BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, AuguST 6, 2022 A3
LOCAL & STATE
Fire Risk
Continued from A1
“We want local input
into the development of
these maps,” Findley said
on Thursday, Aug. 4. “They
need to talk with planners
(and) local fire agencies and
people have to receive credit
for the work they’ve already
done for the hardening of
their facilities.”
Concern about the fire risk
map, which was among the
requirements in Senate Bill
762, which the Oregon Legis-
lature passed in 2021, flared
recently after the Forestry
Department mailed letters to
owners of about 80,000 tax
lots that are within the WUI
and have a wildfire risk rat-
ing of high or extreme.
Those property owners
could potentially be required
to take steps to reduce the
fire risk on their property.
They could also be subject
to more restrictive building
codes.
But the risk map designa-
tions have had other effects
unrelated to the state law and
associated regulations.
Kevin Cassidy, who lives
along Rock Creek west of
Haines, can attest to that.
Cassidy said the com-
pany that he provided his
insurance for about 20 years
recently notified him that
his policy was canceled be-
cause his property had been
deemed at high risk for wild-
fire.
Cassidy said he was
stunned.
He said he has thinned
the forest on his land and
taken other steps to reduce
the wildfire risk, and that he
supports the intent of Senate
Deal
Continued from A1
The county will make an-
nual payments of $72,500
over five years that will go
toward the $1.45 million to-
tal price. After five years,
the county could exercise
its option to buy the prop-
erty by paying the balance of
$1,087,500. There will be no
interest charged, so the full
amount of the lease payments
will reduce the purchase bal-
ance.
Commission Chairman
Bill Harvey said the county
will not use general fund dol-
lars for the lease payments.
The county will use lodging
tax revenue for the lease pay-
ments, Commissioner Bruce
Nichols said.
Harvey said Wednesday
that the county will apply for
grants to cover the $1,087,500
purchase cost.
Commissioners haven’t
decided how they’ll use the
property.
Tyler Brown, a member of
the Baker County Economic
Development Council, which
recommended the county
acquire the property, said in
early June that council mem-
bers had discussed multiple
possible uses for parts of the
property, including an in-
door sports facility that could
potentially ease the pressure
on Baker High School’s gym
during the Class 1A state
basketball tournaments and
host other, new sports tour-
naments, as well as additional
parking.
Nichols said on Friday
morning, Aug. 5, that he
voted for the lease-purchase
agreement although he has
concerns about the county’s
ability to raise the slightly
more than a million dollars
needed to exercise the pur-
chase option.
“We better go after those
grants quickly,” Nichols said.
He said the county could
potentially exercise its pur-
chase option any time after
two years and before the five-
year lease period ends, but
that would require an even
larger one-time cash pay-
ment.
Nichols said the deal
should give the county an
advantage in applying for
grants, since the lease-pur-
chase contract guarantees the
county the right to buy the
property.
“We have that land tied up
for five years,” he said. “We’re
in good shape there.”
Nichols, who said in early
June that acquiring the prop-
erty is “an excellent oppor-
tunity” for the county, said
he believes one of the better
uses for the parcel is a new lo-
cation for the Baker County
Fairgrounds.
Commissioners said the
county will conduct an eco-
nomic development needs as-
sessment for the community
and ways in which the 70-
Bill 762.
Cassidy also said his prop-
erty is bordered on three
sides by irrigated land, which
he believes greatly reduces
the threat of fire.
Senate Bill 762 requires
the risk level for tax lots be
based on the local weather,
climate, topography and veg-
etation, the latter criterion
determined by aerial data.
Cassidy said no one from
the state has ever visited his
property to assess the wild-
fire risk.
Although Cassidy received
a letter in late July from the
Forestry Department noti-
fying him that his property
was within the WUI and
designated as high risk, he
didn’t realize that designa-
tion could affect his insur-
ance, much less almost im-
mediately.
Cassidy said the connec-
tion became clear last week-
end during a phone con-
versation with a friend who
lives in Union County and
whose property has the same
designation as Cassidy’s.
Cassidy said he under-
stood then that the letter
from the state, and the wild-
fire risk map, had led to his
policy, which was up for re-
newal, not being extended.
Cassidy said he found
a new insurance provider.
But his policy costs twice as
much as the previous one —
$2,400 per year.
