Fireworks!
celebrating the
THURSDAY
STADLER, BLOOMER TALK ABOUT WINNING STATE TITLES: SPORTS, PG. A6
NORTHEAST OREGON
FOURTH OF JULY
JULY 1, 2021
www.gonortheastoregon.com
in northeast oregon
also inside:
First Friday art shows
Great Bear Folk Theatre
Brady Goss in concert
Wallowa County Fly-In
Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce/Contributed photo
“Shake the Lake” lights up the sky over
Wallowa Lake on the Fourth of July.
Picturing
Paradise
Cuadros are embroidered and appliquéd fabric pictures created by women
of Compacto Humano and Manos Ancashinas, two art cooperatives located in
Pamplona Alta, a shantytown situated on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. This project,
which in part, evolved into an exhibition, features the work of these women,
SODFLQJHPSKDVLVRQWKHPDVDUWLVWVDQGWKHZD\WKHLUDUWUHŴHFWVFUHDWLYLW\
resilience, and hope despite the harsh conditions of their lives.
2020 Auburn Avenue, Baker City, Oregon Ř 541.523.5369 Ř www.crossroads-arts.org
Exhibition on display Friday, July 2 through Saturday, July 31
GO! Magazine
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
July 1, 2021
IN THIS EDITION:
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscribers David
and Julie Mespelt of Baker
City.
BRIEFING
Alexandra Colton
receives $2,500
scholarship from
P.E.O. Sisterhood
Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50
From mayor to governor?
■ Baker City
Mayor Kerry
McQuisten
announces bid for
Republican
nomination in the
2022 primary
Chapter AX of the P.E.O.
Sisterhood has awarded
Alexandra Colton of North
Powder a $2,500 Oregon
Scholar Award from the
Oregon State Chapter of
P.E.O. This award grants
monies for tuition and
fees to women pursuing a
degree at an accredited Or-
egon college or university.
The applicant must have
junior, senior, or graduate
level status.
Colton is in her fi nal
year at Oregon State Uni-
versity, pursuing a degree
in Veterinary Medicine and
specializing in large animal
veterinary studies. Her
emphasis is on Food Pro-
duction Medicine. Colton
has received P.E.O. grants
every year since graduat-
ing from high school.
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Less than six months after she
became Baker City’s mayor, Kerry
McQuisten is vying for a higher politi-
cal offi ce, one in which her constituents
would number nearly 4.3 million
rather than 10,000.
McQuisten announced her candi-
dacy for Oregon governor on Tuesday,
June 29.
McQuisten, 49, will
seek the Republican
nomination in the May
2022 primary.
“I’m excited to get
started,” McQuisten
McQuisten
said on Tuesday. “It’s an
adventure.”
Although McQuisten said her
disdain for current Gov. Kate Brown’s
policies — McQuisten on her website
describes the Democrat governor’s
pandemic policies as “draconian lock-
downs” — McQuisten, should she win
the Republican primary, won’t have a
chance to unseat Brown.
Brown is precluded from serving
another four-year term due to Oregon’s
term limits law, so Oregonians will elect
a new governor in November 2022.
WEATHER
Today
95 / 56
Mostly sunny
Friday
97 / 54
Sunny
By Samanatha O’Conner
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County Sheriff’s Offi ce/Contributed Photo
A single-engine air tanker drops fi re retardant ahead of a blaze in Keating Valley on Tuesday, June 29.
Fire Threatened
Several Homes
■ No structures damaged in blaze about 18 miles northeast of Baker City
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
See Governor/Page A2
Owners
pleased
by end
of COVID
limits
100-Acre Blaze Burned Tuesday Afternoon In Keating Valley
Haines Fire District
board meets July 12
HAINES — The Haines
Fire Protection District will
have its monthly board of
directors meeting July 12
at 6 p.m. at the main sta-
tion in Haines. All citizens
of the district are welcome
to attend.
