OUTDOORS B1
SPORTS A5
STATE A6
Fishing and meeting the
police in Sonora, Mexico
Two Baker girls
wrestle at state
Convictions could be
vacated by proposed law
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Michael
Shoemaker of Baker City.
BRIEFING
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Baker County Garden
Club meets March 2
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
Focus on
Families
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2022 • $1.50
Masks likely
optional in
Baker District
schools after
spring break
Potential foster
families can
learn about the
needs during
virtual event
March 16
The Baker County Garden
Club will meet Wednesday,
March 2, at 10 a.m. at the
Senior Center, 2810 Cedar
St. in Baker City. Janice
Cowan will present a class
on container gardening.
Lunch will be available, $5
for seniors or $7.50 for those
under 60, or bring your own
lunch. New members are
always welcome.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Baker School District students likely will be
able to leave one familiar item at home when
they return to classes on Monday, March 28,
the first day after spring break.
Face masks.
State officials announced on Thursday, Feb.
24, that the statewide mask requirement for
indoor public spaces, including schools, will
end March 19.
That’s a change from the initial announce-
ment earlier this month.
Officials said then that the mask mandate
for schools would continue
through March 31, but
that it could end sooner for
other indoor public spaces
depending on the number
of COVID-19 patients in
hospitals statewide.
“We are able to take this
important step, earlier than
Witty
anticipated, because of the
collective diligence and the shared sacrifice
that people in Oregon have demonstrated in
getting vaccinated, wearing masks and limit-
ing their gatherings,” Dean Sidelinger, health
officer and state epidemiologist, said in a
press release.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have
dropped by 47% since peaking in late Janu-
ary, according to the Oregon Health Author-
ity. New infections have plummeted by more
than 80% over the past month.
Megan Huff ord
graduates from
University of Idaho
Megan M. Hufford of North
Powder recently graduated
from the University of Idaho
with a degree in animal and
veterinary science.
Joyce Badgley Hunsaker
to speak at Baker
Heritage Museum
Joyce Badgley Hunsaker
will give a talk titled “From
Bloomers to Briefcases:
Women’s Legacies in Cre-
ating Community” for this
month’s lecture series at the
Baker Heritage Museum, in
partnership with the Ameri-
can Association of University
Women (AAUW).
The event is at 6 p.m.
Tuesday, March 8, at the
museum, 2480 Grove St.
Admission is free.
WEATHER
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Today
30/16
Snow late
Sunday
32/19
Rain or snow
Monday
36/27
Afternoon rain
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Contributed Photo
Kala and Terry Linville have been foster parents, and adopted their daughter Evey in 2021. Foster families will share
their experiences during a virtual event on March 16, 2022. Anyone interested in learning more about foster care is
encouraged to join.
GOBHI focuses on “treatment
foster care,” while Every Child pro-
Foster families are needed in
vides volunteer opportunities to
Northeastern Oregon, and an event support children in the foster sys-
is scheduled in March for those
tem and families that provide care.
who would like to learn more about
“We’re trying to offer the whole
foster care.
spectrum of what’s available to
And it will be virtual, so people
people interested in fostering,”
can join from anywhere.
Blessing said.
The session will be Wednesday,
She hopes to spur interest from
March 16, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Oregon counties, where
To register, go to https://every-
foster families are urgently needed.
childneoregon.org/. Click on “Up-
“Statewide there’s a need, but we
coming Events” and search by
continue in those six eastern coun-
county to find the event.
ties to need homes,” she said.
The official title is “Virtual Ex-
The need is especially great for
plore Fostering — Every Child NE older children, children who iden-
Oregon.”
tify as LGBTQIA+ and families for
During the discussion, a panel of sibling groups.
experienced families will share their
stories about providing foster care. The numbers
“To share their experiences, and
Blessing said District 13 (Baker,
why they got started,” said Tammie Union and Wallowa counties) had
Blessing, resource family retention a total of 54 children in foster care
and recruitment champion for Dis- and 36 resource homes at the end
tricts 13 and 14, which includes
of January.
