2A — THE OBSERVER
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TODAY
Today is Monday, Jan. 13,
the 13th day of 2020. There
are 353 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Jan. 13, 2018, a false
alarm that warned of a ballis-
tic missile headed for Hawaii
sent the islands into a panic,
with people abandoning
cars on a highway and pre-
paring to flee their homes;
officials apologized and said
the alert was sent when
someone hit the wrong but-
ton during a shift change.
ON THIS DATE
In 1794, President George
Washington approved a
measure adding two stars
and two stripes to the
American flag, following the
admission of Vermont and
Kentucky to the Union. (The
number of stripes was later
reduced to the original 13.)
In 1941, a new law went
into effect granting Puerto
Ricans U.S. birthright citi-
zenship.
In 1978, former Vice Presi-
dent Hubert H. Humphrey
died in Waverly, Minnesota,
at age 66.
In 1982, an Air Florida 737
crashed into Washington,
D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge
and fell into the Potomac
River while trying to take off
during a snowstorm, killing
a total of 78 people, includ-
ing four motorists on the
bridge; four passengers and
a flight attendant survived.
In 2000, Microsoft chair-
man Bill Gates stepped
aside as chief executive
and promoted company
president Steve Ballmer to
the position.
Northeast Oregon
Helping
out
down
under
■ ■ Local firefighters
aiding in battle to douse
Australian wildfires
Photo courtesy of Darrian Traynor
EO Media Group
Fire crews on Jan. 2 monitor fires and begin back burns between the
towns of Orbost and Lakes Entrance in east Gipplslan, Australia.
BAKER CITY — A few federal
firefighters from snowbound and
chilly Northeastern Oregon are
traveling more than 8,000 miles to
help battle catastrophic blazes in the
parched and blazing southeastern
corner of Australia.
Nathan Goodrich, fire manage-
ment officer for the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest’s Wallowa Fire
Zone, is returning late this week
after spending the past month or so
in Australia, said Noel Livingston,
fire staff officer for the Wallowa-
Whitman.
Todd Pederson, assistant fire
management officer for the Wallowa
Fire Zone, is traveling to Australia,
Livingston said.
The Bureau of Land Management
also recently sent four firefight-
ers from the region to Australia,
including Justin Fenton of Payette,
Idaho, who works for the BLM’s
Vale District in Oregon, said Larisa
Bogardus, public affairs officer for
the Vale District.
Livingston said the Forest
Service’s Region 6, which includes
Oregon and Washington, is assem-
bling a 20-person firefighting crew to
deploy to Australia, and that group
could include an employee from the
Wallowa-Whitman.
The wildfire crisis in Australia start-
ed in August, and blazes have killed at
least 26 people, destroyed more than
2,000 homes and burned about 32,400
square miles. That’s about 10 times the
size of Baker County.
Much of the damage has been in
the Australian states of New South
Wales, which includes Sydney, and
Victoria, where the largest city is
Melbourne.
Since early December the U.S. gov-
ernment has sent about 160 employ-
ees to New South Wales or Victoria.
The Australian Fire and Emergen-
cy Service Authorities first asked for
U.S. aid in late November, according
to the U.S. National Interagency Fire
Center.
These include employees from the
Forest Service, an agency of the U.S.
By Jayson Jacoby
Addition to hospital open for business
■ ■ Wallowa Memorial Hospital finishes $1 million structure, adds 10 patient rooms, additional office space
By Ellen Morris Bishop
EO Media Group
Megabucks: $1.2 million
ENTERPRISE — The
new addition to Wallowa
Memorial Hospital’s clinic
building is complete and
open for business.
“We built it to improve
people’s access to health
care,” hospital CEO Larry
Davy said. “The Afford-
able Care Act and our very
liberal financial assistance
policy has allowed more
and more people to access
health care on a regular ba-
sis. That put quite a strain
Mega Millions: $91 million
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Powerball: $296 million
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allow the hospital’s Mountain
View Clinic to expand into a
portion of the area formerly
used by Winding Waters.
“Essentially,” said Nic Pow-
ers, CEO of Winding Waters,
“we are both moving west.”
The additional space al-
lows Winding Waters to add
dental care to its repertoire,
with one full-time dentist,
and four part-time dentists
who provide care.
“The dentists we have into
the community all provide
excellent care,” Powers said.
“We are trying to help meet
demands, and, with the part
time dentists, also determine
what the level of need for
dentistry is here.”
The hospital’s Mountain
View Clinic also is looking
to expand its facilities in
Joseph. They have acquired
land at the intersection of
Main Street and Daggett
Street at the north end of
town, and hope to build
within the next year.
“The old building we
are in doesn’t meet ADA
requirements,” Davy said.
“So we have bids coming in
this Friday for building a
new clinic in Joseph. One
reason for planning a new
building is to keep a little
ahead of the changes in
health care. And make sure
the facilities here match
those needs.”
