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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
May 27, 2015
>N>H>saD>i'>oN: Local • B usiness @AgLife • Go! magazine $ < INSIDE TODAY rsumllier 20[5~
> I J Ir
MOSQUITO SEASON
BaKerCity CouncilIliscusses City-OwnedSwimming Pool
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INSIDE: • Calendar of summer aclivilies • Camps & classes • Summer reading programs +'s"„ssstsrnas
• Council plans to appoint task force to look at maintenance needs
QUICII', HITS
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Lee McCall of Baker City.
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Results from our website poll:
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The most recent question on our website poll at www.bakercityherald.com. was: "Should Oregon allow limited self-serve gas in counties with fewer than 40,000 people?"
• Recent rain, combined with onset of flood irrigation, has createdplentyofplacesforthe insectstoincubatetheireggs
•YES: 284 • NO: 94
By Jayson Jacoby llacoby©bakercityherald.com
The soggy second half of May has greened lawns and refreshed gardens, but the copious rain bolstered another crop that nobody would grow on purpose. Well, maybe somebody who owns an especially sinister sense of humor.
The current question is: "Who should get Oregon's income tax 'kicker' money?" Choices are: • Taxpayers • State • Divide Between Both
And a goodly supply of DEET. The mosquito is one of the unfortunate insectile beneficiaries of our recent rainy spell. M osquito eggs need water to progress through their larval stages and become the flying, bloodsucking banes ofbarbecues and other outdoor activities. And with almost 2 inches of rain falling at the Baker City Airport since May 11, combined with the onset of irrigation season on local farms and ranches, the bugs boast an abundance ofliquid nurseries.
CI
BRIEFING
Forest owners to talk weeds, business options The Baker County Private Woodlands Association will get information about controlling weeds and starting new businesses during its monthly meeting set for Thursday, May 28, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Extension Office, 2600 East St. Arnie Grammon, the county's weed department supervisor, will talk about common weeds and ways to deal with them. Sara Miller of the Northeast Oregon EconomicDevelopment District will talk about the new"Hatch Oregon" program designed to help entrepreneurs launch businesses. Everyone is welcome to attendThursday's meeting.
WEATHER
Today
69/40
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Showers and storms
Thursday
76/43 Partly sunny and warmer Full forecast on the back of the B section.
Correction: A Memorial Day tribute on Page 8A of the Friday, May 22, issue listed the wrong rank for Rick Gloria. He is a retired lieutenant colonel.
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See Skeeters/Page GA
City moves watershed fence By Joshua Dillen ldillen©bakercityherald.com
S. John Collins I Baker City Herald
Keith Magnuson, Baker City shop/facilities supervisor, examines the original boiler that needs to be replaced at Sam-0 Swim Center.
By Joshua Dillen ldillen©bakercityherald.com
The Baker City Council will createa task force to look at maintenance needs at Sam-0 Swim Center, but who will serve, and how many, remain to
be decided. Councilors talked about the task force during their meeting Tuesday night at City Hall. The idea arose last week when Randy Daugherty, chairman of the city's Budget Board, and a former councilor, suggestedsetting up atask forceto study the needs of the cityowned swimming pool, which is managed by the Baker County Family YMCA. Daugherty recommended a five-membergroup including himself, local property owner Rustin Smith, City Engineer Doug Schwinn, City Councilor Ben Merrill and Heidi Dalton, the YMCA executive director. The Council's discussion Tuesday centered around which city officials should be on the committee, how many
T ODAY Issue 8, 28 pages
at-large community members to appoint and whether volunteers should apply through the cityas isthe casefor othercity boardsand committees. City Manager Mike Kee recommended that the committee include 12 to 14 members. He also said he had been contacted by pool users and by other Budget Board members interested in serving on the task force. Kee talked to Baker County Facilities Foreman Dan McQuisten iwho is also a Budget Board member) who expressed an interestin being on the committee. Mayor Kim Mosier was in favorofthe task force,butsaid it should have a limited scope and be a temporary committee. She was also concerned that 12 to 14 members might be "unwieldy." "I think a councilor should be involved, a budget board member, the pool manager, the city engineer and two citizen m embers ipool users),"M osier said."That would be six mem-
bers —thatwould be doable ... I don't think it should be more complicated than that." Councilor Mike Downing liked the idea of a commission but suggested that having more members producesmore ideas. "It's something that we need to have," he said. Councilor Richard Langrell agreedthata task forcew as a good idea. He suggested the task force comprise the five members Daugherty suggested, plus two local residents who are frequent pool users. Mosier was not in favor of the directappointments. "Ihave a gutreaction to naming individuals by name. I don't want thereto bea perception that the budget board ... handpicks individual people ifor a committee)," she said. M osier said she prefers the process that the council uses that allows the review of volunteer applications for"atlarge" positions. See Sam-0/Page 8A
During a tour of the Baker City Watershed lastyear,city stafFdiscovered that a section of livestock fence was inside the boundaries of the watershed near Elk Creek. The fencing was in good repair, but it did allow cattle from the Forest Service's Blue Canyon grazing allotment to enter the water-
shed. The cattle were not able to get to Elk Creek, City Manager Mike Kee said. He said officials from the Oregon Health Authority who attended the tour said it was possible that cow excrement could roll down a hill and into the creek, which is one of several in the watershed that the city taps for its water supply. City workers built a new section of fence on the watershed boundary, and last week they removedtheold fence. The 17-acre area is about 10 miles southwest of Baker City. Elk Creekisa possible sourceofthe cryptosporidium outbreak that sickened hundreds of Baker City residents during the summer of 2013. The microscopic parasite can infectwater through animal feces. The highest concentration of crypto in any water sample tested during that summer was taken from Elk Creek. 0$cials also found cow manure in the area at that time. Although none of the four samples of manure tested contained crypto, state health offic ialswrotein a 2014 reportthatcattle fecesare the"most plausible"sourceofthe crypto contamination.
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