THURSDAY
$500 COVID-19 AID CHECKS AVAILABLE FOR SOME OREGONIANS: PAGE 3A
In SPORTS, 6A
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
August 20, 2020
IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day
to Herald subscriber Irv
Townsend of Baker City.
BRIEFING
City’s coronavirus
relief fund
committee to
meet Aug. 26
Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50
Case
Baldy Fire Spreads total
at 57
Lightning-Caused Blaze Burning About 20 Miles South of Baker City
■ State lists 11
cases in outbreak
at Meadowbrook,
which included
county’s lone death
A Baker City committee
that will help decide how
to award up to $75,000 in
federal COVID-19 aid will
have its fi rst meeting on
Wednesday, Aug. 26, at
5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1655
First St.
Organizations applying
for some of the money
should be prepared to
show how they would
document that the dollars
would go to people af-
fected by the pandemic.
Due to COVID-19 restric-
tions, attendance will be
limited to fi ve people at
a time. Applicants that
would like to make a pre-
sentation via Zoom should
call Fred Warner Jr. at 541-
524-2040 or Robin Nudd at
541-524--2036.
WEATHER
Blazers
upset
Lakers
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Photo by Suzan Ellis Jones
The Baldy Mountain fi re produced a large smoke plume Tuesday afternoon as it grew from about 500 acres
to an estimated 5,000 acres. The fi re was sparked by lightning on Monday.
Baker County reported
one new case of COVID-19
on Tuesday but none on
Wednesday as of 4 p.m. leav-
ing the county’s total at 57.
That includes 11 re-
cent cases connected with
Meadowbrook Place assisted
living community in Baker
City. That outbreak, the fi rst
in a care facility in the coun-
ty, included the county’s fi rst
COVID-19-related death, a
Meadowbrook resident.
The Baker County Health
Department, citing a federal
health care privacy law, has
declined to give any details
about the person who died.
Today
85 / 46
Mostly sunny
Friday
92 / 52
Mostly sunny
Correction: A story in
Tuesday’s issue about a
Forest Service proposal
to end a ban on logging
trees larger than 21 inches
in diameter misstated
Veronica Warnock’s
impressions. Warnock
believes the change would
result in a signifi cant
increase in cutting of trees
larger than 21 inches on
six national forests east of
the Cascades in Oregon.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
See COVID-19/Page 5A
plume visible from Baker City, about
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
20 air miles to the north.
A lightning-sparked blaze burning
On Wednesday morning smoke
near the border between Baker and
settled into Baker Valley.
Malheur counties blew up Tuesday
Fire managers were optimistic that
afternoon and evening, fanned by hot, a brief rain shower that quieted the
dry and gusty south winds.
fi re overnight would help a growing
The Baldy fi re grew from about 500 cadre of fi refi ghters start to corral the
acres to an estimated 5,000 acres as blaze Wednesday, which was forecast
of Wednesday morning.
to be less blustery.
On Tuesday the rapidly growing
“A little rain is not going to put it
blaze spawned a towering smoke
out this time of year,” Al Crouch, fi re
By Jayson Jacoby
mitigation/education specialist for the
Bureau of Land Management’s Vale
District, said Wednesday morning.
“We’ve got a ton of heavy iron in there
to help us out, so things are looking
better in those terms.”
Crouch said the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry dispatched multiple
bulldozers to aid fi re crews. A total of
seven dozers were building fi re lines
on Wednesday.
See Fire/Page 5A
Fire resources relatively abundant
■ But officials say rash of new fires has increased competition for crews, aircraft
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The combination of record-high
temperatures and widespread light-
ning has elevated the wildfi re risk in
Northeastern Oregon this week.
But with the fi re season relatively
tranquil across the West, at least
compared to many recent summers,
fi re bosses have been able to summon
signifi cant resources to douse fl ames
from the air and the ground.
Widespread lightning that sparked
more than a dozen new fi res in
Northeastern Oregon Tuesday,
along with growing confl agrations
in California, changed that situation
somewhat. Fire offi cials are having
to move those resources, rather like
generals shifting battalions to deal
with new threats.
The aerial armada has been espe-
cially useful in what fi re managers
call “initial attack” — the vital period
soon after a fi re is reported when
rapid action by fi refi ghters can keep a
blaze relatively small.
“Quite a few of the fi res, if it wasn’t
for the aircraft they would have been
bigger than they turned out to be,”
said Steve Meyer, fi re protection
manager at the Oregon Department
of Forestry’s Baker City offi ce.
Conditions had already begun to
change by Tuesday, when the Baldy
fi re 20 miles south of Baker City
TODAY
Issue 43, 16 pages
Bureau of Land Management photo
Fire crews conduct a burnout on Tuesday at the Indian Creek fi re in
Malheur County. Firefi ghters sometimes burn fuel between the main
fi re and control lines to reduce the risk that fl ames will cross the lines.
spread rapidly, followed by thun-
derstorms that delivered copious
lightning but only scattered rain (see
related story above on this page).
“Regionally, we haven’t had many
incidents, but things are heating
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Community News ....3A
Crossword ........2B & 4B
up and there’s more competition
for resources,” said Al Crouch, fi re
mitigation/education specialist for the
Bureau of Land Management’s Vale
District.
See Resources/Page 3A
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School
bond
could be
on ballot
in 2021
By Chris Collins
ccollins@bakercityherald.com
Over the next few months,
the Baker School Board
will be weighing whether
or not to ask voters in 2021
to approve a property tax-
supported bond measure
to pay for infrastructure
improvements to Baker’s
aging school buildings.
The District had intended
to ask voters in the May 19,
2020, election to approve a
$7.5 million bond measure,
to be repaid over 10 years.
But the school board decided
in March to not put the
bond on the ballot to avoid
potentially adding another
fi nancial burden to residents
already affected by the coro-
navirus pandemic.
Had the measure passed,
that money would have
been coupled with a $4 mil-
lion Oregon School Capital
Improvement Match grant
and a $5 million District
contribution to pay for $16.5
million in improvements.
The plan called for mov-
ing middle school students
to Baker High School and
using the current middle
school building to house
fi fth- and sixth-graders.
See Bond/Page 3A
Opinion ......................4A
Sports ........................6A
Weather ..................... 6B
SATURDAY — TOURING BAKER CITY’S NEW EARLY LEARNING CENTER