REGION
Friday, July 12, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
First Hermiston watermelons ready
Heavy snow in
February had put
the crop behind
schedule
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston’s most famous crop is
shaping up nicely this year.
Bellinger Farms started
selling their first batch of
watermelons this week and
Jack Bellinger said he was
pleased with the sugar con-
tent and weight.
“All indications suggest
that it’s going to be a good
year, quality-wise,” he said.
He said he was surprised
with how much the early
melons weighed this year,
making him cautiously opti-
mistic about the season.
Heavy snow in Febru-
ary had put the crop behind
schedule, Bellinger said,
and he had expected to see a
gap between when his early
fields and late fields were
ready. Instead, ideal weather
in June helped speed things
up and will help keep water-
melons rolling into the store.
“I would have guessed
we wouldn’t start until July
15 or so,” he said.
Watermelons are already
available for purchase, how-
Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally Photo, File
The Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally will celebrate its 20th
anniversary this week, and its new organizer is excited
about the growing popularity of an event that brings
thousands of riders and others to Baker County.
Motorcycle rally
set for Baker City
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Becky Conant purchases Hermiston watermelons at the Bellinger Farms shop on Highway
395 in Hermiston. Conant is bringing the watermelons to a family reunion in Florence as a
remembrance of growing up in Hermiston.
ever, and Bellinger said their
operation would start ship-
ping them outside of Herm-
iston on Friday.
Walchli Farms watermel-
ons are not quite ready yet,
but Patrick Walchli said they
are looking good and will
be here “shortly.” The large
family-owned farm sells its
melons out of a warehouse
on Loop Road.
“Right now they’re not
ripe, but I expect to have
good quality from what
we’ve seen,” he said.
He said in Eastern Ore-
gon you never know what
you’re going to get, weath-
er-wise, during a growing
season.
The region’s climate is
one of the reasons Herm-
iston watermelons are so
sweet, however. Hot days
spur the plants to produce
more sugar for energy, and
cool nights help them retain
the sugar. The taste makes
the melons a coveted com-
modity around the United
States, and draws people to
Hermiston each year.
Women’s coalition to host economic summit
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The
Eastern Oregon Women’s
Coalition is gathering big
names and big companies
in Hermiston to discuss
the economic status of the
region.
“The inaugural Eastern
Oregon Economic Summit
will offer in-depth discus-
sion about factors affect-
ing rural Oregon’s econ-
omy, from the impacts of
legislation enacted during
the 2019 session to changes
in technology, demograph-
ics and environmental
resources,” a press release
states.
Coalition
President
Bobby Levy said the event,
which is slated for July 26
at Hermiston High School,
differs from other eco-
nomic summits because it
targets the entirety of East-
ern Oregon rather than a
specific city or county.
“In visiting with pri-
vate and public sector lead-
ers, there was no singular
event to address Eastern
Oregon’s economic issues
or how to grow rural Ore-
gon’s presence in Salem
and beyond,” she wrote in
an email. “This summit
will bring a wide variety of
issues under one roof and
help attendees leverage the
area’s economic growth.
We intend for this to be an
annual event.”
Levy added that the coa-
lition has organized a gov-
ernor’s luncheon during
Round-Up week for the
past six years.
The summit has already
booked speeches from U.S.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood
River, as well as all three
members of the state Leg-
islature’s northeast Oregon
delegation — state Reps.
Greg Barreto and Greg
Smith, and state Sen. Bill
Hansell.
The event will also fea-
tures talks from leaders at
PAE ISR, a Virginia-based
defense contractor that
has based its West Coast
drone operations in Pend-
leton, and Woodgrain
Millworks, a Fruitland,
Idaho, moulding manu-
facturer that bought saw-
mills in Pilot Rock and
MORE
INFORMATION
The Eastern Oregon Eco-
nomic Summit requires
registration and will run
from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
on July 26 at Hermiston
High School, 600 S. First
St. For more information,
visit www.easternore-
gonsummit.com.
La Grande in 2018.
In the afternoon, the
summit will transition to
discussion panels that will
cover various economic
topics, including state and
federal policy, housing, nat-
ural resources, broadband,
and business recruitment.
Program grants Pendleton police new dog
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pend-
leton police Chief Stu-
art Roberts reported the
department is getting a
new four-legged officer.
