LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 3, the
215th day of 2021. There are 150
days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
IN HISTORY
On August 3, 1936, Jesse
Owens of the United States won
the first of his four gold medals
at the Berlin Olympics as he
took the 100-meter sprint.
ON THIS DATE
In 1914, Germany declared
war on France at the onset of
World War I.
In 1949, the National Basket-
ball Association was formed
as a merger of the Basketball
Association of America and the
National Basketball League.
In 1966, comedian Lenny
Bruce, whose raunchy brand of
satire and dark humor landed
him in trouble with the law, was
found dead in his Los Angeles
home; he was 40.
In 1972, the U.S. Senate rat-
ified the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
(The U.S. unilaterally withdrew
from the treaty in 2002.)
In 1981, U.S. air traffic con-
trollers went on strike, despite a
warning from President Ronald
Reagan they would be fired,
which they were.
In 1993, the Senate voted
96-3 to confirm Supreme Court
nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In 2004, the Statue of Lib-
erty pedestal in New York City
reopened to the public for the
first time since the 9/11 attacks.
In 2014, Israel withdrew
most of its ground troops from
the Gaza Strip in an apparent
winding down of a nearly
monthlong operation against
Hamas that had left more than
1,800 Palestinians and more
than 60 Israelis dead.
In 2018, Las Vegas police said
they were closing their investi-
gation into the Oct. 1 shooting
that left 58 people dead at a
country music festival without
a definitive answer for why Ste-
phen Paddock unleashed gun-
fire from a hotel suite onto the
concert crowd.
In 2019, a gunman opened
fire at a Walmart store in El Paso,
Texas, leaving 22 people dead;
prosecutors said Patrick Crusius
targeted Mexicans in hopes of
scaring Latinos into leaving the
U.S., and that he had outlined
the plot in a screed published
online shortly before the attack.
(A man who was wounded in
the shooting died in April 2020
after months in the hospital,
raising the death toll to 23. Cru-
sius has pleaded not guilty to
state murder charges; he also
faces federal hate crime and
gun charges.)
Ten years ago: The Mus-
cular Dystrophy Association
announced that Jerry Lewis was
no longer its national chairman
and would not be appearing on
the Labor Day telethon. Former
NFL star and actor Bubba Smith
died at age 66.
Five years ago: Presi-
dent Barack Obama cut short
the sentences of 214 federal
inmates, including 67 life sen-
tences, in what the White House
called the largest batch of com-
mutations on a single day in
more than a century. An Emir-
ates Boeing 777 crash-landed
in Dubai and caught fire; all 300
people on board survived.
One year ago: The St. Louis
Cardinals became the second
team sidelined by the coro-
navirus since the shortened
baseball season began July 23;
seven Cardinals players and
six staff members tested pos-
itive, causing the team’s four-
game series at Detroit to be
postponed.
LOTTERY
Friday, July 30, 2021
Megamillions
19-26-31-52-68
Megaball: 10
Megaplier: 3
Jackpot: $179 million
Lucky Lines
2-5-10-15-20-22-26-32
Jackpot: $43,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 7-1-5-6
4 p.m.: 9-5-2-6
7 p.m.: 0-0-4-0
10 p.m.: 4-7-1-8
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Powerball
1-21-22-34-47
Powerball: 4
Power Play: 2
Jackpot: $211 million
Megabucks
1-10-11-16-33-35
Jackpot: $1.2 million
Lucky Lines
2-7-10-16-18-24-25-29
Jackpot: $44,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 4-1-0-1
4 p.m.: 2-0-9-8
7 p.m.: 8-2-2-7
10 p.m.: 0-0-1-7
Win for Life
21-26-49-51
Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021
Lucky Lines
1-6-9-14-20-22-28-31
Estimated jackpot: $45,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 8-9-7-1
4 p.m.: 1-7-6-2
7 p.m.: 6-2-4-4
10 p.m.: 0-8-2-0
TuESday, auguST 3, 2021
Event returns with a bang
Huckleberry Fest
draws crowd to
North Powder
By ALEX WITTWER
La Grande average
temperature 7.8
degrees above
normal for month
The Observer
NORTH POWDER —
The annual Huckleberry
Festival in North Powder
saw its biggest crowd in
years on Saturday, July 31.
Hundreds of residents
and visitors flocked to the
small town on the edge of
Union County where the
streets were filled with
music, vendors and kids
eating shaved ice. The
Hot-Rod Show-n-Shine car
show also had its largest
turnout, according to event
organizer Bryan Karolski.
