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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 11, 2021
Local • Outdoors • Sports • TV
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Steve
Olsen of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Baker City reduces
water restriction
Starting today, Sept. 11,
Baker City returns to stage
1 of its water curtailment
plan, meaning outdoor wa-
tering can be done at any
time, rather than limited to
between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The city had been at
stage 2 since July 12. Water
use has declined over the
past few weeks. The city
continues to request resi-
dents limit their water use.
Rummage sale
benefi ts Baker
High School
Class of 2022
A community rummage
sale set for Friday, Sept. 17
and Saturday, Sept. 18 will
raise money for the Baker
High School Class of 2022
alcohol-free graduation
night celebration.
The sale is by donation
only. The sale will take
place at Leo Adler Field,
Clark and D streets, on
Sept. 17 from 8 a.m. to 3
p.m. and on Sept. 18 from
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
People who want to do-
nate items for the sale can
drop them off at Leo Adler
Field on Wednesday, Sept.
15 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., or
on Thursday, Sept. 16 from
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
WEATHER
Today
74 / 39
Sunny
Sunday
Baker
sweeps
Bucks
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Within a day, Whitney
was watching about 30
volunteers sort through
donated items at the Baker
City Church of the Nazarene,
stacking them into piles on
tables.
There were gloves and
clothes and toys to brighten a
frightened child’s day.
She remembers talking
with a man in New York City
who was coordinating the
donations that arrived from
across America.
She recalls how gratifi ed
she was at the sheer volume
of donations that Baker City
and Baker County residents
collected, and how shocked
her New York City contact
was when she told him what
the population here is.
The surge in COVID-19
cases in Baker County that
started the last week of July
continues, with a daily record
of 37 cases reported on Thurs-
day, Sept. 9.
The previous one-day
record was 25 cases, on Dec.
28, 2020.
There were 22 cases re-
ported on Sept. 8. The two-day
total of 59 exceeds the county’s
case count for the whole of
May 2021, when there were
51 cases.
September is on pace to
surpass August for the highest
monthly total.
The county reported 300
cases during August. The
previous monthly record was
196, in December 2020.
Through the fi rst nine days
of September, the county has
had 136 cases. That’s an aver-
age of 15.1 cases per day. The
current record for any month
is 10 per day, during August.
Baker County reported 10
or more cases on seven of the
fi rst nine days of September.
There were 12 days in August
with double-digit case totals,
the most of any month. The
previous maximum was six
days in December 2020.
The Oregon Health
Authority (OHA) doesn’t list
in its databases how many
people, at the county level,
have been hospitalized due to
COVID-19.
See, Memories/Page A3
See, COVID/Page A2
SURREAL SEPTEMBER
Robert Giroux /Getty Images
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a coordinated terrorist attack saw two hijacked commercial airplanes
crash into New York City’s Twin Towers, a third plane into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a fi eld in western
Pennsylvania.
Local residents share their recollections of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
By JAYSON JACOBY,
LISA BRITTON and
SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
Whitney Black remem-
bers the horror and the fear
and the disbelief.
But what she remembers
even more vividly from the
morning of Sept. 11, 2001, is
the frustration.
How helpless she felt,
with most of a continent
between her and New York
City, where two great build-
ings had collapsed, where so
many people had died and so
many more were suffering.
“As soon as I found out,
I felt like I should be there,
helping people, protecting,”
Whitney said on Thursday,
Sept. 9, two days shy of the
20th anniversary of the ter-
rorist attacks.
“It drove me nuts.”
Whitney, now 49, was
at home in Baker City that
sunny late summer morning
with her husband, Shannon,
and their two young children.
They didn’t have a televi-
sion.
She fi rst learned of the
tragedy when her brother-in-
law, Chris Black, telephoned.
“Check the news,” he told
her.
Whitney recalls watching
on TV as the second airliner
struck one of the Twin Tow-
ers. She thinks she was at
her parents’ home in Baker
City.
She’s not sure about that.
But she absolutely
recalls her reaction to seeing
that improbable collision,
the fi re and the smoke,
the tiny dots on the screen
that were people, leaping to
their deaths.
“Surreal,” she said.
