Baker City Council places $23,267 lien on 1249 Fifth Street parcel

Ronald Calder, owner of a 10,500-square-foot parcel at 1249 Fifth St., had a $23,267 lien attached to his property after the Baker City Council voted 6-0 at city hall. The council action on Feb. 24, 2026, followed municipal abatement work the city paid for after longstanding code problems at the site.

City crews removed vehicles, the remnants of a burned home, trash and other items from the Fifth Street parcel during work performed in 2025 and earlier this year, and the owner has not repaid the city for those efforts. City Manager Barry Murphy said he wanted the lien in place in case the property is sold, noting, "We spent a lot of money on that property."

The parcel sits on the west side of Fifth Street where the street dead-ends at the railroad tracks, about a block west of South Baker Intermediate School. The council’s action formally secures the $23,267 against the lot so that a future seller or buyer would become responsible for repayment if the property changes hands.

Family members who worked on cleanup efforts described months of labor to meet court-ordered deadlines. Craig Calder said family members worked "last summer and early in the fall" to address issues Judge Brent Kerns set in Baker County Justice Court, and that the efforts were progressing: "We were making headway." Craig also said Ronald Calder’s daughter suffered a serious staph infection after stepping on a nail while working on the property in early October, and Craig said he was injured during the cleanup as well.

Craig expressed frustration with the city’s enforcement, saying he "feels the city has been a bit 'over aggressive' in dealing with Ronald Calder’s property." He also warned about the lien’s effect on plans to sell: "Ronald would like to sell the property, but the $23,000 lien will make that harder."

The parcel has a municipal record reaching back to 1994, with multiple cases tied to possible violations of the city’s property maintenance ordinance involving trailers and stored vehicles. Those historic cases and the deadlines from Judge Kerns prompted the family cleanup work that preceded the recent abatement.

Public materials and council discussion did not include a line-item accounting or contractor names tying specific invoices to the $23,267 total, and officials did not detail whether the lien includes penalties or administrative fees beyond abatement costs. With the lien now on the property title, the city has legally secured reimbursement for its outlays while questions about the exact cost breakdown and any further enforcement actions remain to be resolved.