Baker County veterinarians are sponsoring the annual rabies vaccination clinic for dogs and cats on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

The event will take place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the OSU Extension Office, 2600 East St. in Baker City.

Cost is $10 per animal.

Dogs should be leashed, and cats kept in a carrier. 

By Terri Harber

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Baker City Municipal Airport — also known by its original name of Heilner Field — might be renamed as Mabry J. Anders Field to honor a local man who was killed last August while serving as a U.S. Army Specialist in Afghanistan.

Baker City Councilors will hear about the plan when they meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, 1655 First St.

Anders, 21, and Sgt. Christopher Birdwell of Windsor, Colo. were shot to death on Aug. 27, 2012, by an Afghan National Army soldier in a “green-on-blue” attack in Kala Gush, Afghanistan. 

Both men were assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Carson, Colo. 

The Airport Commission met Jan. 17 to consider the matter. Four of the seven commissioners attended — Josh DeCarl, Terry Schumacher, James Davis and Mark Berthelsen. All of them were in favor of changing the name.

DeCarl proposed the name change to the Airport Commission. 

Anders is the stepson of commissioner Troy Woydziak.

Lisa Britton/For the Baker City Herald Dr. Melissa Knutson uses acupuncture to treat Paula Benintendi. Knutson completed a six-month course in medical acupuncture that included 300 hours of training.

For the Baker City Herald

Dr. Melissa Knutson holds out the needle, three inches long and as thin as fishing line.

As a medical acupuncturist, these are her tools to help treat a range of ailments, from arthritis to stomach aches to sprained ankles.

“Acupuncture works really well for pain,” she says.

Nearby, Paula Benintendi looks not worried at all — but she’s already had several acupuncture sessions to treat arthritis in her knees.

“My knees have hurt for so long, I’ll try anything,” she says.

By Chris Collins

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Some eighth-graders already attend classes at Baker High School as a way of getting a head start on high school and to jumpstart their college careers.

That makes good sense educationally and financially, said Baker School District Superintendent Walt Wegener, and it’s part of the governor’s plan to reform education in Oregon. 

Wegener estimates that students who earn an associate degree along with a high school diploma can save their families as much as $50,000 in college expenses. 

That goal is spurred by students taking some high school classes as eighth-graders.

But the district has “never, ever intended” to send all eighth-graders to the high school, Wegener said.

Changes are being considered because of the governor’s mandate that all school districts offer full-day kindergarten beginning in 2015.

Submitted photo Kevin Shaw weighs snow to determine its water content.

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Travis Bloomer wore snowshoes to measure snow, which sounds logical but in his case turned out to be superfluous.

Not because the snow was scarce.

It just was so, well, soft.

Even by snow’s less-than-rigid standards.

“It was bottomless, basically,” said Bloomer, who works for the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Baker City.

By Terri Harber

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Leaders of New Hope for Eastern Oregon Animals talked last week about the nonprofit organization’s plans. 

The group has reached a 15-year lease agreement with the Oregon Department of Corrections to lease 3.5 fenced acres across from the Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City. Cost to New Hope is $1 a year.

The site will be used for expansion of the Powder Pals Program, which pairs inmates at the minimum-security prison with dogs that are difficult to train. 

Inmates provide instruction to the dogs from morning to bedtime so the animals have a better chance for successful home placement.

New Hope also has been focusing on providing other community services, such as dog adoptions, Baker City’s trap-neuter-release program for feral cats (which was conducted by Mollie Atwater and Friends Spay-Neuter Fund of Baker County until 2011), and operating and expanding the Leo Brookshier training center.

By Lisa Britton

For the Baker City Herald

Valerie Tachenko is pouring over this year’s seed catalogs, planning her garden long before the soil thaws.

She already has customers counting on her fresh produce — members are already signing up for Val’s Veggies CSA.

That stands for Community-Supported Agriculture. Prior to the growing season, people buy shares, investing up front in return for a season’s worth of fresh vegetables.

Val’s Veggies serves members in Baker, Union and Umatilla counties (including the Plateau Restaurant at Wildhorse Resort and Casino near Pendleton). 

Backyard Gardens in Joseph, run by Beth Gibans, supplies fresh produce to Wallowa and Union counties.

S. John Collins / Baker City Herald Helping get one of the half-ton fermenter tanks carefully into the brewing room are Julie Blank, co-owner of Bull Ridge Brew Pub, Michael Blount, center, restaurant chef, and Walter Bourque, head brewer. Tanks had to be laid down on a wheeled cart to get them through the Broadway Street opening to the room. In background are the new Mash Tun and hot liquor tanks that arrived Tuesday at the pub.

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It’s been more than a year since Bull Ridge Brew Pub opened in downtown Baker City. 

Soon the restaurant at 1934 Broadway will conduct larger-scale brewing after months of creating tiny batches in what co-owner Julie Blank calls a “nano-system.” 

Blank, who owns the business with her husband, Micah, said the beer should be flowing from a seven-barrel (about 220 gallons) brewing system later this month. 

The fermenting tanks arrived on Wednesday. Natural Structures of Baker City designed the devices that turn grains and other ingredients into a flavorful adult beverage. 

It took about a year for the fermenters to be made but, “they are really beautiful,” Blank said of the gleaming stainless steel tanks.

By Chris Collins

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Baker High School’s graduation rate is above the state average and showed better improvement than the state average, according to statistics released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education.

The BHS four-year graduate rate improved from 72.16 a year ago to 77.78 percent for 2011-12.

The ODE numbers showed that 105 of the 135 members of the BHS Class of 2012 graduated in four years. Four more earned modified diplomas and five earned GEDs for a four-year high school completer rate of 84.44 percent.

By Chris Collins

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Andy Micka believes that his September 2010 arrest for assaulting his girlfriend saved his life and their relationship and put him on the road to positive change.

Looking back, he says his problems really began on July 26, 2008. That’s the day Micka, of Baker City, was hit by a tree in an accident that left him with a broken back and a broken neck.

 Because of the pain of his injuries, he began self-medicating daily with drugs and alcohol and was no longer able to pursue his career as a construction worker.

“That really shook up my whole life,” the 37-year-old Micka said. “It was really the beginning of the end.”

But that’s all changed.