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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2020)
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2020 BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A LOCAL & STATE Bentz the GOP’s choice to replace Walden in Congress By Gary A. Warner Oregon Capital Bureau Former Sen. Cliff Bentz of Ontario won the Republican nomination for the 2nd Con- gressional District in Oregon on Tuesday. Former Rep. Knute Buehler of Bend called Bentz just before 9:30 p.m. to concede the race. Former Sen. Jason Atkinson of Central Point was running third. Jimmy Crumpacker, a recent transplant to De- schutes County who spent over $600,000 and was endorsed by anti-abortion and gun rights groups was running fourth. None of the other seven candi- dates on the Republican ballot had more than 10% of the vote. Alex Spenser of Klamath Falls and Nick Heuertz of Central Point were ahead in the fi eld of fi ve Democrats vy- ing for the seat, with Spenser holding about a 1% lead as of Wednesday afternoon. Bentz thanked the voters of the district, who he said looked past the large amounts of advertising by Buehler and Crumpacker to give him the win. “I think people in this congressional district are Baker County Election Results 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — REPUBLICAN • Cliff Bentz • Jimmy Crumpacker • Knute Buehler 1,767 688 635 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — DEMOCRAT • Alex Spenser • Nick Heuertz • Chris Vaughn 248 247 231 U.S. SENATOR — REPUBLICAN • Jo Rae Perkins • Paul J. Romero Jr. 1,453 980 U.S. PRESIDENT — REPUBLICAN • Donald J. Trump 3,325 U.S. PRESIDENT — DEMOCRAT • Joseph Biden • Bernie Sanders smart and they study the candidates before they vote,” Bentz said. “Jimmy is a nice guy, but he doesn’t really live in the district. He’s a Portland 823 171 guy with a ski cabin in Bend. Good on him for trying, but he has to know the district before running for Congress. “Knute ran as a moderate two years ago when he was running for governor, then tried to run as a conservative for Congress. People remember. Knute is a good physician, but politically, he just doesn’t fi t this district.” The race drew 11 Repub- licans to replace Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, who announced last fall that he would retire after 22 years in Congress. The district is the only one of fi ve in Oregon represented in Congress by a Republican. It covers all of Eastern and Central Oregon, along with a large slice of the southwestern part of the state. Bentz announced early for the race, with much of the geography of his state senate district overlapping Walden’s. Bentz is a former state representative and senator. In both offi ces his district included Baker County. Buehler entered the race, bringing his statewide name recognition and fundraising ability into the contest. The physician served two terms in the state House sandwiched between unsuccessful bids for secretary of state in 2012 and governor in 2018. ELECTION Joseph’s term on the Baker City Coun- acre district that includes most of Baker, cil ends Dec. 31, 2020. He is not eligible to Bowen and Keating valleys. run for re-election due to the term limits Continued from Page 1A The levy passed easily, with 2,998 Nichols also thinks some voters might clause in the city charter. voters in favor (70.2%) and 1,270 opposed have been less likely to consider making (29.8%). a change on the three-member Board of Noxious weed levy The vector control district has two main Commissioners during the coronavirus This countywide, 4-year levy raises sources of revenue. There is a permanent tax rate of 32 cents per $1,000 of assessed pandemic, preferring instead to maintain about $100,000 per year and provides about 30% of the revenue to control value, and the local option levy — the one continuity among the county’s elected weeds such as whitetop, Scotch thistle offi cials. voters approved Tuesday. and others that can reduce the value of Joseph, 39, agreed it’s “very pos- The local option levy is about 15.3 cents farm and grazing land. sible” that voter trepidation during this per $1,000 of assessed value. unprecedented crisis made the incum- The weed control levy passed with Pine Eagle Health District levy bent’s usual advantage even greater than 3,864 votes in favor (68.6%) and 1,765 Voters in the Pine Eagle Health District normal. opposed (31.4%). in eastern Baker County by a wide mar- The levy’s tax rate is about 5.9 cents “Bruce was doing a very good job with per $1,000 of assessed property value — gin renewed the local option levy to help his virus response,” Joseph said. operate the Pine Eagle Clinic in Halfway Joseph said the pandemic also “made it about $8.85 per year for the owner of a very diffi cult for me to campaign the way $150,000 property. for fi ve more years. The measure passed I wanted to.” with 293 voters in favor (74.2%) and 103 Mosquito control levy He said he had hoped for a larger opposed (25.8%). turnout, as well. Offi cially called the “vector control” The levy will raise about $735,200 About 46.6% of Baker County’s 12,171 levy, this 4-year tax assessment helps over the fi ve years. The tax rate is 85 voters returned their ballot. pay to control mosquitoes in a 200,000- cents per $1,000 of assessed value. SOGGY Continued from Page 1A As of 4 p.m., when today’s issue was sent to the printing plant, Wednesday’s rain total had reached 0.53 of an inch, a record for May 20. It’s also the dampest day at the airport since July 10, 2015. With a total of 2.03 inches of rain, that July day was the second-wettest day on record at the airport, where records date to 1943. (The champion in that regard is Aug. 31, 1984, when a cloudburst dumped 2.29 inches of rain on the airport.) Wednesday’s storm should help ease the local drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor Index puts most of Baker County in the “moderate” drought category. The responsible party in this case is a slow-moving low-pressure center that tracked north across western Idaho Tuesday night and into Wednesday, said Leslie Colin, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service’s offi ce in Baker City. That’s an unusual course for such a storm, said Colin, who recently celebrated 50 years working for the Na- tional Weather Service. Spring, however, is the period when such events are most likely, Colin said. Indeed, May is statistically the wettest month in Baker City, with an average of 