50 YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

June 28, 1971

An increase in television cable rates proposed by Cablevision was approved in regular session of the city council last night.

Cable rental fees per month will jump to $5.75.

25 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 28, 1996

The Most Rev. Elden Curtiss, archbishop of Omaha, is easy to talk to. In fact he sounds just like everyone else in town, which is not surprising since he was born and raised in Baker City.

Curtiss, 64, was in Baker City last week to attend the 25th anniversary of Bishop Thomas Connolly and to visit his mother, Mary, 86, who still lives here.

10 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 29, 2011

Downtown Baker City’s biggest hole will soon be filled.

The conspicuous chasm, at the northwest corner of First Street and Washington Avenue, is the basement of what used to be the Rand Building.

It served most recently as the local office of the CP National electric company.

Most recently in this case, though, is not very recent — on Oct. 29, 1985, a fire that started in an air-conditioning service control box destroyed the historic tuffstone building, which was constructed in 1908 by John L. Rand for the Queen City Furniture Company.

The pit has remained vacant since.

ONE YEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

June 30, 2020

Despite occasional downpours recently, fire season officially starts Wednesday in Northeast Oregon.

The designation by the Oregon Department of Forestry applies to about 2 million acres of private and state forests and rangelands protected by the Forestry Department in Baker, Union, Wallowa and Umatilla counties as well as small parts of Malheur, Morrow and Grant counties. It doesn’t affect national forests or public land overseen by the BLM.

The Forestry Department declares fire season each year with a goal of reducing the number of human-caused fires.

So far this year the agency has reported eight human-caused fires in the Northeast District. The blazes burned 27.4 acres.

When fire season is in effect debris burning is prohibited on affected lands, including all burn barrels and debris piles.

Typically the Forestry Department allows debris burning to continue for about a month after fire season takes effect, but this year the burning ban coincides with the start of the fire season.

“This change is an effort to mitigate COVID-19 exposure potential for the public and our firefighters,” said Joe Hessel, district forester for the agency’s Northeast District. “We also want to be sensitive to negative smoke impacts for our vulnerable populations, and reduce the resource commitments typically associated with escaped fires.”