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FRIDAY-SUNDAY • November 29 - December 1, 2019 • $1.50
Good day to our valued subscriber Mary Brown of La Grande
Liberty
receives
major
grant
Oregon’s
economy
remains
strong
By Dick Mason
By Jake Thomas, Saphara
Harrell and Sam Stites
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Walt Disney classic “Sleep-
ing Beauty” was released in
1959, the year La Grande’s
Liberty Theatre closed.
Today, the Liberty Theatre
is closer to reawakening after
a long slumber, just as Prin-
cess Aurora does in “Sleeping
Beauty.”
Liberty Theatre has a chance
to reopen in about a year
thanks to a $225,000 grant its
foundation received from the
Ford Family Foundation.
The grant allows the foun-
dation to forge ahead with
its renovation project, said
Michael Jaeger, president of
the Liberty Theatre Founda-
tion board.
“This signifi cant contribu-
tion to the overall plan for
theater restoration puts
the project on track to open
sometime in late 2020,”
Jaeger said in a news release.
“The Ford Family grant will
fund the electrical system,
HVAC (heating, ventilation
and air conditioning), plumb-
ing and some reconstruction
costs associated with the
auditorium.”
Jaeger said the Ford Fam-
ily Foundation grant is the
largest the Liberty Theatre
Foundation has received for
the renovation project.
Once the electrical system,
HVAC, plumbing and audito-
rium reconstruction work is
complete, ceiling restoration
and fi re suppression system
work will be done. After that,
the balance of the work shifts
to restoring the theater.
News of the Ford Fam-
ily Foundation grant came
Friday, two months after the
installation of a steel frame
for the theater’s canopy.
Union-based Quiet Life Con-
struction, the prime contrac-
tor for the Liberty Theatre
project, used a forklift to
hoist the 2,000-pound frame
in place for welding it to the
building. La Grande metal
See Liberty / Page 5A
Oregon Capital Bureau
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Cook Mona Esquiro checks on the yams Thursday morning at the Presbyterian Friendship Center, La Grande, in
preparation for the community Thanksgiving Day meal from the nonprofi t Neighbors Together.
Turkey, potatoes,
stuffing and gravy
■ More than enough of each to go around at annual community Thanksgiving meal
By Phil Wright, The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Mona Esquiro had plenty
on her mind Thursday
morning in La Grande,
but her focus was on
one thing: “Gravy, gravy,
gravy,” she sang.
Lots of gravy. Turkey gravy. Some-
where around 10 gallons of the stuff.
Esquiro headed up cooking the
annual community Thanksgiving
dinner at the Presbyterian Friendship
Center, just as she has the three years
prior for the charitable nonprofi t
Neighbors Together, which organizes
the event.
“It’s fun,” she said. “I have so many
volunteers. I just have to tell them
what to do. It’s really good.”
She had the hard part out of the
way. Esquiro said she spent Wednes-
day in the center’s industrial kitchen
cooking 10 turkeys, each about 15
pounds.
“I had all the ovens going. It was so
hot in here,” she exclaimed.
And there were the 100 pounds of
russets for the mashed potatoes, and
50 pounds of yams, and the rolls and
cranberry sauce and more. And the
pies for dessert. Esquiro said volun-
teers would provide anywhere from
50 to 75 pies.
All together, she said, the goods
make about 200 meals. So there has
to be plenty of gravy.
“They love my gravy,” she said. “And
of course they put it on the potatoes,
the stuffi ng and everything.”
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Volunteers serve up the goods Thursday during the annual commu-
nity Thanksgiving Day meal at the Presbyterian Friendship Center, La
Grande. The nonprofi t Neighbors Together took over the event four years
ago and prepares around 200 meals for the day, including plenty of pie.
Hanna Voetberg said she is all
about the gravy. The president of
Neighbors Together, she told Esquiro
she wants her mashed potatoes
“swimming in it.”
Esquiro replied she’s a stuffi ng
person.
“I can always have mashed potatoes
and gravy,” she said. “But stuffi ng?”
The event opened to the public
at about noon and started serving
around a half hour later. Voetberg
said the meal is for anyone who wants
it. Neighbors Together took over
the event four years ago, and that
Thanksgiving members of the EOU
football team came.
“Those guys could really pack it
away,” Voetberg recalled.
And this year, the university’s
women soccer team attended. The
team is getting ready for a return to
the NAIA national tournament’s fi nal
location in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Kathleen Hollingshead said she has
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been coming to the community meal
year after year for two decades. While
the food always is tasty, she said it’s
the community that keeps her coming
back. She may not be able to donate,
she said, but participation matters. If
no one shows up for these gatherings,
the events tend to die out, she said.
Couple Destiny Fouts and Chester
Wilson said they were fi rst timers.
Wilson said he was happy he didn’t
have to clean and do the dishes this
Thanksgiving, and they both said the
dinner had everything you could ask
for.
“Kind of like Grandma used to
make it, really,” Fouts said.
Fouts and Wilson ended up with a
fair bit of dessert. During the event’s
raffl e, she won an apple pie.
Going home with extras is just fi ne
with Esquiro. She said the aim is to
provide for those who need it.
“Nobody goes hungry here,” she
said.
See Economy / Page 5A
CONTACT US
Full forecast on the back of B section
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
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30/19
30/24
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
A bit of snow
WARMING SHELTER OVERVIEW
SALEM — It’s a good time
to be a holiday shopper in
Oregon.
Despite fears of a recession
earlier this year, Oregon’s
economy remains stronger
than much of the country.
Unlike a decade ago, when
the economy was reeling from
a recession, Oregonians have
jobs and money. That puts
them in a better position to be
generous this holiday season.
Hovering at 4%, the state’s
unemployment rate is at
historic lows. Oregon had
the second-fastest growing
median income in 2018. At
13%, Oregon’s poverty rate is
below the national rate and
the lowest since 2000.
“We’re in unprecedented
times right now,” said John
Topagna, president and
economist at Portland-based
consulting fi rm ECONorth-
west. “We’re in the eleventh
year of an economic expan-
sion, and no other Americans
have ever lived through
that.”
While Oregon’s economic
indicators are strong going
into the busiest shopping
season of the year, there
are signs that trouble some
economists. There have also
been some blips in the oth-
erwise strong economy that
resulted in job losses.
Still, local shoppers, retail-
ers and bankers remain
optimistic going into the
holidays.
Umpqua Bank, a regional
bank with branches across
Oregon, reports strong
consumer confi dence. An-
nette Campista, a senior vice
president at the bank and
regional director of business
banking, said she’s seen an
increase in business loan
applications, an indicator of
economic health.
Campista said the bank
has seen an uptick in
consumers saving. She said
many customers have lever-
aged low interest rates to
refi nance their homes and
consolidate debt.
Jeff Bailey, the president
and CEO of the Heppner-
based Bank of Eastern
Oregon, similarly reported
increases in deposits, “steady
to better” activity on loans
and overall faith in the
economy despite the threat
trade wars pose to the re-
gion’s agriculture.
“From a national perspec-
tive, consumer spending is
still very strong,” said Bailey.
“In small towns in rural
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La Grande, Oregon
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