BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Turkey hunters
rescued after vehicle
stuck in snow
Baker City Herald
Members of the Baker County
Sheriff ’s Office’s Search and
Rescue team helped two tur-
key hunters from Pendleton af-
ter they spent the night in the
Wallowa Mountains when their
car got stuck in the snow earlier
this week.
Curtis Davidson and Missy
Hull were in good conditions
when rescuers arrived Tuesday
morning, April 19, according to
a press release from the Sher-
iff ’s Office.
The pair had gone hunting
on Monday, April 18, near Balm
Creek Reservoir, several miles
north of Keating Valley.
While driving, their Subaru
became high-centered on snow.
They sent a message to a friend,
who contacted other friends but
none was available to help.
Davidson and Hull had food
and water and spent the night in
their car.
On Tuesday morning their
friend called police, and David-
son and Hull were able to call 911,
allowing dispatchers to pinpoint
their location via GPS.
Sheriff Travis Ash deployed
Search and Rescue volunteers at
about 8:27 a.m. on Tuesday. They
drove a side-by-side ATV and
helped Davidson and Hull extri-
cate their vehicle and return to a
main road.
The Sheriff ’s Office reminds
hunters and other recreation-
Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo
Members of the Baker County Sher-
iff’s Office’s Search and Rescue team
helped two turkey hunters from
Pendleton on Tuesday, April 19,
2022, after their car became stuck in
snow near Balm Creek Reservoir.
ists to prepare for a wide range
of weather and road conditions,
and to notify others of where
you’re going and when you plan
to return.
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Jane Barrett, left, and Carmen Ott of Best Friends of Baker, Inc. accepting
$500 from Becky Snyder.
Scouts
Continued from Page A1
The first recipient is the Ra-
chel Center, a nonprofit vol-
unteer program in Baker City
that offers pre and post natal
support to teenage mothers, in-
cluding testing, ultrasounds,
parental education classes and
material needs for infants up to
three years.
Rachel Center Director Vera
Grove accepted the award.
The other $500 donation went
to Best Friends of Baker, Inc. op-
erated by Carmen Ott and Jane
Barrett, both former Girl Scouts.
Best Friends is a nonprofit that
accepts strays and surrenders of
dogs and cats, offering spay and
neuter services and rehoming.
Prior to Best Friends’ creation in
1986, uncollared and unclaimed
dogs caught in Baker City would
be euthanized within 24 hours.
Becky and Penelope are work-
ing toward earning the top awards
in the Girl Scouts program.
In pursuit of the Silver Award,
Becky conducted a dog food drive
and is donating 50 hours of ser-
vice to the community.
“Did you see the barrels set
outside the grocery stores? That
was all Becky,” said Linda, who is
Becky’s mom.
Penelope, who is seeking the
Gold Award, must fulfill 80 hours
of community service and create
a permanent public feature. She
aims to have a splash pad, with an
interactive play fountain, built at a
Baker City park.
“I’ll have to make a proposal to
the city, and it will require fund-
ing,” Penelope said.
With the Baker City troop’s
membership dropping substan-
tially during the pandemic, Linda
Snyder hopes to boost the num-
bers. Girls interested in getting
involved with the Girl Scouts can
learn more at GirlScouts.org.
“Before COVID, we had 22
Scouts,” Linda said. “Today we
only have five.”
Hearing
Continued from Page A1
In September 2020 Mc-
Carty bought 1,560 acres in
the Pine Creek canyon, the
largest chunk of private land
through which the road runs.
Soon after buying the
property McCarty installed
a metal gate across the road,
with a lock, at his eastern
property boundary, near the
edge of Baker Valley.
On Sept. 30, 2020, county
commissioners voted 3-0
to order workers from the
county road department to
remove the lock. That hap-
pened on Oct. 1, 2020.
After commissioners con-
tended that the Pine Creek
Road is a public route, in-
cluding the section through
McCarty’s property, McCarty
asked county officials to sup-
ply records documenting the
road’s status as public.
