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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2022)
LOCAL A3 SPORTS A6 SPORTS A8 Trooper comes to rescue of hungry high schoolers Baker girls 1st, boys 2nd at Vale track meet Baker baseball nips Philomath on walkoff HR Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • HOME & LIVING • SPORTS QUICK HITS ————— Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Rosemary Keeter of Baker City. BRIEFING ————— Kindergarten screenings set April 28 April 28, for children who have not been screened at preschool. The results will be shared with parents/ guardians, current pre- school teachers and incom- ing kindergarten teachers to make class placements and improve instructional practices. Appointments are avail- able April 28 between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. To reserve a screening time, call Emoke Marvin at Baker Early Learn- ing Center, 541-523-2310, or email her at emoke. marvin@bakersd.org. More appointments will be added if needed. City begins testing fi re hydrants The Baker City Public Works Department started its annual fi re hydrant test- ing and water line fl ushing Monday, April 25, and the campaign will continue for about two to three weeks. This work is done each year to fl ush sediment from the water system and ensure all hydrants are functioning properly and are delivering water at the correct pressure and volume. Through this, small silt- like particles may become stirred up after settling in water lines that are less active. This can make water run cloudy temporarily. WEATHER ————— Today 50/30 Showers Wednesday 53/31 Mostly cloudy Full forecast on the back of the B section. The space below is for a postage label for issues that are mailed. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022 • $1.50 City Council to discuss new labor contract, train quiet zone measure Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald Elk Creek, in the Elkhorn Mountains southwest of Baker City, on Friday, April 22, 2022. Recent storms have slightly improved the drought situation in Northeastern Oregon. APRIL SHOWERS Baker City Herald The Baker City Council will consider approving a three-year contract with the largest of the city’s three labor unions on Tuesday, April 26. The Council meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 1655 First St. The current contract with the Baker City Employees Association expires June 30, 2022. The union represents about 40 of the city’s approximately 75 employees, most of them in the public works department. The proposed contract calls for salary increases between 3% and 5% each year, the actual amount based on the federal Consumer Price Index. The city has two other unions. One represents most police officers, the other represents most firefighters. take a slight bite out of the drought BY JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com or Curtis Martin the evidence is the green grass among the sagebrush, and for Mark Ward it’s the brown mud clinging to his boots. F The fresh white coat adorning lower slopes of the Elkhorn and Wallowa Mountains helps to tell the tale as well. April has delivered a modicum of relief to drought-stricken Northeast- ern Oregon. A shift in the weather pattern has allowed a series of relatively damp storms to sweep into the region over the past couple weeks, and the results are visible in Martin’s grass, Ward’s mud and those snowy mountains. Through the first 24 days of April, precipitation at the Baker City Air- port totaled 0.77 of an inch. That’s not a deluge, to be sure — but it’s more moisture than the air- port recorded for the whole of the previous three months. The total for January, February and March was a meager 0.67 of an inch — 30% of average for that three-month period. The arid start to 2022 left crop fields parched and rangelands dusty. But today, in the wake of storms that dropped both rain and, on sev- eral days, significant amounts of snow, the situation is quite different. “It’s dramatically better, especially the rangeland grasses,” said Martin, a cattle rancher who lives near North Powder. “It’s been a huge, huge help.” Ward, whose family grows pota- toes, peppermint, wheat and alfalfa in the Baker Valley, agreed. “April’s been a big help,” Ward said See, Council/Page A3 on Monday morning, April 25. “Any moisture is welcome.” Both Ward and Martin said the situation just a few weeks ago, when Pacific storms were still be- ing shunted to the north and mostly missing Northeastern Oregon, was more dire. “I think it looked as bad as I could ever remember it looking for that time of year,” said Martin, who’s a member of the Oregon Beef Council and a past president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. Martin said the grass that he and other ranchers depend on to fatten their cattle during spring and sum- mer had yet to appear from its win- ter dormancy. But now, after the frequent rain and snow over the past two weeks, the grass “is coming on strong,” Martin said. He said the warmer temperatures of the past few days — the high of 63 at the Baker City Airport on Sunday, April 24, was the second-warmest of the month — have helped invigorate this year’s grass crop as well. Ward, who is preparing to plant potatoes later this week, doesn’t be- grudge muddy patches in the fields. “If I’m rained out of a field I’m tickled to death,” he said. Ward said that in one way condi- tions are actually better this spring, even before the recent storms, than they were the past two years. “There is more moisture in the soil than either of the past two years,” he said. “We’re not working totally dry soil, so that’s a plus.” Ward also said it seems to him that the