Travel Baker County/Contributed photo
The Easter egg hunt returns to Geiser-Pollman Park in Baker City on April 16.
APRIL 13–20, 2022
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LOCAL A2
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The hunt
is on! The Easter egg hunt begins in Go!
School district announces new hires
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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • BUSINESS & AG LIFE
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022 • $1.50
Council
votes to
let voters
decide on
the train
quiet zone
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Julie Paxton of
Baker City.
BRIEFING
—————
Easter egg hunt,
All Kids Rodeo set
for Saturday
The annual Easter egg hunt
returns this Saturday, April
16, to Geiser-Pollman Park in
Baker City.
Organized by the Baker City
Rotary Club, the hunt offi cially
begins at 10 a.m. — but be
there early because prizes go
fast once the siren sounds.
Following the hunt is the
Baker County Shrine Club’s
All Kids Rodeo, held at Geiser
Pollman Park for the fi rst time.
Participation is free, but regis-
tration is required. Registration
forms are available in advance
at the Baker County Chamber,
490 Campbell St., and Guyer &
Associates, 2790 Main St. On
Saturday, registration starts at
9 a.m. at the park.
Activities will begin after the
hunt, with organized events
starting at 10:30 a.m.
A hot dog lunch will be avail-
able for free to participants,
and $5 for all others. Pro-
ceeds from the rodeo support
the Baker County Shrine Club.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Work session could
happen April 25 or 26
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Patrick Foss, left, and David Van Dyke of the Baker City Fire Department with one of the department’s ambulances on Tuesday,
April 12, 2022.
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER AND JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Councilors decided during their meeting
Tuesday evening, April 12, at City Hall to invite
Baker County commissioners to a joint work
session later this month.
“I think we’re in a position that we still need
to sit down with the county commissioners and
explain where we’re at and then see if they can
offer a solution,” Councilor Shane Alderson
said. “I’ve called for a work session twice and
I think we still need to go ahead with it. I just
want to make enough money to keep going and
offering the best protection that we can.”
Mayor Kerry McQuisten agreed.
“We do need to get that work session sched-
uled and get the commissioners here,” she said.
Councilors suggested as a possible date April
25, one day before the next regular City Council
meeting, or prior to the April 26 meeting.
Under Oregon law, Baker County is solely re-
sponsible for picking ambulance service provid-
ers in each of the county’s four current ambu-
lance service areas.
The Baker City Fire Department is the pro-
vider for the Baker ambulance service area,
which covers the city as well as about two-thirds
Free fi rewood permits
available soon
Beginning May 1, the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest
will offer free personal-use
fi rewood permits, with a limit
of 10 cords per household,
per year. Permits will be
available, at no charge, over
the counter at local Forest
Service offi ces and through
a variety of local vendors. A
processing fee of up to $2 per
transaction may be charged
when obtaining the permits
from local businesses.
WEATHER
—————
Today
40/18
Snow showers
Wednesday
43/26
Dixon
Alderson
McQuisten
of the rest of the county, excluding the Halfway,
Richland and Huntington areas.
The City Council decided on March 22 to
send a notice to the county that the city, due
to projections that its financial losses for am-
bulance service could exceed $1 million per
year, intended to cease ambulance services
Sept. 30, 2022.
If that happened, the county would have to
find a new ambulance provider, likely a pri-
vate company.
The city, meanwhile, is working on a plan that
calls for laying off about half of its firefighter/
paramedics (the budget includes 12 employees,
but two positions are vacant now). Ambulance
calls account for more than 80% of the fire de-
partment’s volume, with fires being much less
common. And although the city spends more
money to provide ambulance services than it
receives from billing, the ambulance revenue is
projected to slightly exceed $1 million for the
current fiscal year. Without that revenue and
without operating ambulances, the city would
neither need, nor could it afford, the current fire
department workforce.
See, Ambulance/Page A6
Snow late
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Pinwheels spin with purpose
Colorful displays
promote April as
Child Abuse
Prevention Month
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
The blue pinwheels pop-
ping up around Baker City
are getting quite a workout
in the wind this month.
But at least the spinning
decorations catch eyes —
the whole purpose of the
“Pinwheels for Prevention”
campaign, which happens
every April for Child Abuse
Prevention Month.
The root of this yearly
campaign dates to 2015,
when the Ford Family Foun-
dation dedicated money to
start development of the
Protect Our Children proj-
ect, which includes trainings
on how to recognize and re-
spond to child abuse.
TODAY
Issue 141
28 pages
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
The wind twirls a pinwheel on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, at a pin-
wheel garden placed at the corner of Second Street and Auburn
Avenue in recognition of April as Child Abuse Awareness Month.
The training is “Stewards
of Children” provided by
the prevention organiza-
tion Darkness to Light.
“This prevention train-
ing teaches adults how to
prevent, recognize and
react responsibly to child
sexual abuse,” Dalton said.
Trainings continued
during the pandemic, but
moved to a virtual format.
Dalton, who is a trained
facilitator for “Stewards of
Children,” said the Protect
Our Children project has
provided the training for
more than 30,000 people.
Next training
Building Healthy Fami-
“This project would lead Dalton, site coordinator for lies will offer the next vir-
tual training on Tuesday,
11 areas across the state
the Protect our Children
April 19, from 9:30 a.m.
and Siskiyou County in
project in Wallowa and
to 11:30 a.m. The final
California in presenting
Baker counties.
day to register is Monday,
trainings to build aware-
Building Healthy Fami-
ness of child sexual abuse
lies was selected to bring the April 18.
and learning steps to pro- program to Wallowa, Baker
tect children,” said Marilyn and Malheur counties.
See, Pinwheels/Page A2
Business .................B1 & B2
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Baker City voters apparently
will get a chance
to weigh in on
the city’s plan to
pursue a railroad
quiet zone after
all, and potentially
override a January
vote by the Baker
Damschen
City Council.
The City Coun-
cil voted 4-2 on
Tuesday night,
April 12, to ask
city staff to pre-
pare a measure
for the Nov. 8,
2022, ballot.
Spriet
Councilor Jo-
anna Dixon,
who made the motion, said
the measure would ask voters
whether they support or oppose a
quiet zone.
Dixon said she intends that if
voters oppose a quiet zone, that
would overturn the Council’s
Jan. 25 decision to apply for a
quiet zone.
The Federal Railroad Adminis-
tration decides whether to approve
quiet zones, in which train engi-
neers are not required to sound
their whistles at public crossings.
See, Zone/Page A3
School board
buys 2nd
home for
international
student
housing
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
After hearing from a local res-
ident who objected to the plan,
the Baker School Board voted 4-0
during a special meeting on Tues-
day, April 12, to buy a home for
$490,000 to house foreign exchange
students while they attend Baker
High School starting this fall.
It’s the second home the school
district has bought this year for
its budding Oregon International
School charter school.
In early March the district
bought a home, at 1706 Washing-
ton Ave., for $295,000.
The second home, also a historic
house, is at 1503 Second St.
Before voting to transfer
$500,000 from the district’s capi-
tal projects fund to buy the Second
Street home, board members —
chairman Chris Hawkins was ab-
sent from the Zoom meeting — re-
viewed financial projections for the
International School.
Those project that the district
will bring in about $28,000 more
from the charter school than it will
spend for the first year of operation,
with estimated surpluses increasing
to $134,000 the second year and to
$248,000 the third year.
Those figures include repay-
ments to the district’s budget for the
home purchases, which is projected
to take about 14 years.
Obituaries .........................A3
Opinion .............................A4
Senior Menus ...................A2
See, Housing/Page A3
Sudoku..............................B5
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6
