BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 A3
LOCAL & STATE
Sturgill fire
The blaze, on the east side of the
Minam River Canyon, is about 6 miles
from the nearest private property.
There were initially two separate fires
in the area, but they have burned to-
gether, Burks said.
Firefighters are working on a strat-
egy to protect private land at Red’s
Horse Ranch and Minam River Lodge
to the northwest.
The Wallowa-Whitman has closed
sections of three trails near the fire.
• Minam River trail, No. 1673, from
the Bear Mt. trail junction south to the
Rock Creek trail.
• North Minam trail, No. 1675,
from the Minam River trail to the
Bowman trail.
• Green Lake trail, No. 1666, from
the North Minam trail to Green Lake.
Fires
Continued from A1
Continued from A1
New dining options at the site
would provide most of the buzz.
Space on the main floor of the
building could feature a small
cafe or restaurant that would
include a drive-thru area. Three
temporary food trucks will join
the existing truck on the south
end of the parking lot — The
Express, which specializes in
smash burgers and hot mini
doughnuts.
Aizpitarte said the other
food trucks will provide a va-
riety of choices for eaters.
“We’re hoping to solicit
some different flavors and dif-
ferent food types,” Aizpitarte
said.
The lot will also feature
bathrooms, seating, covered
dining area and event space at
the south end.
“We would like to enhance
the pedestrian experience and
provide a family friendly place
for everyone in the commu-
nity to enjoy while dining at
U.S. Forest Service/Contributed Photo
the various options,” Aizpi-
tarte wrote in the narrative.
“Whether it’s a family with
kids and dogs, a couple out on
a date, or just somebody out
for a bite and a drink, it’s just a
place that everybody can hang
out outside,” he said.
The building and parking
lot are in the downtown his-
toric district and in the central
commercial zone.
The planning department
approved the project on July
26, which required a land use
review because Aizpitarte
plans to convert the use from
a large-single user office space
to a mixed-use building. Pio-
neer Bank formerly used the
space as their corporate office.
Aizpitarte said it hasn’t been
determined who will fill two
sections of office space on
the main floor — one 1,500
square feet and the other 500
square feet.
The school district’s special
education department got the
largest chunk of office space
— the entire 3,500-square-foot
second floor, which includes
eight office spaces.
Barry Nemec, the district’s
special education director, said
the department moved into
the building on Aug. 1.
He said the department was
previously spread out across
multiple buildings, but mov-
ing into the top floor will al-
low the whole department,
which serves 250 students
locally and an additional 500
virtually across the state of
Oregon, to work in the same
place.
“Special education often
faces many unique challenges
that require a team approach
to solve,” Nemec wrote in an
email to the Herald. “Now that
the district special education
team is all together, we can eas-
ily collaborate in a timely man-
ner to increase student success.”
The special education staff
includes an occupational thera-
pist, school psychologist, diag-
nostician, three case managers
and special programs and spe-
cial education coordinator. The
Nebo fire
The fire was estimated at 800 acres
on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Firefighters
are working along roads and trails
outside the Eagle Cap Wilderness
to potentially use them as control
lines if necessary to protect the Lick
Creek Guard Station, structures at Big
Sheep Camp, and Indian Crossing
campground along the Imnaha River
should the fire threaten those, accord-
ing to the Wallowa-Whitman.
There were no trail closures around
the Nebo fire as of Wednesday, Aug.
31, but Pederson said officials were
planning to temporarily close the
roads leading to the Tenderfoot and
Lick Creek trailheads.
Crockets Knob fire
This blaze, started by lightning on
Aug. 22, continues to burn on the Mal-
heur National Forest, in the Greenhorn
Mountains about 19 miles north of
Prairie City.
The fire has burned about 1,900
acres. Gusty winds and higher tem-
peratures on Tuesday, Aug. 30 resulted
in active burning, and the fire pro-
duced a significant smoke column.
The fire has moved close to the west
Princess trailhead south of Indian
Rock Lookout, and it has spread north-
east onto a small part of the Umatilla
National Forest.
Hot Shot crews are working on the
east side of the fire, as well as in the
roadless areas to the north and west,
building and plotting containment lines.
On the southern flank, crews have
blocked the fire in the Big Boulder
Creek area.
Aircraft, including helicopters dip-
ping water from Olive Lake to the
north, continue to work on the fire.
Clayton Franke/Baker City Herald
The Express, which specializes in smash burgers and mini dough-
nuts, is the first food cart to set up in the parking lot at Second
and Broadway streets, west of the former Pioneer Bank building.
The property developer hopes to add three more food trucks.
new office is not a classroom,
as the special education staff
works with students who attend
Baker schools.
Aizpitarte said he hopes to
start construction on some of
the interior spaces “as soon as
possible.” The construction
would mostly consist of build-
ing partition walls, and he said
he’ll use existing structures as
much as possible.
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Susan Townsend/Contributed Photo
Above: Looking northeast across Baker Valley to a pyrocumulus cloud towering above
the Wallowa Mountains on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. The Sturgill fire in the Eagle Cap
Wilderness helped spawn the cloud, which is basically a fire-induced thunderhead.
Below: The Sturgill fire is burning near the North Minam River in the Eagle Cap Wilder-
ness northeast of Baker City.
RD
Such clouds typically form late in the
afternoon and dissipate relatively rapidly
after sundown as the air cools, Breiden-
bach said.
Wallowa-Whitman fire managers
said they expected both the Sturgill
and Nebo fires would generate smoke
plumes both Tuesday and Wednesday,
which was forecast to be even hotter,
said Matt Burks, public affairs officer for
the Wallowa-Whitman.
