A2 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022
Local
TURNING BACK THE PAGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
June 20, 1972
Lack of appreciation both fi guratively and monetarily
were the reasons city manager Vern Jacobson cited for
turning in his resignation Monday to be effective July 15.
“It just is not worth it,” Jacobson declared in a
resignation letter to Mayor H.B. (Bard) Johnson and the city
council.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
June 20, 1997
It seems safe to assume that Donald Fulcher and
Damon Cox are the fi rst Baker City residents to have a
basketball game interrupted by a rattlesnake.
Fulcher, 12, and Cox, 19, were shooting baskets
Sunday afternoon at Fulcher’s home, 2290 Seventh St.,
when Fulcher heard a rattling noise.
The sound was coming from a juniper bush near the
sidewalk at the corner of Sixth and Baker streets, he said.
Fulcher said he initially thought it was a rattlesnake. He
quickly discounted the idea as ridiculous.
But as he and Cox approached the bush, a snake
showed its head.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
June 22, 2012
When the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest returns to
the public arena later this summer with the controversial
plan to ban motor vehicles from some forest roads,
offi cials will be listening more than talking.
“We need to listen and to fi gure out what are people’s
concerns with the plan,” Wallowa-Whitman spokesman
Mat Burks said on Thursday. “They can’t just be
presentations, but literally round-table discussions where
everyone gets a chance to speak.
“We’re coming to the table because we want to make it
a better plan,” Burks said.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
June 22, 2021
Jackie and Virgil Borger will celebrate their 75th
wedding anniversary on Wednesday, June 23.
When the couple, who live in Baker Valley near Haines,
were married, World War II had ended less than a year ago.
Harry S. Truman was president.
To celebrate three-quarters of a century together,
Jackie, 94, and Virgil, 96, were joined this past weekend at
their home by their two daughters, fi ve grandchildren, 14
great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildre.
“We have boneless pork ribs every year, and so the
whole family looks forward to that,” Virgil said. “And then
we make umpteen dozen chocolate chip cookies.”
Virgil’s mother came up with the cookie recipe more
than 100 years ago. For their 70th anniversary, the couple
baked 35 dozen cookies, which were gone in fi ve days.
The Borgers’ family visits nearly every July. The kids love
to attend the Fourth of July parade in Haines, and several
family members have birthdays during that month. Jackie
and Virgil have a decoration in their home that helps them
keep track of all the birthdays and anniversaries in the
family.
“If we live to 120, we could have six generations,” Virgil
joked in an interview at the couple’s home on June 17.
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SENIOR MENUS
WEDNESDAY (June 22): Stuff ed peppers, au gratin
potatoes, peas and carrots, rolls, green salad, lemon squares
THURSDAY (June 23): Orange glazed chicken, rice, broccoli,
rolls, green salad, cheesecake
FRIDAY (June 24): Barbecued ribs, baked beans, capri
vegetables, rolls, coleslaw, apple crisp
MONDAY (June 27): Chicken strips, potato wedges, mixed
vegetables, rolls, fruit cup, cookies
TUESDAY (June 28): Meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy,
corn, rolls, three-bean salad, brownies
Truck snags wire, knocks out power
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A snapping rubber band can deliver a
brief sting to the skin.
But when the elements involved are
rather more robust — a semi truck haul-
ing a piece of heavy equipment and a
length of wire pulled past its breaking
point — the force is exponentially greater.
And so is the damage, Charlie Tracy
said.
Tracy is the director of engineering
for Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative
(OTEC).
He used the rubber band analogy to
describe an incident that led to a power
outage that affected all of Baker City and
extended to Haines, North Powder and
other surrounding areas around 8:15 a.m.
Wednesday, June 15.
The outage lasted just a few seconds for
most OTEC members.
About 1,000 were without power for
about 38 minutes. OTEC crews rerouted
power to isolate the outage to eight cus-
tomers, near where a power pole was
snapped. Those members were without
power for about three and a half hours,
said Joseph Hathaway, OTEC’s communi-
cations manager.
