BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Cemetery
Continued from Page A1
Owen said the contractor keeps track of re-
moved items, organizing them by section, to
make it easier for relatives or friends to retrieve
and return them to the proper grave.
Eric Pierce, who owns HnT Lawn Care, said
he and his crew, during the spring clean up,
strive to pull out dead grass and move the larger
decorations.
He said coins, which are often left on head-
stones, are left.
Rocks, which are sometimes left on Jewish
graves, can be a problem.
“We can’t really have rocks out there. Because
when they do get off the headstone, they hurt
our lawnmowers,” Pierce said. “So we have to
pick the rocks up.”
He said workers try to leave as many deco-
rations as possible, and they treat all items with
respect, including those that are removed and
either stored or discarded.
Pierce said it’s a considerable task to care for
Mount Hope with its acres of grass, along with
many trees and shrubs.
“Just keeping it green,” Pierce said.
The contractor also tries to keep ground
squirrel populations under control.
The job can be even more challenging during
droughts, when the city reduces water use, in-
cluding at the cemetery and city parks.
During summer, when the grass grows rapidly,
Pierce said his crews are mowing at Mount Hope
at least four times per week, and using string
trimmers around gravestones five days a week.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File
Mount Hope Cemetery on Memorial Day in 2020.
The city also sells grave sites — more than
4,000 of the approximately 17,000 available
spaces have been reserved.
The city charges $451 for a standard space,
and $467 for perpetual care of the space. A stan-
dard burial costs $805.
The city uses the money to maintain the
cemetery.
The cemetery department also has two trust
funds that provide much of the money to care
for Mount Hope.
The larger fund, the Mount Hope Trust Fund,
contains about $500,000.
The second is the John Schmitz Memo-
rial Fund, which contains about $277,000.
Schmitz was a Baker City businessman who
left the city the money, asking that it be used
only at the cemetery.
Over the years the city has used money from
the Schmitz Fund for a variety of purposes, in-
cluding building a paved lane in the cemetery
named Schmitz DRive.
About Mount Hope
Although the city owns the cemetery, the
The property has served as a cemetery since
property is split into more than a dozen sec-
the 19th century, originally as private property
tions, including the Catholic (one of the older
but later becoming city property.
parts of Mount Hope, with many 19th century
The cemetery contains more than 15,000
marked graves. A searchable database of burial graves), Masonic, Odd Fellows, Elks and Eagles.
The cemetery also has a special section re-
records is available on the city’s website at http://
served for veterans.
bakercity.com/2153/Cemetery.
Contributed Photo
Tiller’s Folly is one of the bands scheduled to play at the Chautauqua Music Festival in Richland May 20-
22, 2022.
Festival
Artley also has tickets at
her restaurant, Sara’s Rich-
Continued from Page A1
land Cafe.
Tickets are $17 for Friday
only, and $25 for Saturday.
Those interested in the
An all access ticket for both
open mic can contact her in
advance at badroadsfestival@ days is $35.
For children ages 6-12, tick-
gmail.com.
ets are $10 for Friday only,
Sunday again features
$15 for just Saturday, or $20
breakfast at the Eagle Val-
for a weekend pass.
ley Grange from 7 a.m. to
11 a.m., and vendors will be
open just for the morning,
Lodging, sponsors
from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Artley said they’ve posted
A gospel jam finishes
a list of lodging partners on
the festival from 10 a.m. to
the website — look under “At-
11 a.m.
tendee Info.”
“We’re encouraging people
Tickets
to use our partners who are
Tickets are on sale at www. sponsoring us,” she said.
chautauquamusicfestival.
As for sponsors, she said
com, or in Baker City at Ry-
organizers — who are all vol-
der Bros. and the A-Frame
unteers — welcome more
RV Park.
businesses that would like to
Ambulances
“I’d like to keep it local,”
ume of ambulance calls has
for the division chiefs, but that
Spriet said. “We need that ser- been rising for the past few
schedule remains in place.
