BAKER CITY HERALD • THuRsDAY, AugusT 25, 2022 A5
LOCAL
Housing
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Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Maverik Inc. wants to build its second Baker City gas station and convenience store on this property just southeast of the freeway overpass
at exit 302 in north Baker City.
Maverik
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The proposed new site is
more convenient for travelers
on I-84. Younger said she ex-
pects the new location to open
in 2024.
The Campbell Street store
is Maverik’s only one in Ore-
gon. The company, based in
Salt Lake City, operates more
than 320 stores in 12 west-
ern states and has more than
Archery
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Agency officials cited mul-
tiple reasons for the proposal,
including a growing num-
ber of archery hunters over
the past few decades, and a
higher success rate among
hunters due to better bows
and arrows that make it pos-
sible for archers to make
lethal shots from longer
distances.
ODFW said the num-
ber of archers hunting elk in
Eastern Oregon rose from
about 12,300 in 1995 to about
18,500 in 2019.
Because the archery sea-
sons remained general hunts,
with no limits on how many
tags were sold, ODFW’s lone
tool to limit hunting and
maintain deer and elk herds
with sustainable numbers
has been to cut tags for rifle
hunts, which are controlled
hunts with limited tags
awarded through the lottery
system.
In choosing which units
to change from a general to
a controlled archery season,
ODFW officials considered
the current elk populations in
those units, as well as hunter
density and hunter displace-
ment, which are based on a
public survey of hunters done
in 2020.
In some units the ratio of
bulls to cows is below the
state’s goals, and in other
units the bull elk harvest is
near what biologists consider
the unit’s capacity. In some
units, archery hunters have
been taking as many or more
branch-antlered bulls than ri-
fle hunters have, according to
ODFW.
Although the agency ini-
tially planned to change both
elk and deer hunts to con-
trolled seasons in 2021, the
commission ended up mak-
ing the shift for deer hunting
4,800 employees.
The proposed new Baker
City location would employ
15 to 18 people, according to
Maverik’s application.
The Baker County Plan-
ning Commission has sched-
uled a public hearing for Sept.
6 at 5 p.m. at the Courthouse,
1995 Third St., to review
Maverik’s site plan review re-
quest for its new station.
The proposed business
would be open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. It
would be somewhat bigger
than the Campbell Street sta-
tion, with a convenience store
of almost 6,000 square feet,
compared with the current
store’s 4,200 square feet.
The new location would
have 12 fueling pumps, com-
pared with eight on Campbell
Street.
The new store would have
an outdoor seating patio on
the east side of the building.
Fire, other restrictions in effect
The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management,
the two federal agencies that manage most of the public land
in Northeastern Oregon, have each issued press releases urging
hunters and others to be responsible during the late summer and
fall. The Vale District of the BLM emphasized fire safety, as well as
the potential hazards left by past blazes.
“Recreating responsibly ensures that all visitors to the forest
have a good experience,” said Brian Anderson, Wallowa Mountains
district ranger on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. “Picking
up your trash, adhering to stay limits, and not storing or caching
items on public lands are keystones of responsible recreation.”
Anderson said that when visitors build structures, cache items,
leave trash or occupy campsites longer than 14 consecutive days,
which is the limit, they can affect other users. Forest Service em-
ployees and law enforcement are extracting and impounding
caches and camps that are known to be in violation of the caching
and stay limits. Illegally built structures will also be being removed.
Visitors are reminded that the following are prohibited:
• Caching personal property for a duration more than 72 hours
within designated wilderness.
• Camping/leaving camp equipment for a duration that ex-
ceeds the 14-day stay limit. Building structures such as shelters,
tables, toilets, etc.
• Cutting or damaging standing live trees.
• Leaving campsites in an unsanitary condition by leaving trash
or human waste.
Fire danger is high or extreme across Northeastern Oregon,
and on national forests, campfires are allowed only in designated
campgrounds and in parts of the Eagle Cap Wilderness.
Campfires are prohibited on all public land managed by the
BLM.
A list of restrictions on BLM, national forest and private lands
protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry is available at
http://bmidc.org/restrictions.shtml.
only starting with the 2021
season.
The switch to mostly con-
trolled archery hunts for elk
was delayed until 2022.
