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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2022)
SPORTS A6 Bulldogs avenge Fruitland loss JANUARY 5–12, 2022 WWW.GOEASTERNOREGON.COM Explore Little Pinecones Book Club PAGE 4 Read Best books of 2021 New art shows open in Baker City PAGE 6 See Silvies Valley School PAGE 14 PAGE 8 Dale Beatty/Contributed image Dale Beatty’s artwork will be shown at Sweet Wife Baking, 2028 Main St., beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7. GO! MAGAZINE SATURDAY Your weekly guide to arts and entertainment events around Northeast Oregon The winter wind as sculptor — and as scalpel “The food is fresh, locally sourced and unbelievably delicious. Their IPAs are distinct and clearly not copy-cats of each other or anyone else making NW IPAs.” - Yelp Review, Bend. Oregon 1219 Washington Ave • La Grande, OR 97850 www.sideabeer.com IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • BUSINESS & AG LIFE • GO! MAGAZINE Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com JANUARY 6, 2022 • $1.50 COVID-19 SURGE QUICK HITS ————— Good Day Wish To A Subscriber Goal is to continue schools, sports A special good day to Herald subscriber Gordon Schaad of Baker City. BRIEFING ————— Haines Fire Protection District board meets Jan. 10 School chief says it could be challenging HAINES — The Haines Fire Protection District board of directors will have its month- ly meeting Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at the main station, 816 Cole St. All district residents are invited. COVID-19 proto- cols will be followed. BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald Plowing Ahead Baker County seeks volunteers for committees Baker County is seeking volunteers to serve on sever- al committees, boards and commissions. These include: • Baker County Planning Commission. • Natural Resource Advi- sory Committee. • Eastern Oregon Coordi- nated Care Local Community Advisory Committee. • Compensation Board • Northeast Oregon Eco- nomic Development District Board. Anyone interested must submit a volunteer form. Forms are available online at www.bakercounty.org/ commissioners. More infor- mation is available by calling the county commissioners’ offi ce at 541-523-8200 or by emailing Heidi Martin at hmartin@bakercounty.org. Persistent snow keeps city crews working around the clock there’s little traffic, Fisk said. The berm crew typically starts around midnight. Snow has occasionally, if On the morning of Jan. 5 a briefly, stopped falling in Baker City this week, but scraping the four-man crew started around 4 a.m., plowing the several stuff off city streets has been a inches of snow that had accu- constant task. mulated overnight near Saint Crews from the Baker City Alphonsus Hospital, schools Public Works Department and other high-priority areas. had scarcely finished plowing With snow continuing to high-priority routes when the latest in a series of storms com- fall, Fisk said it’s likely that menced on Tuesday afternoon, city crews will also plow the less-traveled neighborhood Jan. 4. streets across the city, possibly “It snowed pretty much all night,” Tom Fisk, operations su- starting on Thursday, Jan. 6. Although warmer tempera- pervisor for the department, said on Wednesday morning, Jan. 5. tures and rain are forecast for That means workers will be Thursday and Friday, Jan. 7, busy for at least the next few Fisk said the depth of snow on days not only plowing snow, but streets, when it turns to slush, also loading snow from berms could make some areas impass- on some streets and hauling it able to some vehicles. away in dump trucks. The burgeoning berms usu- A wavering front ally are dealt with at night, when The culprit in this week’s BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com WEATHER ————— Today 40/33 Rain likely Wednesday 40/31 Light snow See, Schools /Page A2 snowy onslaught is a weather front that can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be warm or cold. This lethargic front has alter- nated between a north-moving warm front and a south-traveling cold front, said Jay Breidenbach, the warning coordination mete- orologist at the National Weather Service office in Boise, which is- sues forecasts for Baker County. Often during winter, fronts move through relatively quickly, propelled by the powerful jet stream winds 20,000 feet and higher in the atmosphere, Breidenbach said. But for the past several days the jet stream has plunged well to the south of Oregon, leaving the state, and most of the Pacific Northwest, in what meteorolo- gists call a longwave trough. See, Snow/Page A3 Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. Although Oregon state officials are recommend- ing schools pause sports and other extra- curricular ac- tivities