SPORTS A5
SPORTS A7
SPORTS A8
Baker wrestler
claims state title
Baker routs
Outlaws, 61-38
Bulldog girls score
51-32 over Pendleton
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • HOME & LIVING • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Elma
Ziegler of Richland.
BRIEFING
—————
Baker County Garden
Club meets March 2
The Baker County Garden
Club will meet Wednesday,
March 2, at 10 a.m. at the Se-
nior Center, 2810 Cedar St. in
Baker City. Janice Cowan will
present a class on container
gardening. Lunch will be avail-
able, $5 for seniors or $7.50
for those under 60, or bring
your own lunch. New mem-
bers are always welcome.
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022 • $1.50
Convoy protesting vaccine and mask
mandates to roll through Baker County
Convoy on I-84
slated to pass
Baker City
Wednesday
morning
BY ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
A nationwide convoy of
trucks that’s a protest against
COVID-19 vaccine and mask
mandates will travel through
Eastern Oregon on Interstate
84 this week.
According to a flyer shared
around social media, the
American Freedom Convoy
will make its way from Trout-
dale to Washington, D.C.,
stopping at the Arrowhead
Travel Plaza in Pendleton, on
Tuesday, March 1, for the night
before continuing east on In-
terstate 84 and Interstate 80 on
its way to the nation’s capital.
The convoy is scheduled
to roll through Baker Val-
ley between about 9:30 a.m.
and 10 a.m. on Wednesday,
March 2.
ROLL
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.
Hunsaker is a fourth-gener-
ation Oregon Trail pioneer de-
scendant and a native Baker-
ite. She has written a number
of award-winning books
about Western history, and
her work in historical interpre-
tation has been honored by
the Smithsonian Institution,
National Geographic Society,
National Public Broadcasting,
TIME Magazine, Scholastic,
and others. She was named
Baker County Legacy Woman
in 2015.
Indoor mask
mandate, including
for schools, ends
March 12
Sumpter Valley Railroad preparing
for busy 2022 season
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
T
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
he snow still lies
deep in Sumpter,
but preparations are
underway for the 2022 season
of the Sumpter Valley Railroad.
The restrooms and picnic
shelters now have new roofs at
the McEwen Depot, thanks to
a grant, and crews are working
on the engines, said Kim Svaty,
depot manager.
“We were thrilled that Four
Seasons Roofing was able to
complete this project before
the season started in not-so-
perfect conditions with all
the snow,” she said. “What a
great job they did and further
damage was avoided.”
WEATHER
—————
Today
See, Roll/Page A3
See, Convoy/Page A3
COVID
cases
drop to
2-month
low
Getting ready to
Joyce Badgley
Hunsaker to speak at
Heritage Museum
Paul Veluscek, an organizer
from Creswell, near Eugene,
says the spirit of the convoy
will be about freedom, citing
mask and vaccine mandates
as the cause.
Sumpter Valley Railroad/Contributed Photo
The Sumpter Valley Railroad’s #19 engine will be out of service until July due
to maintenance. Although it’s a few months before the trains run, crews are
busy making sure the engines are ready.
43/32
Mostly cloudy
Wednesday
45/32
Rain showers
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The decline in new
COVID-19 cases in Baker
County continues to accelerate
as the omicron surge wanes.
And with cases dropping
statewide, Oregon officials an-
nounced on Monday, Feb. 28,
that the statewide mask man-
date for indoor public spaces,
including schools, would end
March 12, a week earlier than
previously announced.
Gov. Kate Brown said Mon-
day morning that Oregon, Cal-
ifornia and Washington would
lift their mandates simultane-
ously at 11:59 p.m. March 11.
“As has been made clear time
and again over the last two
years, COVID-19 does not stop
at state borders or county lines,”
Brown said in a statement. “On
the West Coast, our communi-
ties and economies are linked.
Together, as we continue to re-
cover from the omicron surge,
we will build resiliency and pre-
pare for the next variant and the
next pandemic.”
Brown had originally said
that the mask mandate would
end March 31, about when Or-
egon Health & Science Univer-
sity projected the state would
drop below 400 daily patients in
See, COVID/Page A3
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Sumpter Valley Railroad/Contributed Photo
Thanks to a grant, the restrooms and picnic shelters have new roofs at the Sumpter Valley Railroad’s McEwen Depot.
Basketball ticket sales online only
Baker athletic
director offers
to help buyers
navigate online
ticketing
line only for the Baker
boys Class 4A playoff game
at Gladstone on Friday,
March 4, at 6 p.m.
The Class 1A boys tour-
nament starts Wednesday,
March 2, with four quar-
terfinal games, at 1:30 p.m.,
BY JAYSON JACOBY
3:15 p.m. 6:30 p.m. and
8:15 p.m.
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Spectators planning to
The girls tournament
attend the Class 1A state
starts Thursday, March
basketball tournament this 3, with four quarterfinal
week at Baker High School, games at the same times.
or the Baker girls Class 4A
The Baker girls will play
playoff game on Saturday, Marshfield, with a berth
March 5, also at BHS, will in the state tournament at
need to buy tickets online. stake, on Saturday, March
Tickets will not be sold
5, at 4 p.m.
at the door.
The Oregon School
Ticket sales are also on- Activities Association
TODAY
Issue 122
16 pages
Classified ....................B4-B6
Comics ..............................B7
Community News.............A2
(OSAA) has had limited
online ticketing over the
past few years, said Kyle
Stanfield, assistant execu-
tive director.
But this is the first year
all ticket sales for the Class
1A tournament have been
online.
Stanfield said ticket sales
for fall sports champion-
ship events were online
only, and he said the sys-
tem worked well.
He said OSAA expanded
online sales during the
pandemic to reduce the
face-to-face interaction at
ticket booths.
The change also helped
OSAA and event venues
Crossword ...............B4 & B6
Dear Abby .........................B6
Home & Living ............B1-B4
Frigid winter
persists
through
February
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
deal with a shortage of
ticket takers, he said.
Finally, Stanfield said on-
line sales make it easier for
OSAA to track sales and to
do financial auditing.
The online ticket pur-
chasing portal is on the
OSAA’s website — www.
osaa.org/tickets.
• Click on Basketball
• Click on Boys or Girls
Basketball
• Click on 1A (or 4A, for
the Baker boys and girls
games)
• Scroll down to select
the game you want tick-
ets for.
While almost every other part
of Oregon basked in springlike
temperatures and sunshine for
at least a few days during Febru-
ary, Baker County pretty much
just shivered.
A winter notable more for
chilly temperatures than for pro-
digious snowfall relented at times
in parts of the region both north
and south of Baker County.
But the frigid weather never
relinquished its hold locally.
While temperatures rose into
the 60s on a few February days at
both Pendleton and Burns, the
balmiest day at the Baker City
Airport was 45, on the 11th.
See, Tickets/Page A3
See, Winter/Page A3
Horoscope ..............B4 & B6
Letters ...............................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Senior Menus ...................A2
Sports ......................... A5-A8
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B8