Russ Smith of Hagedorn Logging uses heavy equipment to handle a log Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, during the creation of a firebreak in the Mount Emily Recreation Area near La Grande. 

Rock quarry fight ends with pulled application

LA GRANDE — James Smejkal, of Banks, withdrew his application for a rock quarry off Robbs Hill Road before Union County commissioners could vote on Wednesday, April 7.

The Union County Planning Commission on March 22 voted to recommend the county commissioners reject Smejkal’s application, citing the staff report that found numerous deficiencies in the 400-plus pages of the document. The county board had scheduled a public hearing to consider the application for the rock quarry about 1 mile from Perry. The quarry would have been at least 250 acres.

But Bill Kloos, legal counsel representing Smejkal, formally withdrew the application, according to information from Union County.

Steve West of La Grande, a member of the application team for the Robbs Hill Rock Quarry project, said the withdrawal is only temporary. He said the team wants to regroup and submit a better application.

“This project is not dead, and I want to thank the incredible number of people locally who support the project,” West said in a statement.

West said one of his personal goals is to get out fact-based information to the public to offset what he said is disinformation from a small number of people who oppose the project.

“They truly represent a small percentage of the county’s population, but they are loud and get heard,” he said.

He said he believes a detailed public information campaign that outlines the facts will change public opinion and silence critics. West said the rock quarry project will be approved in the near future if such a public information campaign is undertaken.

But the real work would have to be a better application.

County Planning Director Scott Hartell for the March 22 planning commission hearing delivered a 17-page report that went through the Smejkal application and found it lacking throughout, beginning with proving a public need for the rock quarry.

Veterans village and other housing developments

LA GRANDE — A one-of-a-kind neighborhood is officially up and running in La Grande.

Veterans Village Union County hosted a virtual ribbon-cutting event on Thursday, Dec. 9, which acknowledged the many entities that contributed to the village. The 10-house neighborhood is designed specifically for veterans who otherwise might not have a home.

“Through this amazing collaboration of efforts, we created something wonderful — permanent, well-built and energy-efficient homes for many veterans who would not likely get this opportunity without help,” said Gust Tsiatsos, owner of GCT Land Management, who coordinated the project.

Tsiatsos and Veterans Village Advisory Council Committee Chair Lindsey Freeland hosted the event, which was attended via Zoom by about 40 people. Attendees included La Grande Planning Commission members and county commissioners from Union County as well as other surrounding counties.

The Veterans Village, 0.83 acres at the corner of Russell Avenue and North Pine Street, features fully furnished homes for veterans. Each unit is a cottage-style small home that includes a bedroom, living room, fireplace, fenced-in backyard and amenities. The 10-house village also has a community center that can serve as a gathering space for fellow veterans to interact.

Tsiatsos recognized many individuals and organizations that assisted along the way in developing the village, among them Kevin Reed; Ace Hardware; Bob Haley, job site superintendent; Terri Bradley, marketing consultant; Seder Architecture; and Angel Smith, social worker.

“Through all the local group and individual support, the state of Oregon also recognized the project as a frontrunner at the state level and a worthy partner through the Oregon Housing and Community Services program,” Tsiatsos said.

The HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program through Veterans Affairs finds individuals who meet the guidelines to live in the village, while the Northeast Oregon Housing Authority manages the property. After the La Grande Planning Commission amended its codes to allow for tiny homes and cottage-style houses, the Veterans Village serves as the first example of what can be done to ease the city’s tight housing market.

“I think the concept works well in many applications, not just veterans housing,” Tsiatsos said. “I hope to see other smaller units popping up here and there where we can get some more housing here.”

Bowen becomes sheriff, restarts reserves, blasts Kate Brown

LA GRANDE — It was a busy year for new Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen.

After unseating longtime sheriff Boyd Rasmussen, Bowen was sworn into the county’s top law enforcement position on Monday, Jan. 4. Bowen on Facebook thanked his family and friends for their support and Union County voters for believing in him.