winds, which can leach moisture from the soil relatively rap- idly, haven’t been quite as persistent this spring, although there have been blustery days. Neither Ward nor Martin believes the drought has significantly waned despite the recent beneficial trends. Ward pointed out that Phillips Reservoir, along the Powder River about 17 miles southwest of Baker City, is just 10% full after reaching it lowest level last fall since it first filled in 1968. “We’re not out of the woods by a large margin — and we’re not going to get out of the woods this year due to the lack of carryover in the reser- voir,” Ward said. He credits Jeff Colton, manager of the Baker Valley Irrigation District, for crafting a plan to dole out water from the reservoir this spring. Ward said that although farmers won’t receive anything close to the volume of water they would were the reservoir full or nearly so, he believes Colton’s plan is the best option given the dire situation. Oregon wolf population grows slightly BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Oregon’s wolf population increased by just two individuals in 2021, according to the state Department of Fish and Wild- life, while the number of wolf deaths was the highest yet in a single year. ODFW released its annual wolf re- port on Tuesday, April 19, document- ing 175 wolves compared to 173 in 2020. The count is a minimum estimate based on verified evidence, such as wolf sightings, tracks and remote camera photographs. A total of 26 wolves died in 2021, in- cluding 21 killed by humans. Of those, four were hit by vehicles, eight were il- legally poisoned, one was legally shot by a rancher on private property and another eight were killed by ODFW af- ter habitually preying on livestock. Roblyn Brown, ODFW wolf pro- gram coordinator, said last year’s rise in mortalities “certainly played a role” in the latest population survey remaining mostly flat. “Despite this, we are confident in the continued health of the state’s wolf pop- ulation as they expand in distribution across the state and show a strong up- ward population trend,” Brown said in a statement. See, Drought/Page A5 See, Wolves/Page A5 Salt licks coming back to the block Great Salt Lick Contest and Auction returning in September BY LISA BRITTON lbritton@bakercityherald.com The most curious of art shows is coming back to Baker City this fall. “People liked it so much. And it’s a fun event,” said founder Whit De- schner. The Great Salt Lick Contest and Auction returns Sept. 17, 2022. The theme is “Bringing Agriculture to Culture.” That evening, viewing begins at 5:30 p.m. at Churchill School, and the auction starts at 6:30 p.m. This art show, which last happened in 2019, requires some preparation because every entry must first be sculpted by the tongues of livestock or wildlife. Salt blocks can be entered at any time at Oregon Trail Livestock Sup- ply in Baker City. Submissions can be taken to Chur- chill beginning the last week of August. TODAY Issue 146 12 pages Classified ....................B4-B6 Comics ..............................B7 Community News.............A2 Broadcasting’s “Oregon Art Beat.” The Great Salt Lick has been fea- tured by Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Smithsonian’s website, and in art museums in Chicago, Vancou- ver, B.C., and the Guggenheim in Los Angeles. In downtown Baker City, a larg- er-than-life bronze salt lick at Court Plaza honors the homegrown event. This piece was supported by the Ford Family Foundation. Prizes will again be awarded in sev- eral categories. The cash awards — more than $1,000 worth — are sup- ported by sponsorships from local businesses and individuals. Those who would like to support the Great Salt Lick can contact De- schner at 541-519-2736 or deschner- whit@yahoo.com. The history Deschner had the idea for this un- usual art show in 2006 when he and his neighbor, Tom Heriza, noticed an artistically sculpted salt block. So Deschner asked another neigh- bor, Mib Dailey, if he’d be willing to be the auctioneer to help sell the submit- ted salt blocks. Dailey said yes — and he’s been the auctioneer ever since. “I wouldn’t have it without him,” Deschner said of Dailey. Each block is auctioned and the proceeds are donated to the Parkin- son’s Center at Oregon Health and Sci- ence University in Portland. Deschner was diagnosed with Par- kinson’s disease in 2000. Crossword ...............B4 & B6 Dear Abby .........................B8 Home & Living ............B1-B3 The rules Entry forms can be downloaded at https://whitdeschner.com/. There are four categories: • Overall • Best poem submitted with block • Best poem submitted without Since the first event in 2007, the block Great Salt Lick has raised $165,000 • Best Forgery for OHSU. There are several categories for The contest has garnered wide- prizes: People’s Choice, Forgeries, spread attention over the years. It was Most Artistically Licked Block, Best named the best Philanthropic Event by Poem with a Block and Best Poem the Oregon Festivals and Events Asso- Without a Block. ciation, and has appearned on NPR’s “And I’ll try to think of some new “Weekend Edition” and Oregon Public ones,” Deschner said. Whit Deschner/Contributed Photo It’s always entertaining when auctioneer Mib Dailey, left, and event founder Whit Deschner are talking about salt licks. The unique event returns in September 2022 after a two-year hiatus. Horoscope ..............B4 & B6 Lottery Results .................A2 News of Record ................A2 Opinion .............................A4 Senior Menus ...................A2 Sports ......................... A6-A8 Sudoku..............................B7 Turning Backs ..................A2 Weather ............................B8