THURSDAY
BAKER VOLLEYBALL, GIRLS SOCCER TEAMS IN ACTION: SPORTS, PAGE A5
SEPTEMBER 8–15, 2021
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Jon
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DISCOVER THE
Union County
Museum
AND LEARN ABOUT HERITAGE APPLES AT A SPECIAL TALK SEPT. 21
PAGE 8
Janet Dodson/Contributed photo
Cowboys: Then and Now is an exhibit at the Union County Museum.
“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
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GO! Magazine
September 9, 2021
IN THIS EDITION:
Your weekly guide
to arts and
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events around
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Truck
driver
killed
on I-84
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber David
Justus of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Red Cross plans
blood drive in
Baker City on
Monday, Sept. 13
The American Red Cross
has scheduled a blood
drive for Monday, Sept.
13, 2021, at the Baker City
Nazarene Church, 1250
Hughes Lane, from noon
to 6 p.m. To schedule an
appointment, call Myrna
Evans at 541-523-5368, or
go to redcrossblood.org.
Donors can still donate
after receiving a COVID-19
vaccine. Please note which
vaccine you received.
Fishing time limits
lifted in Oregon
With water tempera-
tures dropping, the “hoot
owl” restriction that
banned fi shing after 2
p.m. for some species
and some waterways has
ended in Oregon.
The restriction was in-
tended to protect salmon,
steelhead, trout and
sturgeon. Fishing is now
allowed for those species
from one hour before
sunrise until one hour after
sunset.
Other in-season fi shing
regulation changes are
still in effect including a
number of salmon and
steelhead closures or
special restrictions.
WEATHER
FOREST
OWNERS’
GROUP
REVIVED
Windshield
was struck by
detached axle from
a different truck
Baker City Herald
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File, 2019
Caleb Hawkins drills a core sample on a tree at Steve and Mickey Edwardses’ property near the Elkhorn
Mountains west of Baker City in 2019. Managing private forests is the main goal of the Oregon Small
Woodlands Association, which is a local chapter that has recently been revived and expanded to include
Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties.
Local chapter of Oregon
Small Woodlands Association
now includes Baker, Grant,
Union and Wallowa counties
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Private forest owners in Baker
County are reviving an organization
that helps members better manage
their timber ground, and this version
has expanded its geographic boundar-
ies considerably.
The newly constituted Northeast
Oregon chapter of the Oregon Small
Woodlands Association covers four
counties, said Jacob Putney, extension
forester for the Oregon State Univer-
sity Extension Service in Baker and
Grant counties.
Besides those two adjoining coun-
ties, the new chapter includes mem-
bers in Union and Wallowa counties.
“We all share the Blue Mountains,
and although there are differences,
for the most part the forest types are
somewhat similar,” Putney said.
See, Forest/Page A3
City consults with att orneys on possible suit
City Council voted Aug. 24 to look into legal
while indoors at school.
Councilors discussed
challenge to governor’s vaccine mandate
options including fi ling a law-
suit, or joining a lawsuit fi led
Councilors voted unani- by another city or county.
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Cannon said on Tuesday,
mously during their Aug.
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
24 meeting to have Cannon Sept. 7 that he has been
Baker City Manager
speaking with attorneys.
investigate the city’s pos-
Jon Cannon has been
“I have a couple potentials
sible options.
busy over the past week
Councilors heard during for them to think about, but
carrying out the City
that meeting from residents I haven’t gotten anything
Council’s order to look
who object to both the vac- that the council has wanted
into a possible lawsuit
to call a meeting for and talk
cine mandate, which also
challenging Oregon Gov.
about,” Cannon said.
applies to teachers and
Kate Brown’s mandate
He said he is gathering in-
other school workers, and
that health care workers
formation to present to coun-
to the requirement that
be vaccinated against
cilors at a future meeting.
students wear face masks
COVID-19.
The Council’s next
regular meeting is set for
Tuesday, Sept. 14.
Cannon said he has also
received many phone calls
from city, county and school
district offi cials from across
the state who are also
interested in possible legal
avenues to challenge the
governor’s executive orders.
“From east to west,
north to south, from a lot of
different entities,” Can-
non said.
See, Lawsuit/Page A3
Today
90 / 53
Mostly sunny
Friday
No growth on Rock Creek fi re
68 / 43
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Rain and storms
The Rock Creek fi re in the
Elkhorn Mountains about 13 miles
northwest of Baker City is 75% con-
tained, and it has not grown beyond
the estimated 60 acres that burned
on Aug. 30, the day the blaze was
reported.
The 25% of the fi re perimeter that
lacks control lines is in rocky terrain
so steep that it’s not accessible, Peter
Fargo, public affairs offi cer for the
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest,
said on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Firefi ghters will continue to check
for hotspots every other day this
week, with help from a helicopter,
Fargo said.
