In April of 2012 the City received approximately $775,000 from the Tony Silver’s estate. This bequest was specifically designated to improve the community’s street tree inventory. A street tree is a tree which is generally located between the street and sidewalk. The budgeted interest which accrues on the trust can be utilized each year by the Tree Board for street tree improvements. Those improvements can also include providing irrigation to street trees – which was a very insightful forethought of Mr. Silvers!

Tree Board members aspired to accomplish a larger-scaled street tree project to showcase the enhancements that can be accomplished through this trust. Early last year, Tree Board members unanimously voted to allow the interest to accrue for two years prior to “cashing in”.

On Friday, April 18th Tree Board members and community volunteers will plant 25 street trees at the vacant lot north of the Baker County rodeo grounds. An irrigation system will also be installed in the weeks immediately following the tree plantings to provide water to the new trees. This project will be our 2014 Arbor Day project, celebrating Baker City’s 29th year as a “Tree City USA”. Only seven Oregon cities can say they have celebrated 29 years as a Tree City USA: Baker City, Ashland, Rogue River, Sun River, Eugene, Portland, and Salem. We are so excited to see this project come to fruition, and it’s been made possible by Mr. Silver’s
love of trees and the great people of our community making a difference by volunteering their time
and energy!

The Playground Improvement Project at Geiser-Pollman Park is scheduled to begin construction on Monday, May 12, 2014, and will take up to 5 days. Removal of the old equipment, excavation of the site, and drilling of holes will take place the week before. The merry-go-round has been donated to the Crossroads Art Center for future use as a public art display. The other removed equipment, if it meets current safety requirements, will be sold by competitive bid at the next scheduled City E-Bay auction.

There are two portions of the installation project, equipment construction, and surfacing installation. A crew  from Powder River Correctional  Facility is tentatively scheduled to do the surfacing install. Volunteers will complete the equipment install and other related work under the direction of a professional playground installer supervisor. If you don't mind putting in a day of hard work for this great community project, give Linda Collins a call at (541)523-6243.

A little history!

The Playground Improvement Project began as the brain child of two enthusiastic local moms, Lisa Jacoby and Megan Fisher. City Councilor and mom Kim Mosier has joined the spirited effort as well. They have been working with our Parks Department, The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, many interested community businesses, citizens, and of course PARENTS to bring their vision to reality. The project will help to provide age appropriate, ADA and ASTM compliant equipment that is both safe and fun!  Fund raising efforts so far include bake sales, coin drives (Thank you BHS National Honor Society!), parties,  and multiple grant awards. These efforts, along with financial support by the Baker City Council, have raised funds to complete the equipment purchase and provide surfacing for the 74' x 74' area that will be home to the new equipment!

The City received the official test results of the combined raw water source samples taken on March 16th and March 19th and no Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected.