SATURDAY STATE OFFICIAL SAYS SURGE IN COVID CASES HAS PEAKED: PAGE A2 In SPORTS, A6 Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com September 18, 2021 Local • Outdoors IN THIS EDITION: • Sports • TV $1.50 State plans to kill most wolves in pack QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Erin Hansen of Baker City. Local, A3 By JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com The death toll in deer in Baker Valley from a disease spread by midges has risen to 36 in less than a month. But a local wildlife bi- ologist who’s tracking the outbreak said the arrival of colder weather will end the threat, at least until next year. “One good freeze is all we need,” said Brian Ratliff, district wildlife biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Baker City offi ce. Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald BRIEFING Natural Resource Advisory Committee meeting Sept. 23 Baker County’s Natural Resource Advisory Com- mittee will meet Thursday, Sept. 23 at 3 p.m. at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St. Members of the public will have fi ve minutes each to talk about natural resource topics only. Agenda items include an update on the settlement of the county’s lawsuit regarding the Con- nor Creek Road, and the River Democracy Act. WEATHER Today 67 / 39 Residents gathered at Geiser-Pollman Park on Thursday evening, Sept. 16, for a rally opposing COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Speaker: ‘We will not comply’ About 100 people attend rally opposing vaccine mandate against COVID-19 by Oct. 18. Dubbed the Eastern Oregon Liberty Rally, the event started with a procession of vehicles, many sporting American fl ags, that traveled through town By SAMANTHA O’CONNER soconner@bakercityherald.com before ending at the park. Dennis Bachman, who More than a hundred people gathered at Geiser- organized the rally, said about 75 cars participated. Pollman Park Thursday Bachman, who works evening, Sept. 16 for a for the Baker City Public rally opposing Gov. Kate Works Department, said Brown’s mandate that health care workers, school he put on the rally because he’s concerned about how staff and many state the vaccine mandate will employees be vaccinated affect fi refi ghters and other emergency responders. “While I was on vacation traveling, that just kind of gave me some time to think on the situation and I just don’t feel this is right at all,” Bachman said. “So, when I got back from vacation, I decided that I was going to try to help those guys out and support them as well as everybody else that is under this mandate.” Bachman said he was pleased with the atten- dance on a cool Thurs- day evening. “Of course I would have liked to have seen a bigger turnout, but for a fi rst time rally of this sort in Baker, with a weeks’ worth of plan- ning, I thought it turned out pretty good,” Bachman said. Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten, who is seeking the Republican nomination for Oregon governor in the 2022 election, was unable to attend the rally. Bachman read a state- ment that McQuisten provided. See, Rally/Page A5 Schools have options for unvaccinated staff Rain showers Sunday 56 / 32 Rain showers Monday 63 / 30 Mostly sunny Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. Rings for state champs “There’s not on Friday, Sept. 17 going to be a mass that he’s confi dent exodus, I’m confi - the protocols the Baker School District dent of that,” Witty district has negoti- employees who choose not said. “I think we’ve ated with its two to be vaccinated against come up with a rea- COVID-19 before the state- unions, each of sonable approach. ordered Oct. 18 deadline and which represents Witty We’ve had multiple instead opt for a medical or about 110 employ- conversations with religious exception will have ees, constituting the bulk of the district staff, will both unions, and they were to either wear an N95 face very productive.” mask while at work or take both protect the workforce Toni Myers, president of and students, and prevent a weekly rapid test. the Baker Education Asso- any signifi cant loss of em- Baker Schools Superin- ployees due to the mandate. ciation, which represents the tendent Mark Witty said By JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com district’s 111 teachers, and Rachelle Lemmon, president of Baker Chapter 20 of the Oregon School Employees Association, the union that represents the district’s 110 classifi ed employees, both said recently that they don’t expect the mandate will result in a large number of workers either