LOCAL & STATE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2020
FREEWAY
Continued from Page 1A
The westbound lanes were
closed between Milepost 226,
near the top of Cabbage Hill,
and La Grande around noon
on Sunday, said Tom Strand-
berg, a spokesman for ODOT
in La Grande.
The westbound closure
was extended to Baker City
around 2 p.m. as truck park-
ing areas neared capacity in
La Grande, Strandberg said.
Around the same time
ODOT put a message on its
video sign near Ontario tell-
ing westbound commercial
truck drivers — who make
up between 40% and 50%
of the traffi c on the freeway,
Strandberg said — to exit at
Ontario. The westbound lanes
remained open to other traffi c
from Ontario to Baker City.
The freeway reopened to all
traffi c around 4 p.m. Sunday,
Strandberg said.
The closure was a “proac-
tive” step intended to prevent
a major, multivehicle crash
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
Interstate 84 was beginning to thaw on Monday morn-
ing, Nov. 9, near Meacham.
that could block one side of
the freeway for many hours,
Strandberg said.
“What we’re trying to do
is shut things down when
people are having trouble
controlling their vehicles,”
he said. “We’re pretty lucky
we didn’t have any major
incidents.”
Although it’s hardly uncom-
mon for vehicles to slide off
the freeway during snow-
storms, Strandberg said he
PAUSE
suspects Sunday’s weather,
as the fi rst major wintry
episode along the freeway this
fall, “caught some people off
guard.”
In particular the storm
might have caught some driv-
ers who haven’t installed their
winter traction tires.
The legal season to use
studded tires started Nov. 1.
Strandberg said he’s not
sure why the bulk of the prob-
lems were in the westbound
continues to encourage outdoor dining
and take out.
Continued from Page 1A
• Reducing the maximum capacity
On Monday afternoon Brown an-
of other indoor activities to 50 people
nounced that Baker, Union, Clackamas (includes gyms, fi tness organizations/
and Washington counties, but not Linn studios, bowling alleys, ice rinks, indoor
County, would begin the 2-week pause
sports, pools, and museums).
on Nov. 11.
• Limiting social gatherings to people
The governor said during a Friday
in your household, or no more than six
press conference that counties with
people if the gathering includes those
populations below 30,000 — Baker
from outside your household, reducing
County has about 16,800 residents —
the frequency of those social gatherings
could be placed on the 2-week pause if
(signifi cantly in a 2-week period), and
they had 60 or more new cases over the keeping the same six people in your
preceding 14 days.
social gathering circle.
From Oct. 27 through Nov. 9, a span of
Baker County Commissioner Mark
14 days, Baker County reported 64 new Bennett said Monday afternoon that he
cases, according to the Baker County
urges county residents to take precau-
Health Department.
tions including wearing face masks and
There were no new cases on Saturday, observing social distancing to curb the
Nov. 7, one new case on Sunday, Nov. 8, recent rise in new cases.
and four cases on Monday.
He also echoed the comments from
Measures during the 2-week pause:
Nancy Staten, director of the Baker
• Urging all businesses to mandate
County Health Department, in recom-
employees work from home to the extent mending residents reconsider attend-
possible.
ing parties and other social gatherings
• Pausing indoor visits at long-term
that, according to Staten, have been a
care facilities.
primary source of the county’s recent
• Reducing maximum restaurant
rash of cases.
capacity to 50 people (including custom-
Less than a month ago, from Oct.
ers and staff) for indoor dining, with a
10-23, the county reported just three
maximum party size of six. The state
new cases.
lanes. The eastbound lanes
weren’t closed Sunday.
There was much less snow
in Ladd Canyon, so the storm
didn’t pose a test for the new-
est arrow in ODOT’s quiver
— the third lane on the steep
uphill grade on the eastbound
freeway.
Strandberg said ODOT
offi cials are confi dent that the
new lane will prevent some
of the truck crashes that can
block the eastbound lanes.
“We feel that is going to be
a big help in keeping the road
open,” he said.
The challenge in Ladd Can-
yon is that traffi c has to negoti-
ate a relatively sharp curve
just before starting up the hill.
The curve, combined with the
tendency for ice to form on
the former bridge over Ladd
Creek, made that spot a notori-
ous site of winter pileups.
ODOT, in addition to adding
the third lane, replaced the
bridge with a culvert, so the
freeway no longer has open
air beneath it and thus is less
prone to freezing.
Reversing the recent trend — 68 new
cases in the county since Oct. 26 — will
not only protect residents, Bennett said,
but it will reduce effects on businesses
and, potentially, allow some Baker stu-
dents to continue attending in-person
classes.
“Our goal is to try to avoid any fur-
ther impacts on people, the schools and
businesses,” Bennett said.
He emphasized the potential severity
of the virus.
