Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Friday, November 8, 2019 Cold, windy harvest could affect Eastern Oregon potatoes more.” Ward, who serves as chairman of the Oregon Potato Commission, grows spuds for J.R. Simplot Co. that are used to make french fries for restaurants, includ- ing McDonald’s. Apart from bruising, he said colder weather can prompt pota- toes to convert some starches into sugar, which makes for a darker colored, less appetiz- ing french fry. “That is not what the potato companies want,” Ward said. “They want a white, very light-colored french fry.” Mother Nature has been particularly unkind to potato growers in places like Idaho and across the Midwest, where early frost and freezing weather are forcing farmers to rush harvest or risk losing thousands of acres of spuds. Though the 2019 har- vest was challenging, Ward said the Eastern Oregon crop appears to have avoided disaster. “We don’t have a horror story to tell, but it’s not per- fect,” he said. “I have some concerns about quality com- ing out of the (storage) shed.” Oregon grows about 7% of all U.S. potatoes, with 46,000 acres statewide. More than two-thirds of those spuds come from Umatilla and Morrow counties in the By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press BAKER CITY — Farm- ers in Eastern Oregon are optimistic about the size and quality of this year’s potato crop, despite cold weather during harvest that can lead to issues with starch content and bruising. Mark Ward, who grows roughly 200 acres of Russet Burbank potatoes near Baker City, estimated yields are up 5% over the previous year, thanks in part to a more mild summer and much-needed reprieve from wildfire smoke choking out sunlight in the valley. Ward said potatoes also benefited from a longer grow- ing season, as the first field frost did not come until late September, giving potatoes more time to finish bulk- ing underground. In the past, Ward said farmers could expect frost by Sept. 10. However, Ward said, when the cold weather did come it was “one of the coldest, wind- iest harvests we’ve ever had,” with temperatures not getting much over 50 degrees during the day and two below-freez- ing nights in the teens. “It definitely affects the quality,” Ward said. “With colder temperatures, the potatoes are going to bruise EO Media Group Photo, File Farmers in Eastern Oregon are optimistic about this year’s potato crop. Columbia Basin. Greg Harris, farm man- ager at Threemile Canyon Farms near Boardman, said snow in March delayed plant- Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY Mostly sunny Partial sunshine Mostly cloudy Cooler with some sun Mostly cloudy and cool PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 55° 36° 59° 42° 59° 35° 52° 35° 51° 35° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 52° 31° 56° 39° 60° 35° 52° 34° OREGON FORECAST 50° 31° ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 58/46 56/39 52/31 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 50/38 Lewiston 60/42 50/32 Astoria 58/45 Pullman Yakima 50/33 61/40 57/38 Portland Hermiston 63/42 The Dalles 52/31 Salem Corvallis 63/37 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 60/33 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 63/39 70/36 68/37 Ontario 57/26 Caldwell Burns 51° 24° 55° 35° 68° (1939) 11° (1936) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 64/37 0.00" 0.00" 0.25" 4.94" 6.46" 7.53" WINDS (in mph) 58/27 63/21 0.00" 0.00" 0.28" 11.31" 8.25" 10.27" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 59/33 62/40 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 55/36 55/36 52° 28° 53° 35° 71° (2006) 15° (2003) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 61/40 Aberdeen 52/36 48/35 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 60/48 Today Medford 71/37 Sat. ESE 3-6 NW 4-8 Boardman Pendleton WSW 4-8 WSW 4-8 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 66/25 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 6:44 a.m. 4:33 p.m. 3:23 p.m. 2:30 a.m. Full Last New First Nov 12 Nov 19 Nov 26 Dec 3 ing by a few weeks, but oth- erwise he was very pleased with the growing season. The summer was more mild com- pared to recent years, Har- High 93° in Falfurrias, Texas Low -12° in Rudyard, Mont. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s warm front stationary front high low By VICKI HILLHOUSE Walla Walla Union-Bulletin WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Air travel soared to another record in October at the Walla Walla Regional Airport. A heftier flight schedule that will run through the end of the year grew passenger traffic by 25.7% over last year, according to numbers from commercial carrier Alaska Airlines. “I was tickled with these results,” Airport Manager Jen- nifer Skoglund said. “If the flight is in the mar- ket, the results are showing people will use it.” Skoglund said she hopes the increase will demonstrate rising support from the com- munity so the airline eventu- ally offers a three-flight round trip schedule every day except Saturdays when air travel is slower. “This shows that Walla Walla is supporting commer- cial air service,” she said. During the month of Octo- ber, typically one of the year’s busiest months for air travel, 4,694 people departed from with accuser, to take a lie detector test.” HUNTINGTON — Voters recalled Hun- tington Mayor Richard Cummings, based on unofficial results from the Baker County Clerk’s Office. In Tuesday’s election, a petition to recall Cummings passed by a margin of 93-71 votes, according to the unofficial results. The clerk’s office has 20 days to certify the results. Christina Wiley, of Huntington, filed the petition to recall Cummings. In her petition, dated July 29, Wiley contends that Cummings has “harassed, intimidated, threatened and assaulted either me or my husband, Michael Wiley, on six different occasions ranging from February 2019 to present (July 29, 2019).” Christina Wiley said several incidents were related to the cleanup following the May 23, 2019, arson fire that destroyed the historic building, which the Wileys owned, housing Howell’s Cafe and the Streamliner Lounge. In a written statement that was included with the recall ballot, Cummings wrote that “I have documents in my office that disputes the claims of my accuser & those that I don’t have documents for, I will volunteer, along Police: 1 dead, 3 wounded in Eugene shooting SUBSCRIPTION RATES Single copy price: $1.50 Tuesday through Saturday Circulation Dept. 800-781-3214 During October and November of 2018, the airline reduced its daily flight sched- ule in Walla Walla to two per day. “This