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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2022)
A2 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2022 Local TURNING BACK THE PAGES 50 YEARS AGO from the Democrat-Herald June 2, 1972 Statistics indicate that about 14.1 percent of all families in Baker County are living below the poverty level. That compares to 8.6 percent of the families in the state living in poverty, according to a report released by the Bureau of Governmental Research, University of Oregon. 25 YEARS AGO from the Baker City Herald June 2, 1997 While other parts of the country battled high winds, thunderstorms and tornadoes during the weekend, Baker City and Baker County were spared for the most part. Linda Richards, owner of Weather Plus at Baker City Municipal Airport, said wind gusts of 30 knots, or approximately 35 miles an hour, were reported Saturday afternoon. 10 YEARS AGO from the Baker City Herald June 1, 2012 The Baker City Budget Board gathered in late May to talk about the spending plan for the 2012-13 fi scal year, which starts July 1. One expense has received a lot of discussion: a big water tank. The tank would replace two tan-colored tanks that deliver water to nine homes on Scenic Vista Lane. The tanks were put up by a private developer in 2003, and the city took responsibility for maintenance of the tanks, as well as streets and other infrastructure in the subdivision, one year later. One tank has visible rust on the outside and is failing internally. The tanks were expected to last much longer — at least 20 years. ONE YEAR AGO from the Baker City Herald June 3, 2021 Noel Livingston and Joel McCraw ponder the coming fi re season with not a small amount of dread. In this sense the pair shares something in common with people across Oregon, and indeed across the West, whose task it is to deal with wildfi res. The combination of the drought affl icting much of the region, and fresh memories of the fi res that destroyed sections of several towns and killed 11 people in western and southern Oregon in September 2020, is a troubling concoction. But Livingston and McCraw, though their general concerns are typical of those in their business at the cusp of another potentially fi ery summer, have a perspective that’s notably different, in one key respect, from some of their counterparts. Livingston and McCraw work on the 2.3-million-acre Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Livingston is the Wallowa-Whitman’s fi re staff offi cer, McCraw the fi re management offi cer for the Whitman District in the southern half of the forest. When they consider the threats they’ll likely deal with over the next three months or so, Livingston and McCraw worry more about what’s going to happen thousands of feet up in the atmosphere, where electrical storms sometimes brew on hot summer afternoons, than what will transpire below, on the ground. And they have a strong statistical reason to expect trouble from above. On the Wallowa-Whitman over the past half century, lightning — not careless or intentionally destructive people — has sparked almost eight of every 10 blazes. OREGON LOTTERY MEGABUCKS, MAY 30 WIN FOR LIFE, MAY 30 9 – 17 — 26 — 38 — 40 — 46 27 — 33 — 38 — 77 Next jackpot: $1.5 million PICK 4, MAY 31 POWERBALL, MAY 30 • 1 p.m.: 2 — 2 — 3 — 1 • 4 p.m.: 6 — 8 — 3 — 0 • 7 p.m.: 1 — 4 — 5 — 6 • 10 p.m.: 2 — 2 — 8 — 6 27 — 28 — 51 — 68 — 69 PB 22 Next jackpot: $168 million MEGA MILLIONS, MAY 31 LUCKY LINES, MAY 31 6 — 15 — 41 — 63 — 64 Mega 24 4-5-9-13-18-21-27-32 Next jackpot: $50,000 Next jackpot: $189 million SENIOR MENUS 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 WEDNESDAY (June 8): Chicken cordon bleu with hollandaise, rice pilaf, green beans, Jell-O with fruit, cake THURSDAY (June 9): Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, mixed vegetables, rolls, three-bean salad, pudding 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 2005 Washington Ave., Suite 101 Open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telephone: 541-523-3673 ISSN-8756-6419 Serving Baker County since 1870 Publisher Karrine Brogoitti kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.com Jayson Jacoby, editor jjacoby@bakercityherald.com Advertising email ads@bakercityherald.com Classifi ed email classifi ed@bakercityherald.com Circulation email circ@bakercityherald.com 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. Subscription rates per month are $10.75 for print only. Digital-only rates are $8.25. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Baker City Herald, P.O. Box 807, Baker City, OR 97814. Periodicals Postage Paid at Pendleton, Oregon 97801 Copyright © 2022 Wyden announces first of 3 online town halls for veterans posals to reduce physical and WASHINGTON, D.C. — mental health services. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Or- This first veterans-focused egon announced the first of town hall for Baker, Umatilla, three online town halls he se- Union, Wallowa and Morrow cured just for East- counties follows a let- ern Oregon veter- ter Wyden wrote in ans, their families May about VA recom- and veterans service mendations that the providers to ask top Veterans Adminis- Veterans Admin- tration Medical Cen- istration officials ter in Walla Walla be health care questions reclassified to a com- Wyden is Saturday, June 4 at munity-based out- 10:30 a.m. patient clinic and to The virtual town hall pro- move its 31-bed residential vides an opportunity to ask the rehabilitation treatment pro- VA health care questions, in- gram 180 miles north of Walla cluding concerns about its pro- Walla to Spokane. The an- East Oregonian nouncement from Wyden’s of- fice said that is an issue on the table during the town hall. “The message I heard con- sistently at my recent town halls in Eastern Oregon made it clear that veterans have lacked a real opportu- nity to share their legitimate concerns about how these proposed changes will re- duce access to both physi- cal and mental health care,” Wyden