A beloved Baker City holiday tradition is once again brightening the winter nights leading to Christmas. Mike Voboril, who created a 35-foot-tall cross and set it on his property above the city’s southwest corner many years ago, had to dismantle the cross for a few days to replace burned out lights. The cross was back in place on Dec. 4.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/news/local/baker-citys-illuminated-cross-is-shining-again/article_87117c32-b0e9-11ef-94b0-cbf9cee7f48d.html

Jesse Brown, a Baker City native and professional steer wrestler, is competing on rodeo’s biggest stage, the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, for the fifth straight year.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/news/local/baker-city-steer-wrestler-jesse-brown-feeling-confident-before-5th-straight-trip-to-national-finals/article_cb2d9c0e-b0c9-11ef-b238-3bc995fb1146.html

Baker County is using a federal grant to buy five water tanks that can be attached to pickup truck beds to transform the vehicles into mobile firefighting units. Tanks will be given to five rural fire districts in the county, in Halfway, Richland, Sumpter, Bowen Valley and Baker Rural.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/news/local/baker-county-uses-federal-grant-to-buy-5-water-tanks-for-firefighting/article_618de772-b295-11ef-89e4-bb864d7d042e.html

The winter high school sports season is under way, with local teams competing in basketball, wrestling and swimming.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/sports/high-school-sports-winter-season-gets-under-way-this-week-on-the-court-mats-in/article_8d6b279c-b182-11ef-851d-93d772adf37e.html

REMINDER: Although the Baker City Herald contributes stories each week to the East Oregonian print newspaper, published on Wednesdays, most Baker County news, including sports, the police log, opinion and local government coverage, is available exclusively on our website, www.bakercityherald.com.