SATURDAY
BAKER BOYS 1ST, GIRLS 2ND AT DISTRICT CROSS-COUNTRY MEET: PAGE A6
In OUTDOORS, B1
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
October 30, 2021
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
Booster shots
in demand
A special good day
to Herald subscriber Pat
Braswell of Baker City.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
QUICK HITS
Baker County offi cials are bracing for a
rising demand for COVID-19 vaccinations.
But this time the interest is not so
much in fi rst or second doses, but third, or
“booster” doses.
“People are wanting booster doses,”
said Nancy Staten, director of the Baker
County Health Department.
The demand is driven by the Food and
Drug Administration’s Oct. 14 approval
of booster shots of the Moderna vaccine,
Staten said.
A large majority of the COVID-19
vaccine doses given in Baker County so far
were the Moderna product.
Local, A2
LA GRANDE — Supply
chain issues gripping the
nation have found a new,
unexpected victim — local
schools.
BRIEFING
Haines Fire
Protection District
meeting Nov. 8
The Haines Fire Protec-
tion District’s board of
directors will have its
monthly meeting on Nov.
8 at 7 p.m. at the main
fi re station, 816 Cole St.
in Haines. All residents in
the district are welcome to
attend. COVID-19 protocols
will be in effect.
Soil, water districts
set meetings
during November
Baker County’s four soil
and water conservation
districts have scheduled
call-in meetings during
November. To receive
details for calling in to
any of the meetings, call
541-519-2496. The meeting
schedule:
• Burnt River, Nov. 2,
5:30 p.m.
• Baker Valley, Nov. 4,
noon
• Eagle Valley, Nov. 15,
noon
• Keating, Nov. 16, noon
WEATHER
Today
54 / 31
Sunny
Sunday
54 / 33
Partly sunny
Monday
57 / 39
Rain showers
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
See, COVID/Page A3
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
This view from a drone shows the intersection of 10th Street, Hughes Lane (to the right) and
Pocahontas Road (to the left).
10th Street improvement
plan progressing
Project also includes
sections of Hughes
Lane, Cedar Street,
Pocahontas Road
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker City offi cials are continu-
ing preparations for a major project
to improve traffi c fl ow, including
bicycles and pedestrians, on sec-
tions of 10th Street, Hughes Lane
and Cedar Street.
The Northern Baker Transpor-
tation Improvement Plan focuses
on these street sections:
• 10th Street from Hughes Lane
to Broadway Street
• Cedar Street from Hughes
Lane to Campbell Street
• Hughes Lane from 10th Street
to Cedar Street
• Pocahontas Road from 10th
Street to 17th Street/Chico Street
The project is still in the plan-
ning stage, said Michelle Owen,
Baker City’s public works director.
“This is kind of a concept plan,
it’s a 20-year plan,” Owen said.
“We’re going to have some money in
2024 to actually implement some of
this plan. We do have some House
bill funding that came through
that’s allocated to some of these
projects.”
One of the more contentious
proposals unveiled earlier in the
process was the potential to change
the lane striping on 10th Street
from the current four-lane confi gu-
ration, with two travel lanes in each
direction, to three lanes, with one
travel lane in each direction and a
center turn lane.
That’s the design in place
on Campbell Street from Main
Street east.
The current proposal retains
the current four-lane striping on
10th Street.
“I think the biggest point of dis-
cussion over the course of this is the
four-lane, three-lane thing for 10th
street and clearly there was sup-
port for keeping four lanes,” Owen
said. “We had support for both but
there was more support for keeping
four lanes on 10th Street.”
Owen said 10th Street would
have crosswalks along with curb
extensions at several intersections
to shorten the crossing distance
for pedestrians.
Gretchen Stadler, a member
of the advisory committee for the
project, said the committee met
recently with three members of
the Baker City Council and Bill
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
Harvey, chairman of the Baker
County Board of Commissioners,
along with offi cials from the Oregon
Department of Transportation
(ODOT).
During that meeting the issue of
the lane striping on 10th Street was
a topic of discussion, Stadler said.
“ODOT was presenting infor-
mation about the difference in
safety and showing from studies
that had been done that a three-
lane is a safer option,” Stadler
said. “But the council members
who were in attendance and Mr.
Harvey felt strongly, even coming
into the meeting, that a four-lane
road was the only thing that was
going to work.”
Stadler said that although some
residents oppose the three-lane con-
fi guration on 10th Street because
they don’t like that set up on Camp-
bell, 10th Street is actually wider
than Campbell, so the comparison
isn’t necessarily appropriate.
