TUESDAY
DUCKS HOLD ON TO STUN NO. 3 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES: PAGE A5
In SPORTS, A6
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 14, 2021
Local • Home & Living • Sports
IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
$1.50
Storm spawns smelly mess
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Doug
Schwin of Baker City.
Ribbon cutting
planned at new
fl oral business
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A ribbon cutting is
planned for 1 p.m. Thurs-
day, Sept. 16, at a new
business, Baker Floral &
Botanicals, 2300 Broadway
St. (corner of Broadway
and Fourth streets). The
event includes refresh-
ments and a raffl e drawing
for a fl oral or plant display.
Learn more on the shop’s
Facebook page. The grand
opening celebration con-
tinues until 5 p.m.
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
donate 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
78 / 41
Sunny
Wednesday
76 / 32
Partly sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Sheriff : Kill
all wolves
in pack
Lookout Mountain
pack killed another
calf last week
BRIEFING
Rummage sale
benefi ts Baker
High School
Class of 2022
Bulldogs
cap busy
week
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Muddy water pooled at the intersection of Birch Street and Court Avenue on Friday evening, Sept. 10.
Downpour causes
mud, manure to fl ow into
eastside neighborhood
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The downpour lasted for less than
half an hour but the muddy mess still
lingered more than two days later
at Kim Nelson’s house in east Baker
City.
So did the stench.
And the fl ies.
“It’s disgusting,” Nelson said on
Monday morning, Sept. 13.
A brief but potent deluge in Baker
City on Friday evening, Sept. 10
turned streets into streams, created
temporary lakes at several intersec-
tions and washed a sticky mixture of
debris, including livestock manure,
down a hillside and into an eastside
neighborhood.
Nelson, who lives at 730 Valley
Ave., between Plum and Birch streets
near the base of Spring Garden Hill,
said the smelly stuff washed into her
yard and garage.
“We could see it coming down the
road,” said Nelson, who has lived there
for nine years.
She said her son tried to clear catch
basins to allow the mucky water to
drain, but the volume was too great and
the basins too thoroughly clogged.
She said water reached to the door
handles of a Camaro that was parked
at the curb at her home.
On Monday morning, Nelson said
the manure aroma was so intense that
she kept her doors and windows closed.
There was also an infl ux of fl ies,
she said.
Nelson said she is angry because
most of the mess fl owed into her neigh-
borhood from Thomas and Sharon
Oliver’s property on the nearby hill,
which includes a pasture for cattle that
is bare of vegetation.
“There’s a lot of people over here
that are really frustrated,” Nelson said.
“We need to do something. We shouldn’t
have to deal with this, living in town.”
Michelle Owen, the city’s public
works director, said this isn’t the fi rst
time heavy rain has resulted in mud
and manure streaming down the hill
from the Olivers’ property and into the
neighborhood below.
Owen said city offi cials have talked
with Thomas Oliver, but the condi-
tions that create the problem persist,
including a hillside largely devoid of
vegetation that could catch some of the
debris and lacking terracing that could
interrupt the debris fl ow.
Several years ago the city built a
catch basin at the base of the hill, in-
cluding a 2,300-gallon vault intended to
intercept and collect debris fl owing off
the hill, said Tom Fisk, the city’s opera-
tions supervisor.
But Friday’s downpour over-
whelmed the basin, he said, in part be-
cause the mud and manure clogged it.
Although the Baker City Airport,
about three miles northeast of town,
recorded 0.24 of an inch of rain Friday,
Fisk said he talked with a couple of
people who live in town and have rain
gauges. One reported about two-thirds
of an inch of rain, the other 1 1/4 inches.
“That’s a lot of rain in a hurry,”
Fisk said.
See, Storm/Page A3
Helping Smoky fi nd his way home
been posed in all sorts of
places. Kim continues to post
photos on Facebook in the
The Sumpter Valley
Railroad has a new mascot, hope that the animal’s owner
but operators of the historic returns to claim it.
In the meantime, Smoky
steam train are hoping it
has had quite the adven-
goes home soon.