The change to controlled
archery hunts, for deer and
elk, has been controversial.
Bob Reedy, a Baker City
bowhunter who also owns
an archery shop, said he
thinks the changes will re-
sult in confusion among
hunters, and potentially
discourage some longtime
hunters from continuing
their hobby.
Reedy argues that if
ODFW wants to bolster bull
Cannon
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The motion to give Cannon a pay
raise was done in open public session, as
the law requires.
Cannon’s contract states that if city
councilors rate his performance as satis-
factory or better, he is eligible for a mini-
mum 2% merit increase in annual salary.
But Cannon suggested a smaller raise,
of 1.7%, to match the average of the pay
raises for employees in the city’s three la-
bor unions. Councilors voted 6-0 to ap-
prove the salary increase. Councilor Ken-
yon Damschen abstained, since he missed
a majority of the executive session.
Residents disappointed
about lack of paving
Chuck Peterson, treasurer of the Sal-
ly’s Addition Homeowners Association,
in the southwest corner of the city above
the intersection of Indiana Avenue and
Reservoir Road, told councilors he was
disappointed that they had removed
$50,000 from this year’s budget to pave a
480-foot gravel section of Indiana Ave-
nue that accesses the subdivision.
Peterson and Gary McManus, pres-
ident of the homeowners association,
both talked with the council.
Peterson said that when the city ex-
cavated a section of Indiana Avenue to
install a new water pipe, residents had
asked the city to return the street to its
former condition.
During its June 14 meeting, the city
council voted 3-2 to add to the bud-
elk numbers, then the agency
should either temporarily ban
hunters from killing bulls,
or change the bag limit to
branch-antlered bulls only.
The bag limit for many
units in Northeastern Ore-
gon for this year’s elk archery
hunt is one bull elk. The tra-
ditional bag limit for archery
hunting — any elk — re-
mains in some units.
Reedy said he’s also con-
cerned that the changes will
contribute to animosity be-
tween archery and rifle hunt-
ers.
“We’re all hunters,” Reedy
said.
get $50,000, which had previously been
withdrawn, to pave that section of street.
But on June 28, in the motion adopt-
ing the city’s budget for the fiscal year
that started July 1, Councilor Jason
Spriet proposed to divert the $50,000 to
a chip sealing project elsewhere.
That motion passed 5-0. Mayor Kerry
McQuisten was absent, and Damschen,
who owns property in the subdivision
accessed by that section of Indiana Ave-
nue, abstained.
Peterson told councilors Tuesday that
he was puzzled that councilors made
that change without notifying him and
other residents in the area.
“What bothers me is neither Gary nor
I were invited to come to those discus-
sions,” Peterson said. “If you’re going to
vote to do something that drastic, you
should hear both sides.”
McQuisten said she fully supports
paving that section of Indiana, and she
asked city staff to add the matter to the
agenda for the Sept. 13 meeting.
Resident criticizes mayor
Debbie Henshaw, who is a member of
Baker County United, denounced what
she termed “untruths” that McQuisten has
made about the nonprofit organization
formed in 2021.
“Baker County United picked up where
the mayor left off in protecting our com-
munity against the mandates of Kate
Brown, and our mayor, who is supposed to
represent the people, went on attack,” Hen-
shaw said. “I find that rather odd.”
The mission statement of BCU is “to ed-
The property is in the com-
mercial-general zone. Al-
though the parcel is within
the Baker City urban growth
boundary, under an agreement
between the city and Baker
County, the county planning
commission makes land-use
decisions for portions of the
urban growth boundary out-
side the city limits.
Those decisions are based
on the city’s development
code.
Elks Lodge cancels
hide collection
this year
The Baker Elks Lodge will
not be collecting deer and
elk hides this fall due to the
high cost of fuel.
The lodge in past years
has set out barrels where
hunters can place hides.
The Elks sell the hides and
donate the proceeds to a
variety of aid programs for
veterans.
More tags than applicants
in many units
Although the shift from
general to controlled hunts
means some hunters who are
accustomed to being able to
hunt every year might not
draw a tag through the lot-
tery, ODFW has set tag allo-
cations for most units at lev-
els similar to the number of
people who actually hunted
during recent general sea-
sons.
However, in some popu-
lar units the number of con-
trolled hunt tags is well below
the number of hunters in re-
cent years.
