Alyssa Griffin, 13, eats squeeze cheese in a game of “Cheese-ionary”at WyldLife, a ministry for middle school students that is associated with Young Life. Holding the plate is Christian Calder, 14. Observing is Stephanie Soliz, 13, back right, and adult leader Becky Black. (Baker City Herald/Lisa Britton)

Again and again.

Suddenly her hands shoot in the air and she hollers in triumph to be the first one to finish her packet in this game.

Then she runs to the bathroom to scrub off the stains.

“I look like the Loch Ness monster!” she yells when she sees her reflection of green teeth.

“How do you know? Have you ever seen the Loch Ness monster?” Mike Long asks with a grin.

This crazy game is just part of the fun at this club meeting of Young Life, a ministry designed for high schoolers.

It’s organized chaos, the leaders assure, as the music blasts and the room rings with singing and laughter.

The craziness is reined in, slightly, when the adult leaders bring the youth together to sing “Sweet Home Alabama” — which means Beth Shirtcliff starts dancing and shouting to get the kids all riled up again.

2010 is the 10th year of Young Life in Baker City — a milestone the group will celebrate at its annual fundraising auction and dessert banquet on Friday, March 12.

Since this is the 10th anniversary, present and past leaders will revive the skits they’ve performed over the years — a “Best of Young Life” presentation.

Commission Chairman Fred Warner Jr.  said the county has been working its way through the regulatory process for about three years, and is nearly ready to submit a permit application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“We are about two months away from applying for the permit,” Warner said.

He estimates the county would make between $500,000 and $1 million per year from selling electricity generated at the dam.

“It’s a positive cash flow for the county,” he said. “It’s renewable energy on water that’s coming through the dam anyway.”

He said the turbine would be designed to protect fish.

The county is waiting for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to decide whether fish screens will be required, Warner said.

“Once we have the license to install the turbine, it won’t take long to do it,” Warner said. “Putting in a turbine is easy, but until you have a permit you can’t do anything.”

“Isn’t that almost the exact route Idaho Power proposed initially, following along I-84?” said Jim Eidson of Baker City. “I guess I’m wondering what’s different. What’s changed?”

About 70 people packed into the Senior Center, where Idaho Power officials showed slides of various proposed routes and described how factors such as construction difficulty, environmental and other permitting issues, as well as costs and public concerns were weighed in identifying the preferred routes to be submitted to the Bureau of Land Management for review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Idaho Power officials described the process they went through in eliminating alternate routes proposed by affected landowners and other area residents who want to keep the 130- to 140-foot-tall steel towers away from irrigated land zoned for exclusive farm use, and away from the viewshed around the Interpretive Center.

“The two things that really drive this is permitability and constructability,” said Bill Perry, an engineering consultant with Idaho Power. He described how alternate routes proposed by the public were assessed and compared to the routes Idaho Power proposed originally.

“We started the routing process in Baker City because Baker County had the most miles,” Perry said.

He said Idaho Power will accept written comments for two more weeks and then choose one or two routes to submit to state and federal agencies for review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

A state investigation into irregularities during last fall’s recall campaign against two Baker City Council members has ended, and no one will face sanctions, according to a state Elections Division investigator.

That news relieved recall organizers, but local residents who filed complaints with the state last fall said they’re frustrated about the lack of teeth in the state’s election laws.

Investigator Alana Guiney mailed letters Monday to Jamey Hardy, chief petitioner in the campaign to recall Mayor Dennis Dorrah and Councilor Beverly Calder, and others who were accused of violations including signing petitions multiple times or allowing others to sign more than once the petitions they were responsible for.

In her letters to Hardy and other petition certifiers, Kathye Corn, Tracy Yansssens and Jacqueline Adams, Guiney asked them to “be vigilant in complying with election laws” in the future.

The investigation started last fall when Gary Dielman, a former City Council member who himself was recalled from office in 2001, complained that petitions seeking the recall of Dorrah and Calder had been signed multiple times by Shannon Regan, Baker City public safety officer, and Steve Brocato, the former city manager whose June 9, 2009, firing by the City Council prompted the recall campaign.

PENDLETON — The Baker Mock Trial team competed  at the District Mock Trial competition in Pendleton on Feb. 27 and won all three rounds over La Grande, Hermiston and Vale.

Baker is the only team from Eastern Oregon that will compete at the state competition, held March 12-13 at the Mark Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland.

