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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2021)
THURSDAY NO OFFICIAL MOTORCYCLE RALLY, BUT SOME RIDERS STILL COMING: PG. A5 JULY 8, 2021 WWW.GOEASTERNOREGON.COM “Lilac Homestead” by Diana Hayden of Hermiston earned the People’s Choice award in the 2021 Eastern Oregon Photo Contest SEE MORE ENTRIES ON PAGE 8 La Grande Classic Car Show and Crazy Days PAGE 3 Three days, three concerts åêÄÝçáîÅåðõ Toby Keith headlines Pendleton Whisky Music Fest PAGE 12 PAGE 16 “The food is fresh, locally sourced and unbelievably delicious. Their IPAs are distinct and clearly not copy-cats of each other or anyone else making NW IPAs.” - Yelp Review, Bend. Oregon 1219 Washington Ave • La Grande, OR 97850 www.sideabeer.com GO! Magazine Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com July 8, 2021 IN THIS EDITION: QUICK HITS Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Eric Colton of Baker City. Local, A3 Community Connection of Baker County reopened the Baker City Senior Cen- ter on June 28 for some activities, although week- day lunches remain take- out for now. Joe Hayes, Baker County manager for Community Connection, said the Center, at 2810 Cedar St., is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Local • Business & AgLife • Go! magazine $1.50 Human-Caused Fire Started Monday Afternoon In Eastern Baker County Crews Stop Blaze In ‘Real Bad Place’ State, A3 SALEM (AP) — Oregon’s death toll from a record- smashing heat wave last weekend topped 100 as of Tuesday, July 6, while Gov. Kate Brown issued heat- related directives meant to protect people from extreme heat in the future. BRIEFING Widespread power outage Tuesday More than 8,000 Oregon Trail Electric Coopera- tive customers, including all of Baker City, Haines and North Powder, lost power for about two hours Wednesday morning, July 7. Power was fully restored at 9:38 a.m. As of press time Wednesday after- noon, OTEC offi cials were still investigating what caused a circuit breaker to open at a substation, re- sulting in the widespread outage. Wallowa-Whitman National Forest/Contributed Photo A helicopter dumped 900-gallon bucketloads of water on a wildfi re in eastern Baker County on Monday evening, July 5. The fi re burned about 3.5 acres along North Pine Creek. By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com WEATHER Today 90 / 48 Sunny Friday 93 / 48 Sunny Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. A wildfi re in eastern Baker County that had major potential for rapid growth ended up fi zzling early Mon- day evening, July 5, but it took half a dozen aircraft, along with bulldozers and fi refi ghters on the ground, to foil the fl ames. “It was a real bad place for a fi re,” said Joel McCraw, fi re management offi cer for the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest’s Whitman Ranger District. “It was a great catch. That fi re could have gotten really bad really quickly.” The blaze, along North Pine Creek in the Hells Canyon National Recre- ation Area about 10 miles northeast of Halfway, burned about 3 1/2 acres. But the danger was much greater than the comparatively modest size suggests, McCraw said. “It was a great catch. That fi re could have gotten really bad really quickly.” — Joel McCraw, fi re management offi cer, Whitman Ranger District The combination of thick brush, mature trees and a record-setting heat wave could have proved a com- bustible mix, he said. “It’s steep, rugged country,” Mc- Craw said. And it’s country that’s prone to big blazes. The Foster Gulch fi re burned 53,000 acres in the area in July and August 2006. That fi re was sparked by lightning. Monday’s fi re along North Pine Creek was not. Crews quickly corral new lightning fi res Lightning started at least three new wildfi res in Baker County on Tuesday evening, July 6, but crews responded rapidly and doused all three before any had burned more than one-tenth of an acre. One fi re started near the elk-feeding station on Old Auburn Road, about nine miles south of Baker City. The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) handled that blaze. Another fi re was about two miles south, near the junction of Denny Creek Road and Highway 7. The BLM was in charge of fi ghting that blaze. The other fi re, under ODF jurisdiction, was near Bridgeport. See Wildfi re/Page A3 Missoula Children’s Theater Returns To Baker City Young actors back on stage By Joanna Mann jmann@bakercityherald.com The Missoula Children’s Theater is back in town for the fi rst time in almost two years, and the budding young actors of Baker County will bring the community “Johnny Appleseed” this Friday, July 9, and Saturday, July 10 at the Baker High School auditorium. See Theater/Page A3 Joanna Mann/Baker City Herald Young actors learned their parts Tuesday in the Baker High School auditorium. TODAY Issue 25, 34 pages Business ...............B1-B3 Classified ............. B4-B6 Comics ....................... B7 New, expanded guide to events happening around Northeastern Oregon Local projects to get $2.24 million By Jayson Jacoby jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Four Baker County proj- ects will receive a combined $2.24 million in state and federal aid, the county’s two state legislators announced on Tuesday, July 6. Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, and Rep. Mark Owens, R- Crane, said in a press release that projects across their Findley districts, which include sev- eral counties besides Baker, total $54 mil- lion. “With the Owens state reopening and now this enormous amount of much- needed fi nancial support, I’m optimistic about the fu- ture for our region,” Findley said in the press release. Sources for the money include the federal Ameri- can Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which President Joe Biden signed in March, the Oregon general fund and Oregon Lottery bond sales. Baker County projects: • $1.4 million for the Bak- er Early Learning Center. See Money/Page A5 Eltrym returns to regular schedule By Lisa Britton lbritton@bakercityherald.com With new movies releas- ing at a regular rate and state guidelines easing, patrons are returning to the Eltrym Theater. “We’re not at average numbers, but not far off,” said Terry McQuisten, owner of Baker County’s only movie theater, at First Street and Valley Avenue in downtown Baker City. Throughout the pan- demic, movie theaters were hard-hit by restrictions that required closure. And studios were not releasing fi lms. The Eltrym, McQuisten said, was down 94% in earned revenue. That number landed the theater in the “fi rst priority” tier for the Shuttered Ven- ues Operators Grant, which was established by the Eco- nomic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofi ts, and Venues Act. See Eltrym/Page A3 Community News ....A3 Crossword ........B4 & B6 Dear Abby ................. B8 Horoscope ........B4 & B6 Letters ........................A4 Lottery Results ..........A2 News of Record ........A2 Obituaries ..................A2 Opinion ......................A4 Senior Menus ...........A2 Sports ........................A6 Weather ..................... B8 SATURDAY — CITY LOOKING AT TIGHTER WATER USE RESTRICTIONS