In the lawsuit he filed in
April 2021, McCarty asks
for either a declaration that
the disputed section of the
Pine Creek Road crossing
his property is not a public
right-of-way, or, if a jury con-
cludes there is legal public
access, that the limits of that
access be defined and that the
county pay him $730,000 to
compensate for the lost value
of the land based on the legal
public access and for other
costs he has incurred as a re-
sult of the county’s actions.
In his lawsuit, McCarty
says that before buying the
timbered property through
which the Pine Creek Road
runs, he reviewed the title re-
port and other documents,
none of which showed a pub-
lic road through the land.
In June 2021, county com-
missioners, citing a state law
that deals with the designa-
tion of public roads, passed a
resolution “declaring the ne-
cessity for the legalization of
Pine Creek Lane.”
McCarty challenged the
county, and on July 29, 2021,
Senior Judge Stephen P. Forte
granted McCarty a tempo-
rary restraining order that
prohibited the county from
continuing its effort to “legal-
ize” the road through McCa-
rty’s property and secure ac-
cess to the public.
The county contested that
ruling, and on Nov. 5, 2021,
Senior Judge Russell B. West
dissolved the restraining order.
West also ruled that the county
can survey the portions of Mc-
Carty’s property that the Pine
Creek Road crosses.
The county had the road
surveyed last fall.
Residents urge
commissioners to
ensure public access
Tuesday’s public hearing
was the next step in the coun-
ty’s effort to declare the road
a public right-of-way.
Many of the people who
spoke during the hearing live
in the Pine Creek area, about
10 miles northwest of Baker
City, and all told commis-
sioners that they and their
families have enjoyed spend-
ing time in the canyon.
Tom Lager, who with his
wife, Betty, owns 11 parcels
in the area, as well as the
Timber Tiger Lodge rental
cabin, called Pine Creek “the
most beautiful canyon in
Baker Valley.”
The Lagers own property
that is accessed by the road
behind the gate that McCarty
installed, including the Tim-
ber Tiger Lodge.
“We love it — it’s our
backyard,” Tom Lager said.
“We enjoyed that country so
much that we have purchased
those parcels.”
Lager said the gate has
limited his family’s ability to
reach their own property.
He also said that since Mc-
Carty bought the 1,560 acres,
Lager was unable, for the first
time in 13 years, to bring to
Pine Creek a young hunter
who has a terminal illness for
a guided hunt through the
Hunt of a Lifetime program.
Lager accused McCarty of
“greed” and of trying “to take
it away from the public.”
“They don’t own the road,”
Lager said. “They own the
1,560 (acres) they purchased.”
Lager said that although
the road also passes through
some of his property, he has
never prevented or even dis-
couraged people from using
the road.
Betty Lager said she has
traveled the Pine Creek Road
on foot and snowshoe, and
by ATV, pickup truck and
snowmobile.
“It’s just a wonderful place
to be able to go and enjoy,”
she said.
Betty Lager said she and
her family feel “like we’re held
hostage” due to the gate Mc-
Carty installed, and that since
the gate went up the Lagers
have used their own property
about “one-tenth” as often as
before.
Lager contended that the
logging McCarty has done
on his property has rendered
sections of the Pine Creek
Road a “big, wide, dusty
mess.”
She also claimed that she
has had dogs “sicced” on her
while behind the gate.
Carmen Nelson, who with
her husband, Jeff, lives on
Pine Creek Lane, said she
tries to hike to Pine Creek
Reservoir at least once every
summer to enjoy the views.
“Everything you see is gor-
geous,” Carmen Nelson said.
“Wildflowers, colors.”
Nelson said she has visited
Pine Creek since she was a
child, including many trips
with her father in a Willys
Jeep.
She said the family used to
camp at the reservoir, and no
one ever questioned whether
the road was public.
When McCarty installed
the gate in September 2020,
Nelson said she was “devas-
tated.”
“I could believe it,” she told
commissioners. “How could
this happen?”
Jeff Nelson, who said he
had his first hunting trip in
the Pine Creek canyon, said
he believes the road should
remain open to the public.
