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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2020)
TUESDAY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE WITH ALL THE FLAVOR, LESS GUILT: PAGE 1B Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com September 1, 2020 Local • Home & Living • Sports IN THIS EDITION: QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Alice Saul of Baker City. Oregon, 3A SALEM — Oregon’s COVID-19 case rate seems to be in decline, but state health offi cials are nervous about a potential uptick in cases following the up- coming Labor Day holiday weekend. Noting separate out- breaks tied to a 10-person family get-together earlier this summer, and a week- end at the beach where 20 people gathered, the state’s top health offi cials cautioned that outbreaks happened when people were infectious, but with- out symptoms. $1.50 Baker County Commissioners To Consider Drought Declaration Dry Year Leaving Its Mark On Baker Baker County Garden Club meets Wednesday Brown recall effort falls short Baker High School football Gold Cards available for sale Today 85 / 45 Sunny Wednesday 90 / 45 Sunny Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. jjacoby@bakercityherald.com See Cases/Page 3A Baker County Garden Club will meet Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 10:30 a.m. at the Davis residence, 3345 Kirkway Drive. Please bring a sack lunch and a smile. New members are welcome. WEATHER By Jayson Jacoby Baker County’s rate of new COVID-19 cases has slowed over the past week. More than one-third of the county’s 70 cases — 25 total — were reported during a 2-week period starting Aug. 9, according to the Oregon Health Authority. But since Aug. 21, when the Baker County Health Department announced seven new cases, the county has had no more than three new cases on any day, and zero cases on 4 days. BRIEFING The Baker High School football program is con- tinuing its annual Gold Card fundraiser. The 2020- 2021 Bulldog “Purple” Gold Cards are available for purchase from any high school football player. Case rate slows Lisa Britton/For the Baker City Herald Phillips Reservoir is holding about 16% of its water capacity following a mainly dry summer. By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Baker County commissioners will meet Wednesday morning to discuss whether to approve a drought disas- ter declaration for the county, where rainfall has been below average every month this year. Commissioners meet at 9 o’clock at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St. Due to occupancy limits, residents are urged to attend the meeting remotely via a link on the county’s website at www. bakercounty.org/webexmeetings.html. Participants can also join by phone by calling 1-408-418-9388 and entering this meeting ID — 1467232108 — and the password “meeting1” The declaration would ask Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to declare a drought emergency in Baker County. That would, among other things, give the Oregon Water Resources Department more fl exibility in allowing farmers and ranchers to use available water, said Jason Yencopal, the county’s emergency management director. So far in 2020 the governor has declared drought emergencies in 14 of Oregon’s 36 counties. During the past decade, Baker County commission- ers approved drought declarations in 2018, 2015, 2014 and 2013. Annual rainfall was below average in three of those years, 2015 being slightly above average. See Drought/Page 2A Relief From The Heat Will Be Brief The last day of August was also the coolest. But not just for the month. As of late afternoon Monday, it was also on pace to be the chilli- est day — relatively speaking, of course, it’s still summer — since late June. As of 4 p.m. the high temperature at the Baker City Air- port was 70 degrees. The last day the temperature didn’t surpass 70 at the Airport was June 29. See Relief/Page 2A The Oregon Republican Party’s campaign to force a recall vote for Gov. Kate Brown fell less than 1% short, GOP offi cials an- nounced Monday afternoon. The cam- paign was 2,796 signa- tures short of the 280,050 required to put Brown the recall on the ballot in a special election in October. Bill Currier, chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, stated in a press release that the cancellation of events such as the Oregon State Fair hampered the signature-gathering effort. See Recall/Page 3A Annual 4-H/FFA Sale Of Youth-Raised Livestock Brings In Record Total Of $307,070 Pandemic no problem for Fair auction By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com In a year defi ned by disappoint- ments, Terri Siddoway fi gured the annual youth livestock auction, the culminating event of the Baker County Fair, would continue 2020’s troubling trend. But when the bidding started it soon became obvious that this wasn’t so. The 4-H/FFA auction on Aug. 7 indeed set a record, one that Sid- doway describes with a single word: “amazing.” But this wasn’t the sort of record that Siddoway, president of the sale committee, feared would result from the economic downtown, restrictions on public events and other effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 157 animals on the block brought in $307,070.09 for the local youth who raised the goats, lambs, steers, rabbits and swine. Sam Anthony/Baker City Herald See Auction/Page 3A Baker County youths show their pigs at Leo Adler Field during the Baker County Fair on Aug. 5. TODAY Issue 48, 14 pages Calendar ....................2A Classified ............. 4B-6B Comics ....................... 7B Community News ....3A Crossword ........4B & 6B Dear Abby ................. 8B Home ................... 1B-3B Horoscope ........4B & 6B Lottery Results ..........2A News of Record ........2A Obituaries ..................2A Opinion ......................4A Senior Menus ...........2A Sports .............. 5A & 6A Weather ..................... 8B THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE