SATURDAY
BUCK FEVER: PREVIEWING THE DEER HUNTING SEASON: OUTDOORS, B1
In SPORTS, A5
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 25, 2021
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County fears shortage of
health care workers
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Rob
Ellingson of Baker City.
Local, A2
LA GRANDE — After
spending more than a year
dealing with in-person and
hybrid learning sched-
ules, offi cials with Eastern
Oregon University are
excited at the prospect
of life resuming a more
normal look on campus in
2021-22.
BRIEFING
Tables available for
annual Christmas
bazaar Dec. 3-4
Baker County is host-
ing the annual Christmas
bazaar Dec. 3 and 4 at the
Baker County Fairgrounds
show barn. Tables are $40,
and there are spots avail-
able. To reserve a table, call
the Baker County Extension
Offi ce at 541-523-6418.
In addition, the county
is looking for volunteers to
help with the bazaar. More
information is available on
the Baker County 4-H Face-
book page, or by calling the
Extension Offi ce or email-
ing to khauserk@oregon-
state.edu. The bazaar hours
will be noon to 5:30 p.m. on
Friday, Dec. 3 and 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4.
Local artists, crafts, cooks
and others will be showcas-
ing their wares.
WEATHER
Today
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Sunday
82 / 40
Sunny
Monday
$1.50
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File, 2018
Jason Bybee, fi refi ghter/paramedic for the Baker City Fire Department, checks
inventory in a Baker City ambulance before it’s called into action in 2018.
workers, including para-
medics and other emer-
gency responders, to either
be fully vaccinated or to
have an approved medical
or religious exception.
“The impending dead-
line for all health care
workers to be fully vacci-
nated by October 18 has led
to a series of diffi cult choic-
es,” Bennett said in a press
release. “We can’t head into
a situation where there
are not enough responders
available to handle medi-
cal events throughout the
county, including those that
happen on the highways
and interstate. We also
cannot accept a situation
where the hospital doesn’t
have suffi cient staffi ng to
provide basic hospital care.
Our responsibility is to the
health and safety of our
community, and we have
to come up with options for
the inevitable times when
accidents or health emer-
gencies will occur.”
The declaration states
that if the governor decides
that keeping the Oct. 18
deadline in place “is too
critical to public safety,”
then the county would
request that the governor
“provide aid and assistance
to Baker County in the
form of such State assets
and resources as is neces-
sary to protect the citizens,
and visitors of Baker Coun-
ty, along with the users of
the state highway system.”
See, Workers/Page A6
Baker man charged in robbery
Alexander
Prentice Griffi n
accused of pointing
gun at homeowner
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
‘The Most
Beautiful
Girl’
Cleo Shepherd, 20,
of Huntington, died
Sept. 20 after testing
positive for COVID-19
By JAYSON JACOBY and
SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
The Baker County
Board of Commissioners
approved an emergency
declaration on Wednesday,
Sept. 22 stating that Gov.
Kate Brown’s vaccine
mandate for health care
workers could leave fi re
departments in the county
so understaffed, as workers
quit rather than take the
vaccine, that they won’t be
able to respond to traffi c
crashes and other emer-
gency calls.
The declaration also
stated that the mandate
could render Saint Alphon-
sus Medical Center-Baker
City unable to provide
basic hospital care.
But the claim about the
potential effects on Baker
County’s only hospital is
wrong, hospital offi cials
said on Thursday, Sept. 23.
They called on the county
to retract that part of the
declaration.
Baker County Commis-
sioner Mark Bennett said
the county would do so.
The declaration calls
on Brown to address the
mandate — although it
doesn’t specifi cally propose
that the governor cancel
it — which sets an Oct. 18
deadline for health care
Tigers
nip Baker
boys, 1-0
Alexander Prentice
Griffi n, 30, of Baker City, is
in the Baker County Jail,
charged with fi rst-degree
robbery, fi rst-degree bur-
glary, menacing, and being
a felon in possession of a
fi rearm.
First-degree robbery
is a Measure 11 crime in
Oregon, which on convic-
tion carries a mandatory
minimum prison sentence
of seven years and
six months.
The
investigation
into Griffi n
started two
days earlier,
on Sept. 15,
when Baker
Griffi n
City Police
received a
report of a burglary at a
vacant home and shed at
2610 Clark St., according to
a press release from Baker
City Police Chief Ty Duby.
Police learned that an
estimated $10,000 in
miscellaneous tools,
along with copper items,
had been taken. Police
also found out that
someone had sold copper
items, matching the de-
scription of those taken
from the Clark Street
property, that day at B&K
Auto Salvage and Recycling
in Baker City, according to
the press release.
Cleo Claire Rae Shep-
herd dreamed about learn-
ing to care
for children
whose lives
are threat-
ened by
cancer, but
her own life
didn’t last
Shepherd
long enough
for her to get
the chance.
