Remote Surveillance Trailer in Baker City, OR

BAKER CITY — The Baker County Model Railroad Club is looking for an indoor space where members can set up their railroad layouts, which they hope to take to local schools and other places with a goal of increasing interest in the club.

Drew Benjamin, a Baker High School student, is leader of the club, which formed about a year ago.

The club had its first model hobbies convention on Sept. 13, 2025, in Baker City.

Benjamin said the club’s goal is “to bring people together through model trains, and creative hobbies celebrating each person’s passion while building a strong and connected community.”

“While trains may be one of our focuses, we are more than that, and welcome all model hobby enthusiasts,” Benjamin said. “We want to create a place where people of all ages, skill levels and hobbies can share ideas, display their work, trade parts and geek out about the world of model making.”

What the club lacks, though, is an indoor space for building their creations.

The layouts are “modular,” Benjamin said, meaning they can be taken apart and assembled relatively quickly, and stored when not in use.

“Our plan for these layouts is to take them around to local events and different places such as the different schools or local businesses to show people what goes into making them, and how it can be really fun to get into the hobby of model making,” Benjamin said.

Anyone who has space, or knows of someone who might be willing to donate part of a building for the club’s use, can call Benjamin at 541-403-0090 or email him at drewbenjamin4449@yahoo.com. The club’s secretary, Monique Papenfuss, can be reached at 208-724-8038. The club’s email is bcmrrclub@gmail.com, and its website is bcmrrclub.square.site/. The club also has a Facebook page — Baker County Model Railroad Club. The club meets monthly at the Baker County Library.

BAKER CITY — Lucas Treptow played an Oregon Trail tour in 2025, and this month he sets off on a year of playing music across the country.

And locally, too.

“My goal for this year is to play every county in Oregon,” he said. “When I’m not playing music, I’m driving.”

On March 27, he’s checking Baker County off the list with a show at Barley Brown’s taphouse, 2200 Main St. The music starts at 6 p.m., and the venue is for ages 21 and older.

Originally from Wisconsin, Treptow moved to Prairie City several years ago from Montana.

Oregon, he said, was the “rebirth of a music career.”

He started playing full-time in March 2025.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “The whole community has been incredible.”

He is a one-man band, singing while he plays a kick drum, tambourine, guitar and harmonica. He describes his sound as “folky Americana.”

Last year, he played a summer show for the Riverside Park concert series in La Grande, and a Labor Day weekend show called “Strings at the Springs” at Hot Lake Springs Resort.

In addition to Barley Brown’s, he has shows scheduled for the Hideout Saloon in La Grande (May 30), Wallowa Lake Lodge in Joseph (June 6), ‘62 Days in Canyon City (June 13) and Churchill School in Baker City (June 19).

In Grant County, he plays with the James Gang Band, some solo shows, and started open mic nights at Bare Bones Bar in John Day — the next one is March 21 with an open jam from 8-10:30 p.m., followed by karaoke until midnight.

“Anyone who plays an instrument jumps in,” he said. “That’s been really cool.”

He’s sometimes seen 50 in the audience, and more than a dozen musicians signed up to play.

“It’s become a really special night,” he said.

The newest open mic, for solo acoustic, debuts April 4 at the Oxbow in Prairie City.

For updates, check www.facebook.com/lucastreptowmusic or lucastreptow.com.

BAKER CITY — The Idaho corporation that bought the former Rite Aid store on Campbell Street in Baker City in September 2025 has acquired the adjacent building that used to house Safeway grocery.

Both buildings have been vacant for several months.

Safeway closed in May 2025 and Rite Aid the following month.

MSBR LLC of Caldwell, Idaho, now owns both buildings, according to Baker County Assessor’s Office records.

According to Idaho corporation records, Mark R. Schmitt is the corporation’s manager. Schmitt is the president of D&B Supply, according to the company’s website.

The MSBR LLC address is the same as for D&B Supply. The company has a store in Baker City, at 3515 Pocahontas Road.

MSBR bought the former Rite Aid store, 1217 Campbell St., for $1.7 million in a bankruptcy court sale.

The 30,966-square-foot building, constructed in 1991, has a market value of $1,898,850, including the land and the structure, according to the Baker County Assessor’s Office, which last appraised the parcel in 2020.

MSBR bought the former Safeway building, 1205 Campbell St., on Feb. 27 of this year, for $2.8 million, according to assessor’s office records.

