COMMUNITY
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2021
Baker City
Population
Baker City’s population
has been unusually
steady, among Oregon
cities with more than
5,000 residents. Most of
those cities have grown
over the past several
decades, at varying
rates, but Baker City’s
population has stayed
between 9,134 and 9,986
since the 1940 Census.
The city’s population, at
each U.S. Census:
1880 — 1,258
1890 — 2,604
1900 — 6,663
1910 — 6,742
1920 — 7,729
1930 — 7,858
1940 — 9,342
1950 — 9,471
1960 — 9,986
1970 — 9,354
1980 — 9,471
1990 — 9,140
2000 — 9,860
2010 — 9,828
2020 — 10,099
Contributing trends
Based on statistics over the
Continued from Page A1
past decade, it appears that
The city didn’t approach
the city’s population increase
that level during the three
over the past decade was
subsequent national censuses, driven by people moving to
although its population didn’t the area.
drop signifi cantly either.
According to the Oregon
The fi gure of 9,140 for the
Health Authority, Baker
1990 Census was the city’s
County recorded 2,096 deaths
lowest since 1930 (7,858).
and 1,625 births from 2010-19
In the two ensuing head
— a net loss of 471 residents.
counts, however, Baker City
Those are county totals, but
again pushed close to the
about 80% of the total births
10,000 ceiling — 9,860 in
were to residents in the 97814
2000 and 9,828 in 2010.
ZIP code, and about 77% of
the deaths. That ZIP code,
What does it mean?
however, does include parts of
Besides that additional
Baker Valley and other areas
digit, the city’s jump above
outside the Baker City limits.
10,000 means Baker City is
Another telling statistic is
now considered a “medium-
the number of active utility
sized” city rather than a small accounts inside the city.
one, said Holly Kerns, director
That number rose by 128
of the Baker City/County
from December 2015 to De-
Planning Department.
cember 2020, according to the
“It triggers a number of
city — from 4,151 to 4,279.
new requirements for Baker
History of population
City that haven’t been in
stability
place before,” Kerns said.
Longtime Baker County
“Medium-sized cities are re-
quired to do an annual report historian Gary Dielman, who
on the housing units that are lives in Baker City, said the
city reaching 10,000 popula-
permitted and produced.”
Baker City is also required tion is a “milestone.”
But Dielman, a 1957 Baker
to conduct a housing needs
High School graduate, said he
analysis every six to eight
hopes that milestone doesn’t
years, followed by a housing
signify the sort of trend that
production strategy, Kerns
almost every sizeable Oregon
said.
city has experienced over the
Baker City Mayor Kerry
past few decades.
McQuisten said the Census
“Growth is not a good word
fi gure wasn’t surprising, con-
for me,” Dielman said. “I’ve
sidering Portland State had
projected the city’s population been very happy that Baker’s
population has remained
had surpassed 10,000.
“We were anticipating that stable.”
Dielman cited Bend as
this would be the case for
the most notable example in
several months,” McQuisten
Oregon of the sort of popula-
said.
10,000
SURGE
Continued from Page A1
But the trend reversed
starting with the fi nal week of
July, with the then-record of
68 cases.
Due to a backlog of case
investigations, Staten said she
doesn’t have data for August
regarding breakthrough cases
— fully vaccinated people who
test positive for COVID-19 —
or an age group breakdown
of cases.
Those statistics are avail-
able through July, however.
Breakthrough cases
According to the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA),
Baker County has had 15
breakthrough cases through
July 31.
That represents 2.3% of the
county’s total cases — 647 —
recorded from Jan. 1, a week
or so before the fi rst county
residents were fully vacci-
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
A coronavirus particle.
nated, through July 31.
Based on OHA reports, the
rate of breakthrough cases
has risen recently as the more
contagious delta variant
became the predominant coro-
navirus strain.
The agency’s most recent
report showed that 19% of
cases statewide during July
were in fully vaccinated resi-
dents. That report did not list
MOSQUITOES
The Baker Valley Vector
Control District maintains
a network of more than two
dozen mosquito traps across
the 200,000-acre district,
which includes most of Baker,
Bowen and Keating valleys.
Matt Hutchinson, the
director’s manager, sends
“pools” of mosquitoes —
generally 10 to 50 insects
— to a lab at Oregon State
University in Corvallis where
the bugs are tested for West
Nile virus.