“Several weeks ago, we
applied for a rare oppor-
tunity to obtain a K-9
through a scholarship pro-
cess, which included let-
ters of interest, a phone
interview, justification and
formal application,” Rob-
erts said Thursday, after
he received notice Work-
ing Dogs of Oregon would
award one of two K9
scholarships to the Pendle-
ton Police Department.
The organizer and
trainer are working to
schedule a trip to Pendle-
ton to introduce the avail-
able dogs, Roberts contin-
ued, and to further explore
the department’s needs
and capacity, along with
promoting Working Dogs
Oregon.
The
organization
announced the program on
June 20 to provide “two
fully trained police dogs to
law enforcement agencies
that show the need, desire
and community sup-
port to qualify for a dog.”
Seven police departments
at that time applied for
the scholarship, which is
worth more than $40,000
between the cost of the
dog and the training.
Roberts added Pendle-
ton’s police dog is a “four
odor narcotics detection
dog,” but the value of
such dogs has decreased
with Oregonians voting to
legalize marijuana.
“Most agencies across
Oregon
retired
their
four odor dogs, but we
retained Lucy, because
she was still a viable
option for schools,” Rob-
erts explained, “and we
could not afford to replace
her at $10,000-$15,000
plus 10 weeks of handler
training.”
Winning a new dog
changes that, he said, and
the department plans to
retire Lucy, whose age and
health now limit her use,
in the near future.
BRIEFLY
Containment expected
Friday on Blue Ridge Fire
JOHN DAY — Forest Service officials
anticipate the Blue Ridge Fire will be fully
contained Friday.
Crews and engines will continue mop up
on the 667-acre lightning fire 4 miles north-
west of Flagtail Lookout Thursday, accord-
ing to a press release.
Staffing the fire are 125 people, including
nine engines, four hand crews and one water
tender.
Temporary road closures are in effect on
forest roads 2400-054, 2180-173, 2180-257,
2400-275 and 2400-389.
Athena
C aledonian G ames
July 12-14th
Friday:
Caledonian Dinner & music by Anna Burgess in the Park
Saturday:
Highland Dance Competition
Skweez the Weezle, Celtic Band
Roberts also said the
best case scenario is the
new dog “will have the
ability to train/certify in
narcotics detection, accel-
erant/explosive detection
and provide patrol support
(tracking/apprehension).”
By SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — The
Hells Canyon Motorcycle
Rally will celebrate its 20th
anniversary this week, and
its new organizer is excited
about the growing popular-
ity of an event that brings
thousands of riders and oth-
ers to Baker County.
Todd Godfrey, of High
Desert Harley-Davidson in
Meridian, Idaho, is orga-
nizing the rally, which runs
from Thursday through
Sunday, and he said he
wants to make “this the pre-
mier motorcycle rally in the
Pacific Northwest.”
This is the first year the
Harley-Davidson dealer-
ship has organized the rally,
but the business has been
selling motorcycles during
the event “for a minimum
of 10 years,” Godfrey said.
“It’s going to be great,”
he said. “Everybody, lit-
erally everybody in Baker
County and the city has
said nothing but nice things
about the rally. And it just
shows me how the commu-
nity gets behind the events
here and it’s going to be a
good one.”
Brothers Steve and Eric
Folkestad started the rally.
For the first several years it
was a relatively small and
private event involving the
brothers and a few dozen
of their friends who were
enthralled by the variety of
riding routes available.
But in 2006 the Folke-
stads decided to promote
the event and, in effect,
invite everyone. More than
1,500 riders rolled into
town in May of that year.
(The event later moved
to June and, eventually, to
its current slate in July to
take advantage of more reli-
able weather.)
Kurt Miller of Baker
City has been an integral
part of the rally for the past
several years, and last year
officials announced that
High Desert Harley-David-
son would oversee the event
starting in 2019.
Godfrey said word about
the rally continues to spread
throughout the country.
He said he has received
emails from travelers who
have heard about the rally
and want to visit Baker.
Godfrey is also hearing
from “national corpora-
tions wanting to come for
next year.”
“This is a family event,”
Godfrey said. “We want
everybody to bring their
kids down, check out all
the motorcycles, check out
the vendors, and we have
the flat track races Friday
night.”
Steven Adler, former
drummer with Guns ‘N
Roses, will be perform-
ing Saturday evening at
the fairgrounds along with
two other music acts from
Boise. Music starts at 6 p.m.
There will be a private
meet-and-greet with Adler
before his show, and only
30 tickets are available.
“We’re excited about it,
we have visions to continue
every year and make it big-
ger and better and keep it
going,” Godfrey said.
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