BAKER CITY HERALD • THuRsDAY, NovEmBER 3, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Exhibit
Continued from A1
It is set up in the children’s sec-
tion of the library through Nov.
15.
Two special in-person pro-
grams are planned for Friday,
Nov. 4, at 10 a.m. (for kids up to
grade 2), and Wednesday, Nov. 9
at 4 p.m. for kids in grades 3-6.
“We’ll learn some more about
dinosaurs,” said Missy Grammon,
youth services specialist at the li-
brary.
She said the Nov. 9 program
will cover extinction, fossilization
and experiments.
“It’ll be fun,” she said.
The exhibit features several
inflatable dinosaurs to catch at-
tention of the young patrons,
and then a series of interactive
displays. At “Digging for Fos-
sils,” kids can use brushes to sift
through soil-colored rubber to
discover fossils. A sorting game
called “What makes a dinosaur a
dinosaur?” helps youngsters cat-
egorize creatures into different
groups — dinosaur or not.
One stop details the relation-
ship between birds and dinosaurs
(yes, they are related), and an-
other panel explains the process
of how bones turn into fossils.
Online
The museum has an online
component as well — find it at
https://vimeo.com/518814795.
Additional programs
Dinosaurs aren’t the only cur-
rent program at the library.
Storytime activity bags are
available on the first day of each
month, and can be found near
the front desk.
November is National Novel
Writing Month (Nanowrimo),
and a writing group for youth in
grades 3-12 is meeting on Tues-
days from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Oregon Battle of the Books,
where kids read from a selected
list of books and then compete
against other schools by an-
swering questions, has started
but there is still time to register
by calling the library, 541-523-
6419. Practice for grades 3-5
is Thursdays from 4 p.m. to
4:30 p.m. Grades 6-8 meet on
Wednesdays at 4 p.m.
Maker’s Club is held each
month, and the next is Friday,
Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. The session
will feature 4-H staff who will
teach about electronics.
Another gathering, for grades
6-12, is the Fandom Club where
youth can “talk about their cur-
rent fan obsessions,” Grammon
said. There are two meetings
this month: Nov. 4 and Nov. 18,
from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Sites
Continued from A3
• BAKER COUNTY CLERK’S OFFICE
1995 Third st., suite 150
monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Election Day 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• DRIVE UP DROP SITE
West side of County Courthouse, on
Fourth street
7 days a week, 24 hours a day
Election Day until 8 p.m.
• COMMUNITY CONNECTION OF
BAKER COUNTY
2810 Cedar st.
monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,
1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Election Day 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,
1:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• HALFWAY CITY HALL
155-B E. Record st.
monday-Thursday 8 a.m. to noon
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Friday
Election Day 8 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m.
to 8 p.m.
• HUNTINGTON CITY HALL
50 E. Adams st.
monday-Friday 8 a.m. to noon,
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Election Day 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• RICHLAND CITY HALL
89 main st.
monday-Friday 8 a.m. to noon,
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Election Day 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Norm Kolb
Norm Kolb, far left in the middle row, was manager of the University of Oregon baseball team from 1950-1954.
Kolb
Continued from A1
Then the family moved to Baker so
Frank could work on the family ranch,
which bordered the present-day Quail
Ridge Golf Course to the west.
“Dad worked there during the day
and at night worked for the Oregon
Lumber Company,” Kolb said.
In 1936, Kolb’s grandfather, Adam,
sold 60 acres to the city for the golf
course, which was funded by a federal
WPA grant (Works Progress Adminis-
tration).
“They sold the first nine-hole golf
course site for $500,” Kolb said.
Lots of work — and sports
Kolb, with a grin, credits his variety of
part-time jobs for lending lots of experi-
ence to his resumé.
First, around age 12 or 13, he was a
“horse hair picker,” which meant collect-
ing hair to be used in hairbrushes.
This job involved separating hair trim-
mings from the other stuff that falls to
the floor of a horse’s stall.
