SPORTS A5
SPORTS A5
Baker wrestlers go 5-2
at Oregon Classic
Baker senior sets
swim meet record
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • HOME & LIVING • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Mark
Ward of Baker City.
BRIEFING
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Wolf depredation
compensation
committee to meet
The Baker County Wolf
Depredation Compensa-
tion Committee will meet
Wednesday, Jan. 19, at 2
p.m. at the Courthouse,
1995 Third St.
The committee will review
applications for compensa-
tion for livestock killed or
injured by wolves, or that
are missing.
A Zoom link for the public
is available at https://www.
bakercounty.org/online/
meetings.html.
Library book sale
starts Jan. 28
The Friends of Baker
County Library will have the
Winter Book Sale from Fri-
day, Jan. 28, to Sunday, Feb.
6, in the Riverside Meeting
Room during library hours.
A bag sale will take place
Sunday, Feb. 6. Proceeds
support the Friends, which in
turn support the library.
Open house Jan. 21 at
Blue Mountain CC
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College will have an
open house at its Baker City
campus on Friday, Jan. 21,
from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The campus is at 3275
Baker St., between Broad-
way and Campbell streets.
There will be door prizes,
a campus tour, social hour
and the opportunity to meet
the BMCC director and staff.
WEATHER
—————
Today
34/23
Partly sunny
Wednesday
36/27
Mostly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
SPORTS A6
Bulldogs best Pioneers
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
Making Readers
Program at Baker County Library
encourages parents to read at
least 1,000 books to children
before they start kindergarten
The goal is simple: read
1,000 books to a child before
he or she enters kindergarten.
“A thousand books is a re-
ally good goal,” Grammon
said. “That’s like two to three
books a day.”
Paper forms to track books
are available at the library,
2400 Resort St.
“Eventually it will be on-
line,” Grammon said.
The program flyer breaks
down how to reach the goal of
1,000 books:
• One book per day for
three years: 1,095 books
• 10 books per week for two
years: 1,040
• Three books a day for one
year: 1,095
There aren’t many rules for
this program. For instance,
the flyer explains: “Any age
appropriate books count. No
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
matter where you get them
Missy Grammon reads a book to, from left, Calvin Hobbs, Briley
or how many times you read Ebell and Claire Hobbs during storytime at the Baker County
them — they all count.”
Public Library. Grammon is promoting the program 1000
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
Claire Hobbs can’t stay
away from the book.
Even after storytime is over,
she clutches her cup of snacks
and pulls the “Poke-A-Dot”
book into her lap.
This series of board books
is full of plastic circles that can
be pushed in for a satisfying
“pop.”
Every time Claire, who is
almost 2, pushes the plastic
dot, she looks up and grins.
She is, says her mom
Makayla Hobbs, a reader who
gathers stacks of books at
home.
And this — a child drawn
to books and reading — is
what Missy Grammon hopes
to encourage with a new pro-
gram at the Baker County
Public Library.
Grammon is the library’s
youth services specialist. This
month she is promoting a
program called 1000 Books
Before Kindergarten.
Books Before Kindergarten, which encourages the goal of
See, Reading/Page A3 reading 1,000 books before a child enters kindergarten.
ATV wash station planned at Virtue Flat
Aims to reduce
spread of weeds
that can harm
grouse habitat
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Motorcycles and
four-wheelers don’t pose an
immediate threat to sage
grouse, given that the birds
are pretty nimble, but motor
vehicles can potentially cause
indirect problems for the
grouse, a longtime candidate
for federal protection.
Vehicles can carry seeds of
noxious weeds on their tires
or undercarriages, spreading
invasive species over wide ar-
eas and making habitat less
usable for sage grouse.
To reduce that risk in the
most popular riding area
near Baker City — Virtue
Flat Off-Highway Vehi-
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
Work at the parking lot at the Virtue Flat Off-Highway Vehicle
Area several years ago. The area is popular with motorcycle,
ATV and mountain bike riders.
cle Area, about seven miles
east of town — a local team
tasked with preserving sage
grouse habitat plans to build
a wash station at Virtue Flat
where riders can clean their
vehicles for free.
