TUESDAY
BAKER CROSS-COUNTRY TEAMS PLACE NINTH AT STATE MEET: PAGE A6
In SPORTS, A7
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
November 9, 2021
Local • Home & Living • Sports
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THURSDAY,
NOVEMBER 11
The Baker CIty Herald
will not publish on Thurs-
day, Nov. 11, Veterans
Day, because there is no
postal delivery on that
federal holiday. Breaking
news will be posted on the
Herald’s website at www.
bakercityherald.com.
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscribers Dave
and Joyce Hunsaker of
Baker City.
BRIEFING
Baker County
Garden Club to
meet Wednesday
The Baker County
Garden Club will meet
Wednesday, Nov. 10 at
10:30 a.m. at the Senior
Center, 2810 Cedar St.
Helen Loennig will help
members with Medicare
updates, so please bring
information. Janice Cowan
will present the program.
Lunch is $5 per person.
New members are always
welcome.
Veterans Day
ceremony set for
Thursday
The Veterans of Foreign
Wars and American Legion
will have a ceremony for
Veterans Day on Thursday,
Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. in front
of the veterans memo-
rial on the east side of the
Baker County Courthouse,
1995 Third St.
WEATHER
Today
47 / 26
Rain or snow
Wednesday
44 / 33
Mostly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Judge: County
can survey
Pine Cr. land
The POW-
MIA flag’s
Baker
connection
After Michael Hoff, a 1954 BHS
grad, was shot down over Laos
in 1970, his wife, Mary, sought a
symbol for families waiting for
word from their loved ones
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The black-and-white
fl ag that honors America’s
military members who are
prisoners of war or are miss-
ing in action has a direct
connection to Baker City.
The connection is Mi-
chael George Hoff.
Hoff, who was born in
Baker City on Sept. 11,
1936, was fl ying an A-7
Corsair over Laos, a country
bordering Vietnam, on Jan.
7, 1970.
Hoff’s jet was shot down.
Hoff, a 33-year-old com-
mander in the U.S. Navy,
was listed as missing in
action.
He was never found,
alive or dead.
His wife, Mary Helen
Hoff, waited in her Florida
home with the couple’s fi ve
children, the oldest just
seven, the youngest not yet
two.
The second-youngest of
Michael Hoff’s children, and
the only daughter, is Su-
zanne Hoff Ogawa. She was
just two when her father’s
plane was shot down.
“I have no memories of
my father at all,” Ogawa,
who lives in Bowling Green,
Kentucky, said in a phone
interview on Nov. 4.
But as she grew up,
Ogawa learned not only
about her dad, but about
Baker’s
season
ends
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
A 50th anniversary version of the POW-MIA banner
hangs inside Baker City Hall.
but no answers, that Mary
Hoff was thinking about.
“She really felt like they
didn’t have a symbol,”
Ogawa said. “She wanted
something she could put in
her window, to let people
know what we’re going
through.”
In 1971 Mary Hoff got
in touch with Annin &
Company, an Ohio fi rm
that has been making fl ags
and banners since 1847.
The result was the
black-and-white banner,
with the phrase “You Are
Not Forgotten,” that has
become a common sight
across the country.
“Now we have this
national fl ag,” said Ogawa,
who emphasized that the
original design was in fact
Contributed Photo a banner, designed to be
placed in a window, rather
US Navy Commander Michael Hoff was listed as
than a fl ag. “It’s a pretty
missing in action after his A-7 Corsair jet was shot
neat thing.”
down over Laos on Jan. 7, 1970. Hoff graduated
Earlier in 2021, a Ken-
from Baker High School in 1954.
tucky nonprofi t, Charging
Forward For America Inc.,
Star banners hanging in
her mom’s diligent efforts
contacted Annin Flagmak-
windows.
to ensure that the families
Blue Star banners are for ers with the goal of recreat-
of other missing aviators,
ing the original banner
soldiers, sailors and Marines families who have a mem-
with an inscription, which
ber serving in the armed
had a way to publicly dis-
Ogawa designed, recogniz-
forces.
play their plight.
Families with a Gold Star ing the 50th anniversary.
