LOCAL A2
LOCAL A3
SPORTS A5
Governor tours
hailstorm damage
Taste of Baker has
triumphant return
Baker football rolls
past The Dalles
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: HOME & LIVING • SPORTS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2022 • $1.50
State still
investigating
foothill fire
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Bill and Kathy Mitch-
ell of Baker City.
BRIEFING
—————
Downtown trick-or-
treating set for Oct. 31
Blaze was human-caused
Baker City’s downtown trick-
or-treat event is happening on
Halloween, Monday, Oct. 31. The
annual Baker City Kiwanis event
is set for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Main
Street will be closed to traffi c
from Church Street to Auburn Av-
enue so that costumed children
may safely gather their treats.
Businesses and organizations,
both on and off Main Street, are
invited to participate.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Investigators from the Oregon Department
of Forestry (ODF) were working Monday, Oct.
10 to try to pinpoint the cause of a fire that
burned about 130 acres on the foothill just
southwest of Baker City on Oct. 6.
The fire was listed as human-caused on the
Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center
fire log.
Steve Meyer, wildland fire supervisor at
ODF’s Baker City office, said on Monday that
the two state investigators could finish their on-
site work later in the day.
It’s not clear, though, when the state will
release information about the investigation,
Meyer said.
He said the investigators are focusing on
where the fire started, near the bottom of Spring
Grove Gulch, south of West Campbell Loop.
If investigators can identify the person or
people responsible for starting the fire, the state
could potentially try to recoup firefighting
costs from them, Meyer said.
He didn’t have an updated estimate for how
much money was spent on the Spring Grove
Gulch fire.
The former Sears store on Baker
City’s Main Street is the new home of a
People Helping People thrift store.
Photos by Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Ski For The Health Of It
registration opens Nov. 1
Registration for Ski for the
Health of It opens Nov. 1.
Registration links will be sent
out on ParentSquare as well as
Facebook (Baker School District
and Baker FridayPlus pages).
This program is open to 150
students, fourth grade to 12th
grade. It runs for eight weeks on
Fridays, Jan. 13 through March
10 (except Feb. 24, which is a
school day). For $80, students
receive transportation, lift tick-
ets, rentals and lessons.
A “ride only” option is available
to 50 students, ninth to 12th
grade. To be eligible, partici-
pants must have completed two
consecutive years of the regular
program, and must provide ski or
snowboard equipment.
Registration will close Nov.
10, and families are notifi ed on
Nov. 17. For information, email
heidi.stocks@bakersd.org.
Randi Stauffer »
is the general manager
of the People Helping
People thrift store that
opened Oct. 5, 2022.
The
Baker community
has been asking us
to move in
See Fire / A3
3 councilors
file complaint
against leader
of recall effort
Thrift store opens on Main Street
Community Connection
fall bazaar set for Nov. 5
Baker City Herald
The fall bazaar at Communi-
ty Connection, 2810 Cedar St.,
is set for Saturday, Nov. 5, from
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vendor tables
are available for $15 by calling
541-523-6591.
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
“ O
ur motto? Our
motto is to just
help people right
where they are,” says Randi
Stauffer.
WEATHER
—————
Today
Around her is a small crowd of
shoppers and hustling employees, kids
giggling in the toy corner, the clinks of
clothes hangers, and admiring grunts
from the tool section.
Stauffer is the general manager of
Baker City’s new People Helping Peo-
ple thrift store. It opened Oct. 5 at 2017
Main St., the third location in Eastern
Oregon owned by Jeremiah Sprague
of Cove.
“We had one that started six years
ago in La Grande, and then that one
progressively grew,” Stauffer said. “So
we decided to open one in Pendleton.”
Baker City became the next goal.
“The Baker community has been
asking us to move in, to help support
72/30
Sunny
Wednesday
75/33
Sunny
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Three members of the Baker City Council
have filed a civil lawsuit against the former city
firefighter who is spearheading a campaign to
try to recall six of the seven councilors from
office.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, Oct. 7, names as
defendants Casey Husk, the former firefighter,
and Debbie Henshaw of Baker City.