“One person should not
justify the damage they’re
doing to this community by
putting up a gate,” he said.
Robert Seymour, who
owns the Baisley-Elkhorn
Mine, which is near the
North Fork of Pine Creek
and accessed by the Pine
Creek Road, told commis-
sioners he believes “that road
should be a county road.”
Seymour said he believes
the road predates the cre-
ation of the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice in 1905, citing historical
documents that reference
Firefighter
is ensuring he can continue to
aware of the city’s financial
more than $1 million for the
provide for his daughter, who
challenges in operating am-
current fiscal year — the city
is six.
bulances — notably
would have to lay off
Continued from Page A1
“I feel this is what is safe and
that the city doesn’t
about half of the 12
come close to col-
firefighter/paramedics responsible for myself and my
“I love being a paramedic,
family,” he said.
lecting through bill-
who work shifts now.
and I love serving the com-
Johnson said he was sur-
Since Johnson, who
munity,” Johnson, 31, said on ing all the money it
was hired Jan. 8, 2018, prised, and gratified, to land
spends for the ser-
Tuesday, April 19.
had relatively little se- the Washington job as quickly
Nine days earlier Johnson
vice.
niority in the firefight- as he did.
worked that final shift with
But Johnson said
Johnson
But that didn’t overcome his
ers union, he said his
the Baker City Fire Depart-
he didn’t expect that
disappointing at leaving Baker
job would be one of
ment.
the city would set a
He left that job for his cur- six-month deadline for curtail- those lost under that scenario. City, where, he said, he was
“pretty invested.”
That realization prompted
rent position in Washington
ing ambulance services.
him to immediately start
after learning that the Baker
Although he was disap-
searching for a job elsewhere.
City Council had sent a notice pointed at the prospect of
Hired thanks to federal grant
Johnson said his top priority
to Baker County, which is re- having the paramedic part of
Johnson was one of three
sponsible for choosing ambu- the job end, that was hardly
lance providers, that the city
the biggest issue for him per-
Providing quality and compassion to all his patients.
intended to cease ambulance sonally.
service Sept. 30, 2022.
City Manager Jonathan
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That, Johnson said, was a
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of the foot and ankle. Anything from
“big surprise.”
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Responses on behalf of David McCarty
Joelleen Linstrom, who lives with David McCarty, the Pine
Creek canyon landowner who filed a civil suit against Baker
County last year, said she was “very shocked” and disappointed
by some of the comments that residents made to county com-
missioners during a public hearing on Tuesday, April 19.
Linstrom said she believes some of the comments “placed
David in a false light.”
“There was a lot of personal attacks, not facts,” Linstrom said.
Many of the speakers talked about restrictions on public ac-
cess due to the gate that McCarty installed when he bought the
property in September 2020.
Linstrom said that gate is locked only at certain times, such as
when the wildfire danger is high or when loggers are working.
She said a sign posted on the gate includes McCarty’s phone
number. She said people who want to hike or ride horses along
the Pine Creek Road can call McCarty, and he has no objection
to people traveling on that road on foot or by horse.
“David has tried to be neighborly,” Linstrom said.
She said she couldn’t speak about McCarty’s intentions re-
garding allowing motor vehicles on the road.
In a letter dated April 15, 2022, from McCarty’s attorneys,
Janet K. Larsen and Charles F. Hudson of the Lane Powell firm
in Portland, to Baker County commissioners, the lawyers write
that “The risks he (McCarty) wishes to avoid — further trespass,
camping, fires, and ATV use that can present safety and fire haz-
ards given the nature of the terrain — are things that should
concern the County as well, particularly if, as has proven true so
far, the County is either unwilling or unable to devote resources
to address these problems or the related risk of fire loss.”
Larsen and Hudson suggest that rather than pursue the pro-
cess under Oregon law to “legalize” the Pine Creek Road, the
county should try to negotiate a settlement with McCarty.