Although Findley and
Owens both voted for Senate
Bill 762, Findley said he and
other supporters believed the
state would assign fire risk
ratings only to tax lots within
the wildland-urban interfact,
not for all 1.8 million tax lots
in Oregon.
acre property could be used
to help meet those needs.
Money for the annual lease
payments will come from the
county’s 7% tax that guests at
motels, bed and breakfasts,
vacation rental homes and
other lodging facilities pay.
The lodging tax budget has
a $400,000 reserve for eco-
nomic development projects.
The county’s lodging tax
revenue has risen substan-
tially over the past two years
after dipping to its lowest
level in several years during
the start of the COVID-19
pandemic in the spring of
2020.
In April 2020, when many
businesses were closed, lodg-
ing tax revenue was $8,360,
the lowest monthly total in
more than 15 years.
The total tax collections for
the 2019-20 fiscal year, which
ended June 30, 2020, was
$408,776. That was the lowest
annual total since 2013-14,
when revenue was $404,462.
Lodging tax collections
rose during the 2020-21 fiscal
year to $537,860 — a nearly
32% increase.
Revenue continued to rise
during the fiscal year that
ended June 30, and that year’s
revenue likely will be the
highest since at least 2003-4.
For the first eight months of
that fiscal year, revenue was
up by 58% compared with
the previous year — $508,337
compared with $320,871.
Other business
• Also on Wednesday, com-
missioners unanimously ap-
proved the second reading of
Ordinance 2022-04, an or-
dinance declaring a ban on
psilocybin product manufac-
turers and psilocybin service
center operators within unin-
corporated Baker County.
County voters will have the
final say, in the Nov. 8 election,
whether to ban businesses re-
lated to psilocybin, the psy-
choactive ingredient in “magic
mushrooms.”
Baker City will have the
same measure on the Nov. 8
ballot.
County Counsel Kim
Mosier said she included a yes
or no statement in the ballot
title for the county’s measure
after seeing the potential for
confusion.
“Approval of this measure
creates a ban and just to make
it really clear that folks need
to vote ‘yes’ if they want to ap-
prove a ban on psilocybin,”
said Mosier.
• unanimously approved
the renewal of the professional
services agreement with Korey
Ham for jail medical services.
• unanimously approved the
purchase of a Toyota RAV4 for
the Baker County Sheriff’s Of-
fice for $31,498.65.
• unanimously approved
the renewal of the profes-
sional services agreement with
Monte Anderson P.A. for mid-
level services at the School
Based Health Center.
Cafe
Continued from A1
“I sure hope people love
them.”
Hailing from Klamath
Falls orig-
inally,
Macey
brought
her sense
of Cas-
cades green
along with
her family.
Blankenship
Macey is Jubi-
lee’s co-owner
along with her husband,
Derek, an optometrist at the
Baker Vision Clinic.
“I’ve been staying at home
raising our two boys for the
past two years, but I always
wanted to open a small busi-
ness,” Macey said.
During a recent interview
she was preparing for the
grand opening, training em-
ployees and arranging the
space for all potential com-
pany.
The plant side of Macey’s
store will offer botanical ser-
vices and will feature plant
fertilizers, mite treatments
and repotting.
If you’ve got a sick plant,
she said, “bring it in, we’ll
take a look at it.”
The cafe side will have a
range of favorites — cold
brew, drop coffee, French
press, teas, lemonades, small
confections and even fla-
vored sweet creamer spe-
cials. While the plants are
sourced from nurseries in
the Pacific Northwest, she
says they’ll be making their
signature creamers in-house.
“We started looking into
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
The lounge of Baker’s new plant cafe, Jubilee Plants and Gathering, on Aug. 1, 2022. The business had
its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 6.
small business options,
something in the wheel-
house of our abilities and in-
terests,” Macey said.
“This spring, probably
April, we really hit the gas
and went for it.”
Jubilee Plants and Gather-
ing is opening during Shrine
weekend, and Macey said
she hopes they’ll have a sur-
plus of visitors in town for
the football game, parade,
demolition derby and other
events.
“I’m getting a feel of what
it’ll be like to partner with
people in the community,
just to make this a place
where everyone feels wel-
come,” Macey said.
“This is a really creative
Teamwork
Continued from A1
The Baker County Sheriff’s Office is-
sued a Level 2 notice for several homes,
asking residents to be ready to evacuate if
needed.
There were no evacuations.