Stadler said she’s concerned
that the elected offi cials haven’t
adequately considered the infor-
mation that ODOT presented
about the potential safety benefi ts
of a three-lane confi guration on
10th Street.
See, Streets/Page A3
Man sentenced to 75 months in prison
Several other counts were dis-
missed in a plea agreement with
the district attorney’s offi ce. Those
A Baker City man was sen-
tenced to 75 months in state prison charges are fi rst-degree burglary,
fi rst-degree theft, menac-
after pleading guilty to
ing, pointing a fi rearm at
breaking into a Baker
another and fi rst-degree
City home in September
criminal trespassing.
and stealing a handgun.
A grand jury indicted
Alexander Prentice
Griffi n on those charges
Griffi n, 30, of Baker City,
based on an incident that
pleaded guilty on Oct. 14
happened Sept. 17 at Den-
to attempted fi rst-degree
nis Glerup’s home at 1305
robbery, a Class B felony.
Griffi n
Seventh St.
Griffi n was initially
Glerup told police that when he
charged with fi rst-degree robbery, a
returned home he found a person
Measure 11 crime that on convic-
tion carries a mandatory minimum inside, wearing a mask. Glerup
told police the person pointed at
prison sentence of 90 months.
Glerup’s head a .44 Magnum pistol
The 75-month sentence for
attempted robbery is not a manda- that belongs to Glerup, then fl ed.
Baker City Police linked the
tory minimum, and Griffi n could
Sept. 17 incident to a Sept. 15 bur-
potentially qualify for a reduction
glary at a vacant home and shed at
in the sentence.
2610 Clark St., where an estimated
Griffi n also pleaded guilty to
$10,000 in tools, along with copper
being a felon in possession of a
items, had been taken.
fi rearm.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 74, 12 pages
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
Police obtained a search war-
rant for a travel trailer parked at
2260 Wabash St. in south Baker
City, where police believed Griffi n
was living. Police executed the
search warrant the evening of
Sept. 17 and found several items
that had been stolen from the
Clark Street home, and the gun
stolen from Glerup’s home earlier
that day.
Police also found other items
that they suspect were stolen
elsewhere, possibly from local stor-
age units over the past year. Police
also found methamphetamine and
“items indicative of drug traffi ck-
ing,” according to a press release
from Baker City Police.
Police arrested Griffi n the eve-
ning of Sept. 17. He was taken to
the Baker County Jail on a parole
violation charge. He had been re-
leased from the jail recently after
spending three days there on a
separate parole violation charge.
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Jayson Jacoby ..........A4
News of Record ........A2
Jobless
rate dips to
pandemic low
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon is
back on track to recovering jobs lost due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to
state economists.
According to reports by regional econo-
mists Christopher Rich and Dallas Fridley
at the Oregon Employment Department,
unemployment rates have dipped to the
lowest level since the pandemic began in
the spring of 2020.
Union and Wallowa counties saw a
1.5% and 1.6% decrease in unemployment
from September 2020 to September 2021,
respectively, closing out with 5.3% and
5.4% total unemployment rates. Baker
County saw a 2.2% drop during the same
period, from 7.1% to 4.9%, the largest
drop of the Northeastern Oregon counties.
See, Jobs/Page A3
Northern
lights could be
visible tonight
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Lori Rowland is hoping one of nature’s
great light shows will make a rare appear-
ance tonight, Oct. 30, in Baker County.
A geomagnetic storm on the sun could
make the northern lights — aurora bo-
realis — visible tonight in Baker County,
said Rowland, a local photographer who
captured images of the phenomenon
earlier this month.
There are no guarantees, to be sure, in
celestial matters.
But Rowland is excited about the
potential.
According to the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s Space
Weather Prediction Center, a coronal
mass ejection on Oct. 28 could result in
“elevated auroral activity” today extend-
ing into the morning of Oct. 31.
“The warning is a G3, a ‘strong’ watch
level,” according to the Space Weather
Prediction Center.
The terrestrial weather also is promis-
ing.
The National Weather Service is fore-
casting mostly clear skies Saturday and
Saturday night in Baker County.
Rowland recommends people who want
to get a glimpse of the northern lights to
fi nd a vantage point away from city lights
and with an unobstructed view to the north.
When she photographed the northern
lights on Oct. 11 at Pilcher Creek Reser-
voir, west of North Powder, Rowland said
she couldn’t actually see the colors with
her naked eye.
A 20-second exposure on her camera
revealed the colors.
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Outdoors ..........B1 & B2
Sports ........................A6
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B6
TUESDAY — BAKER VOLLEYBALL TEAM SEEKS TO ADVANCE IN PLAYOFFS