Then, at noon and 6 o’clock, he washed
dishes at the Venture Inn, a cafe by the
old post office. Later he also washed
dishes at the Tops Cafe.
But mostly, Kolb loved athletics.
In high school, he managed the base-
ball team at Baker High School during
his freshman and sophomore years.
At that time, he said, a league for men’s
fast-pitch softball was going strong, and
Leo Arany asked him to keep score —
two games a night, five days a week.
“I’d keep score for a dollar a game,” he
said.
Kolb graduated from Baker High
School in 1950, and went to the Univer-
sity of Oregon in Eugene.
Again, he sought out sports.
Kolb managed the freshman football
team, which was coached by Bill Bower-
man (who also coached track and field,
and co-founded Nike with one of his for-
mer runners, Phil Knight).
“Bowerman told me where to go and
what to do,” Kolb said. “He was very dis-
ciplined, direct, no nonsense.”
Then Kolb heard that the U of O base-
ball team manager had quit, so he ap-
plied with head coach Don Kirsch.
“I managed the baseball team for four
years,” he said. “Kirsch was the most ded-
icated, disciplined individual I’ve ever
known.”
He remembers what Kirsch told his
players:
“You have to remember who you are,
and what you represent.”
Well
Continued from A1
Well-drilling costs totaled
about $677,000.
This spring, city crews in-
stalled a 10-inch-diameter
ductile iron pipe to connect
the well to the existing 16-inch
mainline that runs beneath In-
diana Avenue.
After a delay, again due to
supply chain problems, the
city’s contractor, Mike Becker
Construction of La Grande,
built the structure that houses
the well and equipment this
summer.
But the electronic controls
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Norm Kolb, pictured at the far left on the bottom row, was manager of the freshman football team at the University of Oregon, which
was coached by Bill Bowerman (far left, back row).
In 1954, the Ducks baseball team
made it to the College World Series in
Omaha, Nebraska, and in 2006 Kolb was
inducted into the Oregon Athletics Hall
of Fame.
Again, he points to timing and cir-
cumstances.
“And all because I started a dollar a
night keeping score at a softball league,”
he said.
Graduation and career
Kolb graduated from the U of O in
1954, and served 21 months on active
duty in the transportation corps in Se-
attle.
Then his accounting career began, first
in the Sweet Home area.
Two years later, Kolb decided to attend
Golden Gate College in San Francisco for
specialized education.
Then he had his choice of careers,
including at Stanford or Shell Oil. He
took a job with LH Penny & Co., al-
ready with several years of accounting
behind him.
“I had a leg up on everyone else in the
firm,” he said.
But life soon changed for Kolb and his
wife, Gretchen.
In May 1959, his grandfather died and
Kolb returned to Baker for the funeral.
His father-in-law, Gordon Dunlap,
and family friend Henry Levinger told
him an accounting firm from Ontario
was looking to open a location in Baker.
He took the job, and they moved
home in 1959.
With no local clients, Kolb was sent
on the road to locations around South-
ern Idaho. Also, because the CPAs in the
Weiser office didn’t like municipal audits,
Kolb would travel there to do those tasks.
“I was on the road a lot,” he said.
Leo Adler comes calling
Then one day Leo Adler, one of Baker’s
that operate the well aren’t yet
available.
And Michelle Owen, the
city’s public works director,
doesn’t expect the controls will
arrive until late March 2023 at
the soonest.
“This is a supply chain issue.
We’re at the mercy of the sup-
ply chain,” Owen said.
The contract for build-
ing the house and installing
piping and controls was for
$1,680,000, and the city also
spend about $130,000 for engi-
neering on the project, Owen
said.
If the controls are ready
by the end of March, the well
most prominent business owners, walked
in the door and asked if Kolb would be his
accountant.
“I said ‘Mr. Adler, yes, I’d be happy to.’ ”
But Kolb was quickly corrected by his
new client.
“I’m not Mr. Adler, I’m Leo,” he was
told.
Adler was 67 at the time, and Kolb was
29.