In 2020 Hutchinson sent
more than 230 pools of mos-
quitoes for testing, but none
was positive for the virus.
It was just the second year
in the past decade — the
other was 2018 — when West
Nile virus was not found in
mosquitoes in Baker County.
In 2019, by contrast, the
virus was detected in four
mosquito pools. Two Baker
County residents also con-
tracted the virus that year, as
did one horse.
This summer, West Nile
was fi rst confi rmed in mosqui-
toes trapped on July 19 about
15 miles east of Baker City. It
was the fi rst confi rmation of
the virus in Oregon in 2021.
The infected mosquitoes
were collected from a trap put
out by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
(ODFW).
Ontario
Population
Pendleton
Population
La Grande
Population
1910 — 1,248
1910 — 4,460
1910 — 4,843
1920 — 2,039
1920 — 6,837
1920 — 6,913
1930 — 1,941
1930 — 6,621
1930 — 8,050
1940 — 3,551
1940 — 8,847
1940 — 7,747
1950 — 4,465
1950 — 11,774
1950 — 8,635
1960 — 5,101
1960 — 14,434
1960 — 9,014
1970 — 6,523
1970 — 13,197
1970 — 9,645
1980 — 8,814
1980 — 14,521
1980 — 11,354
1990 — 9,392
1990 — 15,126
1990 — 11,766
2000 — 10,985
2000 — 16,354
2000 — 12,327
2010 — 11,366
2010 — 16,612
2010 — 13,082
2020 — 11,645
2020 — 17,107
2020 — 13,026
tion growth he hopes never
happens in Baker City.
Baker City and Bend
were of similar size until
the 1970s, when the latter
city began a growth spurt
that accelerated rapidly in
the last decade of the 20th
century.
In 1930, Bend was only
slightly larger than Baker
City, with 8,848 residents to
Baker City’s 7,858.
Bend’s margin widened
over the next few decades
but not dramatically — in
the 1970 Census Bend’s
population had grown to
13,710, while Baker City was
home to 9,354 residents.
By 1990 Bend was more
than twice as large, with
20,469 residents to Baker
City’s 9,140.
During the 1990s, though,
Bend’s population more than
doubled, reaching 52,029 by
the 2000 Census.
Baker City, meanwhile,
has had comparatively minor
fl uctuations in its population
over the decades, gaining
residents during the 1950s,
1970s and 1990s, but losing
residents during the 1960s,
1980s and 2000s. None of
those changes, however, was
more than 7.9% (an increase
from 1990 to 2000).
Neighboring cities along
the I-84 corridor, by contrast,
have all grown during that
period, albeit at rates much
below those of Bend.
La Grande, for instance,
gained residents every de-
cade from 1950 to 2010, with
the largest increase being
17.7% during the 1970s.
La Grande surpassed
Baker City during the 1960s,
reaching a population of
9,645 in the 1970 Census, to
Baker City’s 9,354.
Ontario has added resi-
dents in every decade since
the 1930s, and Pendleton’s
population has grown every
decade except the 1960s,
when it dropped by 8.6%.
how many of Baker County’s
15 total breakthrough cases
happened during July.
Of the 55 COVID-19-relat-
ed deaths in Oregon during
July, 82% were people who
weren’t vaccinated, according
to OHA.
The two age groups with
the highest vaccination rates
in Baker County — 80 and
older, at 68.4%, and 70 to 79
years, at 65.8% — accounted
for 6.8% of the county’s cases
during July.
Lamb blamed Baker
County’s vaccination rate for
the surge in cases in the Aug.
12 press release.
The county’s vaccination
rate of 47.7% among residents
18 and older ranks eighth-
lowest among Oregon’s 36
counties. The statewide aver-
age is 70.2%.
The rest of the July age
group breakdown in Baker
County, along with vaccina-
tion rates.
• 40 to 49 years, 19%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 40.2%; statewide,
69.6%
• 50 to 59 years, 13.8%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 42.7%; statewide, 70%
• 60 to 69 years, 12.9%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 53.2%; statewide,
75.8%
• 30 to 39 years, 12%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 30.4%; statewide,
66.3%
• 10 to 19 years, 7%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 23.3%; statewide,
52.8%
• 70 to 79, 4.3%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 65.8%; statewide,
84.9%
• Ages 80 and older, 2.5%
Vaccination rate in Baker
County, 68.4%; statewide,
78.6%
• Ages 5 to 9, 0.9%
(Not eligible for vaccines)
Staten said that although
she doesn’t have fi nal statis-
tics for the county for the fi rst
half of August, preliminary
data show that the largest
percentage of new cases this
month are among people in
their 30s.
on Sunday, Aug. 15.
