MONDAY
BAKER HOOPS AT HOLIDAY TOURNEY: BOYS 4TH (PG. 3A), GIRLS 3RD (PG. 6A)
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
December 30, 2019
IN THIS EDITION:
Local • Home & Living • Sports Monday $1.50
Hailey Zikmund
2019: THE YEAR IN PICTURES
WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE:
12 months. 12 pages. Each featuring excerpts from
the month’s top stories.
LES SCHWAB TIRE
COMPANY FOR SALE
Northeastern Oregon Snowpack Well Below Average
Oregon State Police photo
FEBRUARY 6 — A chain reaction crash involving three commercial trucks and six pas-
senger vehicles closed the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 for several hours.
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
APRIL 22 — Sophia Kelly tried her hand at the Shrine Kids Rodeo mutton busting.
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
OCTOBER 2 — Law enforcement personel,
Kyle Ebeling, left, and Becky Monahan, take
part in a training exercise.
Lisa Britton/For the Baker City Herald
AUGUST 2 — Late evening sunshine still illuminates the west slopes
of Eagle Cap while Hidden Lake is in shadow.
Brandon Taylor/
Baker City Herald
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
SEPTEMBER 23 — A study about soils
found at different depths leaves Henry
Hester with dirty hands and a smile.
AUGUST 19
— Metallica
tribute band
guitarist
Bob Capka
performs at
the Tribute
Fest.
A Sluggish Start
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
SEPTEMBER 13 — Baker City Fire Department and law enforcement personnel pay
respect and observance to the fallen heroes of September 11, 2001.
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
MAY 27 — World War II veteran Jim Lampkins, 96, pauses in memories of tragic
events he witnessed aboard the naval destroyer U.S.S. Bradford in the South Pacifi c.
Kathy Orr/ Baker City Herald
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife photo
MARCH 18 — Wolves from the Snake River pack.
JUNE 17 — Enthusiasts
attend Baker City’s fi rst Blue
Mountain Bigfoot Festival.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
MAY 10 — Sunrise over the Idaho mountains illuminates part of the Lookout Moun-
tain unit near Brownlee Reservoir in eastern Baker County.
A Look Back At
The Top Local
Stories From 2019
14-page special section
includes a page of photos,
as well as one page for
each month, with excerpts
from front-page stories
from each month
■ Lew Brothers
Tires of Baker
City, which is
independent but
sells under the
Les Schwab name,
has been aligned
with the company
since 1970
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscribers Tim and
Carol Delsman of Baker
City.
Sports, 3A
ONTARIO — Baker’s
new girls wrestling team
fi nished third at the Charlie
Anthony Memorial tourna-
ment Friday and Saturday.
Baker’s JV boys team
placed 5th competing
against varsity teams, and
Pine-Eagle’s boys were
3rd.
WEATHER
Today
37 / 25
Mostly cloudy
Tuesday
36 / 31
Rain showers
Correction: A story in
Friday’s issue misspelled
the name of Rod Runyon,
a candidate for Oregon
Senate District 30.
The space below will be
blank on issues delivered
or sold from boxes. The
space is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Tire
store
hopes
to stay
with
Schwab
Lisa Britton/For the Baker City Herald
The Elkhorn Mountains are white, but the brown patches on the foothills are indicative of a snowpack that’s
well below average for late December.
N.E. Oregon Snowpack Report
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.
com
The brown
patches on the
mountains tell the
tale more blatantly,
if not quite so pre-
cisely, as a table of
numbers.
The one just
to the right, for
instance.
But however
you measure it, the
snowpack in North-
eastern Oregon —
the biggest source of
water for irrigation
and recreation in
the region — is well
below average as
the year approaches
its end.
The snow season,
however, is just
beginning.
See Snow/Page 2A
Measuring Site
Aneroid Lake
Anthony Lakes
Beaver Reservoir
Bourne
County Line
Eilertson Meadow
Emigrant Springs
Gold Center
High Ridge
Moss Springs
Mount Howard
Schneider Meadow
Taylor Green
Tipton
Wolf Creek
AVERAGE
Elevation
7,300
7,125
5,150
5,800
4,530
5,440
3,800
5,340
4,980
5,850
7,910
5,400
5,740
5,150
5,630
Snow Water Equivalent (inches)
Now
Average
% of avg.
Last year
Snow
Depth
3.7
N/A
2.9
3.8
0.7
4.9
0
3.8
4.8
7.7
3.7
7.3
4.6
3.1
2.8
8.8
N/A
4.1
6.3
2.1
4.8
3.1
4.4
10.4
9.8
7.2
11.3
7.4
4.8
5.7
42
N/A
71
60
32
102
0
86
46
79
51
65
62
65
49
58
6.1
N/A
4.4
6.8
2.2
5.5
2.3
5.0
12.6
10.7
5.5
11.0
8.5
4.7
6.0
20
18
11
13
2
13
0
14
15
28
22
28
17
10
13
Lisa Britton/For the Baker City Herald
The hills near North Powder
are conspicuous for their
lack of snow as December
wanes.
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Rocky Brown pretty
much grew up as a “Les
Schwab boy,” as he puts it,
and he hopes his family’s
association with perhaps
the most iconic name in the
Northwest tire business
will continue for decades to
come.
Brown and his brother,
Jim, own Lew Brothers
Tire Service Inc., a business
that’s been operating in
Baker City for 103 years.
The tire store has been
under the ubiquitous red-
and-yellow Les Schwab
sign since 1970, and so
the Browns had a per-
sonal stake in the recent
announcement that Les
Schwab Tires, a private
fi rm based in Bend, is up
for sale.
“There’s certainly some
unknowns,” said Rocky
Brown, who with his
brother bought the busi-
ness in 1984 from their
father, Pleas Brown. “All of
our heads are just kind of
spinning.”
(Pleas Brown died in
2010.)
But the situation for
Lew Brothers is different
from that of the majority of
the stores branded as Les
Schwab retailers.
Of the approximately 500
stores in 10 western states,
about 435 are owned by
the company, Rocky Brown
said.
But Lew Brothers is
among the 65 indepen-
dently owned stores that
operate under the Les
Schwab banner but remain
separate business entities,
Brown said.
“Les Schwab is our sup-
plier,” he said.
Brown said it seems logi-
cal to him that if a company
buys Les Schwab, it would
want to keep the name —
and the reputation that
goes with it.
See Tires/Page 2A
TODAY
Issue 109, 28 pages
Calendar ....................2A
Classified ............ 4B -6B
Comics ....................... 7B
Community News ....3A
Crossword ........5B & 6B
Dear Abby ................. 8B
Home ................... 1B-3B
Horoscope ........5B & 6B
Lottery Results ..........2A
News of Record ........2A
Opinion ......................4A
Senior Menus ...........2A
Sports ....... 3A, 5A & 6A
Turning Backs ...........2A
Weather ..................... 8B
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