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In OREGON, 5A
Speed iN mis aomoN: L ocal • Health@Fitness • Outdoors • TV $ < QUICIC HITS
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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
August 14, 2015
changes
Structures,IncludingHomes,Burnedln SticesGulchAsMultiple Wildfires RavageBaKerCounty
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Linda Lang of Baker City.
BRIEFING
A. Lakes Hwy. repairs postponed The Forest Service has postponed its plan to repair a sinkhole on the Anthony Lakes Highway. The work was slated for Aug. 17-20. It was canceleddue to the major fires burning across the area, although none of those is affecting the Anthony Lakes area. The work will be rescheduled. The highway remains open.
Boil water order issued for Unity Baker County has issued a boil water notice for the city of Unity until further notice. A water test was positive for E.Coli bacteria, according to Oregon Health Authority officials.
Poster-making class added at Crossroads A class called "DoDoodle-Did Back to School Poster Making" has been added to the schedule at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center. It will be held Aug. 26 and 27. Class times are 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for ages 5-6 and noon to 1:30 p.m. for ages 7-11. The instructor is M. Lynnie Johnson, children's book author, illustrator and family consultant. Cost is $40 for Crossroads members or $60 for nonmembers, and includes poster and all materials involved except for one child photo, which students need to bring. The class is described as "a poster making class that provides each child participant an 'all about them' experience with you by their side ... doing ... doodling and chatting all the while. In this art-filled posterm aking event,kidscan share real life stories in their very own words about every single fun thing they love to do." For more information, or to register, call Crossroads at 541-523-5369.
S. John Collins/ Baker City Herald
The Windy Ridge fire torches trees southeast of Baker City Thursday afternoon.
By Jayson Jacoby llacoby©bakercityherald.com
Two of the bigger fires in Baker County in the past quarter century raced across thousands of acres of sagebrush and forest Wednesday and Thursday south and southeast of Baker City.
The 16,000-acre Windy Ridge and 12,800-acre Cornet fires, both sparked by lightning Monday afternoon, threatened more than 100 ruralhomes and forced severaldozen residentsto evacuate from areas ranging from Alder Creek southeast of Baker City to Black Mountain near
By Chris Collins ccollins©bakercityherald.com
Firefighters from around the state poured into the Baker High School parking lot Thursday afternoon with their minds set on saving property threatened by wildfires in Baker County. They traveled across Oregon in fire engines from departments including Scappoose,
Newberg, Portland, Albany, Amity, Philomath, Clatskanie, Molalla, Yamhill County, Columbia River and Mist-Birkenfeld. The firefighters are members of three task forces and an incident command team mobilized after Gov. Kate Brown declared a conflagration Wednesday.
etersetun orevacuees Court records By La'akea Kaufman
kkaufman©bakercityherald.com
The Red Cross has set up a fire information center and emergency shelter, forresidentsdisplaced by local wildfires, at the Baker Middle School gym, corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue. The agency had originally set up at Baker High School on Thursday morning. The shelter was moved to the middle school after a team of firefighters gathered at BHS. See Shelter/Page 8A
Smoke Pushes Air Quality Into Moderate Category
Partly cloudy
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Baker City escaped the thickest of the smoke from the Windy Ridge and Cornet fires this week, but enough drifted into town to degrade the air quality.
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Saturday
82/40
S. John Collins/ Baker City Herald
From left, Heather Stanhope, Rebecca Vaughn and David Cowan prepare the Red Cross station Thursday at Baker High School. The shelter has moved to the middle school gym.
84/44 TO D A T Issue 42, 22 pages
Full forecast on the back of the B section.
John Corrrns/ Baker City Herald
Damon Simmons is the =inforrnation officer with the -"-'-"' IncidentCommandTe@n.
BaKerCountyCircuit Court
82I43
Sunny
See FireslPage 7A
See ProtectI Page7A
Today
Sunday
Gulch south of Baker City. Residentsevacuated that forested area on Wednesday. The state team was thwarted by gusty winds that fanned the Cornet Fire Thursday night.
Effort to protect Baker County homes is a statewide endeavor
WEATHER
Sunny
Phillips Reservoir. Damon Simmons, information officer with the statewide team of firefi ghterswho arrived Thursday to help protect buildings(see story below),said Friday morning that an unknown number of structures, including homes, were burned in Stices
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SeeSmokelPage 8A
going digital By Chris Collins ccollins©bakercityherald.com
Fewer people will be on hand in the Baker County Grcuit Court office in the coming months as staff members are trained to use a new electronic record-keeping system. "It will change the court's way of doing business," says Elaine Calloway, trial court administrator. The former system, OJIN ithe Oregon Judicial Case Information Network), will be replaced by the Odyssey/eCourt system, an Internet-based program, Calloway said. OJIN has been in use by Oregon courts since 1987. Last week, she and three other members of the Circuit Court staff attended training. Those who joined her were Lorri Hackney, judicial assistant; and clerks Tracy MartinezWilliams and Jessica Hatfield. This week, those attending training are: June Falcon, courtroom clerk; and clerks Amy Swiger and Shelly Shively. The Eastern Oregon courts are the last in the state to transition to the new system, Calloway said. SeeCourtslPage 2A
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