The latest and most comprehensive coverage of local News, Sports, Business, and Community News stories in the Klamath Basin, Southern Oregon and around the state of Oregon from Wynne Broadcasting’s KFLS News/Talk 1450AM / 102.5FM, The Herald & News, and BasinLife.com, and powered by Mick Insurance.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Klamath Basin Weather
Tuesday Widespread haze before 8am. Sunny, with a high near 77. Northeast wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Overnight low around 46.
Wednesday Sunny, with a high near 85.
Thursday Sunny, with a high near 89.
Friday Sunny, with a high near 89.
Saturday Sunny, with a high near 90.
Today’s Headlines
Two Four Two Fire Update, 5PM
CHILOQUIN, OR – The Two Four Two Fire is continuing to burn on the Chiloquin Ranger District and the surrounding area.
The fire is estimated to be approximately 6,000 acres with no containment. The cause is under investigation. The Two Four Two Fire is burning in dried grass, brush and timber.
It’s growth yesterday was wind-driven, and similar conditions are expected today due to a Red Flag Warning in effect until midnight for strong gusty winds and low relative humidity. Today the fire continues to move in all directions. Multiple structures are threatened. Fire managers are still assessing structures that may have been lost.
U.S. Highway 97 remains closed between Oregon State Highway 62 south of Chiloquin north to the intersection with Forest Road 9732 at Oux Kanee Overlook. Oregon State Highway 422 North is closed between Highway 97 and Oregon State Highway 62. Highway 62 is closed from the junction with Highway 97 north to the State Fish Hatchery. The Oregon State Police and Oregon Department of Transportation are handling highway road closures.
Klamath County Sheriff’s Deputies and local fire departments have been conducting evacuations in the area since last night. This included Collier State Park and residents west of the State Park, as well as residents of Woodland Park remain in a Level 3 Evacuation.
A Level 3 Evacuation for Oregon Shores 1, north of Maidu Road, was issued this morning and most residents have evacuated. There is a new Level 3 Evacuation for residents in the area north of the Road 422 and Highway 62 junction east of the Wood River, south of Crooked Creek between Wood River and the State Fish Hatchery. Residences, if not already evacuated should evacuate now.
On the north end of the fire, west of Highway 97 near mile post 243, there is active fire north of Spring Creek. Residents in this area near Spring Creek should evacuate.
The area south of Maidu Road, west of Highway 62, including Oregon Shores 2, is currently under a Level 2 Evacuation. This means residents should be prepared if there is a need for immediate evacuation.
The Red Cross has established an evacuation center at Kla-Mo-Ya south of Chiloquin. There is not a number set up for the evacuation center yet. Evacuees or those with questions are advised to not call 911 unless it is an emergency, but instead go to Kla-Mo-Ya in person. The Klamath County Fairgrounds are also available for evacuees with trailers or animals. RV hook-ups and animal holding facilities are available.
There are currently 24 engines, two handcrews, five dozers and multiple air resources including one lead plane, three single-engine airtankers, two scooper aircraft, one large helicopter and two Type 2 helicopters on the fire today. More resources are being ordered. Because of heat and smoke, the use of air resources has been limited.
When air resources are available, Klamath Lake is being used to scoop water. Boaters are advised to be aware of their surroundings and avoid areas where aircraft is operating over the water. Williamson River and Spring Creek are also being used for dip sites.
An Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) Incident Management Team will begin transitioning onto the fire this evening and is expected to assume command of the incident tomorrow morning. The incident will be a unified command with ODF and the U.S. Forest Service.
Currently the local South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership (SCOFMP) Type 3 Team is managing the fire.
The Red Flag Warning in effect today for strong gusty winds and low relative humidity expires at midnight tonight.
The Two Four Two Fire was discovered yesterday near Williamson River Campground on the Fremont-Winema National Forest Chiloquin Ranger District.
For more information, visit the SCOFMP Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SCOFMPFIREINFO or Inciweb at www.inciweb.nwcg.gov.
Oregon reports 154 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 1 new death
COVID-19 has claimed one more life in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 482, the Oregon Health Authority reported on Sunday.
Oregon Health Authority reported 154 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today bringing the state total to 28,190.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (9), Benton (2), Clackamas (16), Columbia (1), Deschutes (1), Douglas (2), Jackson (9), Jefferson (3), Lane (7), Lincoln (1), Linn (3), Malheur (7), Marion (19), Multnomah (29), Polk (5), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (5), Washington (26), Yamhill (8).