said. “Veterans de- serve topnotch care here at home thanks to their service, and I’m committed to work- ing with them and the VA through these veterans-only town halls to brainstorm solu- tions to secure that quality and accessible care.” Veterans, their families and veterans service providers in- terested in participating with Wyden, Walla Walla VAMC Director Scott Kelter and Te- resa D. Boyd, network direc- tor, VISN 20, in this online meeting, can submit questions at bit.ly/3LYFsTA. The link to watch the June 4 meeting is at bit.ly/3N2tkSW. Dates, formats and times for the next two veter- ans-focused town halls in Eastern Oregon will be an- nounced soon. COVID cases rose a bit during May Numbers still well below most months during pandemic Department reported 44 cases during May. That’s up from 13 in April and 14 in March. Except for those two months, however, May’s total was less than any other month Baker City Herald since June 2020. COVID-19 cases increased The number of tests in the in Baker County during May, county has been relatively mirroring state and national steady, ranging from 139 to 147 trends, but the county’s num- over the past three weeks. bers remained well below levels Baker County had a record during most of the pandemic. 646 cases during January 2022, The Baker County Health the peak of the omicron surge. Case totals dropped rapidly thereafter, to 230 during Febru- ary, before the even more pre- cipitous decline during March and April. Statewide, case rates rose for eight straight weeks be- fore declining by 13% for the week ending May 30, according to statistics from the Oregon Health Authority. The number of people in Or- egon hospitals who have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased from 89 on April 12 to 303 on May 31. Of those, 29 were being treated in an inten- sive care unit. The number of COVID- 19-related deaths statewide dropped from 626 during Feb- ruary 2022 to 69 in April. May’s total was 71 deaths through May 26. Baker County has reported only one COVID-19-related death since mid March — on April 23. There have been 49 deaths in the county related to the virus during the pandemic. Fire destroys Jeep, doesn’t spread Baker City Herald A Jeep Cherokee was de- stroyed in a fire, but no one was hurt and the flames didn’t spread into the nearby forest on Saturday, May 28 on the Marble Creek Pass road about 9 miles west of Baker City. The fire happened a little be- fore 8 a.m. Baker County Sheriff Tra- vis Ash, who responded to the 911 call from the Jeep’s owner, Pat Thomas, said Thomas was alone in the vehicle. Ash said Thomas, who was planning to go for a mountain bike ride, noticed smoke com- ing from the engine compart- ment of the early 1990s vehicle. Thomas parked in a turnout beside Marble Creek, about a mile before the road leading to the picnic area. Flames had melted the hood Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo latch, Ash said. A fire that started in the engine compartment destroyed a Jeep Cherokee along Marble Creek Pass road on The cause of the fire isn’t Saturday, May 28, 2022. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was not hurt. known, he said. Thomas called 911 at 7:54 a.m., according to the rived with a tanker truck and “We’re lucky it’s early in the Baker County Dispatch Cen- was able to control the fire, season, and it was really wet ter. Ash said. out there,” he said. Ash said that when he ar- Ash said it was fortunate rived the Jeep was “fully en- that the fire happened now, gulfed” in flames, and it wasn’t after a period of cool, rainy DEATHS possible to douse the fire with weather, rather than later Orlowna ‘Lony’ Smith: 60, of a handheld extinguisher. in the summer, when the Baker City, died May 29, 2022, at Sean Lee, chief of the flames might have spread into her home with family at her side. Showing Movies Since 1940! Baker Rural Fire District, ar- the forest. Arrangements are under the direction News of Record of Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home & Cremation Services. Online condolences can be shared at www. tamispinevalleyfuneralhome.com. FUNERALS PENDING Carol Bouchard: Celebration of life, Friday, June 10 at 4 p.m. at the Wolf Creek Grange in North Powder. Samuel F. Orr: Celebration of life, June 18 at 1 p.m. at the Haines city park. POLICE LOG Baker City Police Arrests, citations PROBATION VIOLATION: Jason Richard Harris, 39, Baker City, 3:19 a.m. Wednesday, June 1 at Second and Church streets; jailed. FELON IN POSSESSION OF RESTRICTED WEAPON: Johnny Rafael Grego Valencia, 38, Baker City, 8:13 p.m. Tuesday, May 31 in the 2900 block of Walnut Street; jailed. Baker County Sheriff’s Office Arrests, citations DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INTOXICANTS: Timothy Douglas Wiedeman, 57, Baker City, 12:05 a.m. Wednesday, June 1 on Campbell Street at Geiser-Pollman Park. OFFENSIVE LITTERING: Tanner Lynn Snodgrass, 51, Baker City, 4:19 p.m. Tuesday, May 31 on W. Sutton Creek Road; cited and released. UNION COUNTY WARRANTS: Taylor Gordon Morris, 30, La Grande, 8:22 p.m. Monday, May 30 at David Eccles Road and Highway 7; cited and released. Oregon State Police Arrests, citations DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INTOXICANTS: Jason Boyd Broadfoot, 49, Island City, 1:59 p.m. Monday, May 30 on Highway 7, Milepost 25; cited and released. DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF INTOXICANTS, RECKLESS DRIVING: Denise Andrea Spacal, 72, Portland, 5:02 p.m. Sunday, May 29 on Interstate 84, Milepost 306 westbound; cited and released. 1809 1st Street • Baker City Rachel Pregnancy Center 2192 Court Avenue, Baker City • 541-523-5357 Services Provided: Free Pregnancy Tests A resource center for Referrals for Free Ultrasounds families Pregnancy Options Counseling Adoption Referrals Prenatal, Infant Care & Parenting Classes Maternity & Baby Clothing Post Abortion Recovery Helping women & men in an Open Tues -Thurs unexpected pregnancy. unplanned pregnancy. 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