Although three Baker County
residents have died as a result of
COVID-19, Bennett said “a number of
people” — he didn’t know the precise
total — have been hospitalized outside
the county due to severe symptoms.
He didn’t know the current num-
ber of county residents who are being
treated.
According to the Oregon Health
Authority, as of Sunday — not counting
the four new cases Monday — of the
county’s 182 COVID-19 cases, 138 were
residents who had tested positive, and
44 were “presumptive” cases.
Those are residents who had symp-
toms consistent with the virus and who
were in close contact with someone who
tested positive, but who have not tested
positive themselves.
Reward offered for second wolf killing
ently poached in Baker County
this fall.
Conservation groups are
In September the breeding
increasing the reward for in-
male from the Cornucopia
formation leading to the arrest Pack was shot and killed about
and conviction of whoever shot 15 miles west of where the
a female gray wolf in Baker
female wolf was found. The
County.
reward in that case stands at
The wolf, killed about Oct.
$6,150.
29, was found by a hunter
“The killing of a second Ore-
in the Wallowa-Whitman
gon wolf within the last several
National Forest about 8 miles weeks is an absolute outrage,”
northeast of Halfway, within
said Brooks Fahy, executive
the territory of the Pine Creek director of Predator Defense, a
Pack.
national nonprofit organization.
A coalition of groups —
“It is critical that this criminal
including the Center for
be brought to justice.”
Biological Diversity, Northwest
OSP Capt. Tim Fox has said
Animal Rights Network,
“there’s no reason, at this point”
Oregon Wild and Predator
to believe the shootings are
Defense — are offering $7,300 connected.
on top of the $300 provided by
Oregon is home to at least
Oregon State Police for infor-
158 wolves, according to the
mation about the case.
latest population estimate from
It is the second wolf appar-
the Oregon Department of Fish
By George Plaven
The Capital Press
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While the Trump administra-
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remains illegal to kill wolves
under the Oregon Wolf Plan,
except to protect human life
and livestock.
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VETERANS
Continued from Page 1A
Three-quarters of a cen-
tury later, Anderson, who
has lived in Baker City
since 1989, still ponders,
with gratitude, all the
decades of experiences he
might not have had.
“I was lucky,” Anderson,
93, said. “We had subma-
rine scares a few times
but nobody every shot a
torpedo at us.”
Anderson, who grew
up in Duluth, Minnesota,
wanted to become a sailor
even earlier than he did.
He graduated from
high school in June 1944,
almost 6 months before
his 18th birthday.
But his mother
wouldn’t allow him to
enlist immediately.
Anderson ended up on
the water anyway.
He started working
on a ship that hauled
iron ore across the Great
Lakes.
Anderson chuckles
when he imagines how
the ship’s offi cers must
have reacted when they
saw the slender boy who
wanted to toil aboard
one of the coal-fi red ore
carriers.
“I’m surprised they
didn’t tell me to go home,
eat some Wheaties and
grow up a little bit,” An-
derson said. “I was small
but I was pretty strong.”
After his fi rst voyage,
during which he cleaned
up ashes and did other
labor, one of the ship’s
fi remen — who shoveled
coal to feed the voracious
boilers — failed to turn
up for the next trip.
The chief engineer
asked Anderson if he
thought he could move
enough coal to keep the
boiler burning.
Anderson, who was
looking at a raise in pay
from $130 a month to
$189, allowed he thought
he could.
That fall of 1944, as
the Great Lakes harbor
began to ice up, Ander-
son convinced his mother
that he was a seasoned
sailor ready to wear his
country’s uniform.
She agreed, and
Anderson enlisted in the
Navy on Nov. 7, 1944. He
turned 18 a bit less than
a month later, on Dec. 5.
After attending engi-
neering school, Anderson
was assigned fi rst to
a ship that was being
repaired at Kirkland,
Washington, before ship-
ping off to the Aleutian
Islands off Alaska.
Although Anderson
grew up in Duluth, a city
known for its arctic tem-
peratures, he said he’s
never been so cold as he
was one day in Decem-
ber 1944 while sailing
near Dutch Harbor,
Alaska. Although the air
temperature was only in
the mid-20s — a balmy
January day in Duluth
— Anderson said the icy
spray from seawater that
was right at its freezing
point of 28 was more
frigid than anything he’d
experienced.
After his military
service ended in July
1946, Anderson attended
the Michigan College of
Mining and Technology
and earned a degree in
mining engineering and
geology in 1950. Since
then he has worked
at mines around the
country, both as a mine
manager, consultant
and at times as a mine
owner.
ASSAULT
Continued from Page 1A
The suspect has been turned over to juvenile au-
thorities and was transported to the juvenile detention
center at the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections
Facility (NORCOR) in The Dalles on Sunday. He was
scheduled for arraignment Monday afternoon.
Duman said the victim’s mother reported the crime.
The girl was taken to the emergency room at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center where a sexual assault
examination was completed, he said.
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