NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Snowpack simpers despite spring storm Redmond man offers
server choice of keno
tickets, wins $80K
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Despite
the sudden and unexpected
April snowstorms, snowpack
levels aren’t quite back on
track to where they need to be.
Snow has been falling
since early this week, break-
ing records across the state for
the latest snowfall in Oregon’s
history with 1.6 inches falling
Monday, April 11, on parts
of the Portland-metro areas,
according to the National
Weather Service in Portland.
And while snow isn’t
unheard of this far into spring
in the Blue Mountains — the
latest snowfall recorded at
Pendleton was April 20, 1963,
according to the National
Weather Service in Pendleton
— it is a hopeful sign for an
area still gripped by drought.
However, the recent snowfall
might not be enough to put
municipalities and agricul-
turalists at ease.
Scott Oviatt, a hydrologist
and snow survey supervisor at
the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture Natural Resources
Conservation Service for
Oregon, said while the recent
addition to the snowpack is
welcomed, it won’t fix the
rapid melt-off that started in
late March.
“We’ve started the process,
and it’s really not going to
stop,” he said. “We’re adding
to the snowpack, of course,
Redmond resident who
chose to be identified only as
Robert “Bobby” H. Accord-
ing to the Oregon Lottery,
he plans to save some of his
prize money and use the rest
to buy a new truck.
He also recalled giving
Rodriguez her choice
between the two tickets.
“If she’d picked that
one, she would have won,”
he told the lottery. “It must
have been karma for me.”
Rodriguez sees it as
karma, too. She claims she
is not pained by coming so
close to a big winner. She
felt excitement, not regret,
even in the first moment
when the magnitude of her
choice became clear.
“I’d never seen anybody
win so much,” she said.
“There was no way to not
feel happy for him. He was
such a nice guy, it was really
cool to see him win.”
She says, strongly, that
she would have not kept the
money if she’d chosen the
winning ticket instead of
the loser.
“I would have given it
back to him and asked him
to cut me a share,” she said.
“I don’t want to take his
money, take his winnings.”
Rodriguez did receive
a $100 tip.
By TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Snow adorns the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. A surprise
snowstorm throughout the beginning of April isn’t enough to rectify the dwindling snow-
pack levels, according to snow survey experts.
adding water content to it,
but eventually it’s going to
warm up, and it will melt out
rapidly.”
The snowpack had been
at healthy, above-average
levels for January and Febru-
ary before rapidly declin-
ing in March — between
March 22-31, the Grande
Ronde Valley region lost
nearly 25% of its snow-
pack. Many parts of the
state, including the southeast
region encompassing Harney,
Grant and Malheur counties,
have experienced drastically
reduced snow water equiva-
lent levels, having dropped
below 40% of the median
value for early April.
Water content in the snow-
pack for the Grande Ronde-
Burnt-Powder-Imnaha region
remains at 76% of median as
of April 12, while the Umatil-
la-Walla Walla-Willow region
is at 93% of median values.
Nearly 90% of the state
remains under drought condi-
tions as of April 12, according
to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Oviatt said that despite
the rapid melt-off, chances
for flooding are unlikely as
temperatures are forecast to
remain below normal until
later in April.
Because there isn’t enough
time for gradual meltoff of
Forecast for Pendleton Area
the newly acquired snow and
overnight freezing to take
place, snowpack levels won’t
become as dense, according to
Oviatt. That means what fell
over the week will likely melt
off quickly without the chance
to develop glacier-like pockets
of moisture content.
“We’re almost too late to
make up the deficit we have,”
he said. “This didn’t solve
our problems. It just delayed
it. But, you know, obviously
the additional water content
is good, but I don’t think it’s
going to come out in terms
of additional volume that’s of
use to municipalities and agri-
cultural uses.”
REDMOND — Alma
Rodriguez was midway
through her shift at Ashley’s
Lottery Cafe in Redmond
when a customer asked her
to choose between two keno
tickets. He was winning a
little bit and wanted to tip
his server, hoping to keep
karma on his side and his
good luck going.
There was a slip of paper
in his left hand, one in his
right. In a few minutes, one
one them would be worth
more than $80,000. The
other, nada.
Alma chose wrong.
“We knew right off it
was a big winner, but didn’t
know how much,” she said.
“We put it in the machine
and it just said ‘SEE
LOTTERY.’ That’s when
we knew it was really big.”