Lowry, Phillips and Harper all lauded
the rapid response from firefighters from
more than half a dozen agencies, includ-
ing volunteer fire and rangeland protec-
tion districts, the Bureau of Land Man-
agement, Oregon Department of Forestry
and U.S. Forest Service.
“I’m very thankful for all the resources
that showed up,” Lowry said.
Phillips agreed.
“A lot of good people came to help,”
he said. “We’re fortunate to have all these
people and resources available to handle
these fires.”
Harper, who said he quickly ordered
aircraft when he realized that the wind-
driven fire could threaten homes, said the
arrival of six single-engine air tankers,
and one helicopter, were vital to the quick
control of the blaze.
“Without (the aircraft) it could have
been double, triple in size,” he said.
Harper said he assigned fire trucks
to protect homes as well as the Keating
School if necessary.
West Nile
Continued from A1
With much less water
around, which mosquitoes
need for rearing their eggs,
populations were unusually
low in the county last year,
he said.
This year is more typical,
Hutchinson said.
The infected mosqui-
toes are the culex tarsalis
species, a permanent water
mosquito that is by far the
most common carrier of
West Nile virus locally.
Hutchinson said culex
tarsalis and a related spe-
cies that’s also a common
vector for the virus, culex
pipiens, are more common
in the county later in the
summer.
The floodwater mos-
quitoes that predominate
during spring and earlier
summer rarely are infected
with the virus, he said.
In 2021 the first con-
firmed infection in Baker
County was in mosquitoes
trapped on July 19, also in
the Keating Valley.
Overall in 2021 the virus
was detected in 19 mos-
quito pools, one person and
one horse in Baker County,
according to the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA).
The person recovered, as
most people do who con-
tract the virus.
Over the past several
years, the Keating Val-
ley area, including where
the infected mosquitoes
were trapped in 2021 and
2022, has been a “hot spot
for our West Nile activity,”
Hutchinson said last year.
Most people infected
with West Nile virus will
show little or no signs of
disease. About one in five
people who are infected
develop a fever with other
space.”
She’s excited about bond-
ing with people in the area
especially, and has plans
to make use of the build-
ing, which formerly housed
Sweet Wife Baking, in sev-
eral ways, musing that she’s
considered a sliding ladder
so she can add shelves of
plants even further up the
walls.
“In the fall we’re going
to start offering monthly
classes,” she said, hoping to
host plant basics courses,
small musical acts, local art-
ists and eventually upgrade
the kitchen as she gains reg-
ular customers.
“We had the idea that it
would do good, I didn’t ex-
Harper said that thanks in large part
to the initial work by ranchers, the fire
was completely lined in less than an
hour.
By 7:30 p.m., two hours after the light-
ning strike, the fire was no longer spread-
ing, said Larisa Bogardus, public affairs
officer for the BLM’s Vale District.
As was the case with the 416-acre Big
Rattlesnake fire, which was sparked by
lightning on Sunday, July 31, about nine
miles west of Keating, a wind shift aided
firefighters on Wednesday.
Harper said the easterly wind, which
had been pushing the flames west to-
ward Tucker Creek and the Lowry ranch,
switched to westerly, in effect blowing
the fire back onto areas that had already
burned and had little or no fuel to sustain
the flames.
With the wind shift the fire basically
“blew itself out,” Lowry said.
“That really helped us more than any-
thing,” Phillips said.
In contrast to the Big Rattlesnake fire,
which started in steep and inaccessible
terrain near the Powder River and Big
Creek canyons, the Keating fire burned
near a county road that made it relatively
easy for fire engines to get close to the
flames.
Phillips said the terrain is also fairly
gentle in that area.
symptoms such as head-
ache, body aches, joint
pains, vomiting, diarrhea,
or rash. Most people with
febrile illness due to West
Nile virus recover com-
pletely, but fatigue and
weakness can last for weeks
or months. It is import-
ant that you contact your
health care provider if you
experience any of these
symptoms.
The incubation period
is usually two to 14 days.
Rarely, infected individu-
als may develop neuro-in-
vasive disease (infection of
the brain or spinal cord)
that can be severe or may
cause death. This is espe-
cially of concern to people
50 and older, people with
immune-compromising
conditions, and people
with diabetes or high blood
pressure.
Hutchinson and Dr.
