TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A5
LOCAL & STATE
Huckleberry festival a smash hit
By Alex Wittwer
The Observer
NORTH POWDER — The
annual Huckleberry Festival in
North Powder saw its biggest
crowd in years on Saturday, July
31.
Hundreds of residents and
visitors flocked to the small
town on the edge of Union Coun-
ty where the streets were filled
with music, vendors and kids
eating shaved ice. The Hot-Rod
Show-n-Shine car show also had
its largest turnout, according to
event organizer Bryan Karolski.
“We really went all out this
year,” he said. “We put stuff out
on social media, and we also
advertised with probably 1,000
flyers. This is five times bigger
than it was three years ago.”
Karolski ran the both the car
show and festival from Huckle-
berry Headquarters on Second
and E streets. He also sold con-
fections made with huckleber-
ries that he had hauled in.
In the moments he wasn’t
juggling the responsibilities of
running the show — including
acting as the announcer and
Alex Wittwer/The Observer/La Grande Observer
Festival Grand Marshals Dotty and Myron Miles stand for the na-
tional anthem during the Huckleberry Festival in North Powder on
Saturday, July 31, 2021.
his newborn baby girl, Sabrina
tracking down the festival’s
May-Jean Karolski, who was
Grand Marshals Dotty and
Myron Miles — he was doting on only a few days old.
RAIN
The car show featured about
two dozen classic rides lined up
along E Street. Karolski looked
through the vehicles with the
eye of an enthusiast, noting
the original engine still bolted
inside one of the classic pickup
trucks.
Among the standouts were
Ken Schuh’s all-black Chevrolet
Corvette C1 with red interior
and Ken Meeker’s 1966 blue
Dodge Coronet.
Meeker is unable to walk but
that didn’t stop the hobbyist
from driving his soft-top con-
vertible to the show.
“When you’re in my condition,
you got to find a hobby,” he said.
Just before noon, the crowds
filled every free space avail-
able along Second Street for
the parade. Kids and families
sheltered in the shade beneath
Powder Club, while a few others
held aloft umbrellas to deflect
the sun’s rays.
“It’s looking good,” Karolski
said in passing.
Dotty Miles, from the back
of a horse-drawn carriage, sang
along to the national anthem
sured at the Boise Airport
late Saturday was close to
the all-time record there.
Continued from Page A1
Even during Sunday
afternoon, when the clouds
City Airport was 13%. So
dissipated somewhat, the
even though the tempera-
humidity at the Baker
ture was 100 degrees, the
City Airport never dropped
dewpoint was just 40 — a
below 64%. The widest gap
difference of 60 degrees.
between temperature and
But that evening the
monsoon moisture started dewpoint was 13 degrees
(at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., when
to arrive, ushered in by
the temperature was 76
southerly winds.
and the dewpoint 63).
At 4 p.m. on Satur-
Besides more than dou-
day, July 31, the relative
humidity was 30%, the
bling the summer rainfall
temperature was 89 and
at the airport, August’s
the dewpoint was 54 — a
damp debut helped to tem-
difference of 35 degrees,
porarily curb the wildfire
compared with 60 degrees danger and reduce Baker
just 24 hours earlier.
City’s water usage, which
The dampest air, though, has been high enough to
prompt the city to ask
was still to come.
residents to limit outdoor
By 1 a.m. on Sunday,
watering.
Aug. 1, the relative hu-
midity at the airport had
climbed to 90%. The differ- Wildfire danger
ence between air tempera-
Although forests and
ture (67) and dewpoint (64) rangelands remain dry and
the fire danger is extreme,
was just three degrees.
With the air so nearly satu- the widespread weekend
rains temporarily reduced
rated, and thunderstorms
the danger.
forming in the unstable
One measurement that
atmosphere, rain was inevi-
fire managers follow closely
table.
is the Energy Release
For the first half of the
Component (ERC), which
day, the humidity at the
airport ranged from 90% to measures the amount of
energy a fire would release.
100%.
The dewpoint peaked at This is an approximation
67 degrees early Sunday af- of how quickly a fire would
ternoon, which is “amazing- spread, and how difficult it
ly” high for Baker City, said would be to control.
Northeastern Oregon
Jay Breidenbach, warning
coordination meteorologist is divided into six zones,
based on climate, forest
at the National Weather
type and other factors, with
Service office in Boise.
a daily ERC calculated by
Breidenbach said the
computer for each zone.