The Safeway building is bigger than the Rite Aid store, at 35,862 square feet. It was built in 1977 and its real market value, from a 2020 appraisal, is $2,046,360, according to the assessor’s office.

The Baker City Herald left a message at D&B Supply headquarters in Caldwell, and a company official was working to arrange an interview.

Bryan Tweit, Baker County’s contracted economic developer, said in September 2025 that he considers the sale of the Rite Aid building “a positive development.”

“Someone realized it had value and was willing to pay a lot of money for it,” Tweit said.

“The city is excited to see what the new owner will do with this property which is in a key area of our commercial zone,” Baker City Manager Barry Murphy said in September 2025.

BAKER CITY — Baker County’s average gasoline price has risen rapidly over the past three weeks, in common with the rest of Oregon and the nation, but the trend locally hasn’t been quite as dramatic as in many places.

Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on the final day of February, an ongoing conflict that has caused crude oil prices to increase, gas prices have jumped by about 27% nationally, and by about 16% in Oregon, according to the AAA auto club.

In Baker County, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded has risen by about 14% during March, to $3.95 on Tuesday, March 17.

That’s the lowest average among Oregon’s 36 counties.

Oregon’s average price on Tuesday was $4.54 per gallon, the fifth-highest among states (California, $5.54; Washington, $4.99; Hawaii, $4.98; and Nevada, $4.60, have higher averages).

The national average was $3.79.

On Feb. 25, Baker County’s average price of $3.46 was 49 cents higher than the national average. On Tuesday the county’s average was 16 cents higher than the national average.

Baker was the only county in Oregon with an average price below $4 per gallon. Malheur County had the second-lowest average price, at $4.01.

Elsewhere in Northeastern Oregon, Union County’s average price Tuesday was $4.30, Grant County’s was $4.43, Umatilla County’s was $4.34, Morrow County’s was $4.31, and Wallowa County’s was $4.67, the second-highest average in the state.

Oregon’s highest average price was in Columbia County, northwest of Portland, at $4.69. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, and Curry County, at the southwest corner of the state, both were at $4.66, the third-highest average.

According to AAA, the average price nationally is the highest for this time in March since 2022. The national and Oregon averages are the highest since October 2023.

Baker County’s postponed plan to burn tumbleweeds on a county-owned field in North Baker City has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 18, starting after 10:30 a.m.

County officials initially planned to burn the weeds on the 62.5-acre property in December, but rain prompted the postponement.

County commissioners in early December voted to hire Joe Hill, a local contractor, to do the work.

After the weeds are burned, the property will be seeded with a no-till drill.

The Baker County Road Department will put up “prescribed burn ahead” electronic message signs to alert drivers and others. The reader boards will be placed at multiple places, including near the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Oregon Department of Forestry office on Hughes Lane near 10th Street, west of the county property.

Baker County Emergency Management is overseeing the prescribed burn, with help from the Greater Bowen Valley and Baker Rural fire protection districts, whose volunteers will manage the perimeter.

“The combination of burning and reseeding is expected to significantly reduce thistle density and create healthier plant growth by next season,” according to a December press release from the county.

The contractor will use a tractor-towed machine that focuses flames on the weeds, which reduces flame lengths, Gussie Cook, the county’s weed supervisor, said in December.

“We’re trying to be more precise,” she said. “We’re not going to be out there with torches just lighting it up.”

The property will be seeded with a mixture of native grasses, predominantly intermittent wheatgrass, Cook said. The mixture includes species typically planted in unirrigated rangelands, such as bunchgrasses, which are better adapted to the county’s arid climate.

Cook told commissioners that tumbleweed — formally, Russian thistle — is hard to eradicate. The county has sprayed herbicide on the weeds and mowed the field, but Cook said that tactic requires frequent treatment — “every time it rains,” she said — and is more expensive than burning the weeds and reseeding the property. The goal, she said, is to have grasses keep the tumbleweeds from returning.

The county bought the property in December 2022 from Ward Ranches. The land, formerly a mint field, is bordered on the north by Hughes Lane, on the east and south by the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway, and on the west by the Baker Sports Complex.

The county paid $1.45 million for the property, using some of the $6.5 million it received from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county has not developed the property.

County commissioners have discussed building an event center or housing on the site, but they have made no decisions.

Commissioners scheduled a public town hall for March 25 at 6 p.m. at the Baker County Event Center, 2600 East St., to hear from the public about possible uses for the property.