The episode started when a semi truck
hauling a piece of forestry equipment
was driving on Myrtle Street near Eighth
Street. That’s part of the truck route that
departs Highway 7 in south Baker City
and bypasses downtown.
The equipment snagged a wire owned
by Spectrum, the cable TV, internet and
phone utility, Tracy said.
Those wires are attached to the power
poles that OTEC owns and that also carry
the cooperative’s electric lines.
As the piece of equipment continued
down the street, it pulled the Spectrum
wire, stretching it tight and also putting
Baker City Herald
Will Seggerman, a 2022
graduate of Pine Eagle High
School in Halfway, is one
of four Oregon high school
students to win a $1,000 col-
lege scholarship through the
OnPoint Community Credit
Union Scholar Program.
OnPoint, which partners
with the Oregon School Ac-
tivities Association, awarded
two $5,000 scholarships and
four for $1,000 each.
Seggerman is the only
Eastern Oregon graduate to
be awarded.
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.com
Jayson Jacoby, editor
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Advertising email
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classifi ed@bakercityherald.com
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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.
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
OnPoint’s Scholar
leadership, class-
Program honors
room success, and
graduating Oregon
how participating
high school seniors
in OSAA activities
who have earned a
helped them achieve
3.50 or higher un-
their goals.
weighted cumu-
Seggerman was
lative grade point
valedictorian of
Seggerman
average, and have
his class after mak-
earned a varsity let-
ing the honor roll
ter in an OSAA-sanctioned
for seven straight semesters
sport or competed in an
while taking 14 college-level
OSAA-sanctioned activity.
courses and earning almost
Winners were selected based 50 college credits before
on letters of recommenda-
graduating.
tion and personal essays that
He competed in wrestling,
described their community
qualifying for the state tour-
nament this year. He was
also captain of the Spartan
football team and partici-
pated in Future Farmers of
America, band, speech and
class leadership activities.
For his senior project,
Seggerman organized and
led a project to maintain the
10-mile Lake Fork trail in
the Wallowa-Whitman Na-
tional Forest northeast of
Halfway.
He plans to attend the
University of Idaho and ma-
jor in wildlife and fisheries
biology.
Chip sealing planned on Blue Mountain Byway
Baker City Herald
PENDLETON — Con-
tractors are preparing to
chip seal about 33 miles of
the Blue Mountain Scenic
Byway on the North Fork
John Day Ranger District
between Ukiah and the
boundary between the Uma-
tilla and Wallowa-Whitman
national forests.
Work is scheduled to be-
gin soon, and last about four
weeks. The project will result
in delays, with flaggers and
pilot cars. Signs will posted at
each end of the work zone.
Money for the chip seal
project is part of a $285 mil-
lion investment on national
forests through the National
Parks and Public Land Legacy
Restoration Fund, established
in 2020 by the Great American
Outdoors Act.
Blue Mountain, Hells Canyon
byways open
Both the Blue Mountain
and the Hells Canyon Scenic
Byways are fully open after
sections were blocked by lin-
gering snow during the cooler
than usual spring.
A section of the Elkhorn
Drive byway, however, re-
mains closed due to snow-
drifts, from near Anthony
Lakes to around the lower
Crawfish Lake trailhead.
News of Record
DEATHS
Mitchel Trent Thomas: 47, of the
Wingville area near Baker City, died
June 17, 2022, at his home. Services
are under the direction of Coles Tribute
Center, 1950 Place St., To light a candle
in Mitchel’s memory, go to www.
colestributecenter.com.
FUNERALS PENDING
Theodore Edward ‘Ted’ Dockweiler:
Graveside service Friday, June 24 at
2 p.m. at Mount Hope Cemetery. Please
bring your fondest memories of Ted to
share with family and friends.