For this year’s archery deer
season — the bag limit is
one buck with a visible ant-
ler — the number of tags in
most units is well above the
number of first-choice ap-
plications for 2021, the first
year with controlled archery
hunts.
Examples include:
• Imnaha unit — 308 tags
in 2022, 77 first-choice appli-
cants in 2021
• Sled Springs unit — 193
and 87
• Keating unit — 275 and
99
• Starkey unit — 770 and
107
• Catherine Creek unit —
495 and 101
ucate and build a Baker County network
of citizens who actively pursue self-gov-
ernance by championing our inalienable
God given rights, AND to regain and
maintain a local representative govern-
ment that protects the same, guided by our
Constitution and the Bill of Rights, with
emphasis on our county’s culture, history,
heritage, AND restore a self-sustaining
economy,” Henshaw said.
She said BCU is not responsible for a
campaign to potentially recall city council-
ors, an effort started by former Baker City
firefighter Casey Husk.
“Baker County United will certainly
support him and get signatures because
some of you gotta go,” Henshaw told coun-
cilors.
“Baker County United is not what the
mayor paints us as, yet she has never hon-
ored any of our invitations to meet,” Hen-
shaw said. “Once again, I reach out to in-
vite you to our community barbecue that
we are having this Saturday at 5 o’clock at
the park.”
In other business Tuesday, councilors:
• voted unanimously to authorize the
city to sell ambulances and other related
equipment. The city will cease operating
ambulances on Sept. 30. Baker County has
hired Metro West, a private ambulance
company, to replace the fire department as
ambulance provider for the city and much
of Baker County.
• voted unanimously to support efforts
to restore passenger train service to North-
eastern Oregon.
• voted unanimously to appoint Grat-
ton Miller to the planning commission.
The report indicates Baker
County not only needs more
affordable housing, but a more
comprehensive system to help
people with behavioral health
conditions move into this
housing, she said.
Walsh met with members of
the housing task force on Aug.
18 to finalize the report, which
OHA had awarded New Di-
rections $44,000 last year to
complete.
Farallon Consulting also as-
sisted with the survey.
The task force received
roughly 250 survey responses
that provided information
about specific needs. Two
types of housing — transi-
tional, or shelters that bridge
the gap between homelessness
and stable housing, and sup-
portive, living situations that
provide financial and health
services — were identified as
gaps for people with behav-
ioral health conditions.
“From the very beginning
we said, ‘We want this to be
data-driven,’ ” Walsh said. “We
want our community to have
the actual numbers of what
the needs are.”
These initial survey re-
sults led Walsh to apply for an
OHA grant in June, which the
agency awarded at an amount
of $1.4 million.
Walsh said New Directions
plans to use the money to buy
a modular home, two homes
in the community for peo-
ple in need, and to set up a
drop-in service center — ac-
tions that directly address a
lack of transitional and sup-
portive housing.
“For folks that need help
navigating the housing system,
we will have a place where
they can go and meet with
staff to help them with the
process of getting into transi-
tional housing and then stable
housing,” Walsh said.
She said the housing appli-
cation process can be a bar-
rier to those with behavioral
health issues.
“It can be a very hard time
navigating the system,” Walsh
said. “People don’t have the re-
sources to complete five differ-
ent applications.”
About 72% of people with
a behavioral health condi-
tion who answered the Baker
County survey this spring said
they had experienced home-
lessness in the past five years
or were currently homeless.
Additionally, 27% of people
said they didn’t feel safe in
their current living situation.
According to the report, in
response to the survey, one in-
dividual commented:
“There is no affordable me-
dium income housing avail-
able. ... same as the previous
five years of this question are
being asked and still noth-
Recall
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Baker City has continued
to staff an ambulance, but it
is called out only when Metro
West’s ambulance is already
on a call.
The city will cease ambu-
lance service Sept. 30.
The city is also reducing
its fire department staffing
from 16.25 full-time equiva-
lents during the fiscal year that
ended June 30, to 10.5 for the
current fiscal year.
Husk contends that Can-
non deserves to be fired for
what he has described as the
“destruction of the fire depart-
ment.”
Husk disputes Cannon’s
contention that the city
couldn’t afford to continue op-
erating ambulances.
