants’ attorney does not
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oppose this motion.”
The Aug. 6 settlement
conference was closed to the
public.
The Baker County Board
of Commissioners decided in
early 2019 to fi le the lawsuit.
The debate, though, dates
to 2017.
That’s when Todd Long-
good and the Dennis Omer
Hansen Revocable Living
Trust bought the property, for-
merly known as the H Hook
Ranch, east of Lookout Moun-
tain, in the upper portion of
the Connor Creek drainage.
Although a road that
passes through that property,
which connects the Connor
Creek and Daly Creek roads,
had been generally open to
the public since the mid 1980s,
according to Hudson’s Aug.
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19 motion, Longgood chose
to install a locked gate on the
road.
County offi cials objected to
the road closure, and eventu-
ally chose to sue.
The county claims in
its lawsuit that the road is
a historic public route and
that, based on a 19th century
federal law, can’t be closed to
public access.
Alternatively, Sullivan
argues in an amended ver-
sion of the lawsuit, four other
roads that also pass through
the private property could be
designated as public rights-
of-way.
Hudson, though, in his mo-
tion for summary judgment,
contends that “The uncontro-
verted evidence demonstrates
that the portion of the road
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THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
designated by the County as
the “Connor Creek Road” that
crosses defendants’ properties
was created by private parties
after the land had passed into
private ownership.”
As a result, Hudson argues,
the section of the road through
the Longgood property can’t
be legally designated as a
public right-of-way.
The county’s case revolves
around a resolution that
county commissioners ap-
proved in 2002.
That resolution was
prompted by a different prop-
erty owner who locked a gate
several miles to the east, near
the Connor Creek mine along
the Connor Creek Road a mile
or so from where it starts at
See, Road/Page A3
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