year, they’ve kept it longer for us,” Skoglund said. Three daily round trips will be offered four days a week through Jan. 6, she said. Furthermore, a sched- ule change that was initially expected to create some hard- ship for corporate travelers has been adjusted by the air- line. The final landing of the day that was to leave Seattle at 11:15 p.m. and touch down in Walla Walla at 12:13 a.m. has been changed. After being alerted to the hardship by local Air Travel Coalition head Kip Kelly, the airline has made the adjust- ment to a 9:25 p.m. Seat- tle departure and 10:23 p.m. Walla Walla landing four days a week. The schedule starts in Walla Walla with 5 a.m. departures through March 18 and final landings within a 10-min- ute spread in the 10:20 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. time frame, depending on the month. Huntington voters recall mayor Local home delivery Savings (cover price) $13/month 60 percent $173.67 41 percent $91.86 38 percent $47.77 36 percent *EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit or debit card/check charge the airport. That compares with 3,735 people flying out last October. The number of passen- gers flying in was even greater last month, with 4,800 peo- ple making a landing in Walla Walla. That number represents a 35.9% jump from the corre- sponding month in 2018, when 3,533 people flew into town. Load factors — the mea- sure of seating capacity filled with passengers and the indi- cator the airline most consid- ers when calculating profit- ability — was also celebrated by the airport. Inbound and outbound load factors, combined, averaged for 81.5%, a figure that will certainly please the airline, Skoglund said. The numbers over the last several months represent a rebound from a turbulent start of the year for air travel. With weather and cancellation set- backs the first two months, recovery was slow until August. Now Skoglund believes Walla Walla could continue its streak of history-making num- bers with a record 2019. BRIEFLY Subscriber services: For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1 EZPay 52 weeks 26 weeks 13 weeks Losh. Last year, Oregon har- vested 45,000 acres of pota- toes at 60,000 pounds per acre, according to NASS. Average production nation- wide was 44,300 pounds per acre. The state’s other big pota- to-producing region, the Klamath Basin, was bolstered by a wet spring this year that helped ensure full irrigation water supplies for farmers in both Oregon and California. Dan Chin, who farms on both sides of the state line, said it was a stark contrast to 2018, when water uncertainty due to drought and lawsuits over fish conservation made it difficult to know what to plant. “The year before, we didn’t know we were going to get water until July,” Chin said. “It’s really hard to make a plan.” Chin grows 900 acres of conventional and organic potatoes for fresh markets. He said the growing sea- son was cooler overall, and though some late season rains delayed harvest by a few days, farmers are pleased with yield and quality. “We really produced a nice potato crop,” Chin said. “I think we have the poten- tial to make some money this year.” Passenger numbers on a hot streak at Washington airport NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) ris said, with fewer days of triple-digit heat stifling the plants’ growth. “We usually get a hot spell where the plants just shut down, and they quit grow- ing for a bit,” Harris said. “We didn’t really see that this year.” Threemile Canyon Farms is a large, diversified opera- tion with about 8,000 acres of organic and conventionally grown potatoes. The primary customer is Lamb Weston, which makes a variety of fro- zen potato products at its pro- cessing plants in Hermiston and Boardman. Harris, who recently replaced Threemile Can- yon General Manager Marty Myers on the Oregon Potato Commission, said cold weather at the end of Septem- ber did impact harvest in the basin, as farmers waited for tubers in the ground to reach 50 degrees to avoid bruising. “There were definitely some farms around that were experiencing lower bruise- free when it got cold,” Har- ris said. Harris said he expects average to slightly above-av- erage yields for potatoes. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service will release its first production report for the 2019 crop on Nov. 8, said Oregon state statistician Dave ADVERTISING Regional Publisher and Revenue Director: • Christopher Rush 541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com Advertising Manager: • Angela Treadwell 541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com Multimedia Consultants: • Lora Jenkins 541-276-2214 • ljenkins@eastoregonian.com • Jeanne Jewett 541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com • Audra Workman 541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com Business Office Coordinator • Dayle Stinson 541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com EUGENE — Police say an apparent neighborhood dispute in north Eugene left three people wounded and the alleged gun- man dead after turning the gun on himself. The Register-Guard reported the victims were taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield. Their conditions were not known and Police Chief Chris Skinner said he did not know if the victims, who all suffered gun- shot wounds, were expected to survive. Police were called at 1:13 p.m. Wednes- day to a report of shots fired. When police arrived, Skinner said they found a situation “that feels like a neighbor- hood dispute that went really, really bad.” The alleged shooter, estimated to be in his 70s, was found dead. Skinner says at least two handguns, owned by the man, were found at the scene. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and Oregon State Police also responded. — EO Media Group and wire services Classified & Legal Advertising 1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678 classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com NEWS • To submit news tips and press releases: call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com • To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News: email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818. • To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries: email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian. com/community/announcements • To submit sports or outdoors information or tips: 541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com Business Office Manager: 541-966-0824 COMMERCIAL PRINTING Production Manager: Mike Jensen 541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
