HUNTINGTON — A 42-year-old Ontario man died Saturday morning when the walls of a mining cave collapsed on him as he was digging inside, according to Oregon State Police.

The incident happened about 8:30 a.m. near the old lime plant along the Burnt River about 40 miles southeast of Baker City, OSP Sr. Trooper Tracy Howard said in a press release. The cave was about 300 yards north of Interstate 84.

The Henrys are ready to ride in this weekend's Elkhorn Classic Bicycle Race. From left, son David, dad Loren, and son Stephen

The Henrys — dad Loren and his sons, David and Stephen — tend to stick out from most any crowd.

“For cyclists, we’re pretty tall,” said David, who stands about 6 feet, 4 inches.

Loren is just a half inch shorter, and Stephen is about 6 feet, 3 inches tall.

All three will be racing in the men’s category 4/5.

And they, along with the other Elkhorn riders, are hoping to see downtown lined with spectators on Saturday.

“I think it helps a lot,” David said. “Last year, you could hear every once in a while, ‘Go David!’ ”

David and Loren, who both live in Baker City, rode the Elkhorn last year; this is Stephen’s first (he lives in Hawaii).

David said he and his dad followed a different training plan this year based on last year’s race.

Congressman Greg Walden is continuing his push to secure federal money to rebuild the flood-damaged Wallowa Mountain Loop Road, and to help Baker County farmers and ranchers fix irrigation networks.

In response to a letter and phone calls from Walden, a Republican who represents Eastern Oregon, officials from the Federal Highway Administration visited the Loop Road on Thursday with U.S. Forest Service representatives.

The Federal Highway Administration officials will help the Forest Service, which manages the Loop Road, to apply for repair money through the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads (ERFO) program.

The Forest Service last year allocated as much as $5 million to repave and make other improvements to a 13-mile section of the Loop Road that includes the 500-foot section that was obliterated by North Pine Creek earlier this month.

But Walden said the Forest Service will need another source of money to repair the flood damage.

Last weekend’s Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally, estimated to have drawn 6,000 riders, was bigger and better than it’s ever been, according to Steve and Eric Folkestad, the event’s organizers.

“The rally was a great success this year,” Steve Folkestad of Portland said in a telephone interview Thursday.

In his conversations with motorcyclists and vendors, 95 percent had nothing but good things to say.

“The negative ones tend to blow their horns louder,” he said, referring to complaints from people who were upset that Main Street was not closed as it has been in past years.

In a telephone interview from Tampa, Fla., were he was attending a business conference Thursday, Eric Folkestad, of Camas, Wash., said he believes some of the concerns expressed by rally participants, community residents and vendors are based on misinformation.

Debris was strewn across the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 near Durkee Tuesday morning after a truck hauling furniture and other household items crashed and spilled the contents from one of its two trailers. The eastbound lanes were closed from about 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. Eastbound traffic was stopped first at Baker City, and later at La Grande after hundreds of travelers were stranded in Baker City. (Photo Courtesy Oregon State Police)

All the other symbols of a classic Interstate 84 winter closure in Baker City were accounted for Tuesday morning.

• Vehicles parked nose to bumper along Campbell Street

• Delayed travelers perusing their maps, trying to plot an alternate route

• And, inevitably, lots of customers at the Baker Truck Corral, where Coller is the manager

“It’s a little busy,” he said early Tuesday afternoon, not long before the eastbound lanes of the freeway re-opened at 2 p.m. after being closed for about seven hours.

The culprit in this case wasn’t wind-driven snow or freezing rain, but debris from a trailer that crashed into the guardrail near Durkee about 7 a.m.

Kenneth Norlund, 49, of Salt Lake City was driving the commercial truck pulling two trailers, said Trooper Jeff Spencer of the Oregon State Police.

The rear trailer, which was loaded with furniture and other household items owned by a family that was moving, spilled its contents.

Officials from the Oregon Division of State Lands are scheduled to survey Baker County flood damage today and potentially streamline the process so farmers and ranchers in the Pine and Eagle valleys can get permits to repair their irrigation networks.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he called Gov. Ted Kulongoski and other top state officials after listening to concerned residents during a public forum Sunday in Richland.

“I was frustrated to learn the Division of State Lands was not going out until June 23,” Walden said.

Walden, who represents Eastern Oregon, said he asked Kulongoski and other members of the State Land Board, including Secretary of State Kate Brown and State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, to summon Division of State Lands staff sooner.

“The governor got right on this and I appreciate his personal attention on it,” Walden said.

The DSL is the agency that issues permits to property owners who need to repair ditches, headgates, fish screens and other items damaged by severe flooding earlier this month in both of the valleys in eastern Baker County.

Walden said he and state Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, along with members of the Baker County Board of Commissioners and other area officials who attended Sunday’s meeting immediately afterward started calling state officials to raise awareness of the deadline facing irrigators.

Crops could be damaged if they don’t get water within seven to 10 days.

Thanks to a last-minute grant and Methodist Church volunteers, the Baker School District will begin providing free lunches for Baker County children beginning Monday.

Jean Dean, the Baker School District’s food services cook/manager, announced Tuesday that the district will be offering a summer lunch program after all.

She said the district received a $3,000 grant Monday from the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon program to allow the district to prepare the meals through the USDA’s National School Lunch program.

“This has enabled us to pull it back together at the very last minute,” Dean said.

All children 18 and younger are eligible for the free meals, which will be served from noon to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the Baker United Methodist Church, at 1919 Second St. Adults can buy meals for $2.50 each. The program will run June 21 through Aug. 19.

The Baker School Board has received applications from two local men who want to replace Deon Strommer, who resigned from the board in May.

A meeting will be scheduled later to consider the two applicants, Will Benson and Michael Howe.

Benson is the Parole and Probation supervisor for the Baker County Sheriff’s Office. He is a 1992 Baker High School graduate and a 1996 graduate of Washington State University at Pullman where he earned bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and sociology.

Benson returned to Baker County in January 2007 from Pendleton where he had worked as a Umatilla County Parole and Probation officer.

The historic Central Building, originally built to serve as the community’s high school, and which until last year was part of a two-building middle school complex, has been declared surplus property.

The Baker School Board made the declaration Tuesday night to allow district managers to begin the process of selling the building.

The board closed the Central School last spring when the district needed to cut expenses to balance its budget. Baker Middle School students had continued to use the 93-year-old building’s wood shop this year with the hope of moving the program to the Helen M. Stack building.

Faced with making more reductions in 2010-11, the district has eliminated the part-time wood shop teacher’s position from the middle school budget for next year. The position had been filled by Dave Frazey, who split his day between the high school and the middle school. Frazey will return to the high school full time next year.

Baker County school districts are not part of the “voluntary” effort to merge the Union-Baker Education Service District with the Umatilla-Morrow ESD.

“We’re powerless,” said Barry Nemec, Baker School District special education director. “We have to accept that we are merging.”

Nemec also helps the Pine-Eagle and Burnt River school districts in Baker County and the North Powder School District in Union County oversee their special education programs through an arrangement with the Baker School District known as the Southern Consortium.

The Huntington School District is served by the Malheur County ESD because of its location. The community sits about five miles north of the Malheur County line in southeastern Baker County.

Through the consortium, the Baker County school districts receive 90 percent of the state money paid to the UBESD to fund special education, diagnostics, speech and language and occupational and physical therapy services.