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!
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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
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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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