A press release from the forest on
Tuesday afternoon stated that the Stur-
gill and Nebo fires are having beneficial
effects by reducing the fuel load and cre-
ating a “mosaic” pattern of heavily and
lightly burned areas, as well as areas that
don’t burn.
“This range of fire effects is expected
and desired,” the press release states. “As
temperatures increase (and) humidity
decreases this week, fire activity on the
Nebo and Sturgill Fires is expected to
increase and large smoke columns or
plumes may be visible from nearby ar-
eas.”
Although Wallowa-Whitman offi-
cials are monitoring the fires, as they
have done with more than 30 light-
ning-sparked blazes in the 365,000-acre
Eagle Cap over the past quarter century,
fire managers intended to have helicop-
ters drop buckets of water on both the
Sturgill and Nebo fires today to try to
curb their spread in certain directions.
Todd Pederson, an assistant fire man-
agement officer on the Wallowa-Whit-
man, said the goal is to keep the Sturgill
fire from crossing the Minam River, and
with the Nebo fire the objective is to
prevent flames from spreading into the
upper Imnaha River drainage.
Pederson said on Wednesday morn-
ing that both fires are behaving about as
fire officials expected.
Among the criteria that officials use
to determine whether to monitor or
fight a fire is its proximity to private
property and to the wilderness bound-
ary.
As a current example, Pederson cited
a fire reported on Tuesday, but con-
firmed on Wednesday in the upper Los-
tine River area, where a road corridor
penetrates into the wilderness for sev-
eral miles.
Because that fire is near the wilder-
ness boundary, the Wallowa-Whitman
is treating the blaze as a regular fire, and
trying to put it out as soon as possible,
Pederson said.
Firefighters rappeled to the fire on
Wednesday, and air tankers dropped re-
tardant, he said.
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The actual interior de-
signs, as well as the com-
pletion date, which proba-
bly won’t be for a few years,
Aizpitarte said, is depen-
dent on who moves into
the office space.
541-975-1364
Council
Continued from A1
The two others — Guyer
and Damschen — were both
appointed.
Guyer was appointed in
December 2021 to replace
Lynette Perry, who resigned
in August 2021 due to health
issues.
Damschen was appointed
in March 2022 to replace
Heather Sells, who moved
from Baker City and was no
longer eligible to serve as a city
councilor.
To qualify for the Nov. 8
ballot, prospective candidates
had to collect at least 46 sig-
natures from registered voters
who live within the city limits.
City Recorder Dallas Brock-
ett said the Baker County
Clerk’s office verified at least
that many signatures for each
of the eight candidates.
Individual totals:
• LaFavor and Waggoner,
69 each
• Calder, 65
• Damschen, 63
• Diaz, 60
• Cody, 59
• Guyer, 55
• Johnson, 47
Frieda Wood George
Freida Wood George passed
peacefully on August 28, 2022, at
the age of 97 in Sherwood, Oregon.
She was born in Baker, Oregon, on
February 24, 1925. Her parents were
Carl Wood and June Woodcock
Wood. Freida attended Baker
schools, graduating from Baker High
School in 1943. Upon graduation she
worked for the Baker County Health
Department and the Leo Adler Magazine business.
She married Aaron George in July 1945 and became a
housewife and mother for the next 16 years. They lived in
the Portland area for two years in the late 1950s. After a
divorce Freida moved back to Baker City and joined the
staff in the Baker County Assessor’s office. Her career in
that office lasted 25 years and she eventually became the
Chief Deputy Assessor.
Freida is survived by her daughter, Linda Cutting
(Buck) of Keizer, OR; her son, Richard George (Neta) of
Tualatin, OR; her grandchildren, Bree Sibbel (Mark) of
Hillsboro, OR; Mac Cutting of Bend, OR; Heather George
of Goodlettsville, TN; Ryan George (April) Ludowici,
GA; her great-grandsons, Kal and Oz Sibbel and Drake
and Donovan George. She was preceded in death by
her parents, her sister, Ernibee Patton, and her brother,
Hershel Wood.Contributions can be made to a charity of
your choice. Cremation will be performed and there will
be no service.
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10106 N N. ‘C’ • Island City
PORTLAND (AP) — A
federal judge has ruled that
the Oregon State Hospital
must impose strict limits on
the length of time it treats pa-
tients accused of crimes who
need mental health treatment.
Judge Michael W. Mosman’s
ruling seeks to ease the psychi-
atric hospital’s overcrowding,
speed up patient admission and
stop people waiting for admis-
sion from languishing in jail,
The Oregonian/OregonLive re-
ported Monday, Aug. 29.
Effective immediately, the
hospital must release “aid-and-
assist” patients accused of mis-
demeanors within 90 days of
admission, and those accused
of felonies within six months
of admission. Aid-and-assist
are patients found by a judge
unable to participate in their
own defense at trial.
The judge’s decision over-
rules an Oregon law that says
the hospital can hold an aid-
and-assist patient for up to
three years, or the maximum
amount of time that a person
could have been sentenced to
prison for their alleged crime,
whichever is shorter.
Disability Rights Oregon
and Metropolitan Public De-
fenders requested the order
after protesting the hospital’s
lengthy admission delays. Dis-
ability Rights Oregon in 2002
won a court order that required
the hospital to admit aid-and-
assist patients within seven
days so they can begin mental
health treatment quickly.
The hospital has struggled
to meet that timeline, and the
COVID-19 pandemic exacer-
bated the problem.
February 24, 1925 – August 28, 2022
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