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-( Celebrate Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityheralckcom
October 8, 2014
iN mis aonioN: Local • B usiness @AgLife • Go! magazine $ < QUICIC HITS
RenewadleEnergyInBaKerCounty
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber
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A special good day to Herald subscriber Mike Chase of Baker City.
Oregon, 7A ASHLAND — Atleast 20 cities and counties around Oregon are racing to approve local taxes on marijuana in case voters in November decide to legalize recreational pot. The number has been growing, despite provisions in Measure 91 giving the state sole authority to tax marijuana, and specifically repealing conflicting local ordinances.
2 SEPARATE FIRES: ONE MONDAY NIGHT, ONE TUESDAY MORNING
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• Five wind farms are being planned near Huntington and Lime
• Baker man in critical condition after trailer burns; couple, four dogs escape injury in house fire Tuesday
BRIEFING
Fall Foliage rides on Sumpter Valley Railroad Sumpter Valley Railroad's annual Fall Foliage events are coming up this weekend. First, the Fall Colors train runs Friday as an option for those who want to see the autumn foliage without committing to an entire day. There will be two roundtrips out of the McEwen Depot at 10 a.m. and1:15 p.m., and a round-trip from Sumpter at noon. The fares are $1750 for adults, $15 for seniors and military, $11 for children age 6to16 or $50 for a family. The Photographer's Weekend is Saturday and Sunday, although Saturday is already sold out. Cost is $80 per person. Sunday's ride leaves McEwen Depot at 7 a.m., preceded by a continental breakfast at 6 a.m. The train returns between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. During the outing, there will be walking and hiking over some uneven ground. To make reservations, call 541-894-2268 or email reservations@ sumptervalleyrailroad. or'g.
Crossroads gala set for Oct. 18 The annual gala fundraiser for Crossroads CarnegieArt Center is set for Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Baker Event Center, 2600 East St. The social hour and silent auction begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and the live auction at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3750 a person and are available until Oct. 10 at Crossroads, 2020Auburn Ave. The board of directors' goal is to sell out the event, so there might not be any tickets sold at the door. Call Crossroads for details, 541-523-5369.
WEATHER
Today
78 /34 Mostly sunny
Thursday
By Chris Collins ccolllns©bakercltyherald.com
A Baker City man was in critical condition this morning at the Legacy Oregon Burn Center in Portland after a Monday night fire at his home. Aaron Proffitt, 31, of 1370 Ninth
St., was taken by bulance to St. Al-
Kathy Orr/Baker City Herald
The Elkhorn Valley wind farm near North Powder is the largest wind power development in the area. Five other smaller developments are planned in southeastern Baker County.
By Coby Hutzler chutzler©bakercltyherald.com
Wind powerin Baker County
is lifbng ofK Within the past year, the county has given three conditional-use permits for a total of five wind farm sites, allowing fortheirconstruction tobegin. All the projects are situated in the hills surrounding Huntington and Lime, about 45 miles southeast of Baker City. Bob Guertin of Oregon Windfarms, LLC, which is managing all five projects, said that while there are some intervening stepstotake care of— including the installation of a substation— the projectsappear to be in good shape going forward. r We expect that sometime later this fall or early in the spring they11 be in construction," Guertin said. The five projects together consist of 42 turbines. These will be placed on three separateparcelsofland owned by the Barber, Bokides and Davis families. Guertin said that only the turbines on the Davis property will be fully visible from Huntington. Counted together, the project siteshave a totalcapacity of50
T ODAY Issue 63, 30 pages
megawatts iMWl. That electricity will be sold to Idaho Power
Co. Brad Bowlin, a spokesman for Idaho Power, said the contract that the company has with Oregon Windfarms requires these new wind facilities to come online in 2016. While Idaho Power's service territory includes portions of Baker County near Huntington, Unity, Richland and Halfway, Bowlin said that this doesn't necessarily mean those customers will be buying the electricity generated by the wind farms. "An electron is an electron," he said, adding that once electricity from one kind of source is put on the grid, it becomes indistinguishable from electricityderived from other sources. "It's just a mix of all our various fuel mixes," he said of the power on the grid."It's not like the folks in Baker County get a higher percentage of wind power because there's a wind farm there."
Wind's higher cost Bowlin did say, however, that wind power tends to be more expensive than electricity that
comes from other sources, in part because the wind doesn't always blow, and also because other sources — such as coal, natural gas and hydroelectric plants — are already built. In addition, Bowlin said, the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 requires utilitiestopurchase theirelectricity from energy-efficient sources whenever possible. "Under the terms of those contractsthe priceper megawatt is higher," he said. "Plus there are integration costs as well, and we have to basicall y have otherresources on our system to back up the wind," so that when the wind stops blowing or picks up, the right amount of electricity is kept on the grid to meet demand. "In general, adding wind power to the overall fuel mix raises customer prices," Bowlin sald. He didn't have an estimate for how much an average customer's bill would increase due to the higher cost of power from new wind farms in Baker County.
COuPle, 4
dogs unhurt after hOme
phonsus Medical CatCheS fire Center-Baker City and laterfl own A south Baker to thePortland City couple and hospital. their pets escaped Baker City injury in a fire acPolice Chief Wyn cidentally started Lohner said the in a bedroom of fire broke out in a thei r home Tuescamp traile r Prof- day morning. fitt was living in Acting Lt. on the property. Sara Blair said Baker City the alarm was firefighters were sounded at 11:05 dispatched at a.m. with an initial 7:39 p.m. Monday. report that Jack The trailer was and Janice Clark a total loss in the were inside the fire. Lohner said home. the Baker County Major Crime Team S ee FirelPage3A has been called to investigate. ''We're still trying to determine what caused the fire," Lohner said.r We have reason to believe an accelerant was used — at what capacity, we're still trying to determine." Detective Andrea Vaughn of Bend, an Oregon State Police arson investigator, traveled to Baker City Tuesday to assist the major crime team, Lohner said.
PROPOSED MERGER OF ALBERTSONS, SAFEWAY STORES
Feds could decide grocery future in Baker By Jayson Jacoby llacoby©bakercltyherald.com
Baker City's grocery business could change, at least in terms ofstore ownership,iffederal regulatorsapprove the acquisition ofSafeway stores by a company that already owns Albertsons stores. Baker City's grocery trade is dominated by those two stores, which face each other across East Campbell Street near the freeway. Ifthe proposed merger goes through — it was announced in March, and Safeway shareholders endorsed the deal in late July — a single company, Cerberus Capital, would own bothofthosestores.
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See GrocerylPage 8A
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