Judith Lee ‘Judy’ Folkman: A
celebration of her life will take place
Saturday, June 25 at 11 a.m. at the
First Lutheran Church, 1734 Third St.
in Baker City, with Pastor Ian Wolfe
officiating. A reception will follow in
the church fellowship hall. Memorial
contributions can be made to the First
Lutheran Church through Gray’s West &
Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave.,
Baker City, OR 97814. To leave an online
condolence for Judy’s family, go to
www.grayswestco.com.
Wade Dahlen: Interment will be
Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m. at the Rock
Creek Cemetery. A luncheon will follow
for family and friends at the Dahlen
home.
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
FAILURE TO APPEAR (Union County
Circuit Court warrant): Christina Jean
Hinkley, 31, La Grande, 10:46 p.m.
Sunday, June 19 at 13th and K streets;
jailed.
THIRD-DEGREE THEFT: Chloe Taylor
Virginia Stoffelson, 25, Baker City, 8:36 p.m.
Sunday, June 19 at Auburn Avenue and
Birch Street; cited and released.
VIOLATION OF RESTRAINING ORDER:
Sean Dean Taylor, 31, Baker City,
7:06 p.m. Sunday, June 19 at Valley
Avenue and East Street; jailed.
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Arrests, citations
HARASSMENT (Baker County Justice
Court warrant): Jensen Rose Longden,
30, Baker City, 3:52 p.m. Sunday, June
19 near 10th and Pocahontas; cited and
released.
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considerable pressure on nearby poles,
Tracy said.
When the wire snapped the force broke
a wooden power pole on Eighth Street,
just north of Myrtle.
The Spectrum wire also made brief
contact with an OTEC transmission line
on the opposite side of Myrtle Street,
Tracy said.
That contact tripped a circuit breaker at
OTEC’s Elm Street substation, causing the
blip that affected the entire city.
Because the Spectrum wire touched the
OTEC transmission line for just an in-
stant, the power was restored almost im-
mediately, Tracy said.
The system is designed to reenergize
a power line if the “fault” that caused the
problem no longer is present, he said.
The outage lasted longer for about
1,000 customers whose power was sup-
plied by the distribution line — which is
separate from the transmission line —
Pine Eagle’s Will Seggerman wins scholarship
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.
2005 Washington Ave., Suite 101
Open Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Joe Hathaway/Contributed Photo
An Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative power
pole was snapped Wednesday morning, June
15, 2022. A passing truck hauling a piece of
heavy equipment snagged a Spectrum tele-
communications wire, pulling it taut and
eventually snapping it. The force broke the
power pole and led to a power outage.
that includes the snapped power pole on
Eighth Street.
OTEC workers routed power around
the section of line on Eighth Street, limit-
ing the outage to eight or nine members
who are served by the transformer that
was on the pole.
OTEC crews replaced that pole — at an
estimated cost of $3,000 to $5,000 — later
Wednesday, Tracy said.
Baker City Police Sgt. Mike Regan said
on Wednesday that the highest point of
the equipment the truck was hauling was
measured at 13 feet, 2 inches.
Kandi Young of the Oregon Public Util-
ity Commission wrote in an email to the
Herald that the National Electric Safety
Code, which Oregon follows, requires
communications cables to be at least 15
feet, 6 inches over a roadway, and power
lines to be at least 16 feet.
Tracy said the investigation was con-
tinuing to try to determine whether the
Spectrum wire was at the proper height.
He said high-voltage power lines gen-
erally are placed above other lines, such
as Spectrum’s, since the danger posed by
electric lines is much greater.
“We’re always doing everything we can
to make sure there’s proper clearance,”
Tracy said.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission
requires OTEC and other utilities to in-
spect their lines regularly, he said.
The outage affected the refrigerated
sections at the Baker City Safeway store,
prompting its closure on Thursday, June
16.
“The store employees are working hard
to get the store back where it needs to be!”
Jill McGinnis, director of communica-
tions, public affairs & government rela-
tions, wrote in an email to the Herald on
Friday morning, June 17. The store was
open on Friday.
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Baker City
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