June 11, 2010 09:58 am
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Rep. Greg Walden is urging the U.S. Forest Service to re-open the washed out Wallowa Mountain Loop Road “as fast as possible.”
“The Loop Road is a critical link between Baker and Wallowa counties
and is a major tourism corridor that bolsters local economies,” he said
Thursday in a press release.
Walden, a Republican who represents Eastern Oregon in Congress,
plans to tour flood-damaged Eagle and Pine valleys on Sunday afternoon
and then attend a public forum in Richland hosted by Halfway Mayor
Sheila Farwell and Richland Mayor Dick Petterson.
The forum is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Eagle Valley Grange.
A 500-foot section of the paved Loop Road was obliterated by North
Pine Creek last week when a combination of torrential rain and melting
snow from the Wallowa Mountains more than doubled the creek’s volume.
The road was severely damaged in four other places along the creek.
The affected section is between the Loop Road’s southern end at Ore. Highway 86 and its intersection with the Fish Lake Road.
Walden met Thursday with Mary Wagner, regional forester at the
Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Region headquarters in Portland.
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June 11, 2010 09:57 am
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In the week before classes ended June 4, the Baker School District
learned it would have extra money to fund a summer school program aimed
at helping students meet math and reading benchmarks, says Betty
Palmer, South Baker principal.
The $52,000 grant will fund two separate “intensive three-week” programs with the first session starting Monday.
Class time is 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Monday through Thursday, with the first session continuing through July 1, Palmer said.
Breakfast will be served daily from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and lunch will be served from 11:45 a.m. to noon.
Students who were in Grades 1-3 this year will attend summer school
at Brooklyn Primary, 1350 Washington Ave. Those who were in Grades 4-5
this year will attend South Baker Intermediate, 1285 Third St.
A transition program for kindergartners and sixth-graders will be
added during the second session, which is scheduled Aug. 2-Aug. 19,
Palmer said.
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June 11, 2010 09:55 am
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The Bikers Fighting Cancer will be out in full force this weekend to
further their goal of raising money to help children fighting cancer.
“It’s all about the kids — helping the kids and families through a very tough time,” said Jim Brougham of Baker City.
The Eastern Oregon chapter of Bikers Fighting Cancer started three
years ago. Reg Madsen, a retired Oregon State Police officer, is the
Oregon president.
According to the Web site, the national Bikers Fighting Cancer was
established in 2002 by Ray, an 11-year-old boy, and Patrick Healy, 49.
Both were fighting cancer, and Ray told Pat when he grew older he
wanted to belong to a bike club. Pat suggested they start their own
club immediately.
Ray designed the patch, name of the club and the slogan “Never Give
Up.” He died at age 12, and was buried wearing his vest and patch.
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June 11, 2010 09:32 am
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A California motorcyclist traveling to Baker City for the Hells
Canyon Motorcycle Rally died in a single-vehicle crash south of Riley
Thursday.
Glenn Scott Joyce, 58, of Alturas, Calif., was killed in the crash, according to Oregon State Police.
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June 09, 2010 01:13 pm
Pine Creek has eaten away 60 feet of Frank and Colleen Edwards’ property near Oxbow, making their retirement home unsafe to occupy
 Pine Creek still raged Tuesday morning past the home of Frank and Colleen Edwards near Oxbow. The couple lost approximately 60 feet of frontage during the weekend, which has made their house now unsafe to occupy. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins) OXBOW — The powerful rush of water pouring down Pine Creek in
northeastern Baker County has undermined Frank and Colleen Edwards’
dream home as well as their hopes and plans for the future.
About 60 feet of the couple’s waterfront property has tumbled into
the creek since Friday, when a flash flood sent water careening through
the canyon, carrying rocks, trees and other debris downstream.
The couple’s home, a manufactured house that they added to and
remodeled in 2004, complete with a wraparound covered porch, has been
deemed unsafe to live in. The swollen creek has undercut the shelf of
land the house sits on, and the edge of the precipice is just several
feet from the west end of the porch.
Baker County Sheriff’s deputy Scott Immoos, and Gary Timm of the
county’s Emergency Management department, were among the first to
respond to the Edwards home Sunday. The couple said 20 Idaho Power
Company employees helped move their refrigerator, freezer and food from
their house to the nearby barn, where they’re sleeping on a futon in
the loft.