70-degree dewpoint mea-
Since late June, the
ERCs have been running
well above average for all
zones, and on many days
setting all-time record
highs.
On Friday, July 30, the
ERC ranged from 61 to 69,
and on Saturday the figures
spanned from 60 to 70.
But on Sunday, due to
the rain and much higher
humidities, the ERCs
dipped to a range of 34 to
52. The forecast range for
Monday, Aug. 2 was 30 to
46.
Although he’s grateful
for the rain, Steve Meyer,
the wildland fire supervisor
at the Oregon Department
of Forestry’s Baker City
office, emphasized that the
benefits of the rain will be
brief, with warmer, drier
weather forecast this week.
“It really helps us out
short term,” Meyer said on
Monday morning, Aug. 2.
“It gives us a little bit of
relief. We’ll take anything
we can get.”
But Meyer said that
with temperatures rising
and humidity dropping this
week, the ERC numbers
“are going to climb right
back up real close to where
they were.”
Joel McCraw, fire
management officer for the
Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest’s Whitman Ranger
District, agreed with Meyer.
“It was great to get that
shot of moisture that we
desperately needed,” Mc-
Craw said. “But the fuels
are still dry, and we have
the whole month of August
yet to go.”
Meyer said one posi-
tive aspect of the weekend
weather is that lightning
strikes were relatively in-
frequent in Baker County,
with much of the lightning
being cloud-to-cloud.
The Blue Mountain In-
teragency Dispatch Center
in La Grande reported only
one lightning-sparked fire,
a blaze that firefighters
quickly stopped on Sunday
morning, at one-tenth of an
acre, in the Mehlhorn Butte
area about six miles north
of Halfway.
A few other fires were
reported, including in
the Elkhorn Peak area
northwest of Baker City,
but crews didn’t find any
evidence of the blazes.
Meyer said he expects
that some “holdover” fires
will show up this week.
Lightning-sparked fires
sometimes smolder for
days, or even weeks, before
producing enough smoke to
be seen. Holdover fires are
more common after rain,
which tends to suppress the
fire temporarily.
LAWSUIT
erty that Longgood now
owns was transferred from
public to private owner-
ship.
As a result, Hudson con-
tends, the county’s RS 2477
claim is invalid.
In a July 2018 letter
to Sullivan, the county’s
attorney, Hudson included
multiple historic maps, the
earliest from an 1882 sur-
vey, none of which shows
that a road existed on the
route of the current Connor
Creek Road through Long-
good’s property prior to the
property being transferred
from public to private own-
ership.
That transfer happened
between 1912 and 1923,
according to deed records
that Hudson included with
his letter.
Continued from Page A1
That 1866 statute is
commonly known as RS
2477. Other counties have
cited the statute to show a
route is legally open to the
public. The key to proving a
claim under RS 2477 is that
the route in question was
being used before the prop-
erty it crosses was reserved
for another purpose, a com-
mon example being that the
land was transferred from
public to private ownership.
The county’s lawsuit also
argues that four other roads
have, dating to at least
1908, crossed Longgood’s
property and that each
of those routes should be
legally open to the public.
Those routes, unlike
the Connor Creek Road,
are not developed, but the
public doesn’t have access
to them because Longgood’s
property is fenced.
County commission-
ers have discussed during
previous meetings the
possibility of reopening
one of those routes as an
alternative public access
across Longgood’s property,
one that would rejoin the
Connor Creek Road after it
leaves Longgood’s parcel.
Hudson filed a response
to the county’s amended
lawsuit on July 1, 2020.
Hudson argues that the
basis of the county’s argu-
ment is flawed because the
Connor Creek Road, in its
current alignment, was not
built until after the prop-
as it boomed out over a loud-
speaker.
As the parade continued,
candy was tossed out and kids
scrambled to grab their prizes.
Not soon after, fire trucks began
spraying water through the
street allowing residents and
attendees a chance to cool off in
the sweltering sun.
“Hose ‘em down, boys,” Karol-
ski said over the loudspeaker, as
children as well as adults darted
in and out of the spray.
After the parade came to an
end, the attendees took off to
watch the popular mud volley-
ball event near the train tracks.
Teams took turns waddling
through mud attempting to
score against each other, and
some of the contestants dramati-
cally dove for the ball only to get
a face full of mud.