due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, the head of the Baker School Witty District re- mains op- timistic that the district can continue to operate as usual. “I remain hopeful,” Baker Schools Superintendent Mark Witty said on Wednes- day morning, Jan. 5. “We’ve been pretty successful to this point.” Property tax payments exceed 6-year average BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Although a Baker County group distributed a flier this fall urging residents to withhold their property tax payments until Baker City and County officials defied Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 vac- cine mandate, tax payments through the end of 2021 were higher than the six-year aver- age. As of Dec. 31, 2021, the county had received almost 90.2% of property taxes for the 2021-22 tax year, said Alice Durflinger, the county’s trea- surer and tax collector. See, Taxes /Page A3 Christina Witham files for county commissioner Baker City native is first to file for one of the two positions to be decided this year BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Christina Witham has been making signs for other people for many years but she isn’t quite comfortable with seeing her own name on one. Much less signs all over Baker City. But Witham will have to get used to it as she seeks her first elected office. Witham, 52, a Baker City native, has filed for position 2 on the three-member Baker County Board of Commis- sioners. That’s the part-time position held now by Mark Bennett. Bennett, whose term con- tinues through the end of TODAY Issue 100 28 pages 2022, is not seeking reelection. in the past, but she always de- Witham, a 1987 Baker High clined. School graduate, is the first “I’m not a politician at all person to file for either of the and don’t want to be,” she said two commissioner positions. in an interview on Tuesday, Commission Jan. 4. Chairman Bill Har- When a friend vey, whose term also broached the topic expires at the end again in October 2021, of 2022, has also Witham said she was said he won’t seek initially hesitant as be- another four-year fore. term. But she said she Witham Witham, who talked with Harvey, owns Oregon Sign and others, and she Company in Baker City, said concluded that she “didn’t the uncertainty about who have any excuses” not to run. will replace Harvey as the lone Witham said Russ Witham, full-time commissioner was her husband of 33 years, also the factor that was hardest for encouraged her, telling her he her to overcome in deciding to was confident she was capable file as a candidate. of doing the job. But ultimately she decided Christina Witham said she this fall to collect signatures ultimately decided that this is on a candidate petition, which the right time for her to try to was approved Dec. 8. serve Baker County in a new Witham said friends have way. encouraged her to run for a “Now, more than ever, I county commission position think people need to be stand- Business .................B1 & B2 Classified ....................B3-B4 Comics ..............................B5 Community News.............A3 Crossword ...............B3 & B4 Dear Abby .........................B6 Horoscope ..............B3 & B4 Lottery Results .................A2 News of Record ................A2 ing up if they see something that’s wrong or they want to change something,” she said. Witham emphasizes that she believes the current com- missioners — Bruce Nichols, along with Bennett and Har- vey — have done a good job representing county residents, including during the pan- demic, during which Bennett has served as the county’s inci- dent commander. Witham said that although COVID-19 “is a real thing,” she doesn’t support mandates for vaccines or masks. She thinks residents should decide for themselves, and for their children, whether to be vaccinated or to wear masks. “We’re going to have to learn to live with COVID and its strains,” Witham said. “We’re going to have to be smart about it, and protect the most vulnerable.” Election Schedule The deadline for county commissioner candidates to file is March 8, 2022. Both position 2, held by Mark Bennett, and position 1, held by Bill Harvey, will be on the ballot. The primary election is May 17, 2022. If there are two or more candidates for either of the positions, and one candidate receives more than half the votes, that candidate would be elected in the primary. If none of the candidates in either race gets more than half the votes, the top two candidates would advance to a runoff in the Nov. 8, 2022, general election. See, Witham /Page A3 Obituaries .........................A2 Opinion .............................A4 Senior Menus ...................A2 Sports ...............................A6 Turning Backs ..................A2 Weather ............................B6