“My mother was really
Charging Forward For
banner have had a member
an amazing lady,” Ogawa
America has been traveling
killed while serving.
said.
the U.S., donating the com-
But it was the families
(Mary Hoff died Nov. 10,
memorative banners.
who, like the Hoffs, were
2015.)
mired in the purgatory
Mary Hoff had seen
where there only questions,
the Blue Star and Gold
See, Flag /Page A8
A judge has ruled that Baker
County can survey a section of
property owned by the man who
sued the county this spring over
the status of the Pine Creek
Road in the Elkhorn Mountains
northwest of Baker City.
David McCarty fi led the civil
suit in Baker County Circuit
Court on April 30.
He is asking for either a
declaration that the disputed
section of the Pine Creek Road
crossing his property is not a
public right-of-way, or, if a jury
concludes there is legal public
access, that the limits of that
access be defi ned and that the
county pay him $730,000 to
compensate for the lost value
of the land based on the legal
public access and for other costs
he has incurred as a result of the
county’s actions.
The Pine Creek Road, which
accesses public land in the
Elkhorns, runs for about 2½
miles through the 1,560-acre
property that McCarty bought
in September 2020.
On June 16, Baker County
commissioners started a process
intended to declare the disputed
section of road as a public right-
of-way.
See, Survey /Page A8
Baker County
commissioners to
discuss change in
selecting chair
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Commissioner
Bruce Nichols wants to discuss
with his two fellow commission-
ers the possibility of changing
how the chairman, who works
full time as the county’s chief
administrator, is chosen.
Now, voters elect the chair-
man, which is a specifi c position
on the ballot.
Bill Harvey is the current
chairman, serving his second
four-year term after being
reelected in 2018.
Nichols and Commissioner
Mark Bennett work part-time.
See, County/Page A8
Tiny town, big bucks
Koellermeier, who also has a
home in West Linn, said he and his
wife are retired and spend six to
Greenhorn has no year-round
eight months per year in Green-
residents but it does have almost
horn.
$86,000 to fi x its streets.
He said they’re considering mov-
Although those streets — about
one mile in total — are buried under ing full-time into the cabin they’ve
been working on for the past 15
feet of snow about half the year.
years.
Gravel streets, specifi cally —
Koellermeier said a couple who
the nearest stretch of pavement to
had been living most of the year
Greenhorn is Highway 7, several
in Greenhorn, despite its being ac-
miles to the east.
cessible by snowmobile during the
Wintry impediments aside, the
winter and well into spring most
sudden infl ux of dollars for this
years, has decided not to winter in
unique incorporated city in Baker
the remote spot this year.
County is welcome, said Dennis
Although $85,900 wouldn’t
Koellermeier, one of Greenhorn’s
make a massive difference in the
fi ve appointed city councilors and,
street budget for even a city of
he says with a rueful chuckle, its
modest size such as Baker City, for
mayor pro tem.
Greenhorn it’s an unprecedented
“No one else will volunteer,”
sum, Koellermeier said.
said Kollermeier, who has owned
“We’re kind of excited about
property in Greenhorn for about 20
it,” he said in a phone interview
years.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Greenhorn, at the far western edge
of Baker County, doesn’t have any
year-round residents or a property
tax base. But the historic gold
mining town does have a network of
gravel streets, marked with signs.
TODAY
Issue 78, 18 pages
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B4-B7
Comics ..............B8 & B9
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........... B4-B7
Dear Abby ............... B10
Home ....................B1-B4
Horoscope ........... B4-B7
Letters ........................A4
on Thursday, Nov. 4. “This is a big
thing for us.”
Greenhorn collects no money
from property taxes, although
Baker County does get a share of
the taxes its 30 or so property own-
ers pay.
The city’s main revenue
source is the yearly dues assessed
to property owners, said Dale
McLouth, a longtime Greenhorn
property owner whose eight-year
tenure as the city’s mayor ended
Dec. 31, 2020.
Owners who have a cabin or
other structure on their property
pay $100 per year, and those with-
out pay $50, McLouth said.
The dues — which were just $20
per year for all property owners as
recently as 2008 or so — bring in
about $2,500 per year.
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A3
Obituaries ........ A2 & A3
INSIDE TODAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
See, Greenhorn/Page A3
Opinion ......................A4
Sports .................. A5-A7
Weather ................... B10