BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Quake
Continued from A1
“There’s more left to do for East-
ern Oregon,” said Jason Yencopal,
Baker County emergency manager.
“It started on the coast and moved to
Central Oregon, but now we need to
focus on Eastern Oregon.”
Baker County emergency officials
made progress June 27-28 when they
hosted a regional Cascadia earthquake
exercise at the Baker County Health
Department.
Officials from Union, Umatilla and
Harney counties also participated at
their respective emergency headquar-
ters.
Yencopal said the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (FEMA) is
helping Baker County and other coun-
ties set up exercises.
Several state agencies also partici-
pated, including the Oregon Health
Authority and the Department of
Transportation, along with a handful
of county agencies including the road,
Jubilee
Continued from A1
Unlike last year, when the
Jubilee parade was in jeop-
ardy due to a lack of entries,
this year Cutler had about
25 floats signed up by Mon-
day, and she was expecting
many more through the week
leading to the 11 a.m. parade
downtown.
The route starts at Baker
Middle School, then heads
east on Broadway to Second
Street. Floats go south on Sec-
ond to Valley Avenue, then
east to Main Street, and north
on Main to finish at Madison
Street.
Cutler said ticket sales are
brisk for the Baker City Bronc
and Bull riding competitions,
which are part of the Challenge
of Champions Tour.
Bronc riding will start at
7 p.m. on Friday, July 15, with
bronc riding kicking off at
6 p.m. on Saturday, July 16.
Both events are at the Baker
City Fairgrounds north of
Geiser-Pollman Park.
Cutler said she’s excited
about events planned at the
Baker Heritage Museum, just
across Grove Street from the
planning and health departments.
During the exercise, Yencopal and
others worked with a FEMA contrac-
tor to create a list of possible scenar-
ios that could occur in an earthquake.
A worker in Umatilla county relayed
these scenarios to Baker County, and
responders dealt with them as if they
were happening in real time.
The exercise started with communi-
cations practice. The team dealt with a
scenario where usual radio communi-
cations were down and they had to rely
on handheld radio correspondence to
Haines and Halfway.
Effects of ‘the big one’
The Cascadia Subduction Zone in the
Pacific Ocean, about 70 to 100 miles
west of the Oregon coast, is where one
tectonic plate is plunging under another.
Scientists estimate that this fault
produces a mega-earthquake, poten-
tially magnitude 9.0 or higher, every
300 to 700 years. According to Oregon.
gov., scientists give a 37% chance that
the fault will produce an earthquake in
park. The Museum is the tem-
porary home of an Oregon
Trail exhibit while the Oregon
Trail Interpretive Center is
closed for renovations.
“It’s been a great collabora-
tion,” she said the exhibit.
Cutler said the Baker High
School Class of 2023 is put-
ting on the Jubilee duck race,
with ducks on sale for $2 each
on Saturday from 11 a.m. to
4 p.m.
The race itself is set for noon
on Sunday.
The prospect for a vibrant
Jubilee — and perhaps as im-
portant, a normal event — is
exciting for Cutler after the
past two years.
The 2020 event was canceled
due to the pandemic.
Although the Jubilee re-
turned in 2021, Cutler said the
atmosphere for this year’s event
feels different.
“I haven’t gotten any COVID
questions (from vendors),” she
said. “I’m optimistic that we’re
well on the way to recovery.”
See GO! magazine, which
is included with the Thursday,
July 14 issue of the Baker City
Herald, for an event schedule
and more information about
this year’s Miners Jubilee.
the next 50 years.
And since physical damage in West-
ern Oregon would be significant,
transportation in Eastern Oregon
could be a problem.
In one hypothetical scenario during
the June 27-28 exercise, 20 buses and
200 cars full of evacuees arrived in
Baker County, prompting Yencopal
and his crew to register them at a Red
Cross shelter.
Despite Baker County’s distance from
the fault, it would still experience some
shaking, Yencopal said, although it’s hard
to determine how much. That means
emergency officials still need to be ready
for physical damage locally, such as
ruptured pipes and wastewater issues.
Yencopal said they practiced related sce-
narios in the second half of the exercise.
Yencopal said that while the exercise
covered major issues in earthquake re-
sponse, responding to an actual earth-
quake, as one might imagine, would be
a more intense experience.
