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August 18, 2011 Front Page |
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Councilors Discuss Resort Street Project During Work Session, Take Comments
By Joni Lea Linscott
On Tuesday Baker City Council held a work session to give property owners a chance to discuss how they feel about the upcoming Resort Street project.
Mayor Dennis Dorrah started the meeting by giving an overview of the project. He explained that the project has been in the works for many years, and that the monies for it came from House Bill 2001, which was a bill produced last year to increase gas taxes, and then disperse that money throughout the state. The money was dispersed in these percentages, 50% would go to the state, 30% to counties and 20% to cities.
Baker County received $10 million for modernization projects, and as Fred Warner Jr., County Commission Chair explained, the County only had six hours to decide what they were going to do with the money, so Resort Street was one of the first on the list. The total project for Resort Street will include new sidewalks, new pavement, new street lights, and hopefully getting all utilities put underground in what is called Local Improvement District or LID.
Baker Truck Corral’s Open House Showcased The Shorepower Truck Electrification Program
By Tammy A. Bloom
On Jan. 1, 2012 a new law will go into effect that will prohibit long periods of engine idling. Therefore, the Baker City Truck Corral, the first truck stop out of 50 in the country, has installed two dozen electrical outlets that is part of a federally funded program. The outlets will provide a cleaner, less expensive source of energy for truckers to power the small electrical appliances they need inside their trucks during their breaks from the road.
The power will be sold at a market rate of $1 an hour for low voltages (120 VAC) and a higher rate, yet to be established, for the higher voltages.
Greg Smith, Baker County’s economic development director said, “We (Baker City) are in a perfect location to be an intermodal hub for truck drivers.”
Half of the outlets are out on the other side of the parking lot where the trucks park at night and the other half are close to the restaurant. The owners of the Truck Corral are hoping that people traveling in RVs will use these outlets.
School Board Meets As Opening Day Rapidly Approaches
By Doyle Perry
The Baker School District 5J Board of Directors met Aug. 16 with the first day of school planned for Aug. 29. The Board discussed several matters including an Annual Accountability Report from Curriculum Director Anthony Johnson, covering the District demographic data, performance indicators and progress measurements from 2007-2008 to 2010-2011.
In his report, Johnson also introduced some of the plans which he says will improve the performance of grades 4-7 ( by 19%) and 10% in writing in grade 10 by spring of 2012. Baker Middle School and Baker High School students took the writing assessment online in 2009-2010 but switched back to pencil/paper in 2010-2011. Oregon Department of Education will not be evaluating writing work samples except at grade 11 in 2011-2012.
Johnson said in his report that “by spring, we will improve the performance of grade 4-8 Special Education students in South Baker in reading and improving the number of students exceeding the standards in algebraic relationships of grades 5-6 and 7-8 and the number of students meeting the state standards in grade 11 in Baker School District in mathematics.”
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