A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Late, but welcome,
news for FireMed
members
T
he effects have continued to mount from the
Baker City Council’s ill-considered decision
to remove ambulance service from the Baker
City Fire Department’s list of duties, but fortunately
one of those has been remedied.
Although over the past month or so many local resi-
dents have had to worry about whether they would be
saddled with an ambulance bill they had every reason
to believe they wouldn’t get.
The city announced Thursday, July 7 that Metro
West Ambulance, the Hillsboro company that is re-
placing the city fire department as local ambulance
provider, will honor FireMed memberships, which
cover the cost of ground ambulance transports.
The issue had not been certain because Metro West,
unlike the city, does not participate in the FireMed
program.
The city’s announcement, belated though it is,
should be a relief, particularly for any FireMed mem-
bers who have been transported by the Metro West
Ambulance over the past month or so.
Although the Baker City Fire Department is slated
to continue operating an ambulance through Sept. 30,
2022, Metro West is the first-call ambulance, meaning
the city ambulance is dispatched only if Metro West is
already out on a call.
From June 16 to July 5, Metro West transported 52
patients to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker
City, while the fire department transported just 13
patients.
This situation stems from the city council’s notice
to Baker County commissioners on March 22, stating
the city’s intention to cease ambulance service as of
Oct. 1, 2022. That contributed to a decision by at least
two firefighter/paramedics to take jobs elsewhere.
That attrition in turn prompted Fire Chief Sean
Lee to notify county officials in May that the city, due
to staffing shortages, might not be able to respond to
multiple simultaneous emergency calls.
The county responded by declaring an emergency
and by hiring a private company, AMR, to temporar-
ily bring an ambulance to Baker City.
Then on June 8, county commissioners, who by Or-
egon law are required to ensure ambulance service,
decided to contract with Metro West, one of two com-
panies that submitted a proposal.
A memorandum from City Manager Jonathan Can-
non, updated on Thursday, states in part: “Metro West
indicated in a phone conversation on 7/6/2022 they
will honor FireMed memberships until September 30,
2022. This means if you ride in a Metro West or Baker
City ambulance your FireMed membership will be
valid. If you receive a bill from Metro West and are a
FireMed member then you should call Metro West at
(541) 266-4300.”
Metro West has a membership program similar
to FireMed, and the company stated, in a letter to
the county, that it plans to offer that service to local
residents.
It’s welcome news that local FireMed members will
be covered. It’s a pity, though, that they were in limbo
for the past month.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington,
D.C. 20500; 202-456-1111; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-
326-3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-
1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande office: 105
Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.
senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 1239 Longworth House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford
office: 14 N. Central Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-
4646; fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W. Fourth Ave., No. 2, Ontario, OR
97914; Phone: 541-709-2040. bentz.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-3111;
www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@ost.state.or.us; 350
Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice Building, Salem, OR
97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information are available
online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900 Court St. N.E., S-403,
Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem office: 900 Court St. N.E., H-475,
Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-
6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at
7 p.m. in Council Chambers. Councilors Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten, Shane
Alderson, Joanna Dixon, Kenyon Damschen, Johnny Waggoner Sr. and Dean
Guyer.
YOUR VIEWS
Thanks to Richard Fox for
not being afraid to stand up
I want to say thank you to Mr. Richard
Fox for your recent letters to the editor.
The love for our Creator God, who made
this nation possible, means everything to
me. Our Founding Fathers drew wisdom
from the Word of God, as they sought out
those guiding principles that have served
as our foundation. The idea that we have
been endowed by our creator with certain
unalienable rights, was a concept unique
to any previous nation. When they wrote
the Constitution they were “securing the
blessings of liberty” that we have enjoyed
for 246 years.
There are many people in our nation
today, who want to corrupt and destroy
that foundation. It is time for people, who
love this country, to stand up and fight
to protect what our Founders gave to us.
Thank you, Mr. Fox, for not being afraid
to stand and speak the truth.
Tammy Meyer
Baker City
New precinct committee person
wants to meet with GOP voters
An open letter to all our neighbors:
My wife and I walked our precinct in the
run-up to the May 17 primary election.
We were able to contact over 100 voters.
My explanation for coming to their door
was that in all the years I had lived here
I had never had one precinct commit-
tee person visit our home. Never. I told
them that if I was elected they would see
me again. June 21 I was certified by the
County Clerk as being elected a GOP
Central Committee PCP. I want to thank
all of you who voted for me. I look for-
ward to living up to my promise to you.
The PCP is the least known part of the
political party system. When we speak of
the “tree of liberty” it may be helpful to
visualize it as a mighty tree wrapped in
the protective bark of the Constitution
and Bill Of Rights. This tree is rooted in
the nurturing soil of our population. We,
the PCPs, are the tiny roots that feed into
the larger roots, carrying the wishes of the
people upward, into the heart of the polit-
ical structure to the elected. Those elected
to office are employees of the people.
They are charged with administrating and
operating the government in accordance
and within the restrictions of the Consti-
tution. Their oath of office so declares. I
gave my oath to “defend and protect” at
17, upon entering military service. That
oath remains active to this day.
Unlike other systems of governance,
where the top dictates to the masses, we
as a Constitutional Republic are driven
by the will of the people. You, the peo-
ple count on us, as your local direct con-
nection, to carry your message forward.
