Satellite photo from this morning shows the smoke plume from wildfires in Central Washington

Smoke from large wildfires in Central Washington rode the wind straight into Baker County overnight.

The smoke, although not dense at ground level, was so thick higher up that it more resembled an overcast, except tan rather than gray.

Fortunately, the pall shouldn't persist.

The National Weather Service predicts that the upper level wind direction will shift from north to south over the next day or so, which should push the smoke away from rather than toward Baker County.

The smoke plume is quite apparent on satellite photos. 

Ron Edge of Baker City objects to the mandatory installation of a “smart” electric meter at his home.

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Ron Edge is preparing to go off the power grid.

The Baker City man has stocked up on candles and matches, and he’s looking into buying a natural-gas generator to provide power to his home at Third Street and Court Avenue.

Edge’s actions are in protest to the insistence of the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative that a “smart meter” must be installed to replace the analog meter the co-op has used to monitor his past power consumption.

According to OTEC, the smart meters don’t need to be read by an employee but instead use “a combination of power line carrier and Internet communications,” not radio frequency, to automatically send information about a customer’s power usage from each home or business to the OTEC office “almost instantly” — improving service and saving money for OTEC and its customers.

But Edge just isn’t interested.

“I have no intention of accepting that meter,” he says.

Edge is concerned about the negative effects the meter might have on his health and on the health of others in his home, and he’s worried about how the power company might use the information gleaned by smart meters.

By Chris Collins

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Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative was thinking of its employees, its customers and the future when the decision was made to install “smart meters” to record the amount of energy each customer uses, said Steve Schauer, the co-op’s member and program services manager.

OTEC will spend about $9 million to install 30,000 meters throughout its service area, which ranges from Elgin to Burns, according to Schauer and Charlie Tracy, systems engineer.

The new automated meter reading system will eliminate the need for OTEC to employ meter-readers. The smart meters send the information to OTEC through the power lines and over the Internet, Schauer said. 

They do not use radio frequency to transmit the information. Most customers worried about possible health issues or the security of their information related to the new metering system are relieved when this is explained to them, Schauer said.

And he assures people that information obtained through the meters will not go any farther.

“OTEC doesn’t release confidential information unless subpoenaed by law,” Schauer said. “That’s the way it’s always been and the way it will be in the future."

By Chris Collins

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Caleb Day was among those in the audience honoring his best buddy, Shaun Lepley, for an act of heroism when the Baker County Commission met this morning.

Day’s ability to make the meeting is credited to Shaun’s lifesaving effort to drag his friend from the bottom of an Arizona pool last month.

As part of the meeting, Sheriff Mitch Southwick presented a lifesaving certificate awarded to Shaun by La Paz County Sheriff Donald Lowery.

In his letter asking Southwick to make the presentation on his behalf, Lowery detailed Shaun’s “heroic act” in rescuing Caleb.

“There is no doubt that Shaun’s quick and decisive actions saved Caleb’s life,” Lowery wrote. “If not for him, their vacation in Arizona would have ended in tragedy.”

The two 14-year-olds have been friends since Caleb’s parents, Ray and Kari Day, moved into the east Baker City neighborhood near the home of Shaun’s parents, Troy and Chris Lepley, more than five years ago.

The Oregon Hunters Association is offering a reward of up to $500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the illegal killing and waste of a 4-point mule deer buck killed recently inside the Baker City limits.

Oregon State Police announced in a press release Monday that the deer carcass was found on Sept. 7.

About 5 p.m. that day, OSP Sr. Trooper Jason McNeil of the Baker City office received a call about a dead buck deer on private property in the city. McNeil determined the deer had been killed and left to rot near the Powder River.

Examination confirmed the deer died as "result of a criminal act, but specific details are being withheld at this time," according to the press release.

The deer had been dead for about a week before it was found.

Anyone with information about the case should call McNeil at 541-523-5867, extension 4171, or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photo by Tami Waldron A fire charred about 700 acres Saturday on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon Reservoir near Oxbow.

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and Chris Collins

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A wildfire that broke out early Saturday threatened homes and other buildings in the Oxbow area of eastern Baker County before firefighters from several agencies corralled the flames.

The Hunsaker fire, named for a creek of that name, burned about 700 acres of grass and brush on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon Reservoir, said Renae Crippen, manager of the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center in La Grande.

Oxbow is about 68 miles east of Baker City.

Investigators are still searching for the cause of the blaze, Crippen said.

It was not sparked by lightning, she said.

Lightning later on Saturday and early Sunday did ignite about 10 fires — most of them smaller than one acre — mainly on the north side of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

By Terri Harber

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Work continues on Baker City’s local animal training center.

The former Leo Brookshier building in the 3300 block of K Street will be used for training as well as provide office and operations space to New Hope for Eastern Oregon Animals, said Dick Haines, president of the organization.

Some training sessions already are going on there.

New Hope also intends to use a nearby site for an animal shelter. Construction there is being planned and money being raised for the project, Haines said.

First-grade student Caedon Steele finds a story that fits his imagination just after his Brooklyn Primary School teacher Jandy Eskew opened a box of books from Starbucks. Other information and some stamps caught the eye of Zeb Zimmerman, right.

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Jandy Eskew’s first-graders watched with anticipation as the mysterious boxes sitting at the front of their classroom were opened by their teacher Wednesday at Brooklyn Primary.

Before the unveiling of the gifts supplied by Starbucks, the children guessed what might be inside.

“Toys!” was the first guess, but Eskew reminded the children that they were at school and not at home, which prompted the next guess of the box’s contents: “homework.”

“That would be interesting,” the teacher replied.

A third student threw out the teacher’s favorite suggestion: “drinks.”

“I would love it if Starbucks gave us a box of drinks,” she said.

By Jayson Jacoby

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The great spigot in the sky is stuck.

And it doesn’t look as though a plumber will be arriving any time soon to free the thing.

Today is the 62nd day since measurable rain fell at the Baker City Airport.

It won’t be the last day, either.

References to rain are conspicuously absent from the National Weather Service’s forecast for Baker City through Sept. 20.

Which is as far ahead as the agency is willing to go with detailed predictions.

By that day the current rainless run will be the third-longest here since at least World War II.

Baker County Clerk Tami Green, left, and Cindy Carpenter, elections deputy, review voters’ signatures to ensure they are authentic.

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Tami Green and Cindy Carpenter have keen eyes for signatures.

They notice the sweep of a final “s” or the circle that tops the letter “i” of a signer’s name, and the way a capital “J” is formed.

The two women are not detectives, nor do they give expert witness testimony in court.

Green is the Baker County Clerk and Carpenter is her elections deputy.

They don’t come by their discriminating skills for handwriting analysis naturally. They’ve been trained by an expert — Green has attended three 2fi-hour sessions and Carpenter has attended two.