Continued from Page A1
vice. But somebody has to pay years. And he be-
The second fac-
for the service.”
lieves that sometime
tor is replacing the
He said he’s not optimis-
The city taxpayers, City Council
later this year, the city,
two vacancies in the
and the Baker City budget can- tic that voters would agree to to maintain its cur-
firefigher/paramedic
raise their property taxes to
not continue in this fashion.”
rent level of service,
ranks — Brian John-
pay for ambulance services,
Guyer, who was appointed
would need to hire
son, who left ear-
however.
to the City Council in De-
three more firefighter/
lier this month, and
cember 2021, said the situa-
paramedics. The re-
a second position
tion confronting the city and
City manager, union president sulting cost — likely
that’s been vacant
Nichols
county is unfortunate.
between $300,000 and
for several months.
disagree on need for
He said he didn’t relish vot- new firefighters
$350,000 annually —
The city has already
ing on March 22 to send the
Spriet said the city’s setting
would increase the
budgeted those posi-
notice to the county.
of the Sept. 30 date for end-
city’s personnel costs
tions for the current
“None of us really wants to
ing ambulance service, and
as well as the gap be-
fiscal year, so filling
see this happen,” Guyer said.
the proposed cuts to the fire
tween expenses and
those two vacancies
He said he recognizes that
department, must have been
ambulance revenues.
would not increase
the situation affects not only
“morale-crushing” to the de-
The city’s number
the city’s personnel
Spriet
ambulance service, but also the partment’s employees.
of ambulance calls
costs beyond what it
city’s fire department staffing.
At least one firefighter/
rose from 1,368 in
anticipated.
The proposed city budget for paramedic, Brian Johnson,
calendar year 2018
Johnson agrees that
the fiscal year that starts July 1, told the Herald that he took
to 1,787 in calendar
if call volumes con-
2022, which the city released
another job, in Washington
year 2021 — a 30.6%
tinue to increase, at
this week, calls for cutting the
state, as a result.
increase.
some point the city
fire department staffing from
County Commissioner
But Casey John-
would need to hire
the current 16.25 full-time
Bruce Nichols said it seems
son, president of the
three new firefighter/
equivalents (FTE), to 10.5. The clear to him that Cannon and local firefighters’
paramedics to avoid
Guyer
department’s personnel costs
the city councilors “want out of union, disagrees. He
excessive overtime
would drop from $2,174,000 to the ambulance service.”
deemed Cannon’s
costs and risk em-
$1,476,000 — a 32% decrease.
Nichols said his goal is to
contention about the immi-
ployee burnout.
That would be necessary in “buy some time” by negotiat-
nent need to hire three new
“I don’t think that’s immi-
part because although the city ing a one-year contract with
workers “invalid.”
nent, but it is on the horizon,”
doesn’t collect all that it bills for the city that would have the
Johnson believes the fire de- Johnson said.
ambulance runs — the collec- fire department continue as
partment staffing, as budgeted
tion rate is running about 50% the provider for the Baker am- for the current fiscal year, is
City budget board member’s
this fiscal year, up from 32.7% bulance service area.
sufficient to handle the call
viewpoint
in 2019 — the ambulance
Randy Daugherty, a former
The idea, Nichols said, is to volume for the next fiscal year
bills do bring in revenue. The
city councilor and a member
keep the fire department staff
even with the rising trend.
amount projected for the cur- intact — preserving the cur-
There are, however, two fac- of the city’s budget board, said
rent fiscal year is $1,057,000.
rent fire response capability as tors affecting the department’s on Thursday, April 21, that
Without that revenue, the city well as its ambulance service
he believes the city can afford
ability to deal effectively with
couldn’t support as large a fire- — to give local officials time to the call volume, Johnson said. to continue operating ambu-
fighting staff as it has now.
lances for the next fiscal year
ask voters, possibly in the May
The first is the city’s deci-
In addition, ambulance runs 2023 election, to approve a levy sion in July 2021 to change the based on its current staffing
account for about 80% to 85% or other new revenue source.
schedule for the three division and budget.
of the department’s service
Daugherty, who has previ-
That could potentially solve chiefs (previously designated
calls, with fires being compara- the city’s longer term finan-
ously served as chairman of
as battalion chiefs) from the
tively uncommon.
cial issues in providing ambu- standard firefighter shift of 24 the budget board, which con-
The union representing city lance services — issues that
hours on duty and 48 hours off, sists of the seven city coun-
cilors and seven community
firefighters contends that the
Nichols acknowledges are
to a 40-hour, weekday sched-
members, said it’s an “un-
proposed cuts, which would
considerable.
ule. The division chiefs are
reduce the standard shift from
Cannon, though, said he’s
available during those hours to fortunate situation” and that
three firefighters on duty to
not convinced the city can af-
respond to fires and ambulance he agrees that the city and
county, the latter being legally
two, would compromise safety ford even the one-year exten-
calls, but Johnson said the
both for firefighters and for
sion that Nichols suggested
schedule change shifts more of responsible for ambulance
the public.
and that Spriet also mentioned, the burden to firefighters who service, need to find a new
revenue source.