“We were all so afraid, just
trying to sort it out,” Whitney
said. “We got to see it in real
time. Your heart aches.”
Later in the day, when
the scale of the catastrophe
became clear, she said she felt
compelled to act.
She started by calling
Baker City churches.
And she phoned other
people she knew.
Her goal was to gather
supplies that people in New
York City might need, or
that might offer them some
meager comfort in a terrible
time.
“It was a channel for my
frustration,” Whitney said. “I
think a lot of people respond-
ed that way.”
77 / 38
Clearing a path
Partly sunny
Monday
75 / 35
Partly sunny
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
Sections of several hiking
trails in the Elkhorn and
Wallowa mountains were
improved this summer —
and in one case, revealed —
thanks to a new partnership
between The Trailhead in
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Trailhead Stewardship Project/Contributed Photo
The Martin Bridge trail, following clearing by
members of the Trailhead Stewardship Project.
Baker City and the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest.
The Trailhead Steward-
ship Project’s goal is to main-
tain and improve mountain
trails that have suffered
from infrequent mainte-
nance over the past decade
or more.
The Trailhead is the bike,
hike and ski shop opened
several years ago in downtown
Baker City by Anthony Lakes
Mountain Resort.
The private, nonprofi t
corporation that owns the
See, Trails/Page A2
County OKs visitors center RFP
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Commissioners
voted 2-1 during a special session
on Wednesday, Sept. 8 to approve a
fi nal version of the Request for Pro-
posals (RFP) for operating a visitors
center in Baker City.
The county, which has postponed
awarding a contract several times
since early 2020, hopes to choose a
contractor in early October.
During a work session with the
Baker City Council on Aug. 25, com-
missioners showed a timeline that
called for adopting the fi nal RFP
on Sept. 8, with a deadline of Sept.
24 for interested parties to submit
proposals.
Commissioners intend to choose
a contractor at their Oct. 6 meeting,
and sign the new contract Oct. 20.
TODAY
Issue 53, 12 pages
Commission Chairman Bill Har-
vey cast the lone dissenting vote on
Wednesday.
Harvey said he believes the coun-
ty should have kept one sentence in
the RFP, dealing with the contrac-
tor’s involvement in managing local
events, that was deleted from an
earlier draft.
That sentence reads: “Manage
any internally sponsored new and
existing community events.”
The RFP that Commissioners
Mark Bennett and Bruce Nichols
approved Wednesday includes this
sentence related to events: “Coordi-
nate with external event sponsors
who are hosting events in Baker
County.”
Harvey said he’s concerned that
by deleting the other sentence,
the county might put at risk some
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Community News ....A3
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Dear Abby ................. B6
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
popular summer events that bring
visitors to Baker City and benefi t
local businesses. He mentioned
Miners Jubilee, the Hells Canyon
Motorcycle Rally and the Baker City
Cycling Classic.
Bennett pointed out, though, that
the county’s previous contractor for
operating the visitors center — the
Baker County Chamber of Com-
merce — manages only one of those
events, Miners Jubilee.
(Although the Chamber’s con-
tract with the county ended Aug. 31,
the Chamber continues to operate
the visitors center at 490 Campbell
St. Offi cials from both the Chamber
and from the nonprofi t corporation
that owns Anthony Lakes Mountain
Resort said they intend to submit
proposals for the new visitors cen-
ter contract.)
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Obituaries ..................A2
Bennett said he believes it’s
important for the county to ensure
the new contract is specifi cally for op-
erating the visitors center, and not for
directly managing events. The con-
tractor would be expected, however,
as stated in the RFP, to “coordinate
with external event sponsors.”
In addition, Bennett said organiz-
ers of any event can apply to receive
money from the county’s lodging tax.
That tax, which is paid by guests at
motels, bed and breakfasts, vacation
rentals and other lodging, also pays
for the visitors center contract.
Bennett said he agrees with
Harvey that the community’s roster
of summer events are important eco-
nomic drivers and should continue,
including, potentially, with fi nancial
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Sports ........................A6
TUESDAY — BAKER HIGH SCHOOL WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP
See, Visitors/Page A3
Senior Menus ...........A2
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather .....................A6