resigning or being fi red. See, Schools/Page A5 Barley’s brew wins gold medal Hops are especially important ingredients in IPAs — India Pale Ale — a Tyler Brown had just gotten back to Baker City style known for its hop- heavy fl avor. with a load of fresh hops Brown said he makes from Moxee when he was asked about his brewery’s multiple trips in late sum- mer to bring home hops award-winning beer that just harvested from fi elds has that funny fi ve-letter in the Moxee area. word in its name. After the travails of the Brown was happy to past 19 months of pandem- chat about Moxee Water. This session-style IPA, ic, with breweries forced to brewed at Barley Brown’s cut back production and, in in Baker City, won the gold some cases, to close, Brown said it was especially grati- medal in that category fying to win a medal at the at the Great American world’s largest professional Beer Festival on Friday, beer competition. Sept. 10. The gold medal for The Moxee in this case is the town in Washington’s Moxee Water was Barley Brown’s 26th medal at the Yakima Valley, one of the Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File competition since the brew- Barley Brown’s Brewery owner Tyler Brown, front, Northwest’s prime hop- ery entered its fi rst beer growing regions. prepares to sample a just-fi lled can of Pallet Jack in 2006. The fl owers from that IPA at the Baker City brewery in April 2020. Brewers plant give beer its distinc- Eli Dickison, right, and his brother, Kyle Dickison, far tive bitter bite. See, Brew/Page A5 left, also worked on the packaging line. By JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com TODAY Issue 56, 12 pages Classified ............. B2-B4 Comics ....................... B5 Community News ....A3 Crossword ........B2 & B4 Dear Abby ................. B6 Horoscope ........B3 & B4 Jayson Jacoby ..........A4 News of Record ........A2 Obituaries ..................A2 Opinion ......................A4 Outdoors ..........B1 & B2 Senior Menus ...........A2 TUESDAY — LOOKING BACK AT THE WEEKEND IN SPORTS The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has au- thorized killing most wolves from the Lookout Mountain pack, including its breeding male. But the agency does not plan to target the breeding female from the pack in east- ern Baker County, which has killed six head of cattle since mid July and injured two oth- ers, including a six-month-old calf killed late last week. The permit allows ranch- ers to kill up to two wolves, not including the breeding pair, before Oct. 31. The permit applies to four ranch- ers who have lost cattle to wolves, and allows any of them to kill wolves on land they either own or legally use for grazing. In addition, ODFW of- fi cials intend to kill four other wolves from the pack, includ- ing the pack’s breeding male, according to a press release from the agency Thursday evening, Sept. 16. The pack numbers up to nine wolves, according to ODFW. Both the breeding pair and fi ve juveniles, born this spring and now weighing about 50 pounds, have been seen by ODFW employees as recently as Sept. 8. One or two yearling wolves, born in the spring of 2020, are likely still in the area, although ODFW workers haven’t seen either yearling since Sept. 1, accord- ing to the press release. The breeding female had a litter of at least seven pups this spring. ODFW workers, fi ring rifl es from a helicopter, killed two of those pups on Aug. 1, the day after ODFW Director Curt Melcher issued a lethal take permit for up to four subadult wolves from the pack. Baker County Commis- sioner Mark Bennett had sent a letter to Melcher earlier that week asking the director to authorize the kill- ing of some wolves. No wolves have been killed since Aug. 1. There were no confi rmed wolf attacks on cattle for more than two weeks after the two pups were killed. But since Aug. 19, Lookout Mountain wolves have killed four more calves, according to ODFW reports. In response to the re- peated attacks, Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash sent a letter to Melcher on Sept. 13 asking the state to kill the en- tire Lookout Mountain pack. In a press release Thurs- day, Roblyn Brown, ODFW’s state wolf coordinator, said the agency’s initial strategy of killing subadult wolves, in an attempt to reduce the amount of food the pack needs, didn’t alter the pack’s behavior and preference for livestock as prey rather than deer and elk, which are common in the Lookout Mountain area. See, Wolves/Page A5 Sports ........................A6 Turning Backs ...........A2 Weather ..................... B6