“Fundamentally, the reason
why I’m here is because I be-
lieve a wrong was done to our
community,” Husk said during
the July 14 meeting.
Although Husk contends
Cannon “misled and manip-
ulated” city councilors, voters
don’t have any direct say in
who serves as city manager.
Only the seven city council-
ors, per the city charter, have
the authority to hire, or fire, a
city manager.
According to Oregon law,
elected officials can be recalled
only after they’ve served at
least six months. One of the
seven councilors, Kenyon
Damschen, was appointed in
March 2022 and won’t reach
the six-month threshold until
Sept. 22.
Based on the timelines un-
der Oregon election law re-
garding recalls, however, and
on Husk’s progress, it’s almost
certain that a recall election,
if it happened, wouldn’t be
scheduled before Sept. 22.
The six other councilors
have been in office for at least
ing being done. ... vouchers
only work if there are houses,
apartments, duplexes, studios
available and built.
“The housing crisis is in all
of Oregon, not just Western
Oregon.”
The survey found that only
20% of housing vouchers is-
sued to Baker County resi-
dents for Section 8 housing
from July 2021 to June 2022
were actually used.
Data from Oregon Housing
Alliance shows that for every
100 families with “extremely
low income,” just 37 units of
housing are available, and
over 60% of that group spends
more than half of their income
on rent.
The report estimates that
Baker County needs 256 more
units of affordable housing to
meet the need.
The survey states that:
“Consumer groups and survey
respondents have indicated
rental properties are not read-
ily available, yet are in high
demand, property owners
have converted rental homes
to temporary vacation rent-
als, and homes are selling for
twice the value of 2 years ago.
Comments from individuals
who completed the survey in-
dicate this is an ongoing issue
in Baker County.”
In 2021, the Oregon Legis-
lature appropriated $130 mil-
lion to support community in-
vestments that ensure people
with behavioral health condi-
tions have access to adequate
housing and service.
Walsh said other counties
in Oregon submitted simi-
lar reports to OHA, and that
she communicated with other
communities during the pro-
cess at OHA “office hours”
meetings.
Walsh said OHA recently
invited members from the
task force to present the re-
port’s findings to state officials
in Salem.
“I’m still a little shocked, to
us, it’s huge,” she said. “I just
feel it’s an honor that Baker
County gets to have a voice
and we get to share what our
needs are.”
The task force that helped
complete the survey and the
final report, consisted of peo-
ple with lived experiences of
behavior health conditions
and representatives from
groups that provide behav-
ioral health services, including
Baker County commission-
ers, city council members, the
Baker County Sheriff’s office
and city police department
personnel, Baker County Vet-
erans Services, Baker School
District 5J, Baker County
Health Services, Safe Families
Baker County, Baker County
Safe Families Coalition, Com-
munity Connection, the
Northeast Oregon Housing
Authority, and multiple land-
lords.
six months.
Three of the six — Joanna
Dixon, Johnny Waggoner Sr.
and Dean Guyer — are serv-
ing terms that end Dec. 31,
2022. Waggoner and Guyer
plan to seek reelection in the
Nov. 8 election, as does Dam-
schen.
The three other councilors
— Kerry McQuisten, Shane
Alderson and Jason Spriet —
are serving terms that con-
tinue through the end of 2024.
All three were elected to four-
year terms in November 2020.
Husk said on Friday, Aug.
19 that he hopes to have recall
petitions ready soon so he and
others can try to gather the
signatures required.
He would need 680 verified
signatures from city residents
who are registered voters for
each councilor. A separate pe-
tition with at least that many
signatures would be required
for each councilor, although
voters could sign multiple pe-
titions.
Husk said that in addition
to his work obligations in
Hermiston, he has to set up a
finance committee and bank
account for the recall, as Ore-
gon law requires.
If Husk can gather sufficient
signatures, within five days of
the petition being approved,
the affected councilors could
either choose to resign or file
a written statement, of 200
words or less, explaining why
they choose not to resign.
For councilors who don’t re-
sign, a recall election must be
scheduled within 35 days.
Recall ballots would include
both Husk’s written state-
ment for why he believes the
councilor should be recalled,
and the councilor’s written re-
sponse.
Husk encourages people
interested in helping with the
recall effort to call him at 541-
350-0325.