He remained Adler’s accountant until
1993, when Adler passed away on Nov.
2 of that year. Adler’s will established the
Leo Adler Trust to provide scholarships
and community grants to benefit Baker
County and North Powder.
Kolb, thinking back to the circum-
stances that led him to that point in his ca-
reer, remembers advice he received from a
college career counselor:
“ ‘Never forget you have connections in
your hometown that you don’t know about.’
That was great advice, as it turned out.”
Earning a reputation
The accounting ethics code restricted
accountants from advertising their busi-
ness, or recruiting.
“Word of mouth is the way you devel-
oped, and reputation depends on your
performance,” Kolb said.
So he got involved in the community —
first with Little League, which was newly
started by Gene Rose.
(Rose was Adler’s longtime attorney.)
“I became secretary/treasurer of the
Little League — I had two daughters, no
boys,” Kolb said with a laugh.
He also joined the Rotary Club, the
Chamber of Commerce, and was trea-
surer of the golf association.
“Being involved,” he said.
Adler was often at those same func-
tions, many times as a financial supporter.
Every December, Kolb said, Adler
would walk in the door with his own set of
numbers and a plan for donating to local
should be ready to use within
a month.
“There’s not much left to do,
it’ll be pretty much just hook-
ing everything up,” Owen said.
The 654-foot-deep well is
the city’s second, and its third
supplementary water source.
The city gets most of its wa-
ter from a dozen streams and
springs in the 10,000-acre wa-
tershed on the east slopes of
the Elkhorn Mountains west
of town.
The watershed typically pro-
duces enough water to meet
the city’s needs during the fall,
winter and much of the spring.
But during summer, when
organizations.
Adler’s business was magazine distribu-
tion, and Kolb said Adler read five publi-
cations every day.
He especially liked to read about people
from Baker.
“One of his greatest interests and pride
was following anybody from Baker who
was successful,” Kolb said.
In 1991 Adler, who never married,
worked with Kolb and Rose to estab-
lish the Leo Adler Trust to benefit Baker
County and North Powder. By law, the
foundation has to give away at least 5%
each year — by Adler’s request, 60% goes
to scholarships and 40% is for community
grants.
“The Baker area and North Powder
were his family,” Kolb said.
Adler chose US Bank as the founda-
tion’s trustee. The original three commit-
tee members were Kolb, Henry Levinger
and Roger Ager, who was a trust officer
with US Bank.
Kolb said they asked Adler if he wanted
to name others to serve on the board in
the future.
Adler declined.
“He said ‘I have confidence in my com-
mittee. They’ll do right when something
needs to be done,’ ” Kolb said.
Levinger resigned several months after
the foundation was established, and Rose
took his place.
The board later expanded — with ap-
proval from the Department of Justice.
Kolb still serves on the board. He re-
views applications, listens to presentations,
and thinks back to the Adler he knew.
“I’ve tried to interpret in my mind what
Leo would do,” he said. “He wanted to pro-
vide opportunities.”
Adler’s death, his foundation has now
awarded nearly twice as much money as
his original gift.
“We’re approaching $38 million,” Kolb
said.
the watershed volume declines
and demand peaks, the city
also taps Goodrich Reservoir, a
200-million-gallon natural lake
at the base of Elkhorn Peak
that was dammed decades ago
to increase the storage capacity.
The city also uses a well
drilled in 1977 near its water
treatment plant and reser-
voir on the hill near Reservoir
Road.
Even with the older well and
Goodrich Reservoir, city offi-
cials have asked voters, in two
recent summers, to voluntarily
reduce water usage when daily
consumption was exceeding
5 million gallons. The city has
S oroptimiSt
i nternational of
B aker C ounty
2022 a nnual
not had to impose mandatory
cutbacks, however.
Owen said the goal for the
new well is to produce about
2.16 million gallons per day.
Although the well would be
most beneficial during sum-
mer, the city could also use
it temporarily during some
springs, when rapid snowmelt
in the watershed can briefly
cloud streams with silt.
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