Casey Johnson, the local
without depleting other parts
work the 24-hour shifts.
Daugherty said it’s clear
union president, said he’s con- of the city’s general fund.
Johnson said the union filed
cerned that with the staff cuts,
The reason, Cannon said, is a grievance against the city re- to him that the city staff in-
tends to curtail ambulance
firefighters wouldn’t be able
that the fire department’s vol-
garding the schedule change
to enter burning structures
in many cases because they
wouldn’t have the required
Darrell Scott Hobson
backup crew of at least two.
January 19, 1951 – December 4, 2021
City Councilor Jason Spriet
said that although he believes
Darrell was born in New
the city can’t afford to continue
Bedford,
MA, the third oldest of
operating ambulances for the
13
children
to David and Claire
foreseeable future without
Hobson.
He
spent his childhood
finding a new, reliable source
growing up in Massachusetts,
of revenue, he is intrigued by
Colorado, and Oregon.
the possibility of the city keep-
He met the love of his life,
ing the ambulance service —
Anita, his wife of 50 years,
and avoiding layoffs in the fire
at Helen M. Stack Jr. High in
department — at least for the
Baker City.
fiscal year that starts July 1.
“I’m not saying there’s not a
From 1969 to 1975, Darrell
solution,” Spriet said.
served in the U.S. Navy as a
But he said he can’t support
Hospital Corpsman. He was stationed on the USS
that one-year option without
Mississinewa for 2 years, a year at St. Albans Hospital
some certainty that during
in New York City, and 2 years in Newport, RI.
that time the city and county
After finishing his Navy service he and Anita moved
would work together to try to
to Portland, OR, where they raised their 3 children,
find that new revenue source,
Saundra, Roland, and Terence.
without which, Spriet be-
Darrell was a Portland State University graduate and
lieves, the city’s ambulance
retired from the City of Portland Water Bureau after 25
service is doomed.
years.
That source would likely
He loved his wife, family, sports, music, reading,
be some type of voter-ap-
helping
people that are less fortunate, boating,
proved tax levy or fee, and
philosophy,
films, cooking, the outdoors, all types of
potentially, as councilors and
vacationing, and getting things done. He will be dearly
commissioners discussed
missed.
Wednesday, creating a special
Celebration of Life is being held at the Milwaukie
ambulance service district
Elks on May 14th.
with its own tax levy.
service on Sept. 30 — the
proposed budget, after all, in-
cludes that change as well as
the resulting cuts in fire de-
partment staffing.
He said he expects an in-
teresting discussion when the
budget board meets for the
first time on May 2 to review
the proposed budget.
Although the full budget
board reviews the budget, the
final authority for adopting
it lies solely with the seven
city councilors. They are re-
quired to adopt a budget be-
fore July 1.
Daugherty said he’s con-
cerned that the prospect for
layoffs in the fire department
will persuade other firefight-
ers to follow Brian Johnson’s
lead in taking a job elsewhere.
Daugherty said he worries
about the city’s ability to con-
tinue to provide ambulance
services even through Sept. 30,
the deadline the City Council
listed in its notice to the county.
Cannon acknowledged that
the issue of the city spending
more to operate ambulances
than it collects from billing is
support the festival, which
they plan to make a yearly
event.
They held a “mini Chau-
tauqua” fundraiser earlier
this spring, and are cur-
rently running a raffle to
win a Ruger American.
Tickets are $10 and available
at the same places as festi-
val tickets. The winner will
be drawn on May 21 at the
festival.
Any profits from the festi-
val, she said, will go back to
benefit the local community.
Anyone interested in be-
ing a sponsor or making a
donation can contact Artley
by email at badroadsfesti-
val@gmail.com, or send her
a message through the Face-
book page (Chautauqua Mu-
sic Festival).
not a new problem — it dates
back well more than a decade.
This is due largely to demo-
graphics. Most ambulance bills
go to patients who are cov-
ered by Medicare or Medicaid,
and those federal insurance
programs pay the city only
about 20%, on average, of the
amount it bills.
Private insurance pays a
higher percentage, and some
patients pay the full amount.
Cannon said that although
the gap between what the city
spends and what it collects in
bills has averaged more than
$700,000 over the past six
years, the city has not had to
slash spending elsewhere in
the general fund to subsidize
the fire department.
But he said the city has had
to put off buying needed equip-
ment — including two aging
fire engines, one about 30 years
old, one about 20 years old.
“Everybody has had to
make hard decisions,” Can-
non said. “I won’t call them
cuts, but we’ve put off spend-
ing to balance that general
fund budget.”
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