They are getting by with plastic chairs and a picnic table rather than taking any risks to move more furniture from the house.
They did move the rocking chair that Colleen’s dad built for her when she was 10.
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June 09, 2010 01:10 pm
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Baker City’s Budget Committee recommends the city trim about
$300,000 from the spending plan the city staff prepared for the fiscal
year that starts July 1.
The committee’s budget — which was approved by a 9-3 vote on June 1
and now goes to the City Council for final adoption on June 22 — would
leave unfilled two vacant positions in the police department and cut
one job in economic and community development
“We tried as a budget committee to bring city expenditures back in
line with revenues,” said Randy Daugherty, chairman of the Budget
Committee and a former city councilor. “The city was planning on
spending about $300,000 more than their revenues were.”
Daugherty contends the cuts are necessary to maintain the city’s reserve fund.
That fund contained about $2.3 million four years ago, but the
proposed budget that City Manager Steve Bogart submitted to the
committee would have pared the reserve to $686,000.
The budget the committee forwarded to the Council boosts the reserve to $905,000.
“This budget is the first step in bringing the city expenditures
back in line with resources and re-establishing fiduciary
responsibility,” Daugherty said.
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June 09, 2010 01:08 pm
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Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally co-founder Eric Folkestad is excited about the weather.
And yes, he knows all about the severe flooding parts of Baker County have endured over the past week.
But Folkestad also has had a look at the forecast for the event that starts Friday.
And sunshine figures prominently in that prognostication.
“It looks like the weather is turning in our favor,” said Folkestad, who lives in Camas, Wash.
In past years, by contrast, rally riders have had to go, quite literally, against the wind.
And the rain.
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June 09, 2010 01:03 pm
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Forest Supervisor Steve Ellis has declared a flood emergency on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
Ellis said many roads, bridges, trails and recreation sites on the
2.4-million-acre forest have sustained flood damage during the past
several days.
“The public needs to be patient as the repairs will take time,” he said.
The emergency declaration sets the stage for the Wallowa-Whitman to
seek federal money for repairs that are likely to run into the millions
of dollars.
Wallowa-Whitman officials are still assessing the damage, and clearing rocks and other debris from roads.
One of those, the Anthony Lakes Highway, was re-opened to traffic on Monday.
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June 09, 2010 01:01 pm
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Tuesday’s sunshine was a welcome relief to residents of Pine and
Eagle valleys who’ve been struggling since Thursday to cope with the
floodwater that has inundated their properties.
The good weather did little to brighten the spirits of Gary
Trinklein, however. He was busy trying to remove mud from his shop on
Slaughterhouse Road near Halfway.
A foot of mud fouled the power tools he had stored in a shed near
his home. Trinklein, who declined to give his age except to say he’s
“old and retired,” uses the tools for a variety of projects, though he
claims his only business these days is “monkey business.”
When the flooding first started, he said he waded out in thigh-high water to check his property.
Then he got a call from a neighbor warning him, “It’s really coming now.”
Trinklein’s driveway was washed away by high water that overflowed
the ditch as it traveled through the small pipe that carries water past
his property.
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June 09, 2010 12:59 pm
1st Sgt. Wayne Chastain, a Baker City Police Department veteran and 18-year member of the National Guard, is preparing for his second tour of duty in Iraq
When it comes to deploying to Iraq, Wayne Chastain has been there, done that.
Chastain, a nine-year veteran on the Baker City Police Department
already spent more than a year in Iraq in 2004-2005 as a member of the
region’s Guard unit.
Now, he is going back.
There will be some key differences this time around for the local policeman.
For one, he holds down a higher rank — 1st Sgt. — than he did back
in 2004 when Eastern Oregon’s Guard outfit, the 3rd Battalion, 116th
Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, deployed to Iraq.
The 3rd Battalion consists of Guard units from across Oregon, including Ontario, Baker City, Pendleton, Hermiston and La Grande.
He will also be able to draw upon the experience he secured from the 2004-2005 deployment to help him this time around.
Though he lives and works in Baker City, Chastain calls Ontario’s
Guard unit, Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Brigade
Combat Team, his home away from home.
Which is just fine for the Baker City policeman.
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