Local Realtors, from left, Marty Lien, Sharon Rudi and Mary Jo Grove inspect a Baker City home that’s for sale. Agents say Baker County avoided the dramatic fluctuations that have roiled the real estate markets in other parts of Oregon and the U.S.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

Housing market woes across the country just can’t be compared to Baker City.

“Our market is so unique and nonstandard,” said Andrew Bryan, who bought Baker City Realty in 2008.

Nationally, real estate troubles hit in 2008.

“We had about a year lag time,” Bryan said.

And now, three years later, local Realtors are optimistic.

“We still have people looking, we still have people buying,” said Marty Lien, a Realtor since 1989 who works for John J. Howard & Associates.

A 24-hour Maverik gas station and convenience store opened Nov. 2  at 1520 Campbell St.

The Baker City store is the company’s first Oregon location.

The Baker Clinic has been acquired by the St. Alphonsus Medical Group and is now officially known as St. Alphonsus Medical Group-Baker Clinic.

A large white-and-red sign erected next to the smaller Baker Clinic sign announces the change to passersby in the 3100 block of Pocahontas Road, just east of St. Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City.

Sept. 1 was the official changeover date for the family and acute care clinic.

Baker County officials want busloads of tourists to visit the area. And they’ve contracted with a Portland-based expert to try to make this happen.

Falcon’s Crest Inc. will be paid $20,000 to foster packaged travel to the county and help businesses who want to attract these types of tourists best prepare for their needs.

This would make the county overall more attractive to groups of travelers, especially during what tourism professionals refer to as “shoulder seasons."

Someone purporting to sell satellite and other TV products is doing so unlawfully, Baker City officials report.

The person in question doesn’t have a license allowing him to sell goods and services door to door — something required in the city, said Police Chief Wyn Lohner.

Part of the licensing process is for police to conduct a background check on the person, he said.

Four women with a shared passion are a tough force to stop — or slow down.

The quartet is Kathleen Chaves, Kaylin Chaves, Mary Tomlinson (all of Baker City) and Dr. Karen Harris (an obstetrician/gynecologist from Ashland).

They are coming together to offer a weekend conference called ChoiceShops — “Harvesting the Garden of Our Spirit.”

The workshop is three days: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 10; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 11 (lunch included); and 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 12.

The event will take place at Lazy JW Ranch in North Powder (accommodations are up to the participants).

Enrollment is $200. Register by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or calling 541-523-1029.

The ChoiceShops brochure is imprinted with this message: “Gift yourself the time to pause and restore your healthy, playful and creative energies.”

“There are people who tell us every day they would have no place to live if it wasn’t for rural development,” Walker said during a stop Tuesday at Elkhorn Village senior apartments in Baker City.

She said the apartments rent for around $510 a month, but for some seniors citizens, that would take their entire Social Security check, which in some cases is their only source of income.

For housing projects subsidized by rural development, the rent is on a sliding scale designed to limit rent to no more than 30 percent of a resident’s income, said Mark Green, project manager for Chrisman Development, which owns the Elkhorn Village apartments.

That formula reduces rents to around $200 per month for some of the senior citizens living in Elkhorn Village, Green said.

Billy Hermann, an employee at Kicks Sports Wear, said it was a thrill unpacking the first 60 boxes of Nike women’s running shoes that arrived shortly before noon Monday.

Ryan Chaves, who owns Kicks Sports Wear with his wife, Kaylin, said it took almost two years of negotiations to convince Nike officials to approve a retail outlet in Baker City’s downtown historic district.

Typically, Nike requires a company to show it can sell a minimum of $1 million a  year in Nike shoes, apparel and other items as a prerequisite for being awarded a retail sales agreement with the company.

Enough talking, already — it’s time to take action to create profitable markets for logs and value-added wood products from private forests in Baker County and across Northeastern Oregon.

That message resonated among members of the Forest Industry Roundtable meeting July 23 in Baker City.

Currently there’s little demand for saw logs and prices are at or below the cost of producing and harvesting timber, and roundtable members agreed that situation is likely to continue for some time, with the state, national and world economies struggling to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Baker-area woodland owners Lyle Defrees and Kerry Borgen, and other members of the roundtable, said the housing and construction industries are not likely to rebound until late 2011 or 2012, and it could be a while after that before wholesale log prices rise enough for woodland owners to make a profit.

LaVonne Yeoumans, who owns Kona Kolors indoor tanning salon in Baker City, said she’s concerned that the tanning tax, which took effect on July 1, will affect her  business.

“It bothers me as a small business owner,” she said. “I can’t afford to just absorb the cost and have to raise prices.”

The 10-percent tax on indoor tanning is part of the federal healthcare reform law.

Yeoumans said her clients understand that she didn’t raise the cost of their tanning sessions on her own volition.

“My clients have been very good at understanding that the government is raising the price, not me,” she said.

To compensate for the extra cost, she said she has been offering an extra tan for people purchasing larger packages, and a free sample of lotion for those purchasing smaller packages.