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Serving Baker County since18 7 0
November 19, 2014
bakercityhenrtdcom
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>N>H>saD>i'>oN: Local • B usiness @AgLife • Go! magazine $ < QUICIC HITS
Pruning The RowsAtThe lidrary
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber
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A special good day to Herald subscriber Nancy Goodwin of Baker City.
Oregon, 5A SALEM — State figures show that Oregon employers went on a hiring spree this fall, adding nearly 10,000 jobs in October. The state Employment Department said Tuesday that's the largest one-month gain in jobs since August 1995, when more than 10,400 jobs were added.
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• Project creates more space for fiction titles at Baker Public Library
• Property owners have failed to pay the city for costs it incurred to cut weeds or otherwiseclean theirparcel to meetcity standards
BRIEFING
Free Thanksgiving dinner Everyone is invited to dinner with all the trimmings on Thanksgiving day at 3 p.m. at South Baker Intermediate School, 1285Third Street in Baker City. The dinner is hosted by Calvary Baptist Church. More information is available by calling the church office at 541-5233891.
By Joshua Dillen ldtllen©bakercttyherald.com
Baker City Councilors passed a resolution Tuesdaynightto declare 16propertiesin default in payment of costs incurred from weed and property abatement. An ordinance allows the city to bill property owners for the cost of weed and/or property abatement performed by the city or its contractor. The city has done that on all 16 properties. But the Council has to pass a resolution beforebeforelienscan be recorded on the properties. The unpaid bills for the properties total
Community Orchestra concert Friday The Baker Community Orchestra's fall concert is set for this Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Veteran Advocates of Oregon-Idaho event center, 1901 Main St. There is no admission charge, and all are welcome. The orchestra, under the direction of Kelly Brickman, will perform a mix of classical, popular, movie theme, and Christmas music. Included are the Shepherd's hymn from Beethoven's 6th Symphony, "The Pink Panther" theme, "0 Come, 0 Come Emmanuel," and more. The Baker Community Orchestra is made up of volunteer community members who have a passion for making music. The orchestra is open to any community member who can play a band or orchestra instrument.
WEATHER
Today
31 /21 Slight chance of snow
Thursday
35/18 Chance of snow or rain Full forecast on the baCk Of the B SeCtiOn.
Clarification: Lisa Fuzi contributed to the story on Page 1C of Friday's issue about two mule deer bucks that got their antlers tangled during a fight.
in Baker
over $14,000. The owner of 2725 Jackson St. has been billed and is in default for the amount of $4,481.68forproperty abatements. The owners of 1841 14th St. and 2500
Ninth St. have been billed $2,716.50 and Kathy Orr / Baker City Herald
CarmenVVickam, co-assistant director at the Baker County Library, sorts through books to see whether they should stay on the shelves or be "retired" to create more space.
$2,400respectively forproperty abatements. Thirteenother propertieshave been billed for weed abatements in amounts less than
$1,000. By Jayson Jacoby llacoby©bakercityherald.com
Not a single dandelion sprouts from the shelves at the BakerCounty Library,yet weeding among these rows is a constant, and vital, task. Although Diana Pearson, the public services librarian, concedes that when it comes to books, pruning probably is the more appropriate verb. Weeding, the term library professionals use, implies that the people doing the work have the same disdainfortheirtargets as a homeowner has for a patchofcrabgrass thatinvades his well-tended turf. In reality, Pearson said, she and her cadre of volunteers sometimesfeela tw inge ofregret as they go about plucking volumes.
They love books, of course, and banishing even a dogearedora hopelessly outdated example to a giveaway bin or an online storefront can seem almostabetrayal. ''We look forreasons toleave a book,aswellasforreasons to retire a book," Pearson said. But just as the gardener yanks weeds to ensure a bountiful crop, Pearson's book-weeding, a multi-year campaign that's nearing its end, has a specifi cgoal. Making space. Space, in particular,for m ore of the books that library customers actually take home. If you've visited the library recently at 2400 Resort St. you've probably noticed a coupleaislesdevoid ofbooks. That's temporary, said Pear-
son and Library Director Perry Stokes. By weeding both adult fiction and non-fiction books, library officials have made room for about 2,400 more volumes. They11 fill that shelf space with fiction titles, including large-formatversions and genres such as Westerns, science fiction, fantasy and Christian fiction, Pearson said. Most of those books are now shelved in one of the Library District's five branchesHaines, Halfway, Huntington, Richland and Sumpter. There's been little demand in those branches for the volumes that will be moved to Baker City, in particular the largeformat fiction, Pearson said. See Library/Page GA
CitsnonulationsteadVat9,890 Baker City's populatton stayed steady over the past year, and remains slightly above the 2010 U.S. Census, according to Portland State University's Population Research Center. Portland State's demographers pegged Baker City's population, as of July 1, 2014, at 9,890. That's identical to the 2013 estimate. The city's population in the 2010 Census was 9,828. PSU's Population Research Center — www.pdx.edu/prcj — estimates populations for each year between the once-per-
T ODAY Issue 81, 30 pages
• Richland, 175 i156l decade national head counts. Baker County's population, • Sumpter, 205 i204l meanwhile, did increase slightly • Unity, 70 i71l Elsewhere in the region: overthe pastyear,from 16,280 • North Powder, 445 i439l to 16,325, according to PSU's estimates. • La Grande, 13,150 i13,082l That's an increase of 191 • John Day, 1,745 i1,744l • Enterprise, 1,940 i1,940l people from the 2010 Census • Ontario, 11,465 i11,366l totalof16,134. Baker County's other incorpo• Pendleton, 16,700 i16,612l • Union County, 26,485 rated cities have had minuscule changes in population over the i25,748l • Wallowa County, 7,070 past four years, according to PSU. • Greenhorn, 2 iCensus: 0l i7,008l • Haines, 415 i416l • Malheur County, 31,470 • Halfway, 290 i288l • Huntington, 445 i440l
i31,313l • Grant County, 7,425 i7,445l
SeeLienslPage 8A
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Holiday gas prices lowest since 2009 Travelers who will be driving to their holiday destinations next week will have something besides turkey and pumpkin pie to be thankM for. A smaller bill at the gas pump. Average gas prices during Thanksgiving week will be the lowest for the holiday since 2009, according to AAA of Oregon/Idaho. 'The national average forregular unleaded has beenbelow $3 a gallon for 17 consecutive days, with more than three-quarters of U.S. gas stati ons now reporting pricesbelow this price," said Marie Dodds, public affairs director for AAA. "For the week, the national average loses a nickel to $2.88 a gallon while Oregon's aver-
ageslipshalfa centto$3.07,"she said."Both averagesare attheirlow estpricesinceDecember 2010 due to falling global oil prices." During Thanksgiving 2009 the national average was $2.63 per gallon, and Oregon's
average was $2.75. Baker City residents, as is typical, will pay more than the state and national averages. Baker City' saverage priceis $3.27. That's down 29 cents from a month ago, and 16 cents below the average during this periodin 2013.
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