The Baker County Board of Commissioners are considering buying an historic Catholic cemetery in Baker City and using a small strip on the edge of the property to build a street accessing a larger property that the county owns and is the proposed site for a complex that could host a variety of events.

Commissioners will consider a purchase agreement with St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church during their meeting Wednesday, May 21, at 9 a.m. at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St.

The agreement, which Father Suresh Telagani of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral has signed, lists the sales price as $45,000 for the 3.15-acre property, which is just north of where College and H streets meet. The site is just east of the Baker High School tennis courts.

Shane Alderson, chairman of the three-member board of commissioners, said on Tuesday, May 20, that the county plans to use money from a $2.3 million allocation from the Oregon Legislature to buy the cemetery. The allocation, which the county has yet to tap, is for developing the proposed event complex on the larger adjacent property.

The agreement requires that the county, if it buys the cemetery, to protect the existing stone monument on the property, which states that the property is an historic cemetery where human remains may have been interred.

The county would have to build a 5-foot-tall steel fence surrounding a 12-foot by 12-foot area around the monument, which is toward the eastern side of the property, away from the right-of-way for College Street.

Alderson said county officials have had multiple discussions with church officials about the cemetery, and that the county’s plan throughout, as outlined in the sales agreement, is to preserve the cemetery “in perpetuity.”

The agreement also requires the county to maintain the sign near the southwest corner of the property, although the county could move the sign after consulting with church officials about the new location.

The sales agreement states that the county would use a strip of land on the western edge of the property for a public street, an extension of College Street.

The county would not build any structures on the property, except for fencing.

“It is also the express agreement of parties that the remaining portion of the property that is not used for public access/public street will not be used for development of any buildings or other structures of any kind” except fencing and the historic site sign.

That sign states that the cemetery was used for burials from 1860-1895, and that church and city records indicate there were 44 burials on the site. City records also show that the remains of 14 people were moved to Mount Hope Cemetery in the early 1900s.

Francis Mohr of Baker City, a member of St. Francis de Sales and a longtime leader in Knights of Columbus, the global Catholic fraternal service order, said on Tuesday, May 20, that Bishop Liam Cary of the Baker Diocese approved the terms of the proposed sale to the county.

Mohr said it’s not certain whether all the remains originally buried in the cemetery were moved to Mount Hope.

That uncertainty is why the purchase agreement includes provisions related to protecting the property, and limiting what the county could do with the land.

Mohr said the county’s plan to extend College Street, work limited to the far western edge of the property, shouldn’t affect it.

He said he hopes county officials, if commissioners approve the purchase agreement, manage the land with “respect.”

County’s existing property

Buying the church parcel would allow the county to apply with the city to extend College Street to the 70-acre property the county bought from the Ward family in December 2022 for $1.45 million.

The county used money from the $6.5 million it received in federal pandemic aid through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The property 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.

County officials have started conceptual planning for an events complex on the property that could potentially include three buildings and host events ranging from sports tournaments to rodeos to car and boat shows.

In 2023, commissioners hired Steele Associates Architects to write a master site plan for the property. The contract was for $48,000.

The conceptual plan included extending College Street, with sidewalks that would connect with the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.

County officials plan to apply for grants to build the complex.

Bryan Tweit, the county’s contracted economic development director, said in 2024 that he was confident that rental fees from events would pay for utilities and other costs to operate the complex.

Extending College Street is also listed a potential project included in Baker City’s 2013 Comprehensive Plan.

Tweit said he believes that connecting College Street to Hughes Lane would significantly reduce traffic in the neighborhood near the Baker Sports Complex and the tennis courts. He believes most people attending events at both places would drive via Hughes Lane if that was an option.