1.43 Rainy Day Rainfall totals from locations around the region, with Wednesday’s total through 3 p.m., and in parentheses the 72-hour total, through 3 p.m. FLAGSTAFF HILL 0.84 (1.06) MORGAN MTN. (near Huntington) 0.68 (1.40) BLUE CANYON (near Auburn) 1.45 (1.66) LA GRANDE (Union Co. Airport) cantly different temperatures. When a cold front sweeps through, if it drops precipita- tion (there are completely dry fronts, as well), the rain or snow tends to fall heavily, but only briefl y, lasting in some cases for less than an hour, Colin said. “Once the front goes through the precipitation re- ally drops off,” he said. The more noticeable effects of many cold fronts are a rapid drop in temperature and a shift in wind direction from southeast to northwest. Wednesday’s storm, by con- trast, was not a cold front but a “closed low,” and compared with a cold front it dawdled along. This meant its effects — its WE ARE NOW IN BAKER CITY! Accepting most Dental Insurances including OHP ODS Plus 0.93 (2.04) inches of rain. (June ranks second, at 1.29 inches.) “If it’s going to happen at all, this is the season it would,” Colin said. Wednesday’s storm was atypical in more than one way. The weather feature that often brings rain (or snow) to Baker County is a cold front — basically, the boundary between air masses of signifi - N EWS OF R ECORD DEATHS POLICE LOG The Rev. Elwain E. McK- een: 91, formerly of Baker City and Haines, died peacefully of natural causes on May 17, 2020, in Bend. Private services will be scheduled later. Baker City Police BAKER COUNTY WARRANT: Edward Allen Braswell, 44, of Baker City, 8:49 a.m. Monday, in the 2100 block of Broadway St.; cited and released. rain, in particular — lingered for more than 10 hours. Rain was reported at the airport at every one-hour interval, except one, between 7 p.m. on Tuesday and 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The storm’s track also contributed to its prolifi c precipitation. Because the low’s center — the area of lowest atmo- spheric pressure — was east of Baker County, passing almost directly over Boise on its way north, the counter- clockwise circulation around the center propelled rain bands from roughly north to south. That pattern neutralizes the rain shadow that the Elkhorn Mountains cast over Call 541-742-6012 for an appointment Drs. Hillary Berry & LaVonne Hammelman Baker City voters made the usual choices in Tues- day’s election — choosing candidates, mulling tax levies, selling a backhoe. That last, perhaps not so usual, item made it to the ballot due to a clause in the city’s 68-year-old charter. That clause requires city offi cials to get the ap- proval of voters before selling either land or buildings worth at least $5,000, or other property, including vehicles and equipment, worth at least $10,000. Over the past three decades the city has asked voters for approval to sell more than half a dozen buildings or land parcels. Voters authorized each sale, usually by large margins. But until Tuesday the city had not gone to vot- ers when the item on the block was a vehicle, said Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director. She acknowledged that in at least one case, involv- ing a street sweeper, the city probably should have asked voters for permission because the value could have approached the $10,000 threshold. Owen didn’t have a record immediately available listing the amount the city received for the sweeper. But when city offi cials decided they no longer needed a 1995 Case backhoe with an estimated value of $16,000, Owen said it was clear the city would need to take the matter to voters, per the city charter clause. Voters approved a measure authorizing the backhoe sale by a margin of 92% to 8% in Tuesday’s election. The city will sell the backhoe through an online government auction, and as with any auction it’s diffi cult to predict whether any particular item might spawn a bidding war, Owen said. The backhoe issue also prompted city offi cials ear- lier this year to look at its equipment fl eet to identify other vehicles that are surplus, or soon will be, and that might conceivably fetch $10,000. They found two candidates, Owen said — a Case excavator and a 1988 International dump truck. To avoid the possibility of having to put those piec- es on a future ballot, the Baker City Council included a separate measure on Tuesday’s ballot asking voters to amend the city charter clause. The proposal was to allow the City Council to sell surplus vehicles, regardless of value, so long as the money went to the city’s equipment replacement fund. The measure didn’t affect the requirement that voters approve the sale of land or buildings. Voters approved the charter-changing measure Tuesday with 75.5% in favor. That outcome wasn’t necessarily preordained, though. At least twice in the past, in 2000 and 2002, the city asked voters to eliminate that entire clause from the city charter, which would have allowed the city to sell any surplus property, whether real estate or equipment, without getting the voters’ approval. Voters rejected that measure by 59% to 41% in 2002, and by 60% to 40% in 2000. Baker Valley and much of the rest of the county, Colin said. When storms roll in from the west, which is the more typical pattern, the Elkhorns force the moist air to rise and cool, and because the colder air is the less moisture it can hold in clouds, much of the rain or snow falls in the mountains. (Low-pressure systems such as Wednesday’s have much the same effect, except they don’t need mountains to lift and cool the air and si- phon its moisture. Air rushes toward the center of the low (air moves from areas of high pressure to low, acting like a liquid fl owing downhill) and, because the ground stops its downward movement, the air is forced to rise.) In the normal eastward tracking storm, as the air descends the east slopes of the Elkhorns it warms and can hold much of whatever moisture didn’t splash down or pile up on the peaks. This phenomenon explains why so often the Elkhorns are swathed in clouds while the Baker Valley below is dry. But when the air fl ow is from north to south as it was Wednesday, Colin said, the Elkhorns can have the opposite effect, at least in a limited way, enhancing rather than retarding rainfall in Baker Valley as the air hits the wall of the Elkhorns, rises and cools. Some of the resulting rain- fall tends to spill over into the valley, Colin said. 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