Jimmy Price checks the progress of the potato patch at the Powder Valley School garden.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

When they sit down to lunch, students at Powder Valley School are seeing the freshest vegetables on their trays — produce they helped harvest from the school garden.

“It’s a pretty neat opportunity for the kids,” said Skye Flanagan, who teaches fourth grade.

Landi Ray had a chance to be on the show “Extreme Couponing” — a reality type program where people slash their grocery bills by hundreds of dollars.

She said no.

“They emailed me and I didn’t respond,” said Ray, who lives in Fruitland, Idaho.

She saves lots of money by using coupons, and even offers classes to teach others how to save money at the grocery store.

But she doesn’t like the portrayal on “Extreme Couponing.”

“I don’t think it promotes what I teach in my classes,” she said of the TV show. “I’m anti-clearing shelves, and I don’t like hoarding.”

Ray is coming west to give a class on couponing at 6 p.m. Friday at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, 2020 Auburn Ave.

Cost to attend is $1, which will cover Ray’s gas costs. To register, call the Baker City Herald, 541-523-3673. (The newspaper is sponsoring the class.)

Mitch Osborn, Brett Yaw and Darion Grove joined the softball tourney fun. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

Long spiked hair doesn’t provide any shade, but it adds to the spirit of sportsmanship during the 14th Annual Karen Bass Memorial Softball Tournament.

Mitch Osborn, left, helped keep statistics during a game at the Baker Sports Complex Sunday against AC Electric from La Grande. Baker Dental Group teammates at third base are Brett Yaw and runner Darion Grove. Seven teams participated in the two-day tournament to raise money for MayDay Inc., to help victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Sarah and Ben Spaugh join their sister, Katie, right, for an event in her kindergarten class.

By CHRIS COLLINS
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David and Stephanie Spaugh are making the most of the educational options available to their children through the Baker School District.

Their 15-year-year-old daughter, Sarah, is enrolled in the Baker Early College program and their son, Benton, 13, is taking classes as an eighth-grader through Baker Web Academy, charter schools sponsored by the Baker School District.

For their 5-year-old, Katie, the Spaughs have opted for the traditional kindergarten program, which is housed in the northwest wing of Baker High School.

The family’s choices for their children were based on the individual needs of each, Stephanie said.

It’s the flexibility and ability to personalize instruction that drew Nathan Williams to the Baker Web Academy and Early College.

Williams, 36, is the director of the two programs and has served as principal for students in Eastern and Central Oregon since 2008.

Williams so appreciates online learning that he took advantage of the system to earn his own master’s degrees through Grand Canyon University on his way to a job as a school administrator. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education at Whitworth University at Spokane, Wash., where he and his wife, Star, both played college basketball.

The veterans’ section at Mount Hope Cemetery is in need of work to straighten headstones and repair a bordering fence.

By TERRI HARBER
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Baker City has formed an advisory group to plan improvements in the veterans’ section of Mount Hope Cemetery.

Members include city and county employees, representatives of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion groups, the proprietor of a headstone business, and the city’s park maintenance contractor.

They walked the grounds, on the south side of the city-owned cemetery on South Bridge Street, last week.

The long-awaited announcement of which roads on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest will be closed to ATVs and other motor vehicles except snowmobiles is getting close.

The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the forest’s controversial Travel Management Plan is scheduled to be released around mid-October, said Judy Wing, the Wallowa-Whitman’s public affairs officer.

“We’re working hard to make that deadline,” Wing said on Tuesday.

That deadline isn’t the only one, though.

Jackie Calhoun, left, and Peg Snaza-Alexis prepare salads for the weekly Friday Lunch Bunch at the Wolf Creek Grange at North Powder.

By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald

NORTH POWDER — June Bauck slices fresh cucumbers and cherry tomatoes to toss in the salad, while the salty scent of baking parmesan fills the air.

She peeks in the oven, checking on those upside-down potatoes baking in cheese, and enlists help from Jackie Calhoun to help put a slice of pineapple on each pork steak.

Bauck checks the clock — less than 30 minutes until the lunch crowd arrives — and asks Calhoun and Peg Snaza-Alexis to start dishing up the salad.

This is The Lunch Bunch, a meal offered at noon every Friday at the Wolf Creek Grange in North Powder.

The price is $3, and all ages are welcome.

The Baker Clinic has been acquired by the St. Alphonsus Medical Group and is now officially known as St. Alphonsus Medical Group-Baker City.

A large white-and-red sign erected next to the smaller Baker Clinic sign announces the change to passersby in the 3100 block of Pocahontas Road, just east of St. Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City.

Sept. 1 was the official changeover date for the family and acute care clinic.

Loran Joseph couldn’t sleep.

All he wanted was water — but the giant pizza sitting in his stomach didn’t allow space for any liquid.

“I was so dehydrated — so thirsty, my lips were chapped. I had a headache,” he said, describing Friday night.

That evening, Joseph became the first person to beat the Paizano’s Pizza Challenge of downing a giant, two-topping pizza in 30 minutes.

Joseph’s was the 99th attempt — only two women have tried — and all had failed until Friday night.