SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A5
LOCAL
Halfway woman charged with assault
Gonzales was arraigned
Thursday in Baker County
A Halfway woman is ac-
Circuit Court and given a
cused of injuring a woman
conditional release. She is
during an altercation early
scheduled to enter a plea on
Wednesday, Sept. 15 by
Nov. 1 at 11:15 a.m.
backing up her pickup truck
According to a report from
rapidly and hitting the
Gonzales
Deputy Gabe Maldonado of
other woman in the hand
the Baker County Sheriff’s
with the truck’s side mirror.
Office, who arrested Gonzales, the
Jessica Marie Gonzales, 31, of
incident started around 1:55 a.m.
Halfway, was arrested at 4:49 a.m.
and taken to the Baker County Jail. Wednesday when Gonzales parked
She is charged with reckless driv- her white 1998 Dodge pickup at a
ing, reckless endangering, attempted stop sign in front of Shyla Melchior’s
home at 115 Dawson St. in Halfway.
third-degree assault, fourth-degree
Maldonado wrote in his report
assault and failing to perform the du-
that Melchior, 32, told him Gonzales
ties of a driver.
Baker City Herald
revved the engine. Melchior told
Maldonado that she believed Gon-
zales was trying to get the attention
of Melchior or Gonzales’ boyfriend,
Troy Millhollin, 43, who was in Mel-
chior’s home.
According to the report, Melchior
went out to the street to confront
Gonzales, yelling at her through the
closed driver’s side window.
Melchior told Maldonado that
Gonzales backed up the truck
rapidly. Melchior said she raised her
right hand, which was struck by the
truck’s driver’s side mirror.
Melchior told Maldonado that
Gonzales drove up the street, made a
BREW
U-turn and then drove into Mel-
chior’s yard, stopping near the part
of the home where Melchior’s son
was sleeping.
Gonzales then backed up and
drove east on Dawson Street, coming
close to where Melchior was stand-
ing, according to the deputy’s report.
Maldonado also interviewed
Millhollin, who told the deputy that
he heard Gonzales’ truck and saw
Melchior standing beside the vehicle
when the truck reversed, nearing hit-
ting a shed.
Melchior told Maldonado that
her right hand and forearm were
numb and painful, that her hand
at Barley Brown’s Tap House
on Main Street in Baker City.
“It was fun,” Brown said.
“We haven’t had a whole lot
to celebrate the last couple of
years.”
Brown was also excited
about Moxee Water’s gold
medal because it’s one of
two beers brewed at Barley
Brown’s that uses as a chief
ingredient barley malted
by Gold Rush Malt in
Baker City.
The business, started
in 2016 by Tom Hutchison,
won gold medals for two
of his malts at the annual
Craft Malt Conference in
February 2021.
Brown said Dickison took
it as something of a challenge
to concoct a session-style IPA.
IPAs typically have a
higher alcohol content than,
say, lagers, often in the 6% to
8% by volume range.
But session beers have an
alcohol content below 5%.
The idea is that a person
can quaff a couple of beers
in one “session” — hence the
name.
Brown said Dickison and
the other brewers “focused
on crafting a light, dry, easy
drinking beer that has the
hop presentation of an IPA,
but is low in both alcohol
and calories.”
not going to be standing as
a judge of that. That’s out of
my purview.”
Continued from A1
The district’s requirement
for employees who remain
Witty said Friday that
unvaccinated after Oct. 18
although he doesn’t have
applies to both union mem-
exact numbers, he believes
the mandate might have
bers and nonunion employ-
been a “contributing factor” in ees, Witty said.
several recent resignations.
Unvaccinated workers
“It’s very minimal,” he
who choose a medical or
said.
religious exemption will
Witty said that although have another choice to make
the district hasn’t required
if they want to continue to
employees to disclose their
work, Witty said.
vaccination status, he be-
Those employees can ei-
lieves, based on conversations ther wear an N95 face mask,
with union officials and other or take a weekly COVID-19
staff members, that the vac- home test, both of which the
cination rate among district district will supply.
(Masks and tests will also
workers is likely in the 70%
be available to vaccinated
range.
employees, Witty said.)
Witty said some district
District employees are al-
workers are in the process of
being vaccinated.
ready required to wear a face
Those who decline to be
mask while at work indoors.
vaccinated before Oct. 18
Witty said the N95 masks are
can either submit a medical an alternative because they
exception, which requires
are more effective at blocking
documentation from a physi- respiratory droplets that can
cian, or a religious exception, contain virus particles.
Workers who choose
Witty said.
He said he intends to ac- the test option will still be
required to wear some type of
cept religious exceptions.
face mask while indoors.
“I don’t want anyone
Those employees will have
to make a mockery of this
process,” Witty said. “But I’m to take the first test at home
on Monday, Oct. 18, and the
district will send the tests to
a lab in Corvallis, which proj-
ects results will be emailed
to the employees within 24
hours.
