June 28, 2010 12:27 pm
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It’s official. The Union-Baker and Umatilla-Morrow education service districts will become one.
The State Board of Education gave plans for a voluntary merger
between the two ESDs a thumbs up Thursday morning in Salem. The board’s
approval means the Union-Baker and Umatilla-Morrow ESDs will
consolidate into the InterMountain ESD on May 31, 2011.
Mike Sowder, superintendent of the Union-Baker ESD, was delighted with the state board’s vote.
“It is a relief knowing that the (Union-Baker) ESD is going to be OK,’’ Sowder said.
Sowder began pushing for a voluntary merger almost a year ago in
large part because his agency is financially strapped and hard-pressed
to provide services. Sowder often said the Union-Baker ESD, hard hit by
budget cuts in recent years, would become financially insolvent in
about two years unless there was a merger.
A major reason is a $260,000 per year bonded indebtedness obligation
to the Public Employees Retirement System, the state’s retirement
system for school employees as well as many county and city workers.
The Union-Baker ESD would soon not have been able to afford these
payments, which would have increased at least 10 percent a year.
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June 25, 2010 08:41 am
By ED MERRIMAN
Baker City Herald
The fallout from the Baker City Budget Committee’s $105,000 cut that
ended Gene Stackle’s job as economic development manager evolved into
the elimination of the entire community and economic development
department.
The result is the termination of Jennifer Watkins, a 12-year city
employee whose job titles included community and economic development
director and assistant city manager.
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June 25, 2010 08:40 am
By LISA BRITTON
Baker City Herald
Drew Stanley is eager to begin his military career at West Point — but he will miss his vacation.
“I’m just out of high school, don’t have a summer, and then have 47 months of college. We get one month off,” he said.
Stanley, 18, leaves Sunday for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to begin cadet basic training.
In addition to the academics, his time will include winter warfare
training in Alaska, escape training in North Carolina and infiltration
in England.
He’s also looking forward to studying a foreign language.
“I think I’ll take Arabic,” he said.
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June 25, 2010 08:39 am
By ED MERRIMAN
Baker City Herald
A proposed county takeover of Ski Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort drew
support from skiing enthusiasts and the resort’s management and
employees Wednesday at the Baker County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Commission Chairman Fred Warner Jr., said he was approached several
months ago by Lee and Connie Kearney and other owners of Ski Anthony
Lakes with an offer to turn over operation of the ski resort and
ownership of all of the related assets and the remaining 30-year Forest
Service lease of the site to the county.
“Anthony Lakes is an asset we don’t want to lose,” Warner said. “I
think we have an opportunity here to do something good, but before we
accept this gift, I want to make sure we have a business plan that
makes money at least most of the time.”
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June 25, 2010 08:38 am
By RUSSELL VINEYARD
Baker City Herald
The weather strikes again.
This time with alfalfa harvesting.
Unusually cool and wet weather has forced alfalfa growers to delay the
first cutting of their crops, creating a potential for lower quality
hay and a late start to the second and third cuttings.
Cory Parsons, Oregon State University Extension Services agent in Baker
County, said the weather, with well above average rainfall in both May
and June, has been the enemy for many farmers.
“The weather is definitely making it difficult to cut the hay,” Parsons said. “Some has been cut but has since been rained on.”
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June 23, 2010 02:10 pm
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 (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins) The Leo Adler Memorial Parkway extension will jump back and forth across the Powder River behind Del’s Feed and Farm Supply and again just south of the area shown above to avoid residential homes.
The new section is between Washington Avenue and Madison Street. The section, including the bridges, is scheduled to be finished by the end of October.
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June 23, 2010 02:07 pm
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Tuesday wasn’t a dark and stormy night, but the Baker City Council
meeting had plenty of suspense as councilors and city staff acted out
a mystery over what part of the budget to cut to offset $136,000 in
lost economic development funding.
Baker County officials pulled the $136,000 from transient lodging
taxes that had been allocated to the city to pay for economic
development efforts carried out by city staff.
A majority of the Council prefers taking that money from the
economic development department, even though that option could
jeopardize Jennifer Watkins’s job as community and economic development
manager.
However, the budget resolution on the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting
didn’t identify where the $136,000 would be cut, leaving councilors
with concerns that by default, the money could wind up being taken out
of the ending fund balance, counter to what a majority of the Council
agreed on during a budget committee earlier this month.
Councilor Aletha Bonebrake presented an alternative to resolve that
conflict by cutting the $136,000 from the city’s economic development
budget, but taking $54,000 from reserve funds to maintain a code
enforcement officer, along with 14 sworn police officers in the police
department.
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June 23, 2010 02:04 pm
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With rain comes pools of water.
With pools of water come mosquitoes.
This year there’s a lot of both.
“It’s a mess,” Jim Lunders said.
He manages the Baker Valley Vector Control District.
“This is the most difficult year since I’ve been here,” Lunders said.
He was hired in April 2001 to run the 200,000-acre Vector Control District, which includes Baker, Keating and Bowen valleys.
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June 23, 2010 02:02 pm
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Officials with the U. S. Department of Transportation said today
that $3.2 million has been earmarked for repairs to a stretch of the
Wallowa Mountain Loop Road washed out by recent flooding.
“We just got off a conference call with John Porcari, deputy
director at the Department of Transportation, and he confirmed we will
be getting the money to repair Wallowa Loop Road,” said Rep. Greg
Walden, R-Ore.
Federal officials have deemed the Loop Road, a popular summer route
between Baker and Wallowa counties, will have the highest priority for
repairs to be done by Nov. 1.
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June 23, 2010 02:00 pm
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Phillips Reservoir is full.
More than full actually.
All thanks to a rain dance done by Jeff Colton.
“This is good for me,” he said. “I like summer, just like everyone else, but having a little extra rain helps too.”
Colton manages the Baker Valley Irrigation District, which means he
keeps a watchful eye on the water level at the reservoir, which
supplies irrigation water to about 30,000 acres, mostly in Baker Valley.
Colton said Phillips filled about a week and a half ago.
“We’re just a hair overfull, just about 103 percent full,” he said on Tuesday.
The reservoir, along the Powder River about 17 miles southwest of
Baker City, is officially full when it’s impounding 73,500 acre-feet of
water.
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