Washington, D.C., may be out of reach
but locally your county should never be
oblivious to the thoughts and direction
of our citizens. That is where the PCPs
come into the picture. As members of the
Central Committee we should be as close
to you as next door, eager to engage in
conversation with you. While both ma-
jor parties have Central Committees it
would be hard to prove it as they seem to
be hiding in plain sight. The local GOP
is notorious for having closed meetings
with only selected individual PCPs being
advised of the meetings. This in contra-
vention of ORS 248.012. For a overview
of your local CC’s operational require-
ments, look up ORS 248.012 through
ORS 248.045. This can give you a sense of
the law as it applies to the operation of the
Central Committees under specific Ore-
gon law.
Living up to the promise I made during
my campaign, I as your representative
PCP intend to be available to you. In
gratitude for the confidence of your vote
and to reaffirm my commitment, I plan
to schedule periodic meetings in public
locations where we can meet and talk. I
will support the Republican platform and
the Constitutional path we must follow.
We can gather to discuss the issues that
bother you the most. Together we will
seek a way to carry forward our commu-
nity’s collective vision to restore America.
We must remind our elected employees
that we, the people, are the heart and soul
of our government.
Rick Rienks
Baker City
COLUMN
When will fueling up mean plugging in?
I
wonder how long it will take to train
myself to plug in a car when I’m done
with it for the day.
This ought not be onerous, certainly.
I’ve long since incorporated into my
routine connecting my cellphone to a
charging cord, a daily task so instinctive I
scarcely notice I’m doing it.
But the phone, unlike a vehicle, fits in
my jacket pocket and generally resides
on the table beside my bed. This makes
it rather easier to keep track of than a car
parked in the driveway.
Probably this would be a simpler mat-
ter if I owned a garage, but adding another
structure to the place — other than, say, a
new sun umbrella — is beyond my current
financial means.
(And even further beyond my own con-
struction abilities, so even if I could afford
the materials I could never assemble them
without inflicting serious injuries both
physical and aesthetic.)
The advantage of having a garage in
which to park an electric car, it seems to
me, is that the garage typically has elec-
trical outlets. I suspect this accessibility
would help me to remember to plug in,
much as lacking a garage helps me to re-
member to lock the car doors when I get
out.
As it stands now (or, rather, doesn’t
stand, given the absence of a garage),
the source of kilowatt-hours nearest the
driveway is on the wall beside our front
porch, which we almost never use as an
entrance.
(This is invariably confusing to people
who arrive but who aren’t familiar with my
family’s unconventional ingress and egress
preferences.)
This is a purely hypothetical exercise
now, to be sure.
Both of our cars are powered by gaso-
line, and we don’t intend to replace either
for many years.
(Although the idea doesn’t seem as far-
fetched as it did when the first number on
the signs at gas stations was a “3” rather
nificantly, the company’s goal is to have
electrics make up half its global sales by
2030.
Those numbers seem extraordinary to
me. And carmakers don’t always fulfill
than a “5.”)
their more grandiose projections.
I try to keep up to speed, as it were, on
But notwithstanding the possibility that
the automotive industry, and just recently the companies are overstating their targets
I’ve read in my favorite magazines multi- — and not coincidentally burnishing their
ple articles detailing automakers’ aggres-
reputations for environmental awareness
sive plans to electrify their fleets.
— I have little doubt that EVs will claim a
More than a century has passed since
steadily growing share of new vehicle sales
the industry had so little interest in inter- for the rest of my life.
nal combustion.
Which, if the actuarial tables can be
Fully electric vehicles (as distinct from
trusted, is apt to be a few more decades.
hybrids such as the familiar Toyota Prius)
I’m fascinated by the prospects for these
are as yet pretty rare, to be sure.
latter years of my driving career.
I spent the weekend at my parents’
When I walked out of the DMV with
house recently and although they live
my license on my 16th birthday, in 1986,
near the Willamette Valley, where Teslas the only electric implements I can recall
in our garage were the garage door opener
are far more common than in Eastern
and a pair of hedge clippers that resem-
Oregon, those most renowned of bat-
tery-powered cars still far enough short bled a medieval torture device if medieval
torturers had had access to electricity.
of ubiquity that my parents exclaim
(Which they did not, to the good for-
whenever they see one. I’m reminded of
tune of a significant number of serfs and
my childhood when we would look for
other hapless people.)
VW Beetles for the singular pleasure of
The cars, by contrast, not only all
yelling “slug bug!”
(And possibly landing a blow on a sib- burned gas, but they mixed the fuel with
air by way of carburetors, a technology
ling’s shoulder.)
In 2021 Americans bought about half a more appropriate for the 19th century
million purely electric cars. That’s an 89% than for the 21st.
My daughter, Olivia, recently turned 15.
increase from 2020.
But it’s also just 3% of the total new ve- She passed the test for her learner’s per-
mit on her birthday, and is beginning to
hicle market.
The titans in the industry, however, vow master the dexterity needed to operate not
that the situation will change dramatically only a car, but also a manual transmission.
(Both of our vehicles, besides having
over the next decade or so.
gas engines, also have clutches, a device al-
(Tesla, notwithstanding its major cul-
most as rare these days as the carburetor.)
tural effect, is not among those titans.)
I suppose it’s not a certainty that I’ll ever
General Motors, for instance, plans to
buy a fully electric vehicle.
assemble 2 million electric cars in North
But I wouldn’t wager as much as a dollar
America and China by 2025, CEO Mary
that neither Olivia nor her brother, Max,
Barra says. The automaker has commit-
ted to spend $35 billion by 2025 to create who’s 11, will never sign their names to a
30 electric models. Its far more ambitious sales contract for a vehicle that gets around
purely on kilowatts.
goal is to go all electric by 2035.
Ford Motor Company intends to build
600,000 EVs per year by 2024. More sig-
 Jayson Jacoby is editor of the Baker City Herald.
Jayson
Jacoby