Greetings from City Hall –
Hurricane Irene has been a reminder of how well our weather treats us here in Central Oregon. Sure, it’s hot in the summer and cold and dark in the winter. But that’s how we tell the difference between summer and winter. Look at some parts of Arizona and California. The only thing that changes is the level of hotness. And while we are watching the East Coast dodge flying debris and waiting for the floods to crest so they can see how far underwater they are, our attention is brought back home with about 300 lightening strikes in our Sovereign Nation to the southwest. The resultant fires have covered us with smoke, put us on alert to fight fires that could visit us under the right conditions, and closed U.S. 197 from Maupin south. It all reminds us that while we can favorably compare our weather to Hurricane Alley, we can’t be smug about it. More on this later.
Pig Bowl 2011
On Saturday night, 24 September, the Oregon Law Enforcement team will meet the Washington Law Enforcement team at the Wahtonka football field in The Dalles. This event raises money each year to help families in need. This year, the family comes from Maupin – the McCoys. Gretchen is battling a very aggressive type of cancer that responds slowly to chemotherapy. She and Jeff are guides for River Trails and Gretchen also substitute teaches at NORCOR in The Dalles. They have four of the cutest kids in South County – Jade, Sadie, and Storm were joined by Mollie on April 28, five days before Gretchen kicked off her battle with cancer by undergoing major surgery. She began eight sessions of chemotherapy in June which are followed by six weeks of radiation, all at Bend Memorial Clinic in Bend. As you can see, the Pig Bowl has selected a very eligible candidate to benefit from their event – there are many expenses that occur during this long term battle. Traveling from here to Bend will be very costly. Watching that game is fun. It is a flag football game played by mature law enforcement personnel acting like kids. What you will see is not the kind of football that makes ESPN. For instance, one year Sheriff Rick Eiesland tried to score a touchdown by throwing the ball to the referee. That turned out to be one of the more conventional things that happened that night. The cost is $3.00 for singles, with a family rate of $10 with all proceeds benefitting the McCoy family. For more Pig Bowl information, visit www.pigbowl.net. There is a lot of fun information on their web – some history and past scores, some rules(?) on how some of those scores happen, and how to donate to support your team and our family.
More on the Fire(s)
As I write this letter, it is Monday morning, 29 August. BLM’s Patrick Kollodge brought in Howard Hunter, BLM’s Manager for the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. They gave me much more information about the three fires on the Warm Springs Reservation now known as the High Cascades Complex. The Oregon and
California Incident Management Team (ORCA) has the overall responsibility for this operation. Oregon State Fire Marshall’s Red Team, which was on Juniper Flat last year, has deployed six task forces who will be the on-the-ground managers. The largest, the Razor Back Fire, started on the northeast corner of the Reservation, in what we know as the Mutton Mountains. Last Saturday, you could see that fire from Criterion just south of Hunt’s (now Swan’s) ranch as it came down the slope to the Deschutes canyon. It crossed the river, came up on the east side, jumped Highway 197 along that long straight stretch just passed the Criterion summit, and burned approximately 200 acres before being stopped. Last night’s little thunderstorm started several more small fires between 197 and 97 which the wind made larger and drove them toward 97 north of Shaniko. Yesterday the fire was estimated at 20,239 acres; no telling what it is today. The second fire in the complex is the West Hills Fire, south of the community of Warm Springs, estimated yesterday at 6,286 acres. Erratic winds have moved fire west and south. The Powerline Fire is located northwest of Warm Springs and estimated at about 1,475 acres. As of Sunday, the estimated containment of all three fires was 10%. Warm Springs Fire Management is working at locating and staffing more than fifteen lightning-caused wildfires, the largest called the Seekseequa Fire, just north of the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook. The 300 lightning strikes I mentioned earlier caused more than 37 to be reported. Saturday, Highway 197 was closed at Maupin as crews burned out fuel near the road to better secure the fire line. The Deschutes River remains open to boaters but there are several camp sites closed as a precautionary measure. All river users are cautioned to avoid locations where helicopters are dipping water to put out fires. I have heard that a boater (even a wet boater) dropped on a fire only puts out approximately 2.4 square feet (just .000055 of an acre) of fire, so it’s not worth the effort. The City will be getting updated information on the fires as the teams work to put them out.