Cleo, 20, of Huntington,
died Sept. 20 at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Boise, nine days after
she tested positive for
COVID-19.
“The last words she
said to me were ‘mama, I
don’t want to die,’ ” Cleo’s
mother, Summer Carr, said
in a phone interview on
Friday, Sept. 24. “I told her,
‘you’re not going to die.’ ”
As her symptoms
worsened, Cleo was put
in a medically induced
coma. Summer was able
to speak to her daughter
through a video connec-
tion, but Cleo didn’t speak
again.
Summer said she spent
most of the fi nal day with
her daughter, arriving at
the hospital at around
10 a.m. on Sept. 20.
Cleo died that day at
6:03 p.m. MDT.
“I got to kiss and hug
her,” Summer said. “While
I was hugging her, her
heart just stopped.”
Cleo, who was in the
process of moving to Pay-
ette, Idaho, was the 24th
Baker County resident
to die after contracting
COVID-19, and by far
the youngest.
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
A Baker City man is
accused of breaking into a
home in town on Sept. 17
and then pointing a gun at
the homeowner who found
the suspect in the home
upon returning.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Driver arrested after high-speed chase
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By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A Baker City man was
arrested Tuesday afternoon,
Sept. 21, after leading police
from multiple agencies on
a vehicle chase with speeds
that at times exceeded 100
mph.
Zachary Charles Persicke,
36, of 2690 Ninth St., surren-
dered to police and was ar-
rested without incident about
noon along Interstate 84 at
Milepost 330, about 26 miles
southeast of Baker City near
the Ash Grove Cement plant.
Persicke was jailed on
a parole violation warrant,
according to a press release
from Baker City Police Chief
Ty Duby.
On Thursday, Sept. 23,
a Baker County grand jury
indicted Persicke on multiple
charges, including attempt-
ing to elude a police offi cer,
and unlawful possession and
TODAY
Issue 59, 12 pages
home, where they found
delivery of meth-
about half a pound of
amphetamine
methamphetamine,
and heroin.
several grams of heroin,
Persicke’s
a sawed-off 12-gauge
bail was set at
shotgun and three
$215,000. He is
handguns.
scheduled to enter
Persicke
Persicke is charged
a plea on Sept. 29
with being a felon in
at 1 p.m. in Baker
possession of a fi rearm.
County Circuit Court.
The incident started
The drug charges
stemmed from an investiga- about 11 a.m. on Tuesday
when Baker City Police de-
tion by the Baker County
Narcotics Enforcement Team, tectives, and an Oregon State
which yielded about a pound Police sergeant, tried to stop
a white Chevrolet Monte
of suspected methamphet-
Carlo as part of an ongoing
amine, multiple ounces of
heroin, and opioid pills from investigation by the Narcot-
ics Enforcement Team into
Persicke’s car.
Police also found a loaded drug and gun traffi cking.
Persicke, who was driving
Glock .45-caliber pistol on
the Monte Carlo, stopped
the passenger seat, and a
for police at Atwood Road
loaded Smith and Wesson
AR-15 rifl e with a 60-round and East Campbell Street,
east of Interstate 84. The
capacity magazine in the
three passengers in the car
vehicle’s trunk.
fl ed on foot, according to the
Police later served a
search warrant on Persicke’s press release.
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See, Robbery/Page A3
Persicke drove away, with
police in pursuit.
He initially drove north of
Interstate 84 beyond North
Powder to the Wolf Creek
exit, near Milepost 283. Per-
sicke exceeded 100 mph at
times, according to the press
release.
Near North Powder, Per-
sicke used his cellphone to
call 911 and make what the
press release describes as
“lethal force threats towards
law enforcement that was
pursuing him.”
The emergency dispatch-
er tried to negotiate with
Persicke, and persuaded him
to slow his vehicle to around
80 mph.
At the Wolf Creek exit
Persicke exited the free-
way and then returned to
I-84, headed south toward
Baker City.
Offi cers from Baker City
and OSP continued the pur-
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TUESDAY — NEIGHBORS CONCERNED ABOUT LACK OF STOP SIGNS
See, COVID/Page A3
suit, at speeds ranging from
75 to 90 mph.
Baker City Police deployed
a spike strip near Baker City,
which fl attened one tire on
Persicke’s car. He slowed to
between 60 and 70 mph but
continued driving south on
the freeway. He exited at the
Campbell Street exit but
then returned to the freeway,
heading toward Durkee.
During the pursuit, of-
fi cers from the Baker County
Parole and Probation Depart-
ment went to Persicke’s
home, where they met with
his mother and his girlfriend.
They called Persicke’s cell-
phone and convinced him to
pull over and surrender.
The Baker City Police
Department was assisted by
the Baker County Sheriff’s
Offi ce, Baker County Parole
and Probation, Union County
Sheriff’s Offi ce, and Oregon
State Police.
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