Crew members found the tures.
It rode in the engine of
small stuffed puppy after
train rides on the weekend of the No. 19 steam engine.
Jace took it on the
Aug. 28 and 29.
In an effort to reunite the speeder, which pulls all the
animal with its owner, Depot fi re tools and a water tank
Manager Kim Svaty made a behind the train.
Smoky posed on the front
post on Facebook:
of the orange diesel engine
“This precious much
called the Great Pumpkin.
loved puppy was left at our
Sumpter Depot...Please help That photo was accompanied
me fi nd his home and much by this post:
“This is the engine we will
loved kiddo...”
“I just did a random fi rst be using for the Halloween
Train, The Great Orange
post and the crew went
Pumpkin. Maybe my family
crazy,” Svaty said.
will come again at Hallow-
Her son, Jace Svaty,
een and take me home. Have
started packing the animal
to say I’m really starting to
around in his pocket as he
went about SVRR business. like it here...”
In the last few weeks,
Soon the animal’s adven-
tures were documented with Smoky helped clean out the
fi re box with Loretta Don-
photos.
nelly, and even experienced
“From there it’s gone
a staged robbery by the Gold
wild,” Kim Svaty said.
The fi rst post was shared Rush Bandits. Here’s what
Smoky said about that —
89 times.
Since then, the animal — with the help of Kim:
“Ok friends tell me this
Jace named it Smoky — has
By LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 54, 14 pages
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B4-B6
Comics ....................... B7
Sumpter Valley Railroad/Contributed Photo
Smoky, the stuffed animal that Sumpter Valley
Railroad operators hope to reunite with its owner,
poses on the No. 19 locomotive.
isn’t the coolest thing ever!!!
I got to meet the Gold Rush
Bandits and even ride on
one horse. This was their last
run of the season but they
are coming back next year.
You gotta come meet them
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B5 & B6
Dear Abby ................. B8
sometime, they are just the
best.”
Anyone who has informa-
tion about Smoky’s owner
is encouraged to call the
Sumpter Valley Railroad at
541-894-2268.
Home ....................B1-B3
Horoscope ........B5 & B6
Lottery Results ..........A4
Senior Menus ...........A2
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
Wolves from the Lookout
Mountain pack in eastern
Baker County killed a calf
in the Lawrence Creek
area north
of Durkee
last week,
according to
the Oregon
Department
of Fish and
Wildlife
Ash
(ODFW).
Baker
County Sheriff Travis Ash is
calling on the state agency to
kill all the wolves from that
pack, citing an “unaccept-
able” level of depredation on
livestock.
Wolves from the pack
have killed fi ve head of cattle
and injured two others since
mid July.
ODFW employees shot
and killed two wolf pups from
the pack on Aug. 1, but the
permit that authorized that
also prohibits the killing of
the pack’s breeding pair.
ODFW biologists believe
the pack consists of the breed-
ing pair, two yearlings born
in the spring of 2020, and the
fi ve remaining pups from this
spring’s litter of seven, two of
which were killed Aug. 1.
See, Wolves/Page A3
Council to
discuss
$1 million
in fed aid
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
The Baker City Council on
Tuesday evening, Sept. 14 will
discuss potential uses of al-
most $1.1 million the city has
received from the American
Rescue Plan Act that Presi-
dent Joe Biden signed into law
in March.
That’s the fi rst of two pay-
ments the city will receive. The
second, for the same amount,
will arrive in 2022.
Councilors will meet at
7 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First
St.
City Manager Jon Cannon
suggests councilors approve a
resolution that distributes the
fi rst federal payment this way:
• $250,000 to the fi re
department
• $200,000 to the police
department
• $150,000 to the adminis-
trative services department
• $150,000 to the water
utility construction depart-
ment
• $150,000 to the waste-
water utility construction
department
• $133,750 to the adminis-
trative services department’s
contingency fund
• $75,000 to the fi re equip-
ment reserve fund
See, Council/Page A3
Opinion ......................A4
Sports .............. A5 & A6
Weather ..................... B8