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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
February 8, 2020
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A special good day to
Herald subscriber Mike
Downing of Baker City.
BRIEFING
City Snowplow Crews Have Been Called Out Just Twice This Season
Tale Of Two Storms
Baker City Council
meets Tuesday
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Fair Board meeting
on February 12
The Baker County Fair
Board will meet Wednes-
day, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. at
the Fairgrounds small
meeting room, 2600 East
St.
The Eagles Past Presi-
dents Club will have a din-
ner Monday, Feb. 10, from
6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 2935
H St. in Baker City. The
menu includes chicken-
fried chicken, mashed po-
tatoes and gravy, veggies
and dessert for $8. Eagles
members and their guests
are welcome.
WEATHER
Today
41 / 27
Partly cloudy
Sunday
41 / 21
Decreasing clouds
Monday
43 / 21
Partly sunny
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Floods
spare
Baker
By Jayson Jacoby
The Baker City Council
will have its regular meet-
ing on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at
7 p.m. at City Hall, 1655
First St.
Following the regular
meeting, councilors will
have a work session to talk
about their goals for 2020.
The Council’s public
hearing to consider a fed-
eral grant application for
New Directions Northwest
has been rescheduled for
the Feb. 25 meeting.
Eagles Past
Presidents Club
dinner Monday
Baker
routs
Ontario
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
A grader gets a heavy-duty workout Thursday morning dealing with the soggy remnants of Wednesday’s
snowstorm.
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A tranquil winter for
Baker City snowplowing
crews turned tumultu-
ous this week.
For just the second
time this season, the
city’s public works de-
partment had to call out
extra crews, including a
midnight shift, to fi rst
plow and then haul away
the remnants of Wednes-
day’s blizzard, which
dropped about 9 inches
of snow in town.
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
The other such episode
Residential streets were still clogged with slush Thursday morning, but with
was at Thanksgiving,
temperatures rising into the upper 40s later in the day the snow melted quickly
when an early storm
enough that city crews didn’t need to plow most side streets.
deposited more than a
foot of snow.
During December and January,
bustling during the day.
which allowed melting snow to soak
which generally vie annually for the
The fi ve-person crew that worked
into the ground rather than fl ow into
title of snowiest month, city work-
in the wee hours Friday concentrated streets.
ers had to salt and sand streets
on hauling away snow from berms on
“We were fortunate in that way,”
and intersections several times, but
sections of several streets, including
he said.
widespread snowplowing wasn’t
10th, Broadway and in the downtown
Temperatures that stayed well
necessary, said Tom Fisk, the city’s
district, Fisk said.
above freezing Thursday and Friday
operations supervisor.
“They were really heavy,” he said.
also helped by melting slush on
This week crews started at mid-
“There was a lot of moisture in that
residential streets rapidly enough
night Wednesday and again Thurs-
snow.”
that the city didn’t need to plow there,
day to plow and haul snow downtown
There were only minor issues with Fisk said.
and from arterials such as Campbell, standing water, something Fisk attri-
See Plowing/Page 2A
Broadway and 10th streets that are
butes to the ground not being frozen,
Wednesday’s snowstorm
followed by Thursday’s
thaw buoyed Baker County
streams, but the rises were
modest compared with the
fl ooding that occurred in
Pendleton and other parts
of Umatilla County.
The Umatilla River
topped its banks on the
east side of Pendleton and
on the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, forcing some
residents to evacuate
Thursday. The river also
fl ooded near Hermiston,
forcing the closure of Inter-
state 84 Friday.
Sections of several state
highways also were closed
Friday due to fl ooding or
landslides.
In Baker County, mean-
while, conditions were
comparatively benign.
Although the tempera-
ture jumped to 50 degrees
Thursday and 52 Friday
at the Baker City Airport,
following a high of just
31 during Wednesday’s
day-long snowstorm, rivers
stayed far below fl ood stage
as the new snow melted.
The Powder River in
Baker City rose from an
average of about 20 cubic
feet per second (cfs) on
Wednesday to a peak of 97
cfs at 11:15 p.m. Thursday.
But the river receded on
Friday to below 62 cfs.
Minimum fl ood stage
on the Powder is 667 cfs.
Thursday’s peak was well
below the river’s fl ow dur-
ing summer, when it swells
to 300 cfs or above with wa-
ter released from Phillips
Reservoir to irrigate crops.
See Floods/Page 2A
Baker man
charged
with
robbery,
assault
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald
Baker City Department of Public Works employees began plowing residential streets Thursday morning after
midnight. Cedar Street was one of their targets later that morning.
TODAY
Issue 126, 14 pages
Calendar ....................2A
Classified ............. 3B-6B
Comics ....................... 7B
Community News ....3A
Crossword ........3B & 5B
Dear Abby ................. 8B
Horoscope ................. 3B
Jayson Jacoby ..........4A
News of Record ........2A
Obituaries ..................2A
Opinion ......................4A
Outdoors ................... 1B
A Baker City man has
been charged in a grand
jury indict-
ment with
six counts of
second-degree
robbery and
one count
Cutshall
each of third-
degree assault
and second- and third-
degree theft.
Colvin William Cutshall
III, 30, of 2160 Wabash
St., was charged with the
crimes Monday at the
Baker County Jail where
he has been held since Nov.
19 on other charges.
See Robbery/Page 2A
Senior Menus ...........2A
Sports ........................6A
Weather ..................... 8B
TUESDAY — BAKER GIRLS, BOYS BASKETBALL TRAVEL TO MAC-HI