Baker City Herald Paper 05-23-14

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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityheralckcom

May 23, 2014

iN mis aonioN: Local • Heajth@Fitness • Outdoors • TV QUICIC HITS

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HistoricRocKCreeKPowerPlantWestOf Haines

Good Day Wish To A Subscriber

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A special good day to Herald subscriber Norma Smith of Baker City.

BRIEFING

HLICkS

• Owner MarkHendersonm oving,and resigningfrom SchoolBoard

Friends of the Museum yard sale Saturday Friends of the Baker Heritage Museum will have their annual yard sale Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. on Kurt Miller's property along Highway 7 just past Griffin Gulch Road about a mile south of Baker City (look for the big sign).

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• Guy Michael of Baker County wants to know what BLM oficials did with the mining equipment they removed from his claim

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Fiddlers to perform during Sumpter flea market I

The Blue Mountain Old-Time Fiddlers will give two shows this weekend during the flea market at Sumpter. Show times are 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday at the little white schoolhouse. Admission is $5. This weekend brings Sumpter's biggest flea market of the year (markets are also held Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends).

By Pat Caldwell i

pcaldyyell©bakercityherald.com

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Thisweek, Baker County miner Guy Michael learned that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to examine his legal case against one of the largest fed"There is eral agencies , in the West, noj uspicein

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Rolling slowdown on

no justice in

I-84 May 28

There will be a rolling slowdown along Interstate 84 between La Grande and Baker City on May 28 starting at 9 a.m. The slowdown is necessary to accommodate crews building an overhead crossing for a power line extension. Pilot cars will begin the rolling slowdown at milepost 268.27, near La Grande, and westbound milepost 290.729, between Baker City and North Powder. Pilot cars will be traveling at 35 mph to accommodatethe work at milepost 279.5, which will take less than 10 minutes.

WEATHER

Today

0/42

a;a,

Shower or thunderstorm possible this evening

Saturday

72/35 Partly sunny

Sunday

77/43 Partly sunny

Correction:An arrest report in News of Record on Page 2A of Wednesday's edition listed the wrong address for Nathan Lee Paulsen. He lives at 3320 K St.

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swan song i n his very personal five year battle. "There is

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, was closedin 1995 and sat idlefor 13 yearsbefore the Hendersons bought it. Mark Henderson said he and his brother thought that years of working to meet environmental and regulatory requirements were about to reach an end. But recent negotiations with the U.S. Forest Service regarding right-of-way access to a diversion point on Rock Creek and the volume of water that he would be allowed to use to operate the plant fell through, thwarting the brothers' ability to make the project profitable. See Henderson/Page 8A

See Miner IPage5A

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S. John Collins/ Baker City Herald file photo

Mark Henderson rests easy in 2013 at the historic residence of former Rock Creek Power Plant operators, while making future plans for the house and generation plant, background.

By Chris Collins ccollins©bakercityherald.com

Just when it looked like the Baker School Board had come together to form a new and m ore cohesive version ofitself, director Mark Henderson has announced his resignation. Henderson, 45, who was electedto afour-yearboard term in May 2011, will step down effective June 30. That's a year short of when his term expires in 2015. Henderson announced his resignation near the end of Tuesday's two-hour meeting, which was preceded by a brief Budget Board session. He said he and his family will

be movingfrom their home on Rock Creek Lane about five miles west of Haines. ''We moved here nine years ago with every intention of making a go of the hydro plant," Henderson told his fellow directors."But we've been unableto negotiateforrightof way or water and we have had to put the project on hold." Henderson and his brother, Doug, had hoped to return the historic Rock Creek Power Plant to operation. The 1903 plant, previously owned by the

— Guy M i c hael, Baker Coun ty gold mrner who has h a d a five-year legal dispu te with theBLM over equipment removed from his mining claim

States," Michael said earlier this week. Michael's legal clash with the BLM began in 2009 and eventually involved action in a number of federal higher courts and revolved around his four unpatented mining claims along the Burnt River east of Bridgeport in southern Baker County. In early June 2009, the BLM removed Michael's property from one of his mining claims — including a backhoe and other equipment — and transferred it to an unnamed BLM facility. Michael said the BLM never paid him a cent for his personal equipment, nor has the agency returned his property. "They took the equipment without determining if I was in compliance with the law," Michael said.'Their only complaint was that I wasn't working enough to satisfy their rules." He said the replacement value on his equipment is nearly $75,000, and instead of receiving compensation from the BLM he w as bil led $24,000 in expenses for afederal reclamation project on the mining claim from which the agency removed his equipment. Michael said he was bewildered by the BLM's action, and five years later he still has more questions than answers. 'You are stunned. Here I have a valid mining claim, admitted by the BLM, and they still went out there and took it," he said, referring not to the claim itself but to his backhoe and other personal property.

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the United States."

Sudgetdoarddlocksraisesfornon-unionstal • Group of 16 city employees hasn't had across-theboard salary raise since 2011

TO D A T Issue 6, 24 pages

By Pat Caldwell pcaldyyell©bakercityherald.com

The Baker City Budget Committee finished of its review of the proposed 2014-2015 budget Wednesday night but not without debating a number of key issues.

The board approved a roughly $15

million city budget — including a $5.1 million general fund outlay — that will go before the City Council for final ratification next month. W hile number a ofproposed projects — such as a small allocation to partner with l aocalgroup to constructa dog park —securedapproval itw asinitia-

tivesregarding some city employees' salariesthattriggered the most debate Thursday night. A proposaltogrant a cost-of-living raise for non-union employees failed to gainapprovalfrom the board. See Budget/Page 2A

Calendar....................2A C o m m u nity News ....3A He a lth ........................1C Ne w s of Record........2A Sp o r ts ........................6A Classified.. ...........3B-BB Crossword........4B & BB Jayson Jacoby..........4A Opinion... ...................4A Television .........3C & 4C Comics....................... 2B D e a r Abby ............... 10B L o t t ery Results.......... 2A Ou t d o ors ...................1B We a t h er................... 10B

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