“We really went all out
this year,” he said. “We put
stuff out on social media,
and we also advertised
with probably 1,000 flyers.
This is five times bigger
than it was three years
ago.”
Karolski ran the both
the car show and festival
from Huckleberry Head-
quarters on Second and
E streets. He also sold
confections made with
huckleberries that he had
hauled in.
In the moments he
wasn’t juggling the respon-
sibilities of running the
show — including acting
as the announcer and
tracking down the fes-
tival’s Grand Marshals
Dottie and Myron Miles —
he was doting on his new-
born baby girl, Sabrina
May-Jean Karolski, who
was only a few days old.
The car show featured
about two dozen classic
rides lined up along E
Street. Karolski looked
through the vehicles with
the eye of an enthusiast,
noting the original engine
still bolted inside one of
the classic pickup trucks.
Among the standouts
Mercury
kept
climbing
in July
The Observer
alex Wittwer/The Observer
A young girl reacts to being sprayed by a firehose at the parade during a hot Saturday, July 31, 2021, at
the North Powder Huckleberry Festival.
tinued, candy was tossed
out and kids scrambled to
grab their prizes. Not soon
after, fire trucks began
spraying water through the
street allowing attendees
a chance to cool off in the
sweltering sun.
“Hose ’em down, boys,”
Karolski said over the
loudspeaker, as children as
well as adults darted in and
out of the spray.
After the parade came
alex Wittwer/The Observer to an end, the attendees
Festival Grand Marshals Dottie and Myron Miles stand for the na- took off to watch the pop-
tional anthem during the Huckleberry Festival in North Powder on ular mud volleyball event
Saturday, July 31, 2021.
near the train tracks.
Teams took turns waddling
through mud attempting to
were Ken Schuh’s all-black Second Street for the
score against each other,
Chevrolet Corvette C1
parade. Kids and fami-
lies sheltered in the shade
and some of the contes-
with red interior and Ken
tants dramatically dove for
Meeker’s 1966 blue Dodge beneath Powder Club,
the ball only to get a face
while a few others held
Coronet.
full of mud.
aloft umbrellas to deflect
Meeker is unable to
Back at Huckleberry
the sun’s rays.
walk but that didn’t stop
Headquarters, Karolski
“It’s looking good,”
the hobbyist from driving
attended to his family, his
Karolski said in passing.
his soft-top convertible to
huckleberries and his fes-
Dottie Miles, from the
the show.
tival. Though the crowds
back of a horse-drawn
“When you’re in my
started to thin as the after-
condition, you got to find a carriage, sang along to
noon faded, Karolski knew
the national anthem as
hobby,” he said.
he had put on one of the
it boomed out over a
Just before noon, the
best Huckleberry Festivals
loudspeaker.
crowds filled every free
in the town’s history.
As the parade con-
space available along
La Grande bakery helps fire victims
Le Bebe Cakes
collects donations
for people
displaced by
Bootleg Fire
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande area experienced
much warmer than normal
temperatures during the
month of July, according to
preliminary data received
by the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration’s National Weather
Service Office in Pendleton.
The average temperature
during the month was 77.4
degrees, 7.8 degrees above
normal. High temperatures
averaged 94.8 degrees,
9.4 degrees above normal,
according to the monthly
climate summary.
The highest temperature
was 108 degrees recorded
on July 1.
The 77.4 average tem-
perature was the second
warmest recorded during
the month of July, the report
said. The warmest was 79
degrees in 2013.
Low temperatures
averaged 60 degrees, 6.2
degrees above normal. The
lowest temperature for the
month was 47 degrees,
recorded on July 24.
Precipitation for the
month totaled 0.12 inches,
which was 0.56 inches
below normal, the report
said. Measurable precipi-
tation — at least 0.01 inch
— was received on two
days, with the heaviest, 0.06
inches, reported on July 1.
Precipitation for the year
is 6.38 inches, which is
3.64 inches below normal.
Since October 2020, the
water year precipitation in
La Grande has been 10.96
inches, 4.04 inches below
normal.
The outlook for August
from NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center calls for
above normal temperatures
and near normal precipita-
tion. Normal highs for La
Grande are 85.7 degrees
and normal lows are 52.4
degrees. The 30-year
normal precipitation is 0.58
inches.
Temperatures up in
Wallowa County also
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A
local bakery is doing what
it can to help people in
need in Oregon.
Le Bebe Cakes on
Washington Avenue in La
Grande collected supplies
and food for victims of the
Bootleg Fire in Southern
Oregon. The bakery is
partnering with Relief
Angels, who picked up
the donations on Sunday,
Aug. 1.