“I won’t let you down,” he promised.

A couple of months later, Bowen revived the county’s deputy reserve program. Bowen, who started as a reserve officer in 2009, said the program is a critical way for the sheriff’s office to get involved with the community — a hallmark of his campaign to bring transparency and openness to the law enforcement agency.

“It’s an important way for people to give back to the community,” Bowen said. “It’s a necessity for this department to be a part of this community, and we have to have reserves.”

Bowen said he wasn’t sure why the previous administration canceled the program, but he hopes reviving it will provide open channels for the community to interact with the sheriff’s office — and provide a way for people interested in law enforcement to become officers in the future.

Bowen said he hopes to add about 10 reserve deputies to the office through the program. He also said he’s looking to hire more full-time staff in the future.

In August, Bowen made more news by penning a personal letter to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown regarding the recent statewide mask mandate for public schools. Bowen listed his reasons for concern and called for local control on decision making in a letter sent to Brown on Friday, Aug. 13, and posted on social media.

“I believe that as Americans, we have a right to choose,” Bowen said. “This isn’t a law and it hasn’t been voted on by the people.”

Bowen, a parent himself, advocated for parents making their own decisions on whether children in school should wear masks. In the letter, Bowen wrote that he hopes to open a dialogue and speak on behalf of Union County residents.

In the letter, Bowen said he believes the governor’s mandate is unconstitutional and that he is against threatening the livelihoods of teachers, referring to the potential fines and loss of teaching licenses for teachers and staff who do not enforce the mandate. This was a hot topic of debate at recent school board meetings in the area, with concerned parents and community members voicing their opposition.

Finley Creek Jane Doe and Walla Walla connection

ELGIN — Suzanne Timms was looking at a Facebook page that lists missing persons when she thought she saw someone familiar — herself.

“I said, ‘Why am I there? I’m not a missing person,’” she said.

A moment later the Walla Walla resident became convinced that the picture, which she first saw in July, was not of herself but of her mother, Patty Otto, who has been missing since Sept. 1, 1976. What Timms saw was not a photograph but an image created in May by a forensic artist in Massachusetts, Anthony Redgrave, the operator of Redgrave Research Forensic Services. Redgrave was assisting a local group trying to identify a woman found in a shallow grave 10 miles northwest of Elgin in August 1978.

The group is led by Melinda Jederberg of La Grande.

Timms’ mother, a Lewiston, Idaho, resident whom Timms last saw when she was 3 years old, may have been the person discovered in that shallow grave, which was near Finley Creek. She has since become known as the Finley Creek Jane Doe. Timms said the mystery involving the woman’s identify is solved in her mind.

“I am certain she is my mother,” she said.

Re-creating the face of what Timms believes is that of her mother took some creativity on Redgrave’s part. Redgrave had no actual skull to work with, just the digital copies of the photos the Oregon State medical examiner took of the remains after hunters found her.

Timms is sure of Finley Creek Jane Doe’s identity not only because of the forensic image but also the red pants and white blouse a medical examiner’s report photo shows she was wearing.

“That was exactly what my mom had on the last time I saw her,” Timms said.

A Sept. 8, 1976, story in the Lewiston-Morning Tribune also said that Otto was wearing red pants and a white blouse before she disappeared from Lewiston.

Other similarities include the light brown or blond hair the article described, the same color Timms’ mom had. Size is another common characteristic. Finley Creek Jane Doe’s estimated height was 5 feet, 2 inches to 5 feet, 4 inches, the same height as Timms’ mother.

Timms now wants to get DNA to verify that Finley Creek Jane Doe is her mother, which might prove challenging — Timms said Finley Creek Jane Doe was cremated in 1990 because her case had been closed by the state.

Heat wave — record high temps, fire and fireworks bans

LA GRANDE — How’s the weather? If you were in the Pacific Northwest during the summer, the answer would have been, “It’s hot.”