“His goal from the beginning has been to work in good
faith with the County to resolve any dispute, and he is frus-
trated that the County has treated him as an adversary and
withheld or delayed providing information, even after receiv-
ing formal requests under the public records law,” the attor-
neys wrote in the April 15 letter. “As a result, Mr. McCarty’s
public reputation has been damaged, his personal property
has been vandalized, his business pursuits on the property
unnecessarily impeded and delayed and he has been physi-
cally assaulted on his own property.”
Linstrom said a mediation session in McCarty’s lawsuit has
been set for June 3.
— Jayson Jacoby
the developments at the
Baisley-Elkhorn Mine years
before 1905. That date can
be a factor in determining
whether a road qualifies as a
public right-of-way under a
19th century federal law, RS
2477, that was superseded in
the 1970s but is sometimes
still cited for roads that pre-
date the creation of the Forest
Service or other significant
federal actions.
Ken Helgerson, who lives
near Pine Creek and served
as Baker County roadmas-
ter for 17 years as part of a
37-year career with Baker
County, told commissioners
he believes the Pine Creek
Road does qualify for a pub-
lic designation under RS
2477.
Helgerson said the county,
more than a decade ago, in-
stalled signs along the Pine
Creek Road at the boundaries
of the land that McCarty now
owns, the signs stating that
the road passes through pri-
vate property and that travel-
ers should stay on the road.
James Sanders of Baker
City said he first visited Pine
Creek, along with Tom Lager,
in 1975.
Sanders said he bought a
cabin near the Lagers’ prop-
erty in 2002. He said he has
spoken with “hundreds” of
people in the area since, and
although he’s reminded a few
visitors about not camping
on private property that ad-
joins the road for part of its
length, he’s never had any
vandalism at his cabin or
been harassed.
But that wasn’t the case,
Sanders said, after McCarty
bought the property. He said
acquaintances of McCarty
followed him and his friends
after they rode four-wheelers
to his cabin.
“It’s just crazy,” Sanders
said. “They have no right to
firefighters Baker City hired in
2018 after accepting a three-
year federal grant that paid
about two-thirds of the person-
nel costs for the trio.
Johnson, who had worked
on an ambulance and as a wild-
land firefighter, had a basic
Emergency Medical Technician
certification.
While working in Baker City,
he said he decided, though it
meant spending considerable
time away from his daughter, to
go through the extensive train-
ing to become a paramedic.
He believed he was solidify-
do what they’re doing. Stop
them.”
Several speakers said
they’re disappointed by the
effects of logging that McCa-
rty has done since buying his
property.
Mike Thompson, who said
he first visited the Pine Creek
canyon in 1963, when he was
13, mentioned the logging.
Thompson also said that
the county had made repairs
to a section of the road after it
washed out several years ago.
“It’s a real shame that
someone comes in and says
I own this, and to heck with
the rest of the country,”
Thompson said. “That’s not
right. We need to do some-
thing to keep it open for ev-
erybody.
“You’re shutting off recre-
ation and enjoyment to many
people in this town. We have
a tendency to resent it.”
Deon Strommer, who has
lived on Pine Creek Lane
since the mid 1980s, said an-
nual hikes to Pine Creek Res-
ervoir during the Memorial
Day and Labor Day week-
ends are longstanding family
traditions.
“I always understood (the
road) was public access,”
Strommer said.
He said he respects private
property, including the own-
er’s right to keep their land
closed.
But Strommer contends
the road “should be left open
for the public.”
Mitch Grove, a Baker City
real estate agent, said he
helped Tom Lager sell one of
his parcels. Grove said he had
“firsthand experience” with
what he called “intimidation”
by representatives of McCa-
rty’s.
Grove said he’s concerned
that the situation could re-
duce the value of other pri-
vate properties in the area.
ing his career in Baker City.
He didn’t anticipate that
within four years he would be
facing what he termed “a pretty
drastic change for the depart-
ment that has dramatic effects
on the community.”
Johnson said that although
he doesn’t speak for his former
colleagues in Baker City, he
thinks it’s likely that other fire-
fighter/paramedics, confronted
either with the loss of the job,
as he was, or with the elimina-
tion of the paramedic part of
the work, will look for a job in
any other city.
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