LOCAL A2
SPORTS A6
OUTDOORS B1
Swinyers to celebrate
70th anniversary
Badgers advance in
volleyball playoff s
Good day’s
gunning for grouse
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC • SPORTS
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Good Day Wish
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2022 • $1.50
Geometry in Construction class at Powder Valley
lets students turn their knowledge into buildings
ELECTION 2022 | BAKER COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Chairman
campaign
committees
raise $20,000
combined
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Mary Boyer of Baker
City.
BRIEFING
—————
Inside
Shane Alderson has raised
$13,640, while Dan Garrick
has brought in $6,678
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Living guide
included with today’s issue
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
CTE instructor Seth Bingham, center, explains how to use a smart square to mark angles to students Cade Thompson, left,
Jodi Bingham and Tucker Martin.
Trick-or-treating on
Halloween
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 Avenue so that
costumed children can safely
gather their treats. Businesses
and organizations, both on and
off Main Street, are invited to
participate.
Baker City Christian Church,
675 Highway 7, will have a
trunk-or-treat on Monday, Oct.
31, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The
event includes games, s’mores,
hot dog and chili dinner and
more.
WEATHER
—————
Today
56/26
Partly sunny
Sunday
57/33
Cloudy
Monday
56/35
Partly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Building
MATH SKILLS
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
NORTH POWDER —From math
class to wood shop, students at Pow-
der Valley High School are putting
angles to work through a course
called Geometry in Construction.
For the 12 students, their day starts
with Matt Richardson and geometry.
On a recent morning, the teacher
issued a challenge:
“Construct a right triangle.”
With a few snaps of rubber bands
against plastic pegs, each student
made a right triangle.
“Now construct a congruent right
triangle,” Richardson said.
Some more snaps, and the geo
boards all displayed two right trian-
gles of the same size and shape.
Then came reflections and rota-
tions before the bell sounded and
the students traded rubber bands for
wood and nails in the second half of
this class in shop with Seth Bingham.
This is the third year Geometry
in Construction has been offered at
Powder. It started with Blake Jones,
who has since retired. Now Richard-
son teaches the math portion, and
Bingham continues the lessons with
construction work.
Geometry in Construction was de-
signed, Richardson said, to be prob-
lem-based and focus on experiential
learning.
GIS was developed by a teacher in
Loveland, Colorado, to provide a dif-
ferent a different approach to math
while still covering the full curricu-
lum.
“One of our goals is to keep two
See Campaign / A3
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Lizandro Rodriguez, a junior at Powder Valley High School, works on his scaled-
down house model during his Geometry in Construction class.
different paths in math,” Richardson
struction,” he said. “I can actually
said, “with plenty of opportunity to
work on building stuff, and have ex-
jump back and forth.”
perience in construc-
“One of our goals tion.”
Students have two
choices: a traditional
It is a two-hour
is to keep two
geometry class, or Ge-
course, and the stu-
different paths in dents earn a math
ometry in Construc-
tion.
and a CTE credit
math with plenty of credit
Sophomore Jaycee
(career technical edu-
opportunity to jump cation).
Gray chose the latter.
“There’s a lab, and
In the shop, students
back and forth.”
you get to do the build-
spend the first quar-
ing part of it — con-
ter of the school year
— Matt Richardson,
verting it to scale and
building a scale model
math teacher
using the right angles,”
of a house using balsa
she said.
wood.
Jace Arvidson, a junior, said the
“I broke one of the walls twice, but
dual nature of the course appealed
I’m getting there,” Lizandro Rodriguez,
to him.
a junior, said as he consulted the house
“I mainly did it for the math credit, plans covered in math equations.
See Building / A3
but I’m not that familiar with con-
Cascade Natural
Gas rates are rising
starting Nov. 1
Baker City Herald
The Baker City Council has approved the
second of three readings of an ordinance rezon-
ing a south Baker City property to make build-
ings converted into a single-family dwelling
compliant with the city’s development code.
The council approved the second reading by
a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
Councilor Kenyon Damschen voted no, say-
ing that using the building on Gayle and Leon-
ard Gazley’s property at 569 Elm St. as a dwell-
ing does not comply with the city code.
Councilor Dean Guyer, who said he has
worked with the Gazleys in the past, recused
himself from the discussion and vote.
Councilor Jason Spriet was absent Tuesday.
Councilors will consider the final reading,
and passage, of the ordinance following an-
other public hearing scheduled for the Nov. 8
meeting.
See Rezone / A2
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.co
Rate
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Fire remains under investigation
State investigators are still work-
ing to determine the cause of the
wildfire that burned about 130 acres
just southwest of Baker City on
Oct. 6.
“The fire is still under active in-
vestigation,” Jessica Prakke, public
affairs officer for the Oregon De-
partment of Forestry, wrote in an
email to the Baker City Herald on
Wednesday, Oct. 26. (Prakke said
ODF is officially calling the fire the
West Campbell fire, rather than
Spring Grove Gulch, which it was
called initially.)
The human-caused fire started
on private property south of West
Campbell Loop.
See Rate / A3
Issue 73
12 pages
Council weighs
request to rezone
industrial parcel
BAKER CITY
Residential custom-
increases
ers of Cascade Natural
Gas will pay 25% more
for the fuel starting
25.1%
Nov. 1.
residential
The Oregon Public
30.1%
Utility Commission
commercial
(PUC) recently ap-
proved a 25.1% resi-
33.8%
dential rate increase
industrial
requested by Cascade
Natural Gas, which
serves customers in Baker City.
Rates will rise even more for commercial
customers (30.1%) and industrial customers
(33.8%).
The reason, according to PUC, is rising
wholesale prices for natural gas.
TODAY
The two candidates vying to become the
next chairman of the Baker
County Board of Commis-
sioners have raised a com-
bined $20,318 in campaign
contributions, according to
campaign finance reports
filed with the Oregon Sec-
retary of State’s office.
Alderson
Shane Alderson has re-
ceived slightly more than
twice the contributions of
Dan Garrick.
Contributions to Al-
derson’s campaign finance
committee, which was
registered with the state
on Feb. 25, have totaled
Garrick
$13,640.
Garrick’s committee,
which was formed Feb. 8, has brought in
$6,678.
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B2 & B4
See Fire / A2
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
A fire burned about 130 acres on the foothill just southwest of Baker City on
Oct. 6, 2022. The human-caused fire is still under investigation.
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Outdoors ...........................B1
Senior Menus ...................A2
Sports ...............................A6
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6