Those employees will be
allowed to work while the
test results are pending,
Witty said.
Unvaccinated employees
who choose either the mask
or test option will continue
to work in their current job,
Witty said; there will not be
reassignments.
Continued from A1
“The development of
Moxee Water has been a fun
project for our brew team led
by Eli Dickison,” Brown said.
Dickison was picked as
brewmaster of the year at
the 2013 Great American
Beer Festival, which takes
place in Denver.
Brown said he and his
fellow brewers didn’t attend
this year’s event.
But they watched a live-
cast of the Sept. 10 awards
ceremony while sipping,
appropriately, Moxee Water
SCHOOLS
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Dennis Bachman organized the rally Thursday evening,
Sept. 16 at Geiser-Pollman Park.
RALLY
Continued from A1
“Our founding fathers
may have had some differing
religious opinions but they
agreed when they wrote the
Constitution that the rights
it lined out for protection are
God-given,” McQuisten wrote.
“To put it another way; they
are the rights we are naturally
and inherently born with. The
most primary of those is the
right to self-preservation, to
make the choices as sovereign
individuals that determine
whether we stay healthy and
alive or not.”
McQuisten wrote that her
goal, by next year’s election, is
to feel that she has “personally
done every single thing I could
think of to fight back” against
what she sees as government
overreach.
Brenda Williams, who is
Bachman’s sister and lives
in Central Oregon, told the
crowd she is a member of
People’s Rights Area 5, which
has a mission statement of:
“Uniting neighbors to defend
their families, faith, freedom
and future.”
“To hold on to your rights,
you must claim your rights,
use your rights, defend your
rights, maintain your rights,”
Williams said. “Become a
part of a like-minded group
of people in your area who
help defend and support one
another.”
Scott Stuart, described on
a rally flier as a constitutional
speaker, also addressed the
audience.
“What we’re missing today
is good leadership,” Stuart
said. “The key to good leader-
ship is vision, understanding
the times, and foresight.
Foresight is the ability to
make a difficult decision,
which is going to harm some
people, but you need to make
that decision to stop a natural
outcome.”
Stuart read from Oregon
Revised Statute 433.416,
which states, among other
things, that health care work-
ers in Oregon “shall not be re-
quired as a condition of work
to be immunized under this
section, unless such immuni-
zation is otherwise required
by federal or state law, rule or
regulation.”
Stuart also talked about
statistics from the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA)
about the number of Orego-
nians who have died after
testing positive for COV-
ID-19.
As of Thursday, the total
was 3,547.
“But when you go into
OHA’s website and you look
at the statistics, underneath
comorbidities — comorbidi-
ties means people who had
death type injuries or illness-
es; heart disease, liver, cancer,
stroke, high blood pressure,
renal failure, all these things,”
Scott said. “Do you know how
many of those people died
with those issues? 94%. Do
you know what the average
age of the people that have
died in Oregon is? 78. Do you
know what the average lifes-
pan in America is? 78.”
Scott contends that CO-
VID-19 regulations such as
the vaccination mandate are
not about public safety, but
about “ideological control.”
“And the sooner you real-
ize it, the sooner you begin
to fight back, and we are not
about fighting back physical-
ly,” Scott said. “We are about
fighting back with peaceful
noncompliance. Understand
that. Peaceful noncompliance.
We will not comply.”
Suzi Smith of Baker City
attended the rally and said
she thought it was a wonder-
ful event.
“The best thing (Scott) said
was we’ve lived in the land
of the free, so we don’t know
what our rights are because
we take them for granted and
so it’s important for all of us
to not take those for granted
and to know what they are,”
Smith said.
Another audience mem-
ber, Casey Johnson, said he
thinks it’s important the
people understand their
rights and recognize govern-
ment overreach.
“Like the speaker said,
‘Do you know what your
rights are? Can anybody tell
me what those five rights
are?’ ” Johnson said. “And
nobody could tell him, so
how do you know you’ve lost
anything? I think something
like this seems very small
in grassroots but that’s how
things start and hopefully we
continue to build on it.”
was bleeding and that there were
glass shards in the wound. She went
to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-
Baker City for treatment.
Maldonado wrote in his report
that he found tire tracks in Mel-
chior’s yard that were consistent
with her account of the incident. He
also found a broken side mirror, and
broken glass, in the street. He wrote
that he inspected Gonzales’ pickup,
which was missing its driver’s side
mirror, and that there was blood on
the driver’s side window. The front
passenger side tire was flat, and the
tire tread matched the tracks in Mel-
chior’s yard, Maldonado wrote.
WOLVES
Continued from A1
“This pack has made
a shift in their behavior,”
Brown said. “Instead of the
occasional opportunistic kill-
ing of a vulnerable calf, now
they are targeting livestock
despite the high numbers
of elk and deer in the area
where the depredations have
occurred and extensive hu-
man presence to haze wolves.