Update, Tuesday morning, 30 August, 2011. Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Brad DeHart at ODOT, saying that U.S. 97 was closing so that BLM could start backfires to keep the Razorback fire from crossing that highway. He said that there could be some oversize trucks coming through and that the concern wasn’t so much the bridge, but the hairpin curves on both ends of town. I told him just have the last 50 or so trucks bring materials for a new bridge and we would be somewhat mollified about the large number of large trucks. The time came and went and Highway 97 is open again.
Update, Tuesday afternoon, 30 August, 2011. Latest total figure for all fires has gone from 28,000 to 61,841 acres as updated by the National Fire Information Center. Segment I of the river, between Warm Springs and Harpham Flats is now closed for safety purposes. BLM has closed Trout Creek and South Junction campgrounds as a precautionary measure. In that segment, one of the tunnels that access the Deschutes Club complex of houses has collapsed; word is that BLM will do the repairs. All other segments are open. Both Highways 97 and 197 are open, but in response to fire operations, may be closed with little to no notice. ODOT is the decision maker on this one, so check with them at The Dalles, 541-296-2215, if you are going south. You may have to go to Bend through Simnasho. To fight the fire close in to Warm Springs, BLM brought in a DC-10 airtanker from California that can deliver 12,000 gallons of water per mission to several different spots using a series of doors beneath the aircraft. That is around 96,000 pounds. The B-52 could carry about 60,000 pounds, but dropping 84 Mk-84s and 24 Mk-117s for a total of 108 bombs is probably not a popular way to put out a fire. The weather, which was the fire’s friend during the past few days, is more favorable to the firefighters for the coming week. The same folks fighting “our” fires are also concerned with a fire about 16 miles south of Hood River. Things are changing faster than we can track, so when you get this letter, it will all be out date. Give me a call and I will try to get answers about the fire status. Again, for travel, talk to ODOT. This fire season will be with us for a while.
Update, Wednesday morning, 31 August, 2011. Total acreage has grown to 76,169. The rate of is about the same as at the beginning of the week. The fast moving fires are burning mostly grass and other easily accessible fuel without lingering to penetrate flammable material below ground with enough heat to set it on fire. This reduces the number of “hot spots” left by the fire for BLM and other fire fighters to deal with. No other significant changes since yesterday afternoon.
Other Really Important Stuff
Chamber News. The Chamber’s “Business After Hours” event will be held at the Deschutes Pizza Company and will feature two speakers. Mary Merrill, Director of the Small Business Development Center at CGCC, will talk about cash flow management; Jessica Metta, Project Manager for MCEDD, will talk about Maupin’s Economic Development Task Force, a group that formed as a result of our community workshop last spring. Good stuff, all, and a chance to talk to people from our area moving ahead in these tough economic times.
RiverFest. As decided by the Chamber, the event has been pushed back to Memorial Day weekend, 2012. This will be a season opening instead of a season ending celebration, giving attendees the opportunity to come back and visit over the summer rather than having to wait a year. People generally have a short term schedule for short day-trips or vacations. We will fit into those plans much better without the winter wait.
Flags over Labor Day weekend. The American Legion plans to put out the flags we have for the center of town for each day of the Labor Day weekend. This is to get in practice for when we have a flag for every pole hole in the sidewalk. Led by the Chamber and the Legion, we are putting together a plan to obtain the rest of the flags at $25 each. Individuals are welcome to donate a flag or two. Our goal is to get them ready for next summer.
A Day of Remembrance. The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution (S. Res. 237) calling on all Americans to participate in a Moment of Remembrance on September 11, 2011, 1:00 EDT. For one minute, first responders, houses of worship, towns, and others throughout the country will sound sirens and bells in a signal to each of us to STOP AND REMEMBER the 10th anniversary of the tragedies of September 11, 2001. So a week from Sunday, if you hear the noon siren come on in the morning at 10:00, it is really 1:00 PM. You might hear other sirens, church bells and other noises. We will try to keep it down to a reasonable time – one minute is plenty. I told my nephew to lock his bagpipes in his room; nobody needs a full 15 seconds of bagpipes on a Sunday morning.
That’s it. The fire report is as current as I can make it before Diane has to get the bills out. Labor Day is coming up, the summer’s Last Hurrah. Summer seemed to go by pretty fast. Last week I was in California, walking around in the mines of the Gold Country. On Friday, 9 September, there will be a tricycle race around the Greenway. Another opportunity for outstanding Mayoral achievement. We will see who is the better tricycle rider – me or Frank, who also succumbed to the wheedling of the Chamber. It’s a kickoff event for the Ring of Fire bike race. Aptly named. Should be fun.
Cheers,
Denny