Your guide to arts,
entertainment
and other events
happening around
Northeast Oregon
A fi re sparked by farm equipment
on the hottest June day on record
in Baker County raced through dry
grass and sagebrush in Keating Valley,
threatening several homes before
crews from multiple agencies, with
help from a pair of air tankers, stopped
the blaze Tuesday evening, June 29.
“It really took off in 110-degree heat
with 20 mile an hour winds behind it,”
said Buzz Harper, chief of the Keating
Rural Fire Protection District. “In that
heat and wind it could have been real
bad.”
The fi re, which was fully lined
Tuesday night, burned about 100
acres, Harper said. No homes were
damaged.
Crews from the Forest Service and
Bureau of Land Management were
mopping up Wednesday morning, he
said.
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash
said the Sheriff’s Offi ce gave evacua-
tion notices to about 10 residents as a
precaution.
Flames came within about 50 yards
of one home, Harper said.
The fi re was reported to Baker
County Dispatch at 2:52 p.m.
Harper said the blaze started in a
fi eld near Middle Bridge Road, where
a swather was operating. He suspects
a disc on the swather hit a rock, caus-
ing a spark.
areas where there aren’t
people around to watch for
Mountaintop cam-
wildfi re smoke around the
eras are the newest tool
clock.
for fi nding wildfi res, and
“These cameras are actu-
unlike human lookouts, the ally posted at places where
cameras are on duty all the our radio sites are,” said
time.
Andy Robertson, manager
The hundreds of cameras of the fi re dispatch center
across the West that make at the Bureau of Land
up the Alert Wildfi re sys-
Management’s (BLM) Vale
tem are mainly in remote
District. “So there wouldn’t
TODAY
Issue 22, 22 pages
Business ...............B1-B3
Classified ............. B4-B6
Comics ....................... B7
be anybody there. They
are defi nitely a nice tool to
have, especially in the very
remote places that we have
here.”
Five of the cameras are
in the southeast part of
Oregon, but the BLM hopes
to install two, and possibly
three, cameras this year
in Northeastern Oregon,
including two in Baker
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B5 & B6
Dear Abby ................. B8
Hottest
June day
on record
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
County, Robertson said.
The planned camera
sites are Lookout Mountain
in eastern Baker County
north of Huntington,
Beaver Mountain, east
of Dooley Mountain and
Highway 245, and Cot-
tonwood Mountain west of
Vale.
See Cameras/Page A3
See Hottest/Page A3
See Fire/Page A3
Cameras keep an eye out for fires
jmann@bakercityherald.com
See COVID/Page A3
An already sizzling June in
Baker City etched itself even
deeper into the temperature
record books on the month’s
penultimate day.
The temperature crested
at 103 degrees on Tuesday,
June 29 at the Baker City
Airport.
That’s the hottest tempera-
ture ever recorded during the
month at the airport, where
records date to 1943.
The previous record was
102 degrees, on June 17,
1961.
Tuesday was the second
straight triple-digit day at
the airport, following the
100-degree high on Monday,
June 28.
Both temperatures set new
daily records.
Two New Cameras Slated To Be Installed This Year In Baker County
By Joanna Mann
After more than a year of
closures, occupancy limits
and other restrictions due
to the COVID-19 pandemic,
Baker City restaurant own-
ers are excited about the end
of those limits.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
announced last week that
she would cancel executive
orders June 30.
“I’m thrilled,” said Theresa
Perkins, who owns The Little
Pig on 10th Street. “I think
it’s wonderful. I would love to
go back to normal. It would
be great.”
Restaurant and bar own-
ers have endured a variety
of restrictions since March
2020. Since Dec. 1, 2020, Or-
egon has used a county-based
risk level system. At times
since then, Baker County
has been in the extreme risk
level, which bans indoor din-
ing in bars and restaurant.
Horoscope ........B5 & B6
Letters ........................A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Senior Menus ...........A2
Sports ........................A6
Weather ..................... B8
SATURDAY — SWEET WIFE BAKERY READY TO OPEN IN NEW LOCATION