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June 25, 2014
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Fire Threatens HomesInHuntinoton
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Gwen Brown of Baker City.
Results from website survey The most recent poll question posted on the Herald's website, www. bakercityherald.com, was: "Should parents of the Troutdale school shooter be criminally responsible for their son's actions?" Results:
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• Councilor Clair Button mentions motion to rescind Richard Langrell's election as mayor
NO: 161 YES: 27 The new poll question is: "Where do you buy your fireworks?" Choices are Oregon, IdahoandWashington.
By Pat Caldwell pcaldwell©bakercityherald.com
BRIEFING
BHS track team
hosts4th of3uly fun run/walk HAINES —The Baker High School track and field team is raising money through its annual Fourth of July Fun Run/Walk in Haines. The event starts at 8 a.m. on the Fourth of July in downtown Haines. There will be a 5K walk or run, and a 10K run. Registration is $15 for ages 11 and older, and $10 for kids 10 and younger. Forms are available at Kicks on Main Street in Baker City, or at the Baker County YMCA Fitness Center, 3715 Pocahontas Road. Runners and walkers can also register the day of the event, starting at 7 a.m. on Haines' Main Street. All proceeds benefit the BHS track and field team.The event issponsored by Subway. More information is available by emailing Suzy Cole at scole@baker.k12.or.us.
S. John Collins /BakerCity Herald
Firefighters with the Keating Rural Fire District build a fire break across a dry field in case high winds fanned a haystack already ablaze and carefully watched by firefighters. Although their home was protected, Laura Hicks, 66, and her 82-year-old husband, Noel, lost their woodshed and about a cord of wood stored inside. Their garage also sustained major damage to the walls and rafters, but tools and two freezersand a refiigerator stored inside were unscathed.
By Chris Collins
acres between Huntington and Farewell Bend State Park HUNTINGTON — Laura Hicks credits a handful of volunteer Tuesday. firefighters, and her son and his Fortunately the friend, for saving her Huntington westerly wind gusts home Tuesday morning when flames of about 25 mph that L aur a Hicks spread from her neighbor's burn bar- fanned the flames rel onto her property. also pushed them The flames ignited a wildland away from Huntington, and its 510 fire that burned an estimated 1,375 residents. ccollins©bakercityherald.com
SeeClose CalllPage 8A
Langrell: Watershed fence still needs work
Babe Ruth
baseball here in August The Baker Babe Ruth Association will host the 2014 Pacific Northwest Regional 13-15-year-old baseball tournament Aug. 4-10 at the Baker Sports Complex. Ten teams from Oregon,Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, will compete. The winning team advances to the Babe Ruth World Series. Tournament director is Lance Dixon, 541-9101792, and sponsorship coordinator is Carrie Folkman, 541-519-5801.
WEATHER
Today 73/51
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On a night when the 20142015 budget appeared to be the critical item on the Baker City Council's agenda, two otherissues were pushed onto center stage, including one that came to light during the ses- La ngrell sion's waning moments. At the tail end of the meeting Tuesday night, Councilor Clair Button tasked City Manager Mike Kee to place a proposal on the next meeting agenda to discuss the job performance of Mayor Richard Langrell and decide whether or not to vote on a motion to rescind Langrell's appointment as the city's top elected leader. "I believe at least three city councilors, perhaps more, I don't know, have privately spoken with the mayor or emailed him and requested that he step down from his position as mayor," Button sald. See MayorIPageGA
By Pat Caldwell pcaldwell©bakercityherald.com
S. John Collins/ Baker City Herald
Keeping an eye on a burn barrel that sparked the fire Tuesday morning are Dan Cannon, left, andTom Morcom, fire prevention officer for the Bureau of Land ManagementVale District. The fire, which was fanned by high winds, spread rapidly south from homes, up and over rolling hills toward Farewell Bend State Park and Interstate 84.
SaturdayFireIlestroyedCoupie's Historic Barn,ButTheir HouseWasSpared
QIIikee familVgrateful fOrfire CreWS By Jayson Jacoby jacoby©bakercityherald.com
A Saturdayevening fi re destroyed Kathy and Gary Bloomer's historic wooden barn on their ranch near Durkee, butfi refi ghters fiom Huntington saved the couple's nearby home.
T ODAY Issue 20, 32 pages
A storyin Monday's issue quoted a BLM official who said, incorrectly, that no structures were damaged in the fire. The blaze spread onto 247 acres of private and BLM land on Gold Hill, the steep peak that rises just to the
northeast of the Bloomers' ranch. Kathy Bloomer said she's grateful to the Huntington Fire Department, and all others who helped. "It's pretty devastating," she said."It's still so surreal when you look out there and
see what's gone. "But there were no injuries, and we still have our home." Bloomer said the fire apparently started atthevery top of the barn. '%e have no idea what started it," she said. SeeBarnlPage8A
For Baker City Mayor Richard Langrell, the ghost of last summer's cryptosporidium crisis isn't banished. For Langrell the 2013 crypto emergency resonates, even though the city has had a temporary UV light treatment plant operating since mid-March, with a permanent plant under construction. Several hundred people — an exact count was never determined — were infected with crypto, a microscopic parasite, last summer. State and federal health officials were never able to definitively isolate the source, but they did conclude the city's drinking water was responsible for the outbreak. SeeCrypto/Page 2A
Business....................1B Comics.......................3B Dear Abby.... ...........12B News of Record........2A Senior Menus ...........2A Calendar....................2A C o m m u nity News ....3A Hor o scope........SB & 9B O b i t uaries..................2A Sp o r ts ........................7A Crassified............5B-10B C r o ssword........SB & 9B K i d s Scoop................4B Op i n i on......................4A We a t her...................12B
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