The goal is to reduce the
spread of noxious weeds,
including annual grasses
such as cheatgrass and me-
dusahead that already grow
in parts of the area, said
Dallas Hall Defrees, coordi-
JANUARY 18, 2022 • $1.50
Pedestrian
hit, killed
on I-84
A pedestrian was hit and killed
on Interstate 84 near Baker City
early Sunday, Jan. 16.
Oregon State Police troopers
responded about 12:12 a.m. to
the scene near the Baker Valley
Rest Area, at Milepost 295.
Their preliminary investigation
found that a westbound Volk-
wagen Passat, driven by Karli
McKim, 21, of La Grande, struck
a pedestrian who was standing in
the freeway.
The person, whose name had
not been released by press time
on Monday, Jan. 17, was pro-
nounced dead at the scene.
OSP was assisted at the scene
by the Baker County Sheriff ’s
Office, Baker City Fire Depart-
ment and Oregon Department of
Transportation.
COVID
cases set
weekly
record
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
nator of the Baker County
Sage Grouse Local Imple-
mentation Team (LIT).
That team, which in-
cludes private landowners
as well as officials from lo-
cal, state and federal agen-
cies, is overseeing a $6.2
million, six-year grant from
the Oregon Watershed En-
hancement Board to help
sage grouse in the county.
The Watershed Enhance-
ment Board gets its money
from Oregon Lottery rev-
enue.
Cheatgrass and other
noxious weeds can crowd
out the sagebrush and na-
tive grasses and other plants
that sage grouse depend on
for shelter and for food.
The Virtue Flat OHV area,
which includes more than 50
miles of trails, also encom-
passes sage grouse habitat.
Baker County reported a re-
cord number of COVID-19 cases
last week as the extremely conta-
gious omicron variant continues
to spread.
But as has been seen elsewhere
in the state and country, the less
virulent variant has not resulted
in a proportionate increase in
hospitalizations and deaths.
As of Monday, Jan. 17, the Or-
egon Health Authority hadn’t re-
ported any COVID-19-related
deaths in Baker County since
Dec. 31.
For the seven-day period Jan.
9-15, Baker County reported 176
cases.
That exceeds the previous weekly
record of 139 cases from Sept. 12-
18, during the local peak of the
surge driven by the delta variant.
Case counts dropped off sub-
stantially starting in late September.
Baker County didn’t have any
days with as many as 20 cases
during October, November and
December.
See, Grouse/Page A3
See, COVID/Page A3
Baker’s Cinderella hoops team to be honored
1972 BHS boys
team finished
second at state
tournament
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A basketball team that cap-
tivated Baker residents per-
haps more than any before or
since will be honored a half
century after its improbable
achievements.
The 1972 Baker High
School boys team, which fin-
ished second in the state, will
be recognized later this win-
ter during a game at BHS.
The ceremony was ini-
tially planned for Friday, Jan.
21, when the Baker girls and
boys are slated to play host to
Ontario in the BHS gym.
But with COVID-19 cases
potentially causing post-
ponements — Baker’s girls
and boys games against La
TODAY
Issue 105
12 pages
Grande set for Jan. 11 were
moved to Feb. 8 due to vi-
rus issues in the La Grande
teams — the ceremony likely
will take place some time
in February, said Randy
Daugherty.
That date will be an-
nounced later.
Daugherty, who lives in
Baker City, was a junior on
the 1972 team.
He broke his leg against
Bend with four games left in
the regular season and had to
watch from the bench as his
teammates nearly pulled off a
major upset against Jefferson,
the powerful Portland team,
in the championship game
on March 25, 1972, at Memo-
rial Coliseum in Portland.
Jefferson, which finished
with a 26-1 record, won 59-
52 over the Bulldogs in a
game that had a record atten-
dance of 13,395.
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A3
A feature in the March 27, 1972, issue of the Baker Democrat-Herald chronicled the Baker boys
See, Hoops/Page A3 basketball team’s improbable run to a second-place finish at the state tournament.
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
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