Baker County Commissioners heard from several local law professionals on Wednesday about the importance of the Baker Justice Court.

It is “the quickest, lowest cost justice available anywhere,” said retired Justice of the Peace Larry Cole.

Funding decreases that began because of HB 2712, which was approved during the 2011 Legislative session, will affect these local courts gradually as the 2012-13 fiscal year approaches.

Keith Jensen is at a full draw in silhouette against the video screen to illustrate the Simulated Archery system called TechnoHunt that lets archers shoot indoors. Bowen Valley Archery is operated by Jensen’s son, Allen, at Jensen’s Ag Service South of Baker City. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

By TERRI HARBER
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Called TechnoHunt, this indoor simulator shows an archer various animal scenes and allows the person to aim and shoot.

Owner Allen Jensen describes TechnoHunt as similar to being inside a movie theater. Professional wildlife photographers captured images of the animals. 

“It has a big, 10-foot Kevlar screen,” he said. “And the videos of animals were shot all over the world.”

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

Cancer patients in need of chemotherapy treatments no longer have to make the trip to Fruitland or Boise.

The Billie Ruth Bootsma Clinic opened in September 2011 in a remodeled wing at St. Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City to provide a variety of infusion services.

By TERRI HARBER
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An abandoned lime quarry and cement plant near Huntington is a viable location for a sustainable community with businesses, services, residences, elected officials — and a substantial tax base, a prospective developer says.

Steven Golieb began eyeing the more than 1,000 acres after driving by on the way to Portland a couple of years ago. The resident of Orem, Utah, presented his concept to Baker County Commissioners on Wednesday as part of a work session.

This typical scene from a previous winter in Sumpter has been exceedingly rare this year. The lack of snow has deterred snowmobilers and cut into the bottom line for local businesses.

By JAYSON JACOBY
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Jerry Welch isn’t used to seeing the parking lot of his business, Halfway Motels, empty during the second week of January.

Empty of cars and of snow.

The absence of the latter has a lot to do with the former.

“The lack of snowmobiling is kind of killing us,” Welch said Tuesday. “Usually every weekend our parking lot is full and cars are lined up along the street.”

The scarcity of snow has taken a similar toll on some businesses in Sumpter, the popular snowmobiling destination at the opposite end of Baker County.

AshLynn Noire Bunch, born at 8:14 a.m. Jan. 6, is one of the first babies of the year to wear a Halo SleepSack at St. Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City. The Birth Center launched the program on Jan. 1, and now use SleepSacks instead of blankets. Also, parents get one to take home.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

Newborns will no longer be swaddled in blankets at St. Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City.

Instead, babies will be snug inside a micro-fleece Halo SleepSack Swaddle, which is recommended instead of loose blankets by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“There are multiple hospitals that are pilot programs,” said Sommer Sargent, manager of the Birth Center.

As of Jan. 1, all babies will use a SleepSack at the hospital, and one will be sent home with parents. The design includes two flaps that are folded around the baby in a swaddle and secured with Velcro.

Sister Kay Marie is retiring after 10 years with Pathway Hospice.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

Sister Kay Marie Duncan smiles at the reason she sought a position with Pathway Hospice.

“I needed a job,” she says.

They asked her to be volunteer coordinator and chaplain for both offices in Baker City and Ontario.

“From no job I went to four,” she says.

This month she retired after 10 years with Pathway.

This scene, from 2007, is a common one most winters at the base of the Elkhorn Mountains. But this winter a lack of snow has kept elk away from feeding sites.

By JAYSON JACOBY
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Alice Trindle has never seen elk act this way.

Neither has Eddie Miguez.

Dick Humphreys has.

But that was 35 years ago.

And it happened only one winter.

What the elk are doing — or rather what they aren’t doing, and haven’t been doing since early December — is eating free food.

It’s good stuff, too — tasty and nutritious alfalfa hay.

A federal magistrate judge recommends the dismissal of all but one of the claims former Baker City Manager Steve Brocato made in a million-dollar civil lawsuit he filed against the city, the four council members who voted to fire him in June 2009, and Baker City resident Gary Dielman.

Brocato, who was hired as city manager in January 2007, filed the lawsuit in May 2010.