Beginning June 26, Northeastern Oregon experienced one of the most historic and unprecedented heat waves to ever hit the region.

During the height of the heat wave, La Grande broke five consecutive daily record highs, from June 28 to July 2, and ultimately tied the daily record on July 3. For La Grande, the hottest temperature recorded was 108 degrees on June 30 and July 1. The reading of 108 degrees also broke the record for the highest monthly temperature recorded in June and tied the monthly record high for July originally set in 2002.

Additionally, the mark tied the record for the all-time maximum temperature recorded in 2002.

The high temps and dry conditions prompted the city of La Grande on Tuesday, June 29, to ban fireworks and outdoor recreational fires, just days before the Independence Day holiday.

“I know it’s upsetting to some people or probably frustrating, but I just feel like it’s the right thing,” La Grande Fire Chief Emmitt Cornford said.

Wallowa County wildfires

ENTERPRISE — The Elbow Creek Fire cost more than $25 million to suppress, according to a spokesperson for the Umatilla National Forest.

“Our records show the cost-to-date is $25.3 million,” said Darcy Weseman, public affairs officer for the forest.

The fire started on the afternoon of Thursday, July 15, in an area along the Grande Ronde River near Troy. The fire ended up burning nearly 23,000 acres in northern Wallowa County. More than 1,000 firefighters were mustered to fight the blaze in steep terrain as it covered the region with smoke for weeks. As of Aug. 2, the fire was 95% contained, and it was extinguished not long after.

Weseman said the cause of the blaze was still under investigation. It was speculated the cause could have been human-related or that it was a “sleeper” — a smoldering tree from lightning strikes about a week earlier.

Poisoned wolves

LA GRANDE — In early February, Oregon State Police investigators were alerted that a wolf fitted with a tracking collar had stopped moving near Mount Harris, about 10 miles northeast of La Grande in Union County.

They found the entirety of the Catherine Pack, three males and two females, dead along with a nearby dead magpie, according to state police. The animals were sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab in Ashland for testing.

About a month later, wildlife officials again contacted state police to report concerns about a collared wolf in the same area of Union County. Another search turned up a dead female wolf and another dead magpie and a dead skunk. Again, all the animals were sent to the lab for testing.

By April, the toxicology tests confirmed all six wolves had been poisoned.

Two more wolves would be poisoned in the months to come. Later in April, another male wolf, this one from the Five Points Pack, was found dead near Elgin. In July, a young female wolf was found dead northeast of La Grande, state troopers said. That animal had recently dispersed from the Keating Pack.

Testing on both confirmed different types of poison, but investigators believe the young female’s death may be related to the six earlier poisonings.

To date, conservation groups have offered nearly $50,000 for information that leads to a conviction.

MERA fire break work and logging

LA GRANDE — The odds of a catastrophic fire someday striking the Grande Ronde Valley were reduced in 2021 by the creation of a pair of two major firebreaks in the Mount Emily Recreation Area.

The largest of the two firebreaks is 6 miles long on MERA’s Mainline Trail, which runs north-south starting from the recreation site’s parking lot off of Fox Hill Road. The firebreak was created by Reedco Forestry, a company contracted by Union County.

The second firebreak was along Forest Service Road 3120. Gary Wright of Gary Wright Contracting in Union created that break, which is about a mile long and runs on the western edge of MERA.

The firebreaks cost a combined total of $200,000. A federal National Fire Plan grant, which Union County received via the Oregon Department of Forestry, covered much of the funding. The grant reimbursed Union County for a major portion of its cost of building the firebreaks.

The trunks of all trees in the firebreaks are at least 10 feet apart and their crowns a significant distance away.

The distances make it much less likely for a fire to spread from tree to tree.

“They will break the continuity of fuel,” Jamie Knight, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Forestry, told The Observer in a Feb. 4 article.

The break in continuity of fuel means the firebreaks will help stop the advancement of fires from the Mount Emily area into the Grande Ronde Valley and blazes moving in the opposite direction.