Emilio DeBess, of the
OHA, recommend resi-
dents take the following
steps to protect against
mosquito bites:
• Eliminate sources of
standing water that are a
breeding ground for mos-
quitoes, including water-
ing troughs, bird baths,
ornamental ponds, buck-
ets, wading and swimming
pools not in use, and old
tires.
• When engaged in out-
door activities at dusk and
dawn when mosquitoes are
most active, protect your-
self by using mosquito re-
pellants containing DEET,
oil of lemon eucalyptus or
Picardin, and follow the di-
rections on the container.
• Wear long-sleeved
shirts and long pants in
mosquito-infested areas.
• Make sure screen doors
and windows are in good
repair and fit tightly.
pect this much enthusiasm
from the beginning,” Macey
said.
Even before the business
opened, she said her small
previews were receiving lots
of positive feedback as she
put in the finishing touches
with the help of friends.
“I love watching things
grow — kids, plants, com-
munity. I wanted to make a
space where all these things
can grow,” she said.
Her store hours will be
Tuesday through Saturday,
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Visit her site at jubi-
leeplantsandgathering.
com or facebook.com/jubi-
leeplantsandgathering for
details on the grand opening.
Gary Timm, fire division manager for
Baker County Emergency Management,
was stationed along the north flank of the
fire.
Timm said the fire, like the Big Rattle-
snake blaze three days earlier, epitomized
the concept of a “multiagency response”
to a fire.
The quick work by ranchers and fire-
fighters staved off what could have been
a much larger and more dangerous fire,
Timm said on Thursday morning, Aug. 4.
“This time of year, with these dry fuel
conditions and hot temperatures ...” he
said. “But with everybody working to-
gether, good things can happen fast, and
that’s what happened last night.”
BLM firefighters monitored the fire
overnight and into Thursday to make
sure the blaze didn’t flare up.
The fire started on public land man-
aged by the BLM, and 194 of the 197 acres
burned are public land, Harper said.
The three acres of private property are
on Lowry’s ranch.
Although the Keating fire was corralled
quickly, Phillips said he will continue to
watch with concern if, as often happens
during August and early September,
thunderclouds once again billow against
the blue sky.
“It’s just the beginning of fire season,”
he said.
Gerald “Jerry” Goodwin
July 10, 1935 - July 30, 2022
Gerald
“Jerry”
Burke
Goodwin, 87, of Baker City,
Oregon, passed away on the
evening of Saturday, July 30,
2022. He will be interred at
Mount Hope Cemetery in Baker
City, Oregon.
Gerald was born on July
10, 1935, to Arthur and Leila
(Harder) Goodwin in Walla
Walla, WA. He spent his early
years growing up in Toppenish, WA, and Milton
Freewater, OR; at 16 years old, he moved to Baker and
attended Baker High School, where he met his future
wife, Donna Marlene Kennedy. After dating for four
years, they married on July 8, 1956, and made their
home in Baker for the next 66 years.
Jerry worked at Chevrolet garage for two years after
high school; after Jerry and Donna were married, Jerry
was pursued by Harold Clark of Clark Auto Electric to
take a position working for Harold; 16 years later, on
July 1, 1972, Jerry and Donna decided to purchase Clark
Auto Electric, and they spent the next 50 years owning
and operating the shop. Jerry never really retired.
Jerry was the father of three girls, Marie, Linda, and
Gail; he also had four grandsons. He became a Mason
in Baker Lodge #47 in 1956, and before his passing, he
was recognized as the oldest member of the Masons.
The Boston Red Sox was the diehard team he stuck
with through thick and thin. A very kind and caring
man, Jerry was always there to help; he was quiet and
always made you wonder what he was thinking, yet
he was very quick-witted. Jerry and Donna were truly
inseparable, whether at the shop or out on Sunday
drives. Any free time that Jerry had was spent with his
family and Donna. He was the kind of man who loved
to work; he also liked to sleep and read when he had
the time.
He is survived by his wife, Donna, daughter, Marie
and her husband, Kevin, and their two sons, Parker
and Dalton; his daughter, Gail, her husband Ken, their
two sons, Austin and Derek, and his son-in-law, David
Dumas.
Jerry is preceded in death by his parents, Arthur and
Leila Goodwin, his sister, Betty Stere, and his middle
daughter, Linda Goodwin Dumas.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Baker
Masonic Lodge #47 through Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer
Chapel at 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City, OR 97814.
To leave an online condolence for the family of
Jerry, please go to www.grayswestco.com.