Back at Huckleberry Head-
quarters, Karolski attended to
his family, his huckleberries and
his festival. Though the crowds
started to thin as the afternoon
faded, Karolski knew he had put
on one of the best Huckleberry
Festivals in the town’s history.
Baker City water use
The wettest, coolest
weekend of the summer
had the expected — and
much anticipated — effect
on the city’s water use,
said Michelle Owen, public
works director.
After averaging 4.8 mil-
lion gallons per day during
July, the city’s use dipped
to 3.19 million gallons on
Sunday, Aug. 1. That was
the lowest daily use since
May.
Residents and busi-
nesses used 129.9 million
gallons during June, a 45%
increase over the same
month in 2020.
That prompted city of-
ficials on June 28 to enact
the first phase of the city’s
four-phase water curtail-
ment ordinance. Under the
first phase, the city asks
residents to voluntarily
reduce the water use.
When water use re-
mained high, averaging
nearly 5 million gallons
per day, on July 12 the city
went to phase 2. Although
still voluntarily, the request
from the city was more
specific, asking residents to
water lawns and gardens
only between 7 p.m. and
7 a.m., when evaporation
rates are lower and less
water is needed.
At the time, Owen said
she wants to avoid having
to move to phase 3, which
bans all outdoor use of city
water. The city has never
had to impose that restric-
tion, but Owen said that
if it is necessary, the city
would enforce the ban and
potentially issue fines of up
to $500 to violators.
With the significant drop
in water use on Sunday,
Owen said the city didn’t
need to pump water from
its well to supplement its
main source, the springs
and streams in the 10,000-
acre watershed on the
east slopes of the Elkhorn
Mountains west of town.
On Sunday the city used
water from the watershed
and from Goodrich Lake,
which, along with the well,
is the city’s supplementary
supply.
“I would like to think
the trend would continue,
but with more hot weather
coming I believe that is
just wishful thinking,”
Owen wrote in an email
to the Herald on Monday
morning.
The weekend rain
wasn’t heavy enough in the
watershed to temporarily
cloud any streams with
silt, which sometimes hap-
pens after thunderstorms,
Owen said. That meant
the city didn’t have to stop
using any of the watershed
sources, which made it pos-
sible to temporarily cease
pumping from the well.
Hudson contends that
the earliest record of a
road that follows, at least
in places, the route of the
current gated section of the
Connor Creek Road is a
1938 federal survey — one
done at least 15 years after
the property Longgood now
owns became private, thus
negating a later public
route claim under RS 2477.
Although the people who
owned the property before
Longgood bought it allowed
public access on that sec-
tion of the Connor Creek
Road, by doing so they did
not forfeit their legal right
to close the road across
their property, Hudson
wrote in his response in
2020.
Hudson also wrote in his
letter to Sullivan that in
1978 the Bureau of Land
Management negotiated an
easement to use the Con-
nor Creek Road to allow
logging on public land in
the area. That easement
“expressly acknowledged
that the road was private
and might be locked by the
owner,” Hudson wrote.
Hudson also contends
that the county, prior to
passing the Connor Creek
Road resolution in 2002,
failed to notify the previous
owners of Longgood’s prop-
erty that commissioners
were considering declaring
the entire road as public
under RS 2477, includ-
ing the section that runs
through that property.
Instead, Hudson notes,
the original purpose of com-
missioners’ 2002 actions
was to ensure public access
at the eastern end of the
Connor Creek Road, where
it was temporarily blocked
by a gate at the privately
owned mine parcel.
The county failed to
notify the owners of the
property Longgood now
owns that the 2002 resolu-
tion was not limited to the
section of the Connor Creek
Road passing through the
mine property, but in fact
encompassed the entire
road, including the sec-
tion, several miles from
the mine, that crosses the
Longgood parcel.
Hudson also writes
that the county has not
surveyed the section of the
Connor Creek Road that
crosses Longgood’s prop-
erty.
More Coverage
Wet Weekend
Although Aug. 1 was the
rainiest day at the Baker City
Airport in more than two
months, showers and storms
were relatively stingy there
during the weekend compared
with some other sites in Baker
County.
Rainfall totals, from Satur-
day, July 31 through Sunday,
Aug. 1, at other measuring
sites:
• Yellow Pine campground
(along Highway 26 northwest
of Unity): 1.11 inches• Morgan
Mountain (north of Interstate
84 near Huntington): 0.73
• Oregon Trail Interpretive
Center: 0.60
• Sparta Butte (north of
Richland): 0.39