“We wanted to do what
we can to help the victims
affected by the fire,” Le
Bebe Cakes owner Spring
Roberts said. “ReMax and
others in the community
have really helped us out
for this good cause.”
Le Bebe Cakes
davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Donations fill the back corner of Le Bebe Cakes in La Grande on Saturday, July 31, 2021. The local bak-
ery collected supplies and nonperishable goods for wildfire victims in Southern Oregon who were
evacuated due to the Bootleg Fire.
accepted donations
throughout the week and
compiled the supplies and
food in the store. This
is the second year in a
row the bakery has col-
lected donations for those
affected by wildfires. In
2020 goods were donated
to those fighting the blazes
as well as individuals
and families who were
impacted by wildfire. The
donations collected this
year are going specifically
to people displaced from
their homes by the Bootleg
Fire.
Relief Angels is a non-
profit organization based
out of Klamath Falls
with the primary mis-
sion of disaster relief. The
group collected donations
from across the state on
Sunday before heading
to Southern Oregon to
deliver the goods to the
victims.
The Bootleg Fire is cur-
rently the nation’s largest
wildfire, stretching over
413,000 acres. The fire
began on Tuesday, July 6,
forcing many in the area to
evacuate their homes.
NEWS BRIEFS
OCA seeking donations for
farmers affected by wildfire
SALEM — The Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association is seeking dona-
tions for its Wildfire Stewardship
Fund to support producers who lost
profit as a result of recent wildfires.
In 2020, 15 farmers impacted by
wildfires requested over $258,000
from the association, which was able
to distribute $45,000.
This year, requests are expected to
be even higher because of the drastic
effects of the Bootleg Fire, according
to Robyn Smith, communications
director of OCA.
“It’s really important because
they’re going through so much this
year, with drought conditions and
insects and pest issues because of
the high heat,” Smith said. “Any
help would be valuable. It’s going
to be a tough year.”
The organization is also accepting
supply donations, such as medical
supplies for cattle, nutritional supple-
ments and fence material.
Grange Co-op has pledged to
match up to $5,000 in relief funds
donated by customers at any of their
Oregon locations.
Donations can be made online at
orcattle.com, or mailed to the associ-
ation at 1320 Capitol Street NE, Suite
150, Salem, OR 97301.
Elbow Creek Fire
now 78% contained
WALLOWA — Rainfall over the
weekend helped firefighters battle
the Elbow Creek Fire, which is now
78% contained and has remained at
22,960 acres for several days.
Mop-up operations are in prog-
ress around the perimeter of the fire,
according to a statement Monday,
Aug. 3. The main priorities are the
Elbow Creek Drainage, Grossman
Creek and Sickfoot Creek.
The night of Aug. 2 was the final
night operation, according to the
statement.
August 3 was the final day for
ODF’s Type 1 Incident Management
Team 3. A Type 3 team will take over
for remaining efforts on the fire.
There are now 786 personnel on
site, as many crew members were
sent away over the weekend due to
the progress.
The statement emphasized that
there are still fire hazards in the
area, including stump holes, ash pits
and fire weakened trees. Because of
this, the Promise, Wallupa and Troy
Roads all remain closed to the public.
— The Observer
Wallowa County also
experienced warmer tem-
peratures for the month of
July, the report said.
The average tempera-
ture for Joseph during
July was 67.8 degrees, 2.8
degrees above normal.
High temperatures aver-
aged 86.7 degrees, 6.1
degrees above normal. The
highest temperature was
94 degrees on July 31.
The temperature
exceeded 90 degrees on six
days during the month, the
report said.
Low temperatures aver-
aged 48.8 degrees, 0.5
degrees below normal. The
lowest temperature for the
month was 38 degrees,
recorded on July 23.
Precipitation for the
month in Wallowa County
totaled 0.28 inches, which
was 1.12 inches below
normal, the report said.
Measurable precipitation
— at least 0.01 inch — was
received on three days,
with the heaviest, 0.14
inches, reported on July 31.
Precipitation for the
year is 3.83 inches, which
is 6.86 inches below
normal. Since October
2020, the water year pre-
cipitation in Joseph has
been 4.70 inches, 9.94
inches below normal.
The outlook for August
from NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center calls for
above normal temperatures
and near normal precipi-
tation. Normal highs for
Joseph during August are
81.5 degrees and normal
lows are 46.9 degrees. The
30-year normal precipita-
tion is 1.23 inches.