The 400-foot-wide firebreaks also will help stop the fires advancing in the crowns of trees. Sean Chambers, Union County’s parks coordinator, said the intent of this step is to keep fires on the ground where they can be controlled.

Much of the timber cut down in the process of creating the firebreaks was sold by Union County to mills. Wood materials not suitable for mills were made available to the public in slash piles. Everyone who purchased a $10 permit could get five cords of wood from early October through the end of November, according to Union County’s website.

EOU projects: FieldHouse, Loso Hall

LA GRANDE — The past year has been a productive one for Eastern Oregon University building construction and renovation.

The renovation of Loso Hall was completed in the spring. Many of the improvements focus on boosting accessibility to Loso Hall’s two theaters — McKenzie and Schwarz.

McKenzie Theatre now has an elevator the physically challenged can take to the upper level of its first tier of seating. This gives people who normally only get to see performances at stage level a chance to view productions from a higher perspective.

Those with mobility issues can now watch performances at one of six sites that accommodate wheelchairs and their companions. Creating space for viewing sites within the venue’s regular seating area was a heavyweight task.

“We had to remove 40,000 pounds of concrete,” Jon Fowler told The Observer in its Feb. 25 edition.

Fowler is project superintendent for Kirby Nagelhout Construction, the general contractor for the Loso Hall remodeling, which cost $5.5 million and was funded by the sale of state bonds.

At Schwarz Theatre, accessibility also received a dramatic boost, where the stage now is level with the floor. Previously the seating area was sloped and above the stage.

Renovation work in Schwarz Theatre also included the addition of a motorized turntable stage that can rotate to alter sets during performances.

On the athletic front the framework for Eastern’s first-ever fieldhouse was installed and much of the siding work was done in 2021. The siding work should be done by early January, said John Garlitz, Eastern’s physical plant director.

“Once the siding is up, work on the interior can start,” Garlitz said.

He said the fieldhouse, which will cost $9 million, should be ready for use by students and athletic team practices by the start of fall term in 2022.

Once completed, the field house will be the largest building of its kind at any college or university in Oregon, Washington and Idaho that is not a NCAA Division I school, said Ben Welch, EOU’s head men’s and women’s track and field coach.

La Grande crime and homelessness

LA GRANDE — Near the conclusion of 2021, concerns over homelessness and a rise in criminal activities at Max Square and in downtown La Grande became a discussion topic among business owners and city entities alike.

A letter from downtown business owners and comments from councilor John Bozarth brought the issue to light, prompting La Grande Police Chief Gary Bell to write a letter addressing the concerns and opening a dialogue with the community.

“I think it’s appropriate to share that our mission at the police department is to ethically protect the lives, property and quality of life of the La Grande community to the best of our ability, while respecting the constitutional rights of all persons,” Bell said in the statement.

The conversation continued with community members in early December as the city hosted an open forum on the topic. Bell was joined by City Manager Robert Strope, Parks and Recreation Coordinator Stu Spence, Economic Development Director Timothy Bishop and CHD Mental Health Director Aaron Grigg.

Bell pointed out tactics that law enforcement and the city have conducted to limit loitering and vandalism downtown, but also noted several roadblocks facing the police department. Measure 110 and recent court cases have impacted the way that law enforcement can address homelessness in cities.

The open conversation with business owners took place at Brother Bear Cafe on Adams Avenue and saw a crowd of about 15 business owners in attendance. Many in attendance spoke of observing drug usage at Max Square and of cars being vandalized or stolen.

Ideas ranged on how to address the rise in homelessness over the last several years, but the overall consensus was the need for continued communication on the issue between law enforcement and local businesses. Grigg also detailed how CHD goes about providing resources to homeless individuals and what possible solutions can exist from a mental health standpoint.

“I can assure you that this is felt collectively and we’re working on it,” Bell said at the November city council meeting. “We need public engagement and I think part of that is the education component so that our downtown, our business owners and people are aware that it’s not just going unattended.”