SATURDAY
FLAUNTING FORESTS: CELEBRATING THE TAMARACK, OUTDOORS, PG. B1
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
November 6, 2021
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Missing teen
returns home
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Marvin
Endicott of Baker City.
BRIEFING
OTEC canned food
drive going on
through Nov. 19
Oregon Trail Electric
Cooperative is having a
canned food drive through
Friday, Nov. 19. You can
drop off canned, nonper-
ishable food items at any
OTEC offi ce during regular
business hours.
The Baker City offi ce
is at 4005 23rd St. All
donated food will be given
to food banks in the four
counties that OTEC serves:
Baker, Union, Grant and
Harney.
WEATHER
Today
50 / 25
Rain showers
Sunday
47 / 24
Partly sunny
Monday
46 / 35
Partly sunny
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Royce Peterson inoculates Sloan Defrees, right, with the Pfi zer COVID-19 vaccine on Friday morning,
Nov. 5, at the Baker County Health Department. Sloan’s mom, Jess Defrees, sits beside her.
Ready for the shot
First group of kids, ages 5 to 11,
receive COVID-19 vaccine
to receive the vaccine that
gained federal approval ear-
The pair of fi ve-year-olds lier in the week. There are
about 1,200 children in that
are discussing COVID-19
vaccinations, and it’s a seri- age group in the county.
Although the vaccine
ous conversation.
wasn’t available everywhere
“I hate waiting,” says
in Oregon on Friday, Nancy
Gwen Swart.
“It just makes it scarier,” Staten, director of the
Health Department, said
says Sloan Defrees, her
the agency took advantage
fellow Baker City kinder-
of a brief opportunity to
gartner.
place an order for doses and
“Sloan,” Gwen replies
the smaller needles that are
with an earnestness that
belies her age, “you already used to administer the vac-
cine to small children.
got your shot.”
“We’re fortunate in that
Sloan’s gentle response:
regard,” Staten said.
“Gwen, don’t worry.”
Gwen’s and Sloan’s
Five minutes later, both
mothers, Anna Swart and
these girls had received
their fi rst dose of the Pfi zer Jess Defrees, agreed.
Anna Swart said she
vaccine at the Baker County
and her husband, Tony,
Health Department.
who both work at Saint
Gwen and Sloan were
Alphonsus Medical Center
among about 25 children,
in Baker City, have been
ages fi ve to 11, who were
inoculated Friday morning, eagerly anticipating the
approval of the vaccine for
Nov. 5, the fi rst group in
that age range in the county younger children.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Swart, who also works in
Baker schools, said she and
her husband were both
inoculated soon after the
vaccines became available
in December 2020.
Swart said she’s also
had a booster shot.
“We just want to do our
part in ending this,” she
said. “COVID has affected
all of our lives so much.”
Swart said it was an
easy decision to have
Gwen vaccinated.
“She doesn’t have a
high risk of becoming very
sick, but she could still
spread it to others,” Swart
said of her daughter.
Once Gwen is vaccinat-
ed, Swart said she hopes
that should her daughter
be exposed to the virus at
school, she would not have
to quarantine.
Swart said she is
completely confi dent in
the safety of the vaccine,
and that the possibility of
a reaction to the vaccine
is much lower than the
chance that Gwen could be
More Information
Parents interested
in scheduling a
vaccination for children
ages 5 and older can
call the Baker County
Health Department at
541-523-8211.
infected with the virus.
“I trust the doctors, the
CDC, the FDA, in making
the right choice for our
kids,” Swart said.
She said she has talked
often with Gwen about
COVID-19 and the vac-
cines.
“I don’t want her to be
scared of COVID, and she
isn’t,” Swart said. “We’ve
talked more about protect-
ing her and others from
getting sick.”
Defrees, whose hus-
band, Nathan, is a doc-
tor, said they also had
no qualms about having
Sloan vaccinated as soon
as doses were available.
Michelle Gately, the mother of
Kaitlyn Rose Gately, the 17-year-
old Baker City girl who was
reported as missing and endan-
gered earlier in the week, said
late Thursday, Nov. 4 that her
daughter has returned home.
