Tour
Open
studios
PAGE 4
THURSDAY
BAKER VOLLEYBALL, GIRLS AND BOYS SOCCER IN ACTION: SPORTS, A5
SEPTEMBER 22–29, 2021
Learn
Heritage
Harvest
PAGE 7
Watch
Live (online)
dance
PAGE 18
WWW.GOEASTERNOREGON.COM
Elgin Opera House
opens ‘Matilda’ Oct. 1
PAGE 8
Lisa Britton/Go! Magazine
Abigale Roulet, left, and Rebecca Austin rehearse a dance for “Matilda,” which opens Oct. 1 at the Elgin Opera House.
“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
September 23, 2021
IN THIS EDITION:
Your weekly guide
to arts and
entertainment
events around
Northeast Oregon
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
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Three more
COVID-19
deaths
Baker City Herald
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
A harvester pours potatoes into a truck in a fi eld at Blatchford Farms in Baker Valley on Tuesday morning,
Sept. 21. The machine dumps 30,000 pounds of spuds into the truck in about three minutes.
INSIDE TODAY
Special section features
job opportunities in the
county and region.
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Tom
Jeffords of Baker City.
BRIEFING
Family Literacy
Night Saturday at
Calvary Baptist
A family literacy night
event is planned for Satur-
day, Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m.
at Calvary Baptist Church,
Third and Broadway streets
in Baker City. Please bring
a favorite children’s book.
Participants will read, play
games, and have milk and
cookies. Books donated by
the Baker County Commu-
nity Literacy Coalition.
WEATHER
Today
74 / 33
Sunny
Friday
79 / 39
Sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Harvest Time
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The fi nal morning of
summer comes cloudless to
the Baker Valley, the brown
sedimentary slopes of the
nearby Elkhorns seem-
ingly etched against the
dark blue background, and
below, at Blatchford Farms,
a mechanical ballet has
begun.
This is not a typical bal-
let, to be sure.
In place of the soft sooth-
ing strains of an orchestra
there is the atonal rumble
of diesel trucks and the
clatter of conveyor belts.
Instead of clean shoes
sliding across polished
wood there is a haze of dust
and the crunch of leather
boots and waist-high tires
on gravel.
Yet the movements of
the massive machines have
about them a certain grace,
a fl uidity and a precision
that suggest the thorough
preparation that precedes
all sorts of performances on
all sorts of stages.
There is, however, no
audience here.
The annual potato har-
vest at Blatchford Farms,
in the heart of the valley
about nine miles northwest
of Baker City, happens
without spectators.
Tuesday morning, Sept.
21, was the second day of a
harvest that Jess Blatch-
ford expects will take 12 or
13 days.
During that time his crew
of about a dozen workers,
some operating a harvester
or windrower in the fi elds,
some driving spud-laden
trucks, some working in
the massive dome-shaped
storage cellars, will gather
potatoes from 550 acres.
As soon as one truck
backs into its assigned spot,
Blatchford pushes a conveyor
belt into place. The driver
opens the back of the truck
and a brown fl ood begins to
tumble onto the belt, a con-
stant hollow cacophony.
Each truck holds about
30,000 pounds of potatoes,
Blatchford said.
And it takes just about
three minutes to fi ll a truck
out in the fi eld.
Ideally, Blatchford said,
the fi rst truck of the day rolls
in around 8 a.m. The crew
usually fi nishes by around
6 p.m.
The conditions on this
day, at the cusp of the transi-
tion between seasons, is
pretty near perfect for bring-
ing in the crop, Blatchford
said.
Hardly a breath of wind.
The temperature dipped
below freezing — this is
one of the low spots in the
See, COVID/Page A3
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Jess Blatchford checks the internal temperature of
a potato before it moves into a storage cellar on
Tuesday, Sept. 21.
valley and thus a cold one,
since cold air, being rela-
tively heavy, tends to pool in
depressions — but it wasn’t
chilly enough to make the
newly dug potatoes suscep-
tible to bruising, Blatchford
said.
And with the afternoon
temperature predicted to rise
only into the low 70s, he said
there’s little risk that the
spuds’ interior temperature
will get too warm. If the pulp
temperature hits about 70, it
can be diffi cult for the pota-
toes to cool off suffi ciently as
they pile up inside the cellar.
Every half hour or so
Blatchford plucks a few
spuds from the conveyor
belt and pierces them with a
handheld thermometer.
Around 9:15 a.m. on Tues-
day, the pulp temperature
was running between 48 and
50, which he said is fi ne.
