NORTH POWDER — A Heppner man was killed in a ski accident Sunday at the Anthony Lakes ski area, the Union County Sheriff’s Office said this morning.

The Sheriff’s Office said the victim, Nathan Arboagast, 38, collided with a tree shortly after noon and died of injuries.

Baker County youths won’t have much chance to claim “I’m bored!” during spring break thanks to groups who have developed a whole week of activities.

The collaboration was the idea of Jonathan Richardson, a visitor information specialist at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

“Where I came from, they did Kids Week in February. I thought, why can’t we do it in Baker?” he said.

The response was positive from everyone he contacted.

“Everyone said ‘that sounds like a great idea,’ ” Richardson said.

Participating groups include the Interpretive Center, the Baker County Library, the Baker County YMCA and Crossroads Carnegie Art Center.

The challenge was to spread out the activities so young people could attend almost everything with no conflict.

“Avoid that two-hour block with all the activity,” Richardson said.

Each table is strewn with various kinds of rocks, petrified wood and some peculiar odors. Examining rocks during the afterschool program are, from left, Ashley Gilham, Emily Thornton and Cassie Pettit.(Baker City Herald/S.John Collins)

“Anybody have a guess?” Gary Kellar asked the students in Brooklyn Primary’s afterschool program.

After a few mumbled responses, Kellar revealed his surprise.

“Are you ready? It’s dinosaur poo.”

A pause, then “ewwww!” rang across the room.

“And we touched it!” hollered another voice.

But there was curiosity in that disgust and the students suddenly looked a little closer at the rocks scattered across the tables.

“Does everyone remember the rock I said to put next to your face because it’s cool and feels good? Guess what it was?” Eric Laurence said with a grin.

Another round of “ewwww!” rang out, along with some wrinkled noses.

The West will have to wait another week for what could be one of the more significant federal government decisions of the past few decades: Whether to list the sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species.

If federal officials decide such protection is warranted for the chicken-size bird that lives in parts of several states, including Eastern Oregon, the resulting changes in how public land is managed could affect livestock grazing, energy developments including wind farms, and off-road vehicle travel.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to announce its decision about sage grouse by the end of February.

But officials asked for a one-week extension after the agency’s director, Sam Hamilton, died last weekend.

A federal judge in Boise granted that request Thursday.

The event begins at 6 p.m. at the Community Events Center, 2600 East St. Tickets are $25 and available in advance at Betty’s Books and Ryder Bros.

This celebration dinner will feature a silent auction and raffle to help raise money for the grants awarded to Baker County organizations that serve women and children. Also, there will be a Women’s Suffrage Gallery with posters and decor to explain the timeline of the women’s movement in the United States.

His goal is to schedule a series of evening performances, each featuring at least three songwriters, during the spring.

Haney’s counting on those concerts to generate excitement and support for a regional Elk Mountain Music Festival, which he hopes to put on in Baker City in late summer 2011.

Haney, a local musician/songwriter who performs with his wife, Peggy, as the duo Star Nation, said the spring series of Songwriter Connections concerts kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday at Quail Ridge Golf Course, 2801 Indiana Ave.

A $5 admission will be charged at the door.

“One of our goals is to provide a respectful venue for original artists,” Haney said.

He got the idea for starting the Elk Mountain Music Alliance from his experience performing at the annual summer Tunesmith Concert Series, which is put on in Enterprise by the Wallowa Music Alliance and draws visitors from Portland, Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, Bend, Eugene, Seattle and Boise.

The Northeast Oregon Economic Development District is hosting “Marketing Your Business on a Shoestring” workshops March 8 and March 9 in Baker City, Enterprise and La Grande.

The Baker City workshop is scheduled for March 8 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the National Guard Armory, 1640 Campbell St., Room 209.

Among the questions participants will delve into during the conference are:

“Have you been wondering how effective your marketing is?  Are you reaching the people you need to reach?  What is your market, anyway?”

The workshop is sponsored by NEOEDD and the Oregon MicroEnterprise Network.

“The workshops will teach participants about how to direct your marketing so that it best reaches your target market, effectively and economically,” said Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for NEOEDD.

Gary Dielman, the Baker City man who discovered the ancient limber pine tree that was featured on a recent episode of OPB’s “Oregon Field Guide,” will show slides from the filming expedition on Tuesday at the Geiser Grand Hotel.

The PowerPoint presentation on the making of “Dielman’s Monarch” will start at 6 p.m. at the hotel, 1996 Main St.

The event is free to the public.

Ash Grove Cement plant manager Terry Kerby has been able to put employees back to work while construction continues on the $20 million mercury recovery system, at left in photo. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

McLean, who works in shipping and receiving at Ash Grove, said that in his 20 years with the company the layoff of 67 workers for nearly two months this winter was a first.

He hopes it’s also the last.

“It was kind of scary at first, but I kind of liked having a couple weeks off,” McLean said. “But after a while I was ready to go back to work. I was off eight weeks. I was used to getting up between 5 and 5:30 and going to work the 7-to-3 shift.

“It’s one thing getting laid off for a month or two because of the economy and slow cement sales, but if they shut down permanently over a new EPA mercury rule, I will have to look for a new job,” McLean said. “We will have to move because there’s nothing else to do around Huntington.”

“As far as the mercury emissions, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” McLean said. “I’ve been here 20 years, and I know a lot of retired guys in their 80s who worked here, and they’re OK.”

“I don’t want to ruin the planet, but we can’t do away with what few good jobs we have left.”

McLean and Bill Chandler of Baker City were among a group of more than 65 Ash Grove workers who ate pizza Thursday while listening to company officials describe an optimistic outlook for the future of their jobs at the Durkee plant.

Vicki Wares, coordinator of the Powder Basin Watershed Council, told the four councilors who attended Tuesday’s meeting that grants and in-kind donations have been raised or committed to cover all but $22,900 of the $204,000 Kirkway Project, provided Baker City and Baker County contribute $36,000 to haul the rock riprap designed to stabilize the river’s banks.

Wares said a group called the Kirkway Reach Powder River Partners has been working for two years to plan, design and secure grant and in-kind funding for the  project.

Partners include Kirkway Drive residents whose riverside property is being eroded, representatives of the watershed council, Baker Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, Baker Valley Irrigation District, Baker City Public Works Department, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That effort now appears to be drawing toward a conclusion, with a $118,800 grant from OWEB, $5,000 in-kind contribution from the Bureau of Reclamation, $20,000 in-kind from the Baker Valley Irrigation District, and $2,250 in cash from Kirkway residents.

Wares said the partners have applied for a federal grant through the Environmental Protection Agency to cover the remaining $22,900.