But until the bids are in
and the low bidders vetted,
Davy and the hospital board
will not know whether the
new Joseph facility is within
the approximately $2 million
budget. The board will make
a decision at the January
board meeting.
La GRANDE
AUTO REPAIR
Baker City event joins regional rodeo series 975-2000
www.lagrandeautorepair.com
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3161.
BAKER CITY — An inju-
ry — that all-but-inevitable
bane of the professional bull
rider — cost Jason Mattox
his chance to compete in
Baker City years ago.
But now that he has a
chance to put on the Baker
City Bronc and Bull Rid-
ing events, his enthusiasm
seems to overwhelm any
lingering disappointment.
“I’m excited to be able to
continue this event in your
community,” said Mattox,
who lives in Roseburg and
owns the Coastal Farm &
Ranch Challenge of Cham-
pions Tour, which has added
the Baker City rodeo events
to its roster.
“Never underestimate
your power to change
yourself; never overesti-
mate your power to change
others.”
— H. Jackson Brown Jr.,
American writer
on our existing facilities,
which were designed for the
old ways of so many being
uninsured.
“We are doing so much more
than we used to… managing
chronic disease, providing
mental health care and those
types of things. We just ran out
of room.”
The $1 million structure,
completed in early December,
added 10 patient rooms and
additional office space. The
new facilities will serve the
needs of Winding Water’s Com-
munity Health Center and
Baker County
By Jayson Jacoby
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Department of Agriculture, and from
agencies, including the BLM, that
are part of the U.S. Department of
the Interior.
The U.S. has had an agreement
in place for more than 15 years with
Australia and New Zealand in which
the countries can request firefight-
ing aid from each other. According
to that agreement, the Australian
government will pay salary, travel,
lodging and other costs incurred by
the American firefighters.
The reciprocal pact makes sense
from a seasonal standpoint, as the
fire seasons between the Northern
and Southern hemispheres generally
don’t coincide.
Before the current rash of fires in
Australia the last time the agree-
ment was used was in August 2018,
when 138 employees from Australia
and New Zealand traveled to the U.S.
to help with wildfires in Northern
California and the Pacific Northwest.
The current deployments of U.S.
fire officials to Australia is the first
since 2010.
Livingston was part of that con-
tingent. He spent about a month in
Victoria, Australia, during January
and February 2010 — high summer
Down Under.
The fires Livingston saw reminded
him of blazes in the southeastern
section of the U.S., in that even
healthy green trees would burn
rapidly in certain conditions.
Among the more combustible trees
in that part of Australia are species
of eucalyptus, some of which can
reach 200 feet tall, Livingston said.
“Eucalyptus is a very volatile fuel
even when it’s green,” he said — due
in part to the oils the trees produce.
Livingston said conditions during
his time in Australia were similar to
what they are now, with dry, windy
weather and temperatures well
above 100 degrees.
“Even green things burn actively,
and the fires can move very fast,” he
said.
Livingston said wildfires are com-
mon in the parts of Victoria that he
visited, and the forests, though vastly
different in terms of species, were
similar to those of the Blue Moun-
tains in that fire has played a role in
how the forests developed over the
millennia.
“It’s a fire-adapted ecosystem,” he
said.
Due to the frequency of wildfires,
Australia “has a very professional
fire organization,” Livingston said.
The most notable difference
between the Australian and Ameri-
can systems is that in Australia
most firefighting resources are run
by states or local and rural depart-
ments, a mixture of professional and
volunteer crews.
Unlike America, where federal
agencies such as the Forest Service
and BLM have large firefight-
ing staffs, in Australia the federal
government plays a minor role in
firefighting, Livingston said.
Wallowa County
LOTTERY
1-24-31-35-42-43
MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2020
LOCAL
The group of volunteers, led
by Ken McPheron, who have
overseen the events for the
past 25 years under the non-
profit Baker City Bronc & Bull
Riding Inc., decided last year
to look for a new organizer.
Mattox, a former bull rider,
said that when he heard
there was a possibility the
iconic event, which coincides
with Baker City’s Miners
Jubilee festival the third
weekend of July, wouldn’t
happen, he got in touch with
the local board of directors to
offer to help in any way.
The Baker City Bronc
and Bull Riding events are
renowned among rodeo contes-
tants and fans, Mattox said.
“In the Northwest every-
one knows Baker City,” he
said. “It’s the biggest stand-
alone bull and bronc riding
event in the Northwest.”
Mattox said his initial
conversation with Baker
City Bull & Bronc Inc. board
members led to him adding
the events to the Challenge of
Champions Tour, a series of 18
rodeos in Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, California and Nevada.
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Mattox said the lo-
cal organizers have been
“absolutely wonderful to
work with” in planning the
transition.
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