Baker, Union, Wallowa, Grant, Har-
As of Jan. 1, 2022, there were
ney and Malheur counties. “Having 5,393 children in foster care in
families talk about it is our best re- Oregon — the fewest in 16 years,
cruitment tool.”
according to the Oregon Child
This “Learn About Foster Care” Welfare Division.
event is sponsored by Every Child,
The reason for the low number,
Oregon Department of Human
Blessing said, is “family first” leg-
Services, and GOBHI (Greater Ore- islation, which has the focus on
gon Behavioral Health Inc.).
keeping children with families and
Those three organizations, Bless- providing support.
ing said, represent different parts of
If foster care is necessary, Bless-
the foster system.
ing said the first step is to look for
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
relatives or close friends who can
foster the child.
“We’re trying to maintain rela-
tional connections with kids — try-
ing to keep kids connected to peo-
ple they already know,” she said.
In the case that a relative can’t
be found, the child is cared for by
a general applicant foster family —
but Blessing said work continues to
find a relative.
The current recruitment efforts
across the state are for general appli-
cant families.
“So we have enough families,
and they’re diverse enough, that
we can match children to a fam-
ily,” she said.
Every Child
Those who aren’t ready to pro-
vide full-time care can learn more
about foster care by volunteer-
ing with Every Child NE Oregon,
which works to expand the support
system around foster care.
“There are ways to support fos-
tering without taking a child into
your home,” Blessing said. “It’s a
way to dip your toe in and learn
what it’s about.”
She said that a general appli-
cation family, on average, thinks
about becoming a foster family for
two to three years.
To learn more about Every Child,
visit everychildneoregon.org/ or fol-
low the page on Facebook.
See, Masks/Page A2
Renovation of
Interpretive
Center starts
on March 2
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The biggest project at the Oregon Trail
Interpretive Center near Baker City since
it opened almost 30 years ago will begin
March 2.
The $6.5 million makeover is designed to
turn the Center, which has attracted almost
2.4 million visitors, from an energy hog to
a building with a more modest appetite for
electricity.
Achieving that will entail much more than
cosmetic work.
The Bureau of Land Management, the fed-
eral agency that operates the Center on Flag-
staff Hill about 5 miles east of Baker City, has
hired Hess Contracting of Preston, Idaho, to
replace most items attached to its frame.
That includes installing new cement
board siding, insulation, roofing, windows
and doors.
The contractor will also replace the heat-
ing and cooling system for the all-electric
building.
See, Center/Page A3
Resident finds skinned coyote beside street
He found the carcass Mon-
day morning, Feb. 21.
Brian Blomster wondered
“I was freaked out because
what caused the neighbor’s
it looked like a dog,” Blom-
dog to jump into the bushes
ster said.
beside the street and later at-
He called the Baker County
tracted his cat’s attention.
Dispatch Center.
Then he saw what it was.
Officer Rand Weaver of
And wished he hadn’t.
the Baker City Police De-
The carcass of a skinned
partment arrived around
coyote was discarded atop
9:30 a.m. He said he took the
some shrubs beside Hillcrest
carcass to the Animal Clinic
Drive just across the street
of Baker, where a veterinar-
from the home, at 305 Hill-
ian identified the carcass as a
crest, where Blomster has lived coyote, not a domestic dog.
for 4 years.
Blomster said he’s convinced
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 121
12 pages
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that whoever dumped the car-
cass did so the previous night.
If it had been there on Sun-
day, Feb. 20, he’s certain he
or someone else would have
seen it.
Blomster said that although
he’s glad the carcass wasn’t a
domestic dog, he still is both-
ered that someone would toss a
dead animal beside a residential
street rather than outside town.
“It just feels offensive,” he
said in a phone interview on
Friday, Feb. 25. “Why would
you do that?”
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Blomster and Weaver both
said that inside the carcass was
a surgical rubber glove and a
length of red cord.
Weaver figures the person
who skinned the coyote wore
gloves while doing so, and
used the cord to suspend the
carcass while skinning it.
Weaver said if police could
identify the person who dis-
carded the carcass, the per-
son could be cited for offen-
sive littering.
But he conceded that’s ex-
tremely unlikely to happen,
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absent an eyewitness or se-
curity camera evidence that
identifies at least a vehicle.
Weaver said the state crime
lab isn’t going to try to ex-
tract human DNA from the
carcass for what is a misde-
meanor offense.
Blomster said he under-
stands that it’s improbable
anyone will be punished.
But he’s still upset about
the incident.
“It was extremely creepy,”
he said. “Why didn’t they just
leave it out in the wild?”
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