50YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

June 3, 1969

Floyd Deardorff and Don Kelso, representing the County Road Department crews, presented the County Budget Board Monday with a petition, signed by all employees of that department, asking for a 12 percent raise for all employees and other benefits.

Also included in the petition was a request for “equal benefits for all employees with pro-rated vacation and sick leavers. This also is to include truck drivers, with sick leave to accumulate up to 60 days.”

25YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 3, 1994

Baker City is directly in the path and interest of three California men determined to cross the country by bicycle.

Sunday and Monday the three will continue their ride to retirement through Baker City.

10YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 3, 2009

Grasshoppers are returning to Baker County, but farmers and ranchers have a chance, during the next couple weeks, to possibly prevent a repeat of last year’s widespread infestation of the crop-munching insects.

ONEYEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 4, 2018

The drought that plagued Eastern Oregon for much of the first half of this decade has abated somewhat, but local wildfire experts say the potential for large blazes continues.

That’s the natural order of things in a region where, except in the rarest of years, millions of acres of sagebrush steppe and forest are pretty parched by July or August.

“This year is looking pretty typical — no big red flags at this point,” said Bob Narus, fire management officer for the BLM’s Vale District, which covers more than 5 million acres of public land stretching from the Nevada border to the Washington border.

Although this past winter delivered much less snow than the 2016-17 version, and much of the scanty snowpack melted during an unusually mild May, Narus said widespread thundershowers during the month prevented the region from drying to summer levels.