“We only took one thing at a time,
water, gas, fire,” Yencopal said. “But re-
Continued from A1
Commission Chairman Bill
Harvey said some users have
“different ideas” when it comes
to recreating in the parks.
“We needed to tighten these
ordinances up with the help of
our law enforcement, and be-
cause we have been having to
use their services a lot more re-
cently,” Harvey said.
Harvey said there have been
complaints about large groups
at Hewitt and Holcomb parks
being loud and intoxicated.
Some campers were leaving in
the middle of the night because
it was so bad, he said.
The new ordinance states
that “Legal possession and con-
sumption of alcohol, alcoholic
beverages and other intoxi-
cants must be reasonable and
in compliance with all applica-
ble state laws.”
Other clauses in the ordi-
nance dealing with issues Har-
vey mentioned include:
Associated Press map
A subduction zone off the Ore-
gon coast — where one tectonic
plate is diving under another —
is expected to generate a major
earthquake, possibly within the
next few decades.
Continued from A1
Baker County Chamber of Commerce/Contributed Photo, File
Geiser-Pollman Park was bustling during Miners Jubilee in July 2021.
Continued from A1
Parks
How to prepare
The Oregon Department of Emer-
gency Management (ODEM) recom-
mends people prepare a bag with two
week’s worth of food, water and critical
supplies for when “the big one” — or
any other significant natural disaster
— strikes.
ODEM also recommends develop-
ing an emergency plan and signing up
for emergency alerts.
Baker County has an emergency no-
tification system that provides critical
information in the event of an emer-
gency. Register a cell phone to receive
alerts on the county’s website, baker-
county.org.
Stabbing
Mushrooms
According to the Oregon
Health Authority, the state
agency that is overseeing the
state’s new psilocybin system,
the substance “will only be
administered to persons 21
years or older in licensed ser-
vice center settings under the
supervision of trained and li-
censed facilitators.”
Such centers can’t be within
1,000 feet of a school.
Measure 109 passed state-
wide by a margin of 57% to
43%.
A majority of Baker County
voters who cast their ballots
opposed the measure, how-
ever, with almost 64% voting
ally, everything would be happening
at once.”
Yencopal said there are still other as-
pects of emergency response the exer-
cise didn’t address, such as distributing
information to the public.
“I kept this (exercise) small on pur-
pose, and I’m looking forward to future
large scale exercises,” Yencopal said.
Peter Dejong/Associated Press, File
Psilocybin mushrooms were legalized for therapeutic use in Oregon
by a 2020 ballot measure.
against Measure 109.
The measure directed the
Oregon Health Authority to
come up with rules for regu-
lating psilocybin, including
production and use of the
“No person shall set up or
use a public address system or
any sound amplifying equip-
ment without prior written
approval from the Parks De-
partment, nor may any person
use audio equipment, includ-
ing radios or other devices or
musical instruments, in such a
manner as to disturb others.
“Abusive, lewd, or obscene
music, language and/or behav-
ior is prohibited in all County
parks.
“Physical disturbances, brawls,
fights or any other type of phys-
ical altercations are prohibited
in all parks and will be subject to
law enforcement actions.”
County Counsel Kim
Mosier said the latter clause,
with its language about viola-
tors being subject to law en-
forcement, is one of the major
changes in the new ordinance.
But Mosier noted that the
county’s goal is to encourage
park users to follow the rules
without resorting to citations.
“It’s important to keep in
mind that law enforcement still
has the discretion to issue a ci-
tation or issue a warning and
work with folks that are at the
park to get compliance before
using that tool,” Mosier said.
Another change allows
county officials or parks staff to
revoke a park use permit if the
permit holder won’t comply
with the ordinance.
“It’s sort of a graduated ap-
proach,” Mosier said. “The
hope is that we get compliance
just right there at the park.”
North Baker
Improvement Plan
Holly Kerns, Baker City/
County Planning director, re-
quested a continuance of the
public hearing amending goal
12 of the Baker County Com-
prehensive Plan to recognize
the Northern Baker Trans-
portation Improvement Plan
(NBTIP).
County commissioners
unanimously approved the
continuance to Nov. 2.
Baker City's
Newest Brewery
product. Oregon is the first
state to legalize psilocybin use.
The Oregon Psilocybin Ser-
vices section will start taking
applications for psilocybin
businesses and services on Jan.
2, 2023.