Oregon’s 482nd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Aug. 27 and died on Sept. 5 in her residence. She had underlying conditions.
Beginning today, Klamath County will have work crews at the following locations please use caution when in these areas and watch for flaggers. Consider alternate routes when able for the safety of workers.
On Washburn Way to Laverne Avenue to South Side Bypass asphalt replacement – lane closures with flagging. Paint striping stencil crews Sept. 8-10 will conduct miscellaneous chip seal and fog seal on county roads. Crack seal crews Sept. 8-10 on Drews Road, Lower Lake Road. South Suburban Sanitary District sewer pipe installation on Skyline, Cannon, Watson, Western and Donegal. Crescent area will have miscellaneous sewer pipe construction. Ogden Street upgrades to add curb, gutter and sidewalks to existing roads.
Meanwhile City Asphalt crews Sept. 8-10 will be performing paving on the 2200 block of Applegate Avenue at the intersection of Delores Avenue and Fremont Street.
Paint crews Sept. 8-11 will be painting legends and crosswalks on Main Street and Klamath Avenue. Sign maintenance and sweeping will be performed throughout the City of Klamath Falls as needed. Detours and signage will be in place where needed. Drivers are urged to proceed with caution through construction zones, or consider alternate routes.
For the last six months, fewer people have been spending the night in the Klamath County Jail. The reason: COVID-19. The Klamath County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, has had to make major changes to operations in order to keep staff and inmates safe during the pandemic.
The biggest of those changes has been allowing fewer people into the jailhouse. Only those who commit high-level felonies and crimes that require mandatory arrests — such as domestic violence or restraining order violations— are brought to the jail. Since February, those who commit lower-level crimes, like theft or stealing a car, have not been spending time behind bars. Earlier this year, Jail Commander Lt. Brian Bryson capped the population of the facility to about half of its 152-person capacity. This was done in accordance with state guidance to maintain single-cell occupancy, increase cleaning and reduce movement within the premises.
The breeding female of the Rogue Pack of gray wolves was captured Friday in the Fort Klamath area and equipped with a GPS collar before she was released later that day.
It marks the first time wildlife biologists have been able to track pack movements since 2018. The capture came after the Rogue Pack killed a yearling steer on Wednesday, the 13th confirmed wolf kill in the Fort Klamath area of the Wood River Valley since May. The most recent death by the Rogue Pack was reported Wednesday when K2 Cattle Co. ranch hands found a dead, approximately 700-pound yearling steer in a 300-acre private land pasture.
Wildlife biologists hope the radio collar on the female wolf, the former mate of OR-7 who is believed to have died, can be used to track the movements and possibly help end the ongoing depredations. The collars typically work for 2-1/2 to 3 years, according to Tom Collom, a wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It’s believed she has mated with the pack’s new breeding male and that she is 8 or 9 years old, relatively old for a wolf.
The United Way Community Campaign officially starts Wednesday, but officials announced early contributions and pacesetter workplace campaigns have already donated $76,217 — or 15% of its $500,000 goal.
Lauren Jespersen, Sky Lakes Medical Center Foundation director, is serving as chairman of the United Way campaign. At a campaign leadership team meeting held last week Kathy Jordan announced that the employees at Klamath Energy LLC, a division of Avangrid Renewables, donated $19,508, which the Avangrid Foundation matched. Lisa Waite, Triad School Key Club advisor, announced that the Triad student body donated $966. Contact the United Way at 541-882-5558 if you wish to have a workplace presentation.
Slated for Sept. 18-20, this year’s eighth annual Klamath Independent Film Festival will take a familiar form across new platforms in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Presented in-person at the Ross Ragland Theater limited to audiences of 100 people, the festival for the first time will be simultaneously offered online via Eventive Virtual Festival, providing an on-demand style viewing experience at home.
Klamath Film, the Klamath Falls-based nonprofit that coordinates the annual festival, announced the schedule of this year’s films – 37 in total spanning comedy, sci-fi, documentary, drama, animation, and even puppetry. The film festival exclusively welcomes films made in Oregon or by Oregon filmmakers within the past calendar year. Due to COVID-19 crowd restrictions, added safety protocols are being planned for the Ross Ragland Theater. All patrons will have temperatures checked, be required to wear masks, and will be contact traced prior to permitted entry. With limited crowd capacity, the festival is being offered online through a paywall-protected platform allowing access to the entire festival via streaming available online and on Roku.
