Officials are optimistic, though, that the problem can be fixed and that their towns will be eligible 

A change in how the federal government calculates the percentage of households in a city with low or moderate incomes has at least temporarily made several small local towns, including Haines and Richland, ineligible for federal Community Development Block Grants, a crucial source of money for major projects such as water and sewer system repairs or replacements.

Haines City Recorder Valerie Russell said that, as an example, a federal survey showed that the percentage of Haines households at low or moderate income levels dropped from 2013 to 2014 from 55.5 percent to 39.7 percent. To be eligible for Block Grants, cities must have at least 51 percent of households at low or moderate incomes.

Baker County’s Newest Rural Fire Protection Association Has First Meeting

S. John Collins / Baker City Herald file photo A rangeland firefighter mops up hot spots during the 2012 Sardine Creek fire east of Baker City. The blaze burned in the area that’s part of the newly formed Lookout-Glasgow Rangeland Protection Association.

By Joshua Dillen

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KEATING — Baker County’s newest rural fire protection group had its first meeting Monday night at the Keating Fire Hall.

A group of local ranchers and landowners in the Keating Valley and Little Lookout Mountain area formed the Lookout-Glasgow Rangeland Protection Association (LGRPA) to be a first line of defense against fires on their rangelands in the dry sagebrush country east of Baker City.