The measure does allow
cities and counties to pursue
either permanent bans or a
two-year moratorium on psi-
locybin — either of which
would have to be approved by
voters in the jurisdiction — or
to regulate the time, place and
manner in which the drug is
produced or used for thera-
peutic purposes.
In a staff report to council-
ors for Tuesday’s meeting, City
Manager Jonathan Cannon
listed four possible options.
• A permanent ban on psi-
locybin services. To do so, the
city council would need to
pass an ordinance that takes
the matter to city voters, who
would decide whether to ap-
prove the permanent ban.
To qualify such a measure
for the Nov. 8, 2022, election,
the city would need to sub-
mit the measure to the Baker
County Clerk’s office by Sept.
8.
• A two-year moratorium
on psilocybin services. This
would follow the same pro-
cess as a permanent ban, with
a city ordinance and ballot
measure.
• An ordinance regulating
the time, place and manner
of psilocybin services, which
Kerns said the Baker City
Council wants to see the survey
data to fully understand how
the project, which includes a
list of possible changes on sec-
tions of 10th Street, Hughes
Lane and Cedar Street, would
affect private property.
The Oregon Department
of Transportation (ODOT) is
overseeing the project.
Councilors and property
owners have previously ex-
pressed concern in particular
about a proposed revamping of
the intersection at 10th Street
and Hughes Lane/Pocahontas
Road.
“It’s my understanding that
ODOT has finished prelimi-
nary survey work but the final
survey work and the property
descriptions aren’t actually due
into ODOT until September
1st,” Kerns said.
Harvey said county offi-
cials have had ongoing phone
meetings with ODOT, and the
project’s scope has been greatly
reduced due to increasing con-
struction costs.
“It’s not exactly what it was
when it was first presented,”
Harvey said.
With summer
here, there is
lots of traveling.
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Fish said the weapon
used was a fixed-blade
sheathed knife similar to a
hunting knife.
The Oregon State Police
Major Crimes Unit was
requested and responded
to assist with the investiga-
tion, the release stated. The
911 call requesting medi-
cal assistance was made at
11:36 a.m.
The man who is believed
to have done the stabbing
cooperated with the inves-
tigation, Fish said. Ridling’s
wife also was interviewed.
No charges have yet
been filed. Officials are
awaiting the results of an
autopsy before making any
decision on charges.
“Once we get it all done,
it’ll go to the grand jury,”
Fish said. “He’s not been
charged with anything.”
As a result, Fish declined
to identify the Albany
man.
Fish stated in the release
that there are no known
threats to the public fol-
lowing the incident.
could, for example, restrict
such services to commercial
or other zones.
• Take no action and allow
psilocybin to be regulated by
the state.
• Lumber
• Plywood
• Building Materials
• Hardware
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And much more!
3205 10th Street
Baker City
541-523-4422
Mon-Fri 7:30 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday 8 am - 5 pm
Closed Sun
Wellman Laird “Larry” Keener Jr.
May 21, 1943 – July 3, 2022
Wellman
Laird
“Larry”
Keener Jr., 79, of Baker City,
Oregon, passed away on July
3, 2022. Larry was born in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, on May 21,
1943, to Wellman and Estelle
Keener. Larry married Martha
Lucille Buttram on January
4, 1969. Together they had
3 daughters. He was head
custodian at the VOTEC school
in Missoula, Montana. He was a jack of all trades -
handyman, carpenter, plumber, painter and much more.
He loved hunting, fishing, gardening and planting
flowers.
In July of 1990 Larry and Martha and their two
younger daughters moved to Baker City to help take
care of Martha’s parents. He was a board member of
the church they attended for many years. His passion
was playing the spoons everywhere he went. He played
the spoonsin church, at home, on road trips - anytime
there was music you could bet Larry was playing his
spoons. One of his favorite passages from the Bible:
“Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.” He instilled
this passage in his daughters and their friends. He lived
by this saying. He is now rejoicing with his loved ones
who have gone on.
Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Wellman
and Estelle Keener, his wife, Martha Keener, and his
daughter, Kelly Keener. He leaves behind daughters,
Vicki (Judd) Richards of Missoula, Montana, and
Rebecca Rogers of Baker City, and his grandchildren:
Laney (Leeman) Matthew of Plains, Montana, Cody
(Shelby) Richards of Missoula, Montana, and Rachel
and Samatha Rogers of Baker City.