The ideal harvest
conditions are particularly
welcome, Blatchford said, fol-
lowing a growing season that
was decidedly not ideal.
During the record-setting
heatwave the last week of
June, potatoes essentially
went into dormancy, he said.
He expects yields will be
down about 15% from usual.
Restaurants qualify for COVID aid
Businesses could
potentially receive
nearly $3 million
federal grants.
The Small Business
Administration announced
this summer that it had
approved more than half a
By JAYSON JACOBY
billion dollars in Restaurant
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Revitalization Fund grants
A total of 11 Baker
to about 2,300 Oregon food
City restaurant and bar
and drink businesses.
owners who sustained
The fund ran out of its
fi nancial losses due to the
COVID-19 pandemic could allocation in early July,
receive nearly $3 million in but industry groups and
others, including a member
of Oregon’s congressional
delegation, are lobbying
for Congress to restart the
program with $60 billion.
According to the Small
Business Administration,
there were far more ap-
plications during the initial
round than there was money
available. Oregon had almost
5,000 businesses apply for
grants, totaling $1.2 billion,
more than twice the amount
businesses in the state have
been approved for.
The Restaurant Revital-
ization Fund (RRF) was part
of the American Rescue Plan
Act that Congress approved,
and President Biden signed,
in March.
See, Restaurants/Page A3
Baker County tourism manager
takes job with city of La Grande
Tourism through Oct. 15, ac-
cording to a press release.
Timothy Bishop, who
He is scheduled to start
has been Baker County’s
contracted tourism market- the new job for La Grande on
Oct. 21.
ing director for the past 11
Bishop worked as the
years, has been hired as the
economic development direc- downtown manager for
tor for the city of La Grande. Historic Baker City Inc. in
Bishop will continue in his the 1990s, and then worked
position with Baker County on downtown revitalizations
Baker City Herald
TODAY
Issue 58, 32 pages
Business .................... B1
Classified ............. B2-B4
Comics ....................... B5
Three Baker County
residents died in a seven-day
period earlier this month after
testing positive for COVID-19.
Those deaths bring the
September total to four, and
the county’s total during the
pandemic to 23.
The Oregon Health Au-
thority reported two deaths on
Wednesday, Sept. 22.
• A 70-year-old man who
tested positive on Sept. 3 died
on Sept. 18 at Saint Alphon-
sus Medical Center in Boise.
The presence of underlying
medical conditions is being
investigated.
• An 83-year-old man who
tested positive on Sept. 3 died
on Sept. 16 at Saint Alphon-
sus Medical Center in Boise.
The presence of underlying
medical conditions is being
investigated.
The county’s 21st COVID-
related death was reported on
Tuesday, Sept. 21. A 62-year-
old man who tested positive
on Sept. 8 died on Sept. 12
at his residence, according to
OHA. The presence of under-
lying medical conditions is
being investigated.
in Walla Walla, Washington,
and Ellensburg, Washington.
He said he’s eager to
start his new position in La
Grande.
“As a small college town
in Eastern Oregon with an
emerging tourism industry,
La Grande feels very similar
to other communities that
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B3 & B4
Dear Abby ................. B6
I’ve worked in like El-
lensburg and Walla Walla,”
Bishop said. “I’m excited to
join the economic develop-
ment team and am looking
forward to helping the City of
La Grande develop a stron-
ger and more resilient local
economy as we work through
the post COVID recovery.”
Horoscope ........B3 & B4
Letters ........................A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
Free
fi rewood
cutting on
national
forests
starting
in 2022
Baker City Herald
People who cut fi rewood on
national forests in Northeast-
ern Oregon for their own use,
but not for sale, will no longer
have to pay for cutting permits
starting in 2022.
The Forest Service an-
nounced this week that it is
transitioning to a free per-
sonal use fi rewood system for
national forests in the Pacifi c
Northwest.
The current cost for fi re-
wood permits is $5 per cord.
People who want to sell
fi rewood they cut on national
forests can buy permits for $5
per cord.
See, Firewood/Page A6
Durkee RV
park tenants
fi le lawsuit
Tenants say water
was illegally turned off
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Four residents at a mobile
home and RV park in Durkee
who say the park’s owner shut
off their water have fi led a
lawsuit seeking a court order
requiring that the owner turn
the water on.
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
Opinion ......................A4
SATURDAY — NEW NONPROFIT SEEKS TO HELP CHILDREN, PARENTS
See, Durkee/Page A6
Senior Menus ...........A2
Sports ........................A5
Weather ..................... B6