The plaintiffs are Mayor Kerry McQuisten
and fellow city councilors Joanna Dixon and
Johnny Waggoner Sr., all of whom are among
the six councilors Husk wants to give voters a
chance to recall.
The three plaintiffs allege that the recall pe-
titions Husk filed each contains “a false state-
ment of material fact,” a violation of Oregon
elections law.
The plaintiffs also contend that Henshaw,
in supporting the recall effort, has made false
statements about them.
Each of the three plaintiffs is seeking $2,500
from each of the two defendants — a total of
$5,000 for each plaintiff — along with attor-
ney’s fees.
the community,” Stauffer said, “and so
we decided to open this one.”
The location should be familiar to
some shoppers, as the former home of
Sears.
Stauffer and her staff had been
working for several days to prepare for
the launch, and she decided to forego
an official ceremony, notifying her
employees the night before the Oct. 4
opening.
She did post on the store’s Facebook
page about the opening.
People Helping People stores take
donations from across the region, and
Stauffer said the new Baker City store
has items from a larger area.
“We had people bringing dona-
tions from Baker, they’d bring them
to La Grande,” she said. “And so what
we did is we brought a lot of the do-
nations from La Grande over to the
Baker community. We have Enterprise,
Wallowa, multitudes of different areas
in the community that all just donate
to us, and so we share them with the
stores.”
See Recall / A3
See Store / A3
What fall? Summer refuses to leave
was 77 degrees. That’s 15 degrees
above average for the month.
The stubborn summer contin-
The daily high has topped the
ues to defy the calendar.
average on each day of October.
And it looks as though autumn
The National Weather Service is
might be at least a third
forecasting the pattern
of the way through its
to continue through
run before summer re-
at least Monday, Oct.
linquishes its hold on
17, with daily highs re-
Average high in
Baker County.
Baker City for the first maining in the 70s.
A persistent high
The average high for
10 days of October
pressure ridge, which
this time of year is in
brings sunny skies and
the low 60s.
abnormally warm temperatures,
Despite the unseasonable
warmth, October has yet to break
has dominated the weather since
any daily records at the airport. It
the equinox on Sept. 22.
was close, though, on Oct. 5, when
Through the first 10 days of
the high was 82, just 2 degrees shy
October, the average high tem-
perature at the Baker City Airport of the record set in 1979.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
77º
TODAY
Issue 65
12 pages
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Home & Living ........B1 & B2
Temperatures can dip dramati-
cally by late October, as the month
has the widest spread between
average high temperatures on the
first and last day.
The average high on Oct. 1 is 71
degrees, dropping to 53 on Oct. 31.
And although a cold snap in the
second half of the month would
have a significant effect, so far
this October is on pace to be the
warmest on record at the airport,
where temperature statistics date
to 1943.
The warmest October was 1988,
when the average high tempera-
ture was 72.3 degrees. The run-
ner-up is 1953, with an average
high of 70.9.
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Court records in
McCarty case probe
cabin ownership
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Court filings last week in the criminal case
against David McCarty for aggravated theft,
trespassing and criminal mischief include details
about the ownership history of the Pine Creek
cabin McCarty is accused of breaking into.
James and Sharen Sanders are the legal own-
ers of the 425-square-foot cabin, which is on
the north side of the Pine Creek Road in the
Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City.
According to records from the Baker County
Assessor’s Office, the cabin was built in 1920
and is part of the 5.15-acre parcel the Sanderses
bought in 2002.
McCarty, who bought 1,560 acres in the Pine
Creek Canyon in 2020, also bought, in October
2021, the parcel adjacent to, and west of, the
Sanders property.
Opinion .............................A4
Senior Menus ...................A2
Sports ..................... A5 & A6
See McCarty / A3
Sudoku..............................B5
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6