Klamath Basin News, Wednesday, Aug. 21st –

The latest News around the Klamath Basin from Wynne Broadcasting’s KFLS 1450AM/102.5FM, BasinLife.com and The Herald & News.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019

Klamath Basin Weather

Wednesday
Partly sunny, with a high near 81.

Thursday
Sunny, with a high near 86.

Friday
Sunny, with a high near 94.

Saturday
Sunny, with a high near 92.

Latest Headlines…

The Klamath Falls City Council at their regular meeting voted to recommend that Brevada Brewhouse be allowed a liquor license from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

The business is located near the OregonTech campus, and the license would allow the consumption of alcohol on the property, as well as the sale of malt beverages, wine and cider to go, in sealed containers.

The council voted to purchase and up-fit three new police vehicles. The city budgeted $187,550 for the three vehicles, but accepted a bid from Gresham Ford for the purchase and LEHR for the up-fitting, totaling $120,943 for the three vehicles. The council also voted to authorize staff to purchase a mini-excavator from Papé for $52,943.26 for the parks department.

The man who drowned last weekend after jumping off a rock cliff into Crater Lake was a student at Oregon State University. Crater Lake National Park spokeswoman Marsha McCabe says 27-year-old Sumedh Mannar jumped off the cliff at Cleetwood Cove Sunday afternoon and did not resurface.

McCabe says the cliff Mannar had jumped from was about 25 feet high. The cliff, known as “Jumping Rock,” is a popular recreation spot are there are no prohibitions to jumping. Divers on Monday morning dove in the last known spot Mannar was seen and found his body down in the water on a rock ledge.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Klamath County was 6.4 percent in July, largely unchanged from 6.5 percent in June. The rate was 6.2 percent last July.

Klamath County shed 730 jobs in July, larger losses than typically expected this time of year. The bulk of the job losses were due to summer break for local schools. Recent revisions revealed that employment levels were slightly lower than initially estimated. The county shed 90 jobs over the past year. There were notable job losses since July 2018 of 300 jobs in professional and business services and 90 jobs in manufacturing . These losses were largely overcome by gains in local education, health care, and retail trade.

Forest Service Road 9774 on the Chemult Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest will be closed through Thursday, by the Union Pacific railroad for equipment repairs on tracks in the area.

The road accesses Corral Spring Campground off Highway 97 approximately 2 miles north of Chemult. The road will be closed between Highway 97 and Forest Road 9774-110. The campground will still be accessible but will require longer travel on Forest Service roads. Either from the north off Highway 58 near the Little Deschutes Campground or from Chemult and the Walt Haring SnoPark and then taking the 110 road north.

A new U.S. lawsuit filed Monday seeks to establish a whale protection zone for endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest.

The petition seeks to bar vessels from a 10- to 12-square-mile area west of San Juan Island where the orcas feed from April through September each year. Any vessels exempted from the ban would be required to abide by a “no wake” rule in the zone.

Researchers say the whales have been largely missing from their usual summer feeding grounds this year because their preferred prey of Chinook Salmon have been so scarce.

Canada has already announced that no vessel traffic will be allowed from June through October in three sanctuary zones in prime orca feeding habitat and Washington state has adopted new restrictions requiring boats to keep at least 300 yards away from the animals. The earlier cases seek to expand designated critical habitat for the whales into the waters off Washington, Oregon and California where the whales forage in the late fall, winter and early spring, and to ensure that managers of Pacific salmon fisheries minimize the impacts on the whales.

In response, the federal government has announced that by October it will propose expanded habitat protections off the Pacific coast, and that by next May it will issue an updated analysis about the extent to which salmon fishing is harming the orcas.

Oregon gas prices have fallen 2.5 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.08 a gallon today. Gas prices in Oregon are 8.3 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, yet stand 13.0 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Oregon is priced at $2.69 a gallon today while the most expensive is $3.79 a gallon. The cheapest price in the entire country today stands at $1.81 a gallon while the most expensive is $5.09 a gallon.

…For complete details on these and other stories see today’s Herald & News.  Wynne Broadcasting and the Herald and News…stronger together to keep you informed.

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