A2 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2022
Local
TURNING BACK THE PAGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
May 30, 1972
The State Highway Department request for $75,000
to complete Campbell St. can be paid out of the 1972-73
budget, reported city recorder George Hiatt at last night’s
budget meeting.
Hiatt said $25,000 would be taken from contracted
services of the state tax street fund, and $50,000 out of
the street construction fund.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
May 30, 1997
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has postponed
by at least one week its plan to charge admission fees for
the fi rst time at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
The agency was scheduled to begin charging fees
Sunday. Admission has been free since the center opened
May 23, 1992.
But that changed because the booth where workers
will collect fees isn’t fi nished, said center director Dave
Hunsaker.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
May 30, 2012
Bill Ward’s computer room is now a study in world
history, from photographs of United States presidents to
the historic Alnwick Castle that became Hogwarts for the
Harry Potter fi lms.
And he can trace his connection to it all — 33
presidents, the Roayl family, Abraham Lincoln, Judy
Garland. He can follow his roots back thousands of years.
“All the way to the time of Christ,” he says.
This all started three years ago when Ward, 65, needed
something to do during the long winter.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
May 29, 2021
Jason Yencopal concedes that it seems a bit unusual
for Baker County offi cials to urge residents who feel fi ne to
be tested for COVID-19.
But more tests could be the key to the county
remaining at the lowest risk level, with the least stringent
restrictions on businesses and gatherings.
It’s a matter of math, said Yencopal, the county’s
emergency management director.
Specifi cally, it’s a matter of what percentage of
COVID-19 tests are positive in the county.
The positivity rate is one of two criteria the Oregon
Health Authority (OHA) uses to determine the county’s risk
level (the other is the number of COVID-19 cases).
The county returned to the lowest risk level on
Thursday, May 27. To stay there, the county needs to have
a positivity rate below 5%, based on two-week periods (the
current measuring period is May 16-29).
The problem, Yencopal said, is that although the
county’s number of new cases has plummeted during May,
so has the number of tests.
And that means even a moderate increase in cases
could push the positivity rate above 5%.
To cite a recent example, for the period May 23-27,
the county had fi ve new cases, an increase from two new
cases from May 16-22.
But because the total tests dropped from 133 (May
16-22) to 113 (May 23-27), the positivity rate rose from
1.5% to 4.4%.
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SENIOR MENUS
WEDNESDAY (June 1): Burger steak with onions, baked beans,
mixed vegetables, rolls, fruit cup, brownies
THURSDAY (June 2): Chili cheese dogs, tater tots, corn,
coleslaw, lemon squares
FRIDAY (June 3): Spaghetti with meat sauce, Italian
vegetables, garlic bread, salad, tapioca
MONDAY (June 6): Chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes
with gravy, corn, rolls, green salad, ice cream
TUESDAY (June 7): Beef burgundy over fettuccine noodles,
broccoli, rolls, green salad, fruit cup
Public luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., from
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $5 donation (60 and older), $7.50
for those under 60.
CONTACT THE HERALD
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Open Monday through Friday
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Telephone: 541-523-3673
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.com
Jayson Jacoby, editor
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Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays except Christmas Day by the
Baker Publishing Co., a part of EO Media
Group, at 2005 Washington Ave., Suite 101
(P.O. Box 807), Baker City, OR 97814.
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at Pendleton, Oregon 97801
Copyright © 2022
Wolves kill two calves in Grant County
BY STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
GRANT COUNTY — A
rancher on the Middle Fork of
the John Day River has become
Grant County’s second pro-
ducer to lose livestock to a con-
firmed wolf depredation.
The Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife reported
Monday, May 23, that wolves
in an area known to be used by
the Desolation Pack killed two
calves in the evening hours of
May 19.
Additionally, the ODFW re-
port noted that a GPS collar
placed wolves at the kill site
around the suspected time of
death of the second calf.
The report noted that the
location of the bite marks and
injuries to the calves was con-
sistent with wolf attacks on live
calves. The depredation, the
report said, has been attributed
to the Desolation Pack.
According to the report,
on Saturday, May 21, a live-
stock producer witnessed a
wolf feeding on the carcass of
a 1,000-pound cow. ODFW
officials estimated that the
cow died the previous night
and that, due to the absence
of pre-mortem bite marks or
hemorrhaging, the cow was
found not to have been at-
tacked while it was alive.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife attributed the confirmed depredation of two calves on the
Middle Fork of the John Day River to the Desolation Pack.
“The cause of death was
not wolf-related and so our
determination was ‘Other,’”
the report concluded.
The first confirmed wolf
depredation in Grant County
occurred in May 2021 on
Roy Vardanega’s Fox Valley
Ranch. Vardanega reported
that five of his cattle were at-
tacked and killed, although
only one of the deaths was
confirmed by ODFW as
wolf-related.
According to the Ore-
gon Wolf Conservation and
Management 2021 Annual
Report, the Desolation Pack
increased from five wolves to
nine this year.
A pack is defined as more
than four wolves traveling
together in the winter. The
Desolation Pack also met the
criterion of having a breed-
ing pair. A breeding pair is an
adult male and adult female
with at least two pups that sur-
vived to Dec. 31 in the year of
their birth.
Oxbow hatchery closing for renovation
Baker City Herald
OXBOW — Idaho Power
Company’s Oxbow Fish
Hatchery in Hells Canyon
will be closed to the pub-
lic beginning June 1 to al-
low workers to upgrade the
hatchery’s water intake sys-
tem.
Pending approval from fed-
eral regulators, an extensive
remodel and expansion of the
hatchery itself will begin later
this summer, extending the
facility’s closure through the
summer of 2024, according to
the Boise company.
Fish spawning and egg col-
lection at the hatchery will
continue during construc-
tion. The small campsite ad-
jacent to the hatchery will
be closed, but the hatchery
work will not impact Copper-
field Campground or other
facilities in the area. Visitors
should expect periods of in-
creased construction traffic.
The hatchery, at the mouth
are fertilized and go through
their first stages of develop-
ment here.
Eventually, the eggs are de-
livered to Niagara Springs
Hatchery south of Wendell,
Idaho, to hatch and grow for
approximately 11 months be-
fore they are ready for release
into the Snake River below
Hells Canyon Dam.
Idaho Power also traps
adult spring chinook salmon
from the Snake River for use
as broodstock at Rapid River
Hatchery near Riggins, Idaho.
Idaho Power Company/Contributed Photo Fish are trapped at Hells Can-
Idaho Power Company built its fish hatchery at Oxbow, about 70 miles yon Dam, temporarily held
at Oxbow Hatchery and then
east of Baker City in Hells Canyon, in 1961.
transferred to Rapid River
Hatchery.
of Pine Creek downstream
built as part of its hatchery
Oxbow Hatchery is owned
from the Oxbow Dam pow-
mitigation program.
and financed by Idaho Power
erhouse, was built in 1961
Adult steelhead are col-
and is a holding and spawn- lected in a trap at Hells Can- and operated and staffed by
the Idaho Department of Fish
ing facility for adult steelhead yon Dam and held to ma-
and Game. For additional in-
migrating up the Snake River, turity at Oxbow Hatchery
formation about Idaho Pow-
above its confluence with the where they are artificially
er’s hatchery programs, visit
Salmon River. Oxbow was the spawned by hatchery staff.
idahopower.com/fish.
first hatchery Idaho Power
More than 1 million eggs
Oregon faith leaders demand gun legislation
of gun magazines that hold
more than 10 rounds.
The Rev. W. J. Mark Knutson
As a bell at Portland’s Au-
gustana Lutheran Church rang of Augustana Lutheran Church,
one of the chief petitioners for
21 times Thursday, May 28
the initiative, said the campaign
— once for each victim in the
Texas school shooting — faith has collected 30,000 signatures
and needs a little over 112,000
leaders demanded the state’s
by July 8 to get it on the No-
elected officials enact legis-
vember ballot. The group hopes
lation to help prevent future
to get 140,000 signatures as a
mass shootings.
“cushion,” he said.
The group, members of
Knutson said the cam-
gun-advocacy group Lift Every
paign began shortly after the
Voice Oregon, also asked for
volunteers to help collect signa- 2018 mass shooting at Mar-
jory Stoneman Douglas High
tures to put Initiative Petition
School in Parkland, Florida,
17 on November’s ballot. The
initiative would require people where 17 students and staff
to get a permit and pass a back- were killed. The group at-
ground check before buying a tempted to get bills reflecting
gun, and it would stop the sale its initiatives heard in the Leg-
BY CATALINA GAITAN
The Oregonian
News of Record
FUNERAL PENDING
Carol Bouchard: Celebration of life,
Friday, June 10 at 4 p.m. at the Wolf
Creek Grange in North Powder.
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
SECOND-DEGREE CRIMINAL MISCHIEF:
Thomas Allen Talbott, 25, Baker City,
4:17 a.m. Saturday, May 28 in the
100 block of Bridge Street; cited and
released.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Arrests, citations
FAILURE TO APPEAR (Baker County
Justice Court warrant): Shyla Dawn
Melchoir, 33, Halfway, 3:23 p.m. Sunday,
May 29 in Halfway; cited and released.
THIRD-DEGREE THEFT: Pearl Naomi
Adair, 41, Baker City, 7:42 a.m. Sunday,
May 29 at the Baker County Jail, where
she was in custody on other charges.
SECOND-DEGREE CRIMINAL MISCHIEF
(Baker County Justice Court warrant):
Dale Rex Taylor, 81, Baker City, 12:27 p.m.
Saturday, May 28 in the 2900 block of
Walnut Street; cited and released.
PROBATION VIOLATION, FAILURE TO
APPEAR: Aubrey Scott Fryman, 35, Baker
City, 5:01 p.m. Friday, May 27 in the 3400
block of 13th Street; jailed.
U.S. Forest Service law enforcement
Arrests, citations
FAILURE TO APPEAR (Baker County
Circuit Court warrant): Joshua David
Givens, 28, Halfway, 3:23 p.m. Sunday,
May 29 on Fish Lake Road; jailed.
islature in 2019, but “nobody
wanted to touch it,” he said. In
2020, the COVID-19 pandemic
prevented volunteers from
gathering signatures.
Things this year are differ-
ent, however, Knutson said. A
legislative team reviewed the
constitutionality of the initia-
tive, and volunteers between
the ages of 12 and 94 are col-
lecting signatures for it across
the state.
“We have to take sensible
gun actions for public health
right now,” Knutson said. “If
people in offices of power
won’t, we will.”
More than a dozen people
spoke during the news confer-
ence, taking turns at a podium
placed in front of a banner cov-
ered in 440 “soul boxes” — each
representing a child under the
age 12 who had been killed or
injured by guns in the United
States this year, said Rabbi Mi-
chael Cahana of Portland’s
Congregation Beth Israel.
Cahana said Initiative Peti-
tion 17 is an opportunity for
those who own guns and those
who oppose owning them to
feel united.
“There is no need to own
weapons of war,” he said. “And
the people who are responsible
gun owners know this.”
During his speech, Cahana
read from a statement provided
by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Demo-
crat, who said he had “fought
long and hard to pass common
sense reforms” to reduce gun
violence in Oregon.
“I said (Wednesday) on the
Senate floor that if Republican
senators don’t have the moral
courage to act — to at least try
to prevent more of these mas-
sacres — that they ought to
go home and let someone else
See, Guns/Page A3
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