Hutchinson and his work-
ers have also been spreading
larvicide — products that
kill mosquito larvae before
they hatch into biting adults
— in the Keating Valley and
elsewhere in the district.
In parts of Baker Valley
between Baker City and
Haines, including the area
where the infected mosqui-
toes were trapped on Aug.
3, culex tarsalis populations
have been rising but aren’t
as high as in the Keating
Valley.
Hutchinson said he has
been using fogging trucks,
which spray insecticide that
kills adult mosquitoes, in the
Baker Valley, but he will call
in the airplane if numbers
rise high enough.
Inside Baker City, com-
plaint calls about mosquitoes
have been about half the rate
from 2020, Hutchinson said.
The Vector Control Dis-
trict, which receives money
from two property tax levies,
uses backpack and truck-
mounted foggers to deal with
infestations inside the city,
Hutchinson said.
He advises people, and in
particular those who live and
work in places where mos-
quitoes are prevalent, to take
precautions to avoid bites,
including applying repellent,
wearing pants and long-
sleeved shirts, and trying to
avoid being outside at dawn
and dusk, when the bugs
tend to be most active.
Hutchinson also reminds
residents to check their prop-
erties for sources of standing
water, such as old tires or
bird baths, where mosquitoes
can lay their eggs.
Age breakdown
The largest share of Baker
County cases during July —
27.6% — were people in their
20s, according to the Health
Department.
That age group has the
third-lowest vaccination rate
in the county, at 30.7% (state-
wide, 60.2% of residents from
age 20 to 29 are vaccinated,
according to OHA).
The second-lowest vaccina-
tion rate is among the 30-39
age range, at 30.4%. The low-
est is 12- to 17-year-olds, who
have been eligible only since
May. Their vaccination rate
is 19.5%. The rate among 18-
and 19-year-olds is 39%.
West Nile virus
in Baker County
Continued from Page A1
2020
No positive tests
2019
4 mosquito pools,
2 people, 1 horse
2018
No positive tests
2017
9 mosquito pools
Michelle Gabel/mgabel@syracuse.com-TNS
2016
Mosquitoes can transmit West Nile virus to humans.
9 mosquito pools
Hutchinson said ODFW
for the past few years has
been collecting mosquitoes in
habitat for sage grouse, a bird
that has been a candidate for
federal protection due to its
dwindling populations. He
said sage grouse are among
the birds that are vulnerable
to West Nile virus. The virus
can also kill crows, ravens,
magpies and jays, and
Hutchinson said birds of prey
are also susceptible.
More recently, the virus
was detected in mosquitoes
from fi ve additional pools
in the county. Four were
trapped on Aug. 4 in the
Keating Valley, about 12
miles east of Baker City, and
one pool was collected Aug.
3 from a trap set about four
miles north of Baker City,
2015
Hutchinson said.
Mosquitoes from an
ODFW trap, in the same area
of sage grouse habitat, also
tested positive for West Nile
in late July.
The county’s total of seven
infected pools of mosquitoes
is “pretty typical,” Hutchin-
son said.
In general, mosquito num-
bers have been below average
this summer, he said, a trend
he attributes to the drought
and the resulting scarcity of
standing water where mos-
quito eggs hatch.
But the populations of
culex tarsalis mosquitoes,
the permanent water species
most likely to carry the virus,
have been rising over the
past couple weeks, espe-
cially in the Keating Valley,
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
4 mosquito pools
2014
8 mosquito pools,
4 people, 1 horse
2013
13 mosquito pools
Source: Oregon Health Authority
Hutchinson said. All fi ve
of the recent infected pools
of mosquitoes were culex
tarsalis.
Due to that trend, Hutchin-
son had arranged to have an
airplane spray insecticide in
parts of the valley. The fi rst
fl ight, scheduled for Friday,
Aug. 13, was postponed due
to low visibility from wildfi re
smoke, but the plane did fl y
“So much of who we are is
where we have been.”
Baker Valley Travel (541) 523-9353