Around the state of Oregon
Whale dies after stranding near Bandon Saturday
Bandon, Ore. — What has been tentatively identified as a 38′ Sei whale became stranded on the Oregon coast south of Bandon Saturday afternoon, September 5. Oregon State Park rangers, the Oregon State Police, Oregon State University, Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and representatives of the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network and NOAA Fisheries responded.
While alive when it first came ashore, the Sei whale was stranded by the tide and died Saturday evening. Based on its size, it was a subadult male, meaning it was not yet fully-mature. The necropsy will be led today, Sunday, September 6 by Oregon State University, World Vets, and Sealife Response, Rehabilitation and Research.
The necropsy will allow marine mammal biologists to collect samples to try to determine what may have caused the animal to strand. The carcass will be buried on the beach shortly thereafter. It is against federal law to take pieces from a whale carcass.
The Oregon Republican Party’s statement for the state voters’ pamphlet arrived 29 seconds too late and won’t appear in the guide mailed to voters for the November election, officials say.
Laura Fosmire, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bev Clarno, said deadlines apply equally to everyone. But Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that Kevin Hoar, the communications director for the state GOP, insists the party did get its statement into an online filing system by 4:59 p.m. on Aug. 25, the final day for filing. He said the party filed a lawsuit in Marion County demanding that the statement be included in the voters’ guide before it goes to print later this month.
State Republican Chairman Bill Currier said the failure to include his party’s statement from the voting guide “reeks of partisan discrimination.”
911 received a call of a fully engulfed mobile home over the weekend in Grants Pass. The caller said they had returned home to find the mobile on fire. First arriving fire crews were faced with a fully involved single wide mobile home spreading to nearby homes, cars and vegetation. Grants Pass Police started evacuation of nearby homes as firefighters from several agencies battled the flames.
Quick action by the firefighters saved three neighboring homes that were becoming involved. Regrettably, the home where the fire started along with 3 vehicles and 2 outbuildings were a total loss.
All the occupants were out of the home and there were no reported injuries from the fire. The American Red Cross responded to assist those displaced with housing and other immediate needs. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
Grants Pass Fire was assisted on scene by American Medical Response, Rural Metro Fire, Illinois Valley Fire, Rogue River Fire and Applegate Fire.
As we get closer to the November elections, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler faces calls to resign from sources as wide-ranging as liberal constituents who once supported him to the nation’s Republican president, who cite what they say is his lack of clear leadership as the city hit 100 days of protests.
Many critics say they’re frustrated that Wheeler, the city’s police commissioner, expresses support for police reforms yet hasn’t come out strongly when officers appear to use excessive force on people during protests. Many others are frustrated he hasn’t done more to end the nightly demonstrations and the property damage, small fires and provocations of police that usually accompany them. Still others feel he has said more about his disagreements with President Donald Trump than his solutions to aid a city reckoning with a pandemic, a recession, homelessness, unaffordable housing, increased gun violence and other racial and economic inequalities.
On Sunday, September 6, 2020 at approximately 1:12 P.M., Oregon State Police and emergency personnel responded to a vehicle crash on Hwy 101 near milepost 232.
Preliminary investigation revealed that a Nissan Titan, operated by Renee Reiser (56) of Florence, was northbound when it crossed over the fog line and struck two, also northbound, bicyclists.
Bicyclist Jason Dixon (42) sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased.
Bicyclist Robert Hammonds (52) sustained life threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital.
On Saturday, September 6, 2020 at approximately 8:27 P.M., Oregon State Police and emergency personnel responded to a single vehicle crash on Hwy 26 near milepost 30.
Preliminary investigation revealed that a Ford F350 pickup was westbound when it drove off the roadway and down an embankment.
The operator and lone occupant sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased. Name will be released when it is appropriate.
FATAL CRASH ON HWY 38 – DOUGLAS COUNTY
On Saturday, September 5, 2020 at approximately 9:40 P.M., Oregon State Police Troopers and emergency personnel responded to a two vehicle crash on Hwy 38 near milepost 47.
Preliminary investigation revealed that a Harley Davidson motorcycle, operated by Seth Albert (38) of Eugene, was westbound when it collided with a Ford F150, operated by Michael Fluharty (57) of Walla Walla, that was turning to go eastbound onto Hwy 38.
Albert and his passenger, Cherissa Rainwater (35) of Marcola, sustained fatal injuries and were pronounced deceased.
Hwy 38 was closed for approximately 3 hours following the crash.
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