The Rock Creek Lake trail, No.
1626, remains closed.
The fi re was reported about 3 p.m.
on Aug. 30 in the upper part of the
Rock Creek canyon, a remote section
near the center of the Elkhorns about
1 1/4 miles northwest of Rock Creek
Lake.
There are no roads within one mile
of the fi re, and it was too dangerous
on the afternoon and evening of Aug.
30 to bring in fi refi ghters by helicop-
ter, fi re offi cials said.
But fi ve airplanes dropped fi re re-
tardant, and two helicopters dumped
water on the fl ames that day, the
pilots taking advantage of cliffs and
rockslides that served as natural fi re
barriers.
The Rock Creek canyon, which
runs roughly north-south, is bordered
on the west by cliffs, with the Elkhorn
Crest trail running just on the west
side of the ridgetop.
See, Fire/Page A3
A truck driver from
Idaho was killed Monday
evening, Sept. 6 on Inter-
state 84 in Baker County
when an axle with dual
tires detached from a
fl atbed trailer being towed
by another truck driving the
opposite direction, bounced
across the concrete barrier
in the center of the freeway
and crashed into the wind-
shield of his truck.
James Green, 50, of
Caldwell, was killed, accord-
ing to Oregon State Police.
The incident, which
closed the freeway for
about six hours, happened
at about 6:40 p.m. on I-84
near Milepost 338, about
34 miles southeast of Baker
City near the Lookout
Mountain exit.
According to OSP, Has-
sen Ibrahim, 38, of Dublin,
Ohio, was driving a com-
mercial truck westbound,
towing a fl atbed trailer.
The axle broke loose
from beneath the trailer
and went airborne. Green
was driving his truck in the
eastbound lanes, and the
tires landed on the cab and
windshield of his truck.
According to OSP,
Ibrahim stopped his truck,
chained up the broken axle
and continued driving west.
OSP troopers located him in
Baker City. OSP didn’t re-
lease any more information
about troopers’ encounter
with Ibrahim.
Neither Ibrahim nor
his passenger, Mohamed
Kulale, 61, was hurt.
OSP troopers are asking
anyone who saw the inci-
dent, and who haven’t been
interviewed, to contact OSP
and reference case SP21-
256040.
Also, witnesses reported
seeing a white male in a
commercial truck stop and
talk with Ibrahim. Troopers
also want to fi nd and inter-
view that driver as part of
OSP’s ongoing investigation.
Brown: curtailing school activities could curb COVID
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
full and case reports
are still 12 times
what they were in
early July.
The fragile ebb in
the worst of the crisis
will be challenged by
the fl ood of school-
children returning
Schools should
cancel or curtail
some extracurricular
activities to help Or-
egon maintain what
Brown
appears to be the
beginning of a decline
to class.
from record high numbers
“It is with mixed emotions
of COVID-19 infections, Gov.
that we are welcoming our
Kate Brown said Tuesday,
kids back to school at this
Sept. 7.
time,” said Brown during a
Multiple forecasts over
the past week showed a peak Tuesday morning press call.
Brown was joined by
in the two-month surge of
infections driven by the highly health and education offi cials
to announce additional,
contagious delta variant.
voluntary efforts to go along
Hospitals remain nearly
TODAY
Issue 52, 32 pages
Business ...........B1 & B2
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
with the mandatory vaccina-
tion of school employees and
mask mandates for students
and staff.
The state will issue School
Health Advisories on a
regular basis. The fi rst one,
announced Tuesday, asks
schools to cancel or curtail
extracurricular activities
through at least Oct. 1.
Back-to-school events
should be done online, if pos-
sible.
Schools should hold as
much activity outdoors as
possible, including school
meals and physical educa-
tion classes.
Community News ....A2
Crossword ........B2 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
“The safety protocols put
in place by your school not
only make it safer for every-
one, but they also help ensure
that our kids actually get to
stay in school,” said Colt Gill,
Oregon Education Depart-
ment director.
While children can get
ill from COVID-19, they
rarely get severely sick, Gill
said. But they can bring the
infections home with them
and spread it to at-risk people
such as the elderly and immu-
nocompromised.
Brown confi rmed her order
for mandatory vaccinations,
saying that staff who are not
Horoscope ........B2 & B4
Letters ........................A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
fully vaccinated cannot have
contact with students or other
school employees.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the
state’s epidemiologist, said
the Oregon Health Author-
ity was looking into an 8.8%
increase in the number of
new COVID-19 infections in
Marion County.
The uptick comes as the
Oregon State Fair in Salem
has just concluded. Brown
had ordered that crowded out-
door events have mandatory
masking rules, but television
reports from the fair showed
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
SATURDAY — TRAILHEAD STEWARDSHIP PROJECT’S SUMMER WORK
See, Brown/Page A3
Senior Menus ...........A2
Sports ........................A5
Weather ..................... B6