LOCAL A2
OREGON A5
OUTDOORS B1
Baker City plans to
chip seal streets
Hail storm causes
injuries in Wallowa
Close encounter
with a rattlesnake
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC
QUICK HITS
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Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 • $1.50
BAKER COUNTY FAIR
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Marc Todd of
Baker City.
BRIEFING
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Gubernatorial
candidate Christine
Drazan to visit Baker
Christine Drazan, the Repub-
lican candidate for Oregon gov-
ernor, will be in Baker City for
a meet and
greet event
on Tuesday,
Aug. 16 at 6
p.m. at the
Baker County
Events Cen-
Drazan
ter, 2600 East St.
Drazan, who won the Repub-
lican nomination in the May
17 primary, is running against
Democrat Tina Kotek and inde-
pendent Betsy Johnson. Drazan
is seeking to become the fi rst
Republican elected as Oregon
governor in 40 years. Victor Ati-
yeh was elected in 1982 to the
second of his four-year terms.
Road over Hells Canyon
Dam closed Aug. 17
OXBOW — The road over Hells
Canyon Dam will be closed on
Wednesday, Aug. 17 from 7:30
a.m. to 1 p.m., PDT. No vehicles
will be able to cross the dam
during that time, as a large
crane will be on top of the dam.
Idaho Power Company, which
owns the dam, will be using
the crane to remove vegetation
from the face of the dam.
The road will be open to pedes-
trians.
WEATHER
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Today
88/45
Mostly sunner
Sunday
89/46
Sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
Nip and tuck
at the fair
Clayton Franke/Baker City Herald
From right: Sofie Kaaen, Chase Myatt and Dawson Fletcher prepare to show their rabbits Wednesday morning, Aug. 10, 2022, during the Baker County Fair.
Competitors in
the rabbit event
deal with
pressure — and
an occasional
bite from their
furry entries
BY CLAYTON FRANKE
cfranke@bakercityherald.com
Sofie Kaaen opens her
hand to reveal a half-inch
cut on her palm. The thin
slice is still red, a wound
inflicted just minutes ear-
lier.
While the wound isn’t
the result of a battle with a
recent competitor, Kaaen
is, at this moment, a cham-
pion.
Kaaen, 15, won over-
all grand champion of
the rabbit showmanship
at the Baker County Fair
Wednesday morning, Aug.
10 at the Baker County
Events Center.
Her wound was the
product of a mistaken lep-
orid identity and a rabbit’s
defensive reaction to her
foreign touch.
See Fair / A3
Seed-spitter licks the competition
BY CLAYTON FRANKE
cfranke@bakercityherald.com
Jose Armenta won the wa-
termelon seed spitting contest
at the Baker County Fair-
grounds Wednesday after-
noon, Aug. 10, even though
nobody at the contest knew
exactly how far his seed went.
That’s because he spit the
seed farther than the contest’s
official tape measure could
reach.
The tape measure was 25
feet, and his seed — a tiny,
black, saliva-soaked projectile
that cut through the hot Au-
gust afternoon air — hit the
concrete and trickled a few
inches past that mark.
Baker County Fair intern
Kylie Siddoway, who orga-
nized the event, said Armen-
ta’s winning seed came from a
watermelon courtesy of Val’s
Veggies, who donated six
melons for the event.
Siddoway set up a
seed-spitting venue on the
concrete path just north of
the volleyball courts at the
fairgrounds.
Clayton Franke/Baker City Herald
Jose Armenta outdueled all competitors to win the watermelon
seed-spitting contest at the Baker County Fair on Wednesday, Aug.
10, 2022.
She marked the rest-
ing place of each seed with
blue chalk and recorded its
distance from the starting
line — except for Armen-
ta’s seed, which traveled a
OTEC plan outlines fire
prevention techniques
The history of the Oregon
Trail was always, in part, inter-
twined with the allure of find-
ing glittering treasure. Insep-
arable from the mythos of the
Wild West, in fact.
So if you’re rolling down
Campbell Street toward the
interstate and see the newly
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
TODAY
Issue 40
12 pages
Mother Lode cafe
opens in Baker City
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
This is the first
year electric
utilities had to
submit plans
to state
Electric utilities have
plenty of incentive to
prevent their lines from
sparking wildfires.
Such blazes can destroy
homes as well as power
lines themselves, resulting
in long outages that can
affect hundreds or thou-
sands of customers.
Last year, the three in-
vestor-owned utilities
that operate in Oregon —
PacifiCorp, Portland Gen-
eral Electric and Idaho
Power Company — were
distance she simply labeled
“Jose.”
Contestants filtered over
from the nearby volleyball
tournament and signed up
into three age groups: junior,
intermediate and senior.
Armenta won the senior
division and the overall com-
petition.
Despite his victory that
afternoon, Armenta said he
had no real strategy coming
into the contest and no prior
experience in competitive
watermelon seed spitting.
Or any competitive seed
spitting.
Armenta received a $5 gift
card to Charley’s Ice Cream
as a prize. Among 12 compet-
itors at the event, two other
competitors — Colton Lus-
chen and Kody Roberts —
also won their respective age
groups and received gift cards
with distances of 241 and 117
inches, respectively.
Luschen also said he had
no prior experience in com-
petitive watermelon seed
spitting, but that he was a
seasoned competitive water-
melon eater, a skill he put on
display by devouring a hand-
ful of extra watermelon slices
in only a few moments as the
contest came to a close.
opened Mother Lode Cafe, you
can expect they’ll indeed have
something golden to share.
The location, 791 Camp-
bell St., has seen more than a
few owners in the city’s his-
tory, and the dining train cars
themselves have seen more
than a few cities in their trav-
eling lifetime.
See Cafe / A3
Battling against book bans
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative
Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative crews install an iron power
pole in Grant County.
required for the first time
to submit to the Oregon
Public Utility Commis-
sion (PUC) a plan listing
their fire prevention strat-
egies.
This year other electric
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
providers, including co-
operatives such as Oregon
Trail Electric (OTEC),
also had to submit their
wildfire mitigation plans
to the state agency.
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
See Techniques / A3
Event planned
during Thursday
Wine Walk
BY LISA BRITTON
lbritton@bakercityherald.com
Betty’s Books, the Baker
County Library and Sweet
Wife Baking are teaming up to
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Outdoors .................B1 & B2
Senior Menus ...................A2
talk about books.
Specifically, books that have
been challenged or banned.
The event, called “Banned
Books & Buns,” will happen
during the Third Thursday
wine walk, Aug. 18, which
is organized by Baker City
Downtown.
See Bans / A3
Sudoku..............................B5
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6