Thank you for your interest in reading The Observer. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

In case you’ve been living under a rock and not keeping up with the national news, another election cycle is just around the corner and that includes here in Northeast Oregon.

Reporter Dick Mason reported on the upcoming May election following the deadline for candidates to file on March 16. A total of 18 school board seats are up for election and all have at least one candidate — except Position 1 on the Elgin School Board, which has no candidates. Seats are up for grabs in La Grande, Union, Cove, Elgin, Imbler and North Powder.

Reporter Jillian Hoefer reported on Eastern Oregon University once again receiving the designation as a military-friendly school. EOU will be awarded a silver level military-friendly institution designation for the 2023-2024 academic year in the April Guide to Military Friendly Schools. More than 1,800 universities participated in the 2023-24 survey, and 530 schools were awarded levels of gold, silver or bronze designations for their military-friendly services and programs.

Lions Field at Pioneer Park is getting a makeover this spring. Plans are being made for major restoration work, the site of countless spring and summer baseball games each year. The project, which may be done this spring, will involve elevating more than 100 square feet of the home plate area in an effort to improve drainage of water from the infield at Lions Field.

And finally, our sister paper, the Capital Press, reported from the 95th annual Oregon FFA State Convention at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center in Redmond where La Grande High junior KaraAnn Akers earned her State Degree — the highest award a state FFA organization can bestow.

Akers took over her father’s backyard beehives and grew the project from two hives to 15. Beekeeping became her “supervised agricultural experience” through Oregon FFA, where students apply classroom lessons to real-world experiences.

Akers was one of 324 Oregon FFA members to earn their State Degree in 2023.

Coming up next week, we’ll have a look at the return of Union High School’s food science program, which was cut about 25 years ago because of budget issues. Food science classes started being taught again at the high school this winter.

It’s all part of The Observer’s efforts, both in print and online, to keep you informed about the latest happenings throughout Union County. As always, if you have a news tip to share or want to ask a question about our news coverage, I can be reached at this email address, acutler@lagrandeobserver.com.  

And, finally, let me take this opportunity to thank our subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support. 

Andrew Cutler is the interim editor of The Observer.