“Previously we avoided
removing an adult to keep
the pack intact and give the
breeding adults a chance to
raise the remaining juveniles
and to change their dep-
redation behavior,” Brown
said. “We know it’s hard for
some to accept any killing of
wolves let alone the juve-
niles, but we structured it
this way to try to keep the
pack intact. Unfortunately,
this did not have the desired
effect and we are now out of
options for this pack to stop
depredating on livestock.”
By targeting the breeding
male, ODFW hopes to allow
the breeding female to raise
any remaining juveniles.
Reducing the number of ju-
veniles she will need to feed
increases the likelihood that
some will survive, according
to the agency.
There is evidence that
the Lookout Mountain pack
is focused on livestock even
though deer and elk are com-
mon and often seen in the
same areas where depreda-
tions are occurring, according
to ODFW. Wolves’ preferred
prey, elk, are abundant in
this unit and currently well
over the population manage-
ment objective set by ODFW.
The agency has struggled
to reduce elk numbers
through hunting, in part
because a significant per-
centage of elk in the Lookout
Mountain unit congregate on
private land, some of which
is not open to most hunters.
The unit is 62% private land,
a higher percentage than
any of the three other units
in Baker County.
According to ODFW, the
Lookout Mountain pack
“presents a significant risk
to livestock in the area — a
risk that will continue as
livestock will be present
all winter. September and
October also tend to have
higher depredation rates
historically on cattle in large
rangeland pastures.”
Wolves were in the area
for two years with little
direct conflict with live-
stock, according to ODFW.
The situation changed in
February 2021 when wolves
started visiting livestock
calving pastures. Ranch-
ers increased night checks,
installed fladry (a type of
“The excellent qual-
ity malt that we get from
Gold Rush made it easy to
get bright clean flavors,”
Brown said. “I’m incred-
ibly proud to see this
beer that’s developed a
great following locally be
awarded a gold medal at
the biggest beer competi-
tion in the world.”
Barley Brown’s pro-
duced its first batch of
Moxee Water in 2018.
Brown said the beer’s
name actually came from
an employee of a hops com-
pany based near Yakima.
He said he keeps a list
of potential beer names.
Witty said some students
at each school, except Keat-
ing, are quarantining, but
that the effects are limited.
“I know it’s challenging for
families, and my heart goes
out to them,” Witty said. “A lot
of work has gone into the first
three weeks. We have shown
we can continue to keep our
schools functioning, and have
extracurricular activities.”
According to the most
recent weekly outbreak
report from the Oregon
Health Authority, released
on Wednesday, Sept. 15,
COVID-19 cases in Baker
Quarantining
schools include:
After three weeks of in-
person classes, Witty said he’s
• Brooklyn Primary, three
generally pleased with the
students, most recent onset
district’s situation.
Sept. 8
As of Thursday, only one
• Haines Elementary,
staff member was quarantin- four students, one staff, most
recent onset Sept. 5
ing due to either a positive
• Baker Early Learning
test or possible exposure to
Center, two students, most
someone who was infected,
Witty said. That’s down from recent onset Sept. 4
• Baker High School,
five staff members earlier in
two students, one staff, most
the month.
recent onset Sept. 2
“That’s a really positive
• Baker Middle School,
number to me,” Witty said.
two students, most recent
“It shows that if we follow
onset Sept. 8
the protocols we can keep
• South Baker Intermedi-
staff in place and continue to
provide the service we want ate, one staff member, most
to provide.”
recent onset Aug. 25
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
A trail cam photo from May 30, 2021, of one of the
two yearling wolves in the Lookout Mountain pack.
fencing designed to deter
wolves), and hazed wolves
from near their calving and
winter pastures but depreda-
tions began in mid-July and
have continued.
Ranchers have repeatedly
shot at wolves chasing their
livestock, which is allowed
under Oregon’s “caught in
the act” statute, but missed,
according to ODFW.
ODFW staff have spent
over 120 hours on the
ground in the Lookout
Mountain area since July 30
to try to remove the year-
lings and supplement hu-
man presence efforts to move
wolves away from livestock.
Livestock producers have
spent hundreds more hours,
according to ODFW.
There is no evidence that
the wolves are being at-
tracted to pastures or other
areas with livestock due to
bone piles, carcasses or other
circumstances, according
to ODFW. Agency workers
have not identified any con-
ditions that attract wolves
and fosters conflict during
its repeated investigations of
depredation incidents.
Brown thanked ranchers
for their efforts to try to deter
wolves.
“While nine depredations
in relationship to the large
number of cattle raised in
Oregon might seem like not
that big of a deal, this situa-
tion has had a huge impact
on the individual producers
affected,” Brown said. “Local
producers have worked so
hard to protect their calves
for months now, going above
and beyond what they
were required to do under
Oregon’s Wolf Plan at great
personal cost in time, energy,
fuel, and other expenses.”