In a message to the Baker
City Herald, Michelle Gately
wrote that she’s “so happy that
she’s home and will defi nitely
be working on bettering the
relationship so she doesn’t feel
she has to run away when there
is friction between us.”
Michelle said she slept
through the night for the fi rst
time since Kaitlyn went missing
on Oct. 28.
Michelle thanked all those
who shared Kaitlyn’s photo
and helped her search for her
daughter.
The Baker City Police
department posted on its
Facebook page on Nov. 1 that
Kaitlyn Gately was “missing
and endangered.”
Michelle Gately said in an
interview with the Herald that
she had seen her daughter at
Baker High School on the morn-
ing of Oct. 28. They argued about
a cellphone Kaitlyn had been
using, which was not her own,
and Kaitlyn didn’t return home
that afternoon.
COVID cases
continue to
drop
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The wave of COVID-19 cases
that swept Baker County during
the late sum-
mer continues
to recede as
autumn pro-
gresses.
Both the
number of
cases, and the
Staten
percentage of
tests that are
positive, have declined over the
past two weeks, to their lowest
levels since mid-July.
Breakthrough cases — in-
fections in people who are
See, Vaccine/Page A3
See, COVID/Page A3
Pharmacy crisis
Pine Creek resident
seeks no-shooting zone continues
for the source of the noise,
he found a bullet hole in
his home.
A resident in the Pine
Davis, who reported the
Creek area northwest of
Baker City has asked county incident to the Baker County
Sheriff’s Offi ce, said the bullet
commissioners to enact a
no-shooting zone in that area had come from the north,
after his home was twice hit went through one exterior
and two interior walls, pass-
by stray bullets.
Ted Davis, who made the ing over his bed and hitting
a closet.
request of commissioners
“As you can imagine, that
during their regular meet-
ing Wednesday, Nov. 3, said kind of rattled me a little bit.
his house was hit by the fi rst But in no way do I think it’s
intentional,” Davis said.
bullet during the summer
He said he wrote it off to a
of 2020.
once-in-a-lifetime accident.
“I didn’t know it at the
But then it happened
time but I was home,” Davis
again in August of this year.
told commissioners. “I was
Davis said he started talk-
sitting there and I heard this
huge bang and I had no idea ing to neighbors to see how
they felt, fi nding most felt
what it was.”
He said that after looking agreed with him that some-
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 77, 12 pages
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
thing needed to be done. He
gathered about 30 signatures
from neighbors on a petition.
Davis emphasized to com-
missioners that he has noth-
ing against guns or shooting.
“I’m not trying to take any-
one’s guns. I own guns. I’m
not trying to take anyone’s
guns away. I just don’t want
my house shot,” Davis said.
“There’s just, with all those
houses, I would feel really
bad if someone got hurt and I
didn’t bring this forward.”
Commissioner Mark
Bennett said Davis’ request
is a starting point. Bennett
suggested the county sched-
ule a meeting to hear from
other residents.
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
See, Zone/Page A3
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER slated for Nov. 9, combined
soconner@bakercityherald.com with staffi ng shortages in
Amid the bustle of shop-
pers, one group of customers
stood still, their patience
waning, Thursday morning,
Nov. 4 at the Safeway store
in Baker City.
The members of this
group were waiting for their
turn at the pharmacy.
Some near the front
of the line said they had
been waiting for more than
an hour.
Similar lines have
formed at times leading to
the three pharmacies in
Baker City, in the Safe-
way, Albertsons and Rite
Aid stores.
The closure of the phar-
macy in the Bi Mart store
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Jayson Jacoby ..........A4
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Outdoors ..........B1 & B2
TUESDAY — BAKER COUNTY’S SMALLEST CITY GETS BIG GRANT
the remaining pharmacies,
has created a situation
that’s frustrating for cus-
tomers and employees alike.
Paul Musser, one of
those waiting in line at Rite
Aid on Thursday morning,
said he transferred his pre-
scriptions from Bi Mart to
Rite Aid. Musser was upset
as he waited with about 15
other customers.
“My prescription was
called in on Monday to
here,” he said. “Today the
line is short. Yesterday it
was all the way down and
around. It’s all because of Bi
Mart and Kate Brown.”
See, Pharmacy/Page A3
Sports ........................A6
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B6