 Here is the scenario for this year’s criminal case:

“The defendant is Leslie Lane, a rap artist charged with inciting a riot and arson. The fire burned the compound of a religious organization called the New Believers.”

Teams of eight to 18 students argue the case before three-judge panels composed of judges, attorneys and educators or other community representatives. Each team presents the case three times, arguing each side at least once.

The Crane Mustangs withstood a fourth-quarter McKenzie rally to beat the Eagles 51-44 in the opening game of the Class 1A girls state basketball tournament Wednesday afternoon at Baker High School.

Crane (26-2) led 45-30 after three quarters.

But the Eagles (22-6), from Blue River east of Eugene, scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter to get within 45-42 on Taya Harbick's three-pointer with 1:54 left in the game.

With McKenzie then forced to foul, Crane made 6-of-9 free throws down the stretch.

Natalie Bentz led the Mustangs with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Brenda Otley added nine points, September O'Crowley eight, and Emilee O'Toole seven.

Karissa Harbick scored a game-high 20 points for McKenzie, and Brittany Anderson added 14.

Crane will play the winner of this afternoon's Jewell/Griswold game Friday at 1:30 p.m.

McKenzie will play the Jewell/Griswold loser Thursday at 9 a.m.

Clouds skirt the lower elevations of the Elkhorn Mountains west of Baker City Tuesday afternoon. Clouds have been abundant this winter, but they have been rather stingy with their moisture. Snowpacks are below average across Northeastern Oregon, with a couple of notable exceptions in southern Baker County. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

Even as they’ve obscured the mountains for days on end.

That’s where clouds are supposed to deposit most of the moisture which, after all, is what clouds are made of.

Specifically, clouds are supposed to dump prodigious amounts of snow on the county’s high ground.

And that snow, even though you can neither swim nor fish in it, constitutes the most important, and by far the largest, reservoir in the county.

When that snow melts in spring and summer, it keeps streams flowing, refills lakes and replenishes aquifers.

As of this week, the area’s snowpack lags about 11 percent below the long-term (1971-2000) average.

Baker City Councilor Milo Pope was home recovering from double bypass heart surgery when he read a newspaper ad by Dick Haynes promoting a recall campaign against Pope.

Haynes, himself a former three-time member of the City Council, said this morning the purpose of his ad is to gauge support for recalling Pope.

Haynes said he’s not pleased with Pope for continuing to talk about the Council’s decision to fire City Manager Steve Brocato on June 9, 2009.

Pope was one of three councilors who voted against the motion to fire Brocato.

Pope acknowledged that he hasn’t gotten over what he believes was inappropriate decision by Mayor Dennis Dorrah and councilors Aletha Bonebrake, Clair Button and Beverly Calder to fire Brocato.

Pope pointed out that the issue was not listed on the agenda for the June 9 meeting.

“There were seven of us on the council, not four  of us,” Pope said this morning. “They cut (councilors) Sam Bass, Andrew Bryan and I out of the process.”

“I learned about it the day it happened,” Pope said.

Haynes has not filed a recall petition against Pope.

An underage decoy was served alcohol in two of the five Baker County businesses visited last month by an Oregon Liquor Control Commission compliance inspector.

The decoy bought alcohol at the Stockman’s Restaurant and Lounge in Halfway and at the Safeway store in Baker City.

The three businesses that refused to sell alcohol to the OLCC minor decoy are: Grady’s Tavern in Huntington; the Shorthorn Bar and Grill in Richland; and the Baker Truck Corral in Baker City.

Three out of five is a 60-percent compliance level, “significantly below the 2008 statewide average of 78 percent,” Katy Boyce, the OLCC’s Bend regional manager, said in a press release.

“It is so important for licensees and their employees to check ID’s correctly,” Boyce said. “Many sales to minors could be avoided by taking a little longer to get a good look at the ID being presented.”

With less than a week before the filing deadline, four incumbents are thus far unopposed in seeking re-election to their positions in the May 18 primary.

The filing deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday at the County Clerk’s office in the Courthouse.

Democrat Fred Warner Jr. has filed for election to a third term in Position 3 as Baker County Commission chair. Carl Stiff, a Republican, also is seeking re-election for a third time to County Commission Position 2. The third seat is held by Tim Kerns, who is not up for re-election this year.

County Clerk Tami Green and County Treasurer Alice Durflinger also have filed for re-election to their nonpartisan positions. And the Pine Eagle Health District will elect first-time directors to lead the newly formed organization.