THURSDAY
SIMONE BILES DECIDES NOT TO DEFEND GYMNASTICS GOLD: SPORTS, A6
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Music
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Current
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‘Comedy
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Baker County Fair/OSU Extension Services-Baker County
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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
July 29, 2021
IN THIS EDITION:
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Chris
Draper of Baker City.
Oregon, A5
PENDLETON — More
than half of all patients
currently hospitalized at
CHI St. Anthony hospital
in Pendleton have tested
positive for COVID-19,
according to a hospital
spokeswoman.
The hospitalizations
come as Umatilla County
reports one of the largest
surges in COVID-19 cases
in Oregon, reporting about
8% of the state’s total
cases over the past two
weeks despite accounting
for just 2% of its popula-
tion. The county’s case
rate during that same time
period was more than
seven times higher than
Multnomah and Washing-
ton counties, which both
have more than 500,000
more residents than Uma-
tilla County.
Business & Ag Life • Local • Sports
$1.50
LaDonn And Matt McElligott Honored For Contributions To Baker County Fair
Friends
of the Fair
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The surge in COVID-19 cases
driven by the more contagious delta
variant has spread to Baker County,
which reported 19 new cases on
Tuesday, July 27, the second-highest
one-day total during the pandemic.
Only Dec. 28, 2020, with 25 new
cases, had more.
As of 3 p.m. on
Wednesday, the county
had recorded 11 more
cases, with potentially
more before the end of
Staten
the day, County Com-
missioner Mark Bennett
said.
“We’re seeing an increase in cases,
and we need to get a handle on it or
we’re going to be in bad shape as a
county,” Nancy Staten, director of the
Baker County Health Department,
said. “We know that when cases
spike, many people are exposed to
people who are contagious, and it
takes a long time for infections to go
down.”
Art lovers gathered
outside of Royal Artisan
Saturday morning, July
24, to brighten Main Street
sidewalks with chalk
creations.
Jessica Dougherty,
who has been organizing
“Chalk It Up to Art” for
the past three years, said
the annual event is just a
fun way to bring people
together and make public
art.
See Surge/Page A2
WEATHER
Today
Sunny
Joanna Mann/Baker City Herald
LaDonn and Matt McElligott are being honored as the Baker County Friends of the Fair for 2021.
By Joanna Mann
jmann@bakercityherald.com
Friday
98 / 60
Smoke likely
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
COVID
cases
surge
By Jayson Jacoby
Local, A6
94 / 54
GO! Magazine:
Your guide to
arts and
entertainment
events around
Northeastern
Oregon
Matt and LaDonn McElligott
have been named Baker County
Fair Friends of the Year for 2021.
“I thought part of the criteria
was you had to be old,” Matt
laughed.
The McElligotts, who live be-
tween Haines and North Powder,
actually found out that they were
going to be named Fair Friends in
2020.
But the usual festivities that
go along with the award were
canceled due to the pandemic,
although some fair events did
happen.
This year, the McElligotts were
honored on Tuesday, July 27 at the
annual dinner and pie auction at
the Baker County Event Center.
The couple claim to have no idea
why they received the honor, but
their longtime involvement with
and dedication to 4-H programs
exemplify the criteria for the
award.
LaDonn’s involvement in the
program began when she was a
child growing up in Montana. She
showed heifers and steers and
her mother was a 4-H leader, just
like LaDonn is now. The family’s
passion for showing animals is
generational.
“Once you’re involved in it, you
want your kids to be involved in it
because it’s a really good learning
tool for them,” LaDonn said.
Matt was also involved in 4-H
during his childhood in Ione, in
TODAY
Issue 34, 34 pages
“The good thing about 4-H
is it teaches kids and young
adults responsibility.”
— Matt McElligott, who with his
wife, LaDonn, was honored as
Baker County Fair Friends of the
Year for 2021
Morrow County, where he showed
pigs and steers for years. He met
LaDonn at Montana State Univer-
sity and they’ve been married for
nearly 32 years.
Their two children, Kayla and
Lee, were born at Nampa, Idaho,
and the family moved to Oregon in
2006. They’ve lived on their ranch
near North Powder ever since.
Kayla began showing pigs in
4-H when she was just eight years
old. Now 27, she lives in Portland
and works as an event coordinator
for the city of Newberg.
Lee began showing rabbits
when he was eight, later moving
on to pigs and then steers. Now 24,
he is learning to be an Air Force
pilot at Del Rio, Texas.
“The good thing about 4-H is it
teaches kids and young adults re-
sponsibility,” Matt said. “Whether
you’re in sewing, photography or
livestock, you have a project and
you set a goal and the steps along
to get to that goal.”
Matt has been a Purina repre-
sentative for 32 years, traveling
the Northwest and giving semi-
nars to children on how to feed
their livestock. For the past year
and a half, he’s been giving these
Business ...............B1-B3
Classified ............. B4-B6
Comics ....................... B7
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B8
Baker County
Fair Begins
August 1
Drunken
driver gets
60 months
for fatal
2020 crash
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A 32-year-old Baker City man who
was driving while intoxicated when
he crashed near Baker
City on Nov. 30, 2020,
killing one of his pas-
sengers, was sentenced
to 60 months in prison
on July 21 after pleading
Schlett
guilty to several charges.
Mathew Guy Schlett
was sentenced by Judge Thomas B.
Powers.
Tahnee Main, 36, died in the one-
car crash on Pocahontas Road near
Washington Gulch Road.
After a pared down version
of the Baker County Fair in
2020 due to the pandemic,
the event returns with its
traditional schedule Aug. 1-6
at the Fairgrounds in Baker
City. The Baker County Horse
Show is set for July 30-31.
For more about this year’s
Fair, see Go! magazine,
included with today’s issue.
See Prison/Page A2
For a complete schedule, turn
to Page A3 of today’s issue.
seminars over Zoom.
Although Matt said he adjusted
pretty quickly to the new format,
he said the online seminars aren’t
the same.
“You can’t see facial expres-
sions,” he said. “If you’re standing
in a room full of 100 people, you
can tell if you’re on point, because
you can read their body language.
You can’t tell on a Zoom call.”
LaDonn works as a loan special-
ist for the USDA Rural Develop-
ment agency. She’s also a 4-H
leader and a swine superintendent
for the Fair.
Wolves kill
one heifer,
injure steer
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Wolves from the Lookout Mountain
have killed another cow, and injured
one steer, in eastern Baker County
over the past week, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
(ODFW) concluded after biologists
investigated the two cases.
See Fair Friends/Page A3
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
Senior Menus ...........A2
See Wolves/Page A3
Sports ........................A6
Turning Backs ...........A2
Weather ..................... B8
SATURDAY — SEARCHING FOR THE SOURCE OF A GRAND(E) RIVER