They were playing
8-spot, a jackpot game
where the payout for going
8-for-8 on keno numbers
goes up with each bettor —
until someone hits all eight
and takes the pot. When
the winning numbers were
chosen at the Redmond
cafe, the pot had reached
$80,022.
The winner was a
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TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
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WEDNESDAY
A touch of
afternoon rain
Increasing
cloudiness
Cloudy
A little rain; winds
subsiding
Warmer; a shower
in the p.m.
43° 30°
52° 39°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
59° 38°
55° 37°
62° 41°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
49° 33°
56° 42°
57° 38°
58° 35°
OREGON FORECAST
66° 40°
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
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46/25
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40/31
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48/36
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48/36
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45/26
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86° (1936) 27° (2005)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
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Albany
52/30
Trace
0.74"
0.40"
2.69"
1.73"
3.17"
WINDS (in mph)
56/31
42/16
0.04"
0.64"
0.69"
4.24"
3.34"
4.76"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
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TEMP.
Pendleton 41/20
52/33
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
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Enterprise
43/30
54/34
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PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
48/33
Aberdeen
43/28
44/31
Tacoma
Yesterday
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Today
Medford
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Sun.
W 7-14
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Boardman
Pendleton
SE 4-8
E 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
42/23
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Reality TV show features man from
La Grande and Baker County mine
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A popu-
lar Discovery reality show is
bringing a La Grande man to
the small screen.
Pete Candlish appears
in an episode of “Gold
Rush: Freddy Dodge’s Mine
Rescue” now airing on the
Discovery Channel.
The reality program,
which according to Dodge’s
Facebook page has an audi-
ence of at least 1 million
viewers a week, features
mining experts Dodge and
Juan Ibarra who visit mines
throughout the United States
to show those operating them
how to do so more effectively.
Dodge and Ibarra will be
shown at the Sanger Mine
in Baker County work-
ing with miners including
Pete Candlish, who is help-
ing operate the mine for its
owners who live in Western
Oregon, during the one-hour
episode.
Candlish is a hobby miner
who owns stakes near the
Sanger Mine and has been
a fan of “Gold Rush: Freddy
Dodge’s Mine Rescue” since
the series began. He said he
“was shocked” when the
owners of Sanger Mine called
Circulation Dept.
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 800-781-3214
him up and offered him a
chance to appear on the TV
program.
“I couldn’t believe it. I
was totally surprised,” said
Candlish, who quickly took
the owners up on their offer.
His wife, Stacey, and
daughter, Adalynn, 7, were
not at the mine when the
program was filmed, but a
photo of them is shown during
the episode, titled “Dial F for
Freddy.”
The show was recorded at
Sanger Mine in June of 2021
over a 10-day stretch.
“Sometimes they filmed
for an hour and only a minute
of the footage appeared in the
show,” Candlish said.
He said he learned a great
deal about mining over the
10-day period.
“They showed me things
like how the configurations of
sluice boxes can make a big
difference in how much gold
you can get,” Candlish said.
Sluices are long, narrow
boxes that water passes
through when put in a creek or
stream. Sluicing is a method
of separating and recovering
gold from gravel by the use of
running water.
Mining as therapy
Pete Candlish started
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mining while with the U.S.
Coast Guard 10 years ago
in Alaska and does it as
a hobby to help him cope
with post-traumatic stress
syndrome.
“It is great therapy for
me. It helps me with physi-
cal and mental healing,” said
Candlish, who talks about this
during the television show.
The program about Sanger
Mine is available to watch
on subscription streaming
services, including Discovery
Plus, and Candlish said he has
received a number of calls and
messages from veterans who
have seen it.
They indicated that the
program helped them deal
with the challenges they are
facing.
“That has been gratifying
to hear,” Candlish said.
Another reason Candlish
is so drawn to mining is that
each time someone spots gold
they are doing something
historic because the odds are
no person has seen it before.
“You are probably the first
person to ever see it,” he said.
Candlish is optimistic that
there is more to be found in
the mines of Baker County.
“There is still gold out
there that the old-timers didn’t
get,” Candlish said.
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Pete Candlish, a hobby miner from La Grande, and his service dog, Woodrow, appear in an
episode of “Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge’s Mine Rescue” airing on the Discovery Channel and
subscription streaming services.
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