LOCAL A2
SPORTS A6
OUTDOORS B1
Noxious weed
of the week
Baker golf team
wins again
Mining the forest for
morel mushrooms
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Ron Lay
of Medical Springs.
BRIEFING
—————
City begins testing
fi re hydrants
The Baker City Pub-
lic Works Department
started its annual fi re
hydrant testing 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 temporar-
ily. If that happens in your
home or business, turn on
a cold water faucet outside
and let it run until the
water is clear.
If you use a water
fi ltration system, remem-
ber to clean the screen to
restore full water fl ow.
If your water continues
to be cloudy, call the city
water department at 541-
523-6541.
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
Aiming for
perfection
Baker students compete in
trapshooting league
Baker trapshooting
team members
These students have been
competing for the team: Jose
Arment, Remington Benson,
Anthony Betts, Liam Blair,
Sawyer Blatchford, Gauge
Bloomer, Charlie Boulter, Ryan
Brown, Cameron Conklin, Ma-
son Downing, Alsitie Elizondo,
Cody Eskew, Jaxon Ford, Ryan
Hansen, Gage Hatfield, Jack
Heriza, Seth Holden, Riley
Hurliman, Alex Jaca, Connor
Martin, Ethan Morgan, Sam
Nelson, Connor Norton, Matt
Rabourne, Cris Schuh, Keegan
Slobig, Skye Smith, Jimmy
Sullivan, Ethan Whiting, Alex
Wise, Joe Zikmund
meadowlark’s song graces the air in
the prairie just north of Baker City, but
Zack Kimball can’t hear the bird’s call.
He shields his eyes behind the
blue sheen of polarized lenses.
He holds his breath and yells,
“Pull!”
With a snap, his spinning
target flies out overhead, as
high as the power lines, orange
and rising.
Kimball’s eyes and hands
track the target, the barrel of
his shotgun swings and at the
squeeze of the trigger the target
disintegrates, its pieces flying
Search and
rescue teams
to gather in
Baker County
Training this weekend
involves teams from
10 E. Oregon counties
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
BY IAN CRAWFORD • icrawford@bakercityherald.com
A
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2022 • $1.50
away like a firework against a
dark sky.
Kimball smiles, pops the break
on his shotgun and reloads.
This is his third year serving
as a coach for the Baker School
District’s trapshooting team.
Three days a week he helps
the athletes hone their skills
at practices in preparation
for competitions.
See, Shooting/Page A3
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Riley Hurliman, a captain on the Baker
trapshooting team, takes aim during
a practice at the Baker Trap Club.
WEATHER
—————
Today
51/37
The searchers will clamber over logs and
rock outcroppings and wend their way be-
tween the pines, looking for someone who
isn’t actually lost.
But the status of the “victim” is the only
part of the episode that’s simulated.
Every other aspect of a
three-day training exer-
cise in the forests south-
west of Baker City is
designed to replicate, as
accurately as possible, a
real-life mission in which
lives are at stake.
The subject of the
Ash
search is a real person —
just not one who’s in danger.
“These are very realistic scenarios,” said
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash, who is
serving as host for the annual regional
training bringing together search and res-
cue members from the 10 counties that
comprise the Eastern Oregon Search and
Rescue group.
Ash expects about 60 people will gather
this weekend at Union Creek campground,
on the north shore of Phillips Reservoir,
about 17 miles southwest of Baker City.
They’ll represent nine other counties in
addition to Baker: Gilliam, Grant, Harney,
Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wal-
lowa and Wheeler.
The exercise started Friday, April 29,
and will continue through Sunday morn-
ing, May 1.
Ash said travelers in the area, which
includes the Union Creek Road north of
Highway 7, should expect to see official
vehicles from all the participating coun-
ties. Signs announcing the training will
be posted.
He doesn’t expect any traffic delays on
Highway 7 itself.
See, Training/Page A3
Rain showers
Sunday
Baker City
resident warns
of Medicare
phone scam
57/36
Partly cloudy
Monday
52/32
Morning showers
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Sam Nelson (left) and Anthony Betts, members of the Baker trap-
shooting team, during a practice on April 27, 2022.
Baker City Herald
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
April makes its mark with
chilly temperatures, rain
temperature during April was
in 2008, when the average was
23.8 degrees.
If you happened to see the snow
As for daily high temperatures,
squall that swept through Baker
this April, though much cooler
City on Thursday afternoon, April
28, and more so if a few of the slushy than average, won’t set a record.
The average high for the first 28
flakes trickled down your neck, the
following isn’t likely to surprise you. days was 51.7 degrees, almost 7 de-
April has been abnormally chilly. grees below average.
The coldest April by this mea-
And damp.
Whether the month sets any all- sure was 1955, when the average
high was 50.2 degrees. This year
-time temperature records might
come down to the matter of a hand- likely will rank fifth on the list, also
behind 1970 (average high of 50.8),
ful of degrees on its final two days.
But it will be a near thing regard- 1975 (50.9) and 2011 (51.4).
The temperature record most
less.
likely to fall is the average daily
Through April 29, the average
low temperature at the Baker City temperature, which combines the
Airport was 25.0 degrees.
average high and low temperatures
That’s the second coldest ever
for each day.
at the airport, where records date
Through April 28, the aver-
to 1943. The chilliest average low
age temperature was 38.3 de-
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 148
12 pages
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B2 & B4
grees, which is 6 degrees cooler
than usual.
The record-holder is April 2008,
when the average temperature at
the airport was 38.1.
This April has also been note-
worthy, as you’re probably noticed
by how frequently you’ve splashed
through puddles or turned on your
windshield wipers, for its rain (and
snow).
Through April 28, the airport
had recorded 1.07 inches of pre-
cipitation. It’s the first month in
almost two years with more than
1 inch — the most recent was May
2020, with 1.11 inches.
Although the total of 1.07 inches
exceeds April’s average of 0.80,
and is the largest amount for April
since 2012, it’s well below the re-
cord high of 3.58 inches in 1978.
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Phyllis Fox wasn’t about to tell the fast-
talking man on the telephone any of the
details on her Medicare enrollment card.
But she worries that other people might
be temporarily fooled by the phone scam.
Fox, who lives in Baker City, said the
caller, who spoke with a foreign accent,
told her Medicare would be sending her a
new card and that he needed the informa-
tion from her current card.
Fox said the call came on her home line
— she doesn’t have a cellphone.
After hanging up, she called a Medi-
care office and spoke with someone who
told her the agency had been “inundated”
recently with questions about similar
scam calls.
According to AARP, phone scams have
been common since the federal govern-
ment sent a new card to every Medicare
beneficiary between April 2018 and Jan-
uary 2019. The new cards are designed to
reduce the risk of identity theft.
Previous cards showed the person’s So-
cial Security number, but the new cards
use a unique, randomly assigned combi-
nation of numbers and letters — the Medi-
care Beneficiary Identifier.
In a common type of phone scam,
according to AARP, the caller asks the
Medicare recipient to verify personal in-
formation or pay a processing fee to acti-
vate the new card.
According to AARP, Medicare employ-
ees won’t call unless they’re responding to a
legitimate request from a beneficiary.
Opinion .............................A4
Outdoors ..........B1, B2 & B6
Senior Menus ...................A2
Sports ...............................A6
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6