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TUESDAY EDITION
July 19, 2022
Car chase
involved
gunfi re in
Island City
Two arrested in connection
to the chase; one suspect
remains at large
The Observer
ISLAND CITY — Law enforcement
arrested two people and one suspect remains
at large after a car chase Sunday, July 17, out
of Island City that involved gunfi re.
Deputies from the Union County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce responded around 12:45 p.m. to
Bullseye Muzzleloaders and More, 10201 W.
First St., Island City, for a reported burglary,
according to a press release. Law enforce-
ment was called again to the same busi-
ness shortly before 2:30 p.m. with reports
describing three people wearing gloves and
masks approaching the business, the release
said.
While law enforcement was on its way
to the scene, a Bullseye Muzzleloaders
and More employee confronted the sus-
pects. During the confrontation, shots were
fi red, the release said. The suspects fl ed in a
vehicle, and sheriff ’s deputies immediately
began a pursuit. During the course of the
pursuit, occupants in the fl eeing vehicle fi red
rounds at the pursuing law enforcement vehi-
cles, disabling one.
An Oregon State Police trooper was set
FIRE SEASON
Creeping
higher
Vale District Bureau of Land Management/
Contributed Photo, File
The Willowcreek Fire burns in
northern Malheur County on
Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Triple-digit heat dries out the region; agencies have
yet to impose campfi re, other restrictions
See, Chase/Page A3
Lee murder
trial underway
Ronald Lee faces charges
stemming from 2019 shooting
of ex-wife, Loretta Williams
By ISABELLA CROWLEY
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The murder trial of
Ronald Lee is underway in Union County
Circuit Court, more than three years after his
arrest for the slaying of his ex-wife, Loretta
Williams.
Union County District Attorney Kelsie
McDaniel opened her case against Lee the
afternoon of Thursday, July 14. The state has
charged him with one count of second-de-
gree murder and one count of conspiracy
to commit murder. The 74-year-old Lee
has pleaded not guilty to both charges and
remains in the Union County Jail.
By JAYSON JACOBY • Baker City Herald
AKER CITY — The wildfi re season has been pretty tranquil in North-
eastern Oregon, but Al Crouch and Nathan Goodrich are beginning to
detect the potential for boisterous days to come.
B
They see it in the grass, nourished
by plentiful spring rain but now curing
into tinder beneath the July sun.
ring into tinder beneath the July
sun.
And in the heat that has fi nally
arrived, pushing temperatures to
triple digits at lower elevations, and
humidity levels below 20%.
“It’s defi nitely drying out,”
Goodrich, fi re staff offi cer for the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest, said.
“Things have changed quite a bit in
the last two weeks.”
Crouch, the fi re mitigation spe-
cialist for the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment’s Vale District, concurred with
his fellow federal fi re manager.
“The drying is happening fast,”
Crouch said.
That’s especially so in Baker
County and points south, he said.
The lush crop of grass, including
invasive cheatgrass, that grew this
spring has already dried in much of
Malheur County, and the trend is
moving north, Crouch said.
Conditions are still comparatively
damp, and the fi re danger somewhat
lower, to the north, he said.
After the soggy spring, the Baker
City Airport has been relatively
parched, measuring just 0.05 of an
inch of rain since June 6. Thunder-
storms that doused other parts of the
region mostly missed Baker City.
Meacham, by contrast, has had 3.12
inches of rain during that span, most
of it coming from a couple of June
cloudbursts.
The Eastern Oregon Regional Air-
port in Pendleton has recorded 1.33
inches since June 6.
The Willowcreek Fire, which
started on private property north of
Vale on June 28, rapidly spread to
about 40,000 acres, propelled by gusty
winds on a day when temperatures
reached 100 degrees in north Malheur
County.
That fi re shows the potential for
fast-moving fi res given a combustible
combination of weather conditions,
Crouch said.
Yet that blaze, which is still under
investigation, is also a conspicuous
anomaly.
The Blue Mountain Interagency
Dispatch Center at the Union County
Airport, which oversees much of
Northeastern Oregon — although not
Malheur County — has recorded just
17 fi res this year, which burned a scant
2.7 acres.
See, Fire/Page A3
See, Trial/Page A3
Vintage truck turns heads at car show
1926 Mack Model AB was once used by
La Grande’s public works department
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Kenrik
Neustel, a photographer for
the annual car show at La
Grande’s Crazy Days cel-
ebration, encountered a
problem over the weekend
that no cutting-edge digital
camera equipment could
address.
Neustel found that one
of the oldest vehicles at the
show, a 1926 Mack Model
AB truck, was among
the most challenging to
shoot pictures of due to its
popularity.
“It was hard to take pho-
tographs of it because so
many people were crowding
around it,” Neustel said on
Saturday, July 16, after get-
ting high-quality photos of
the 1926 truck.
The truck, used by the
La Grande Public Works
See, Truck/Page A3
WEATHER
INDEX
Classified ......B2
Comics ...........B5
Crossword ....B2
Dear Abby ....B6
Department to haul dirt,
rocks and water in the
1920s, stopped foot traffi c
on Adams Avenue during
the car show.
“It is like a piece of
time,” said Todd Carter,
who judged the 1926 Mack
Model AB truck for the car
show.
Its features — which
include a hand-crank
starter, a 28.9-horsepower
engine, a four-speed trans-
mission, a steel open-air
cab, hard rubber tires and a
solid metal frame — look
Home .............B1
Horoscope ....B3
Local...............A2
Lottery ...........A2
Obituaries .....A5
Opinion .........A4
Region ...........A6
Sudoku ..........B5
Dick Mason/ The Observer
Ray Clements, of the La Grande Public Works Department, on Tuesday,
July 12, 2022, checks on the department’s vintage Mack truck.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
60 LOW
97/60
Clear
Very warm
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Issue 86
2 sections, 12 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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