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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
March 18, 2015
>N>H>saD>i'>oN: Local • Business @AgLife • Go! magazine
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QUICIC HITS
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Roger Medlin of Baker City.
Oregon, 5A SALEM — Seventeen years after Oregon decidedto become the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote. Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of on voters. Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn't registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days before the next statewide election. The bill is expected to add about 300,000 new voters.
Travis Ash will be Baker County's next sheriff. The Baker County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously this morning to appoint Ash, a lieutenant in the sherifFs office, to replace Mitch Southwick. Southwick announced recently that he will resign
• Travis Ash will replaceMitch Southwick, who announced recently that he will resign April 30
April 30. Ash, 39, was one of two candidatesforthejob. John Hoopes, 48, a deputy at the sherifFs office, also
applied. Southwick, who was electedto histhird four-year term as sherif in November 2012, endorsed Ash as his
successor. Ash, who has worked at the sherifFs office since 2005, will serve the rest of Southwick's term, through the end of 2016. Baker County voters will electa sheriffto afour-year term in the November 2016 election.
locals Tell legislative CommitteeAdout HarmfulEmectsofSageGrouse listing
TRAVIS ASH
HELICOPTER BUSINESS COMPLIES WITH ZONING ORDINANCE
u(fge rejects coun 's lawsuit
iiwjf/ t
By Joshua Dillen fdillen©bakercityherald.com
BRIEFING
County Courthouse now open through lunch hour The Baker County Courthouse, 1995Third St. in Baker City, has expanded its hours and will now remain open during lunch for those who need to conduct their business during that time. The Courthouse hours will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
fPQ ~ h ~ Photo by Nick Myatt/Oregon Departmentof Fish andWildlife
Forest owners to meet March 26 Private forest owners can learn about the Oregon Department of Forestry's new online notification system during the March 26 meeting of the Baker County Private Woodlands Association. The meeting will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Baker County Extension Office, 2600 East St. in Baker City. Logan McCrae of the Forestry Department will demonstrate the online system by which forest owners can notify the agency, as required by law, before doing such work as timber harvesting, slash disposal or building roads. There will also be an update on the Blue Mountain Forest Cooperative.
WEATHER
Today
56/25 Mostly sunny
Thursday
62/30 Mostly sunny
A male sage grouse inflates the air sacs in its breast and flares its tail feathers as part of the bird's annual spring strutting ritual.
er o aem: an' a or r o use is n By Joshua Dillen fdillen©bakercityherald.com
The Oregon Legislature's House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources heard from Baker County residents Tuesday morning aboutthe possible effectsoffederal protectionforthe sagegrouse. The residents testified via video conference about House Bill 3334, sponsored by Rep. Cliff Bentz, ROntario. The bill would require the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to spend $2 million per year from the Lotterybudget toprotectand restore sage grouse habitat. Bentz's goal is to show officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who will decide later this year whether to list the sage grouse as threatened or endangered, that Oregon is working to protect the bird and thatfederalprotection isnot necessary. Kathy Reedy, owner of The Depot Inn motel in Sumpter, appealed to the committee.
T ODAY Issue132,30 pages
"The cumulativeffect e of the listing will spiral through our communityfrom those directly aPected toeachof the local businesse sthatdepend on them
for income." — Christina Witham, owner, Oregon Sign Company, Baker City
"As a business owner in a small community, I'm concerned that the sage grouse will result in closing public access," Reedy said."It'll be devastating to small businesses like my own. I would ask that you consideralloptionsbefore making a decision that would ruin many small community businesses such as my own and others in my community." Reedy said 75 percent ofher customers are ATV or snowmobile riders or hunters. Christina Witham, who owns the OregonSign Company in Baker City, addressed the committee about the
economiceffecta listing ofthe sage grouse would have on local businesses. She said it would directly limit access to mining, ranching, hunting and recreation 'The cumulative effect of the listing will spiral through our community from those directly affected to eachofthe localbusinesses that depend on them for income," she said.cwithin those groups directly affected are business who I rely on for income as well ... The more economically restrained those shops are, the more this listing will affect me as a local business owner." Witham said this "trickle-down effect of the listing will be devastating to our community, our history and our future." Jacob Bingham, a local rancher and volunteer president of the Baker County Livestock Association, told lawmakers that beef cattle production is the largest agricultural commodity in the county. See Grouse/Fbge5A
Baker County has lost an almost four-year legal battle with Columbia Basin Helicopter, a Baker Valley business owned by David McCarty. Judge Ronald J. Pahl of Umatilla County ruled that McCarty is not violating county land-use laws by operating the business on his property on Ben Dier Lane, about 12 miles northwest of Baker City. Pahl issued his ruling recently after a trial that took place Jan. 20-21. McCarly was not available for comment. Joelleen Linstrom, a spokesperson for Columbia Basin Helicopter, said the ruling is a reliefbut not entirely satisfying. See LawsuitlPage5A
Council will talk Langrell lawsuit Baker City Manager Mike Kee said the City Council will meet in executive session
iclosed to the public) prior to its regular public meeting Tuesday to discuss the city's options regarding Councilor Richard Langrell's lawsuit against the city. Langrell will not attend the executive session, which will start at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, Kee said. The public meeting will startat7 p.m . A judge ruled last week that the city can't use most of itsevidence should the case go to trial as scheduled in early April. Langrell is seeking more than $9,000 in water and sewer bills he paid for his motelover thepastdecade.
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