LOCAL
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
WALKOUT
Continued from Page 1A
Bill Bradshaw/EO Media Group
Caution tape warns trespassers about the dangers of
the stairs at the aging Edelweiss Inn at the Wallowa Lake
Village.
INN
Continued from Page 1A
it,” Lockhart said. “I can’t say
we would turn down a very
large grant, but that’s what
it would take.”
He and Whittemore have
owned the Edelweiss and
the adjacent Wallowa Lake
Tramway since 1984, along
with the 14 acres they rest
upon.
Lockhart and Whittemore
have considered alterna-
tives they were not willing
to discuss but said they
will know more sometime
next month. They have
been working with possible
partners in the project for a
couple of years.
One possibility is to
dismantle the Edelweiss and
use its unique materials in
something smaller.
“We’d like to take a lot of
the materials in that build-
ing to build something like a
replica,” Lockhart said.
Chuck Anderson, alpen-
meister of the annual Oregon
Alpenfest, looks favorably
on the idea of a new venue
that includes at least some
historic vestiges of the old
building. Until last fall the
Alpenfest had taken place
in the Edelweiss and on it
grounds.
The Oregon State Parks
Department has a revised
comprehensive plan that
calls for a new event center
to be part of the Wallowa
Lake Marina parking lot,
where the 2019 Alpenfest
took place under rented
tents. But it just won’t be the
same, Anderson said.
Anderson and Lockhart
agreed there is a need for
an events center at the lake
such as the Edelweiss has
been. In addition to the
Alpenfest, it also served
as a venue for weddings,
meetings and a variety of
gatherings.
“The Wallowa Lake Tourist
Association (wants) to see
how we could” restore it,
Lockhart said.
However, he said, the
tramway business is growing
and it needs the parking, as
does Wallowa Lake Village in
general.
Lockhart and Anderson
lamented the end of an era
during which the Edelweiss
hosted the Alpenfest since
1975, as well as dances and
rollerskating in its 1920s-50s
heyday.
“It’d be beautiful if we
could continue to use it, but
it’s just too old,” Anderson
said. “I feel sad about that,
but it’s just a fact of life.”
“I hate to see it deterio-
rate,” Lockhart said. “Some-
thing’s got to be done. It’s just
not a viable building.”
SCOUTS
Continued from Page 1A
to take care of anyone who may have
been harmed. But in keeping that com-
mitment, there has been a strain. And
we want to make sure there is no end to
scouting.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive compiled
a listing of more than 1,300 volunteers
who were expelled from the national or-
ganization due to allegations. According
to this report, none were from Union
County.
The path to the bankruptcy proceed-
ings can be traced back a decade to
Portland, victims’ lawyers say. A Mult-
nomah County jury in 2010 awarded
$19.9 million damages to a Portland
man abused as a Scout. It was the
largest verdict against the group in its
long history. The trial also triggered the
public release of internal fi les kept for
decades that revealed the identities and
crimes of hundreds of known abusers.
“If the fi les were not released, the Boy
Scouts would have, I think, been able
to (fi nancially) weather the storm,” said
Paul Mones, one of the lead attorneys
on the case.
The fi les informed thousands of
former Scouts about the pervasiveness
of sexual abuse in the organization and
the extent of the group’s knowledge, he
said. The records prompted hundreds of
lawsuits, including several in Oregon.
But statutes of limitations precluded
many former Scouts from fi ling legal
claims. That changed recently when
lawmakers in the populous states of
California, New York and New Jersey
opened a window for victims to sue
regardless of when they were abused. A
fl ood of claims followed.
The bankruptcy case will halt active
lawsuits and, according to lawyers
familiar with bankruptcy proceedings,
likely will prevent future litigation tied
to past abuse.
“If a Portland, Oregon, jury was able
to award almost $20 million to one
person, if more trials were had around
the country, the Boy Scouts just did the
math,” Mones said.
A Boy Scouts spokesperson could not
be reached to discuss the fi ling. How-
ever, the group published a statement
to its website.
“While we know nothing can undo
the tragic abuse that victims suffered,
we believe the Chapter 11 process —
with the proposed trust structure —
will provide equitable compensation to
assigning Democrat Pam Marsh of
Ashland, in his stead.
“Being a chair comes with an extra
set of responsibilities and expecta-
tions,” Kotek said in a statement. “Not
only did Rep. Smith not come to work
tonight, he didn’t submit an excuse for
his absence.”
Smith later Tuesday night did not
argue with Kotek.
“Most defi nitely the Speaker of the
House has that authority,” Smith said.
“And I most defi nitely respect her
decision.”
He added Kotek is his friend and re-
mains such, and he will assist Marsh
in anyway he can. Smith stressed the
no-show was not about disrespect-
ing his colleagues on the other side
of the political aisle but about trying
to create some space and look at how
proposals will affect districts such as
his in Eastern Oregon.
The cap-and-trade bill to limit the
state’s greenhouse gas emissions is
the legislation receiving the most
attention this session. Smith said the
bill has residents of the eastern part
of the state feeling sincere concern
about their livelihoods. Then Gov. Kate
Brown came out in support of the
removal of four dams on the Snake
River, which could harm the ports
of Umatilla and Morrow, along with
power providers such as Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative and Umatilla
Electric Cooperative.
But the topper, Smith said, came
Tuesday when the House voted 42-16
in favor of House Bill 4075, which
would make it against the law to
conduct or participate in competitions
that give cash or prizes for killing
coyotes. Smith and fellow Republi-
can Rep. Greg Barreto of Cove voted
against.
The coyote hunting bill was a small
matter, Smith said, and it likely has
merit, but it was one more proposal
that affects the residents of Oregon’s
east side.
“Eastern Oregon is feeling like we’re
under the gun,” Smith said.
Opting to delay the session was not
a choice Smith said he took lightly but
was the way to grant more time to
take a longer look at the scope of big
all victims while maintaining the BSA’s
important mission,” chief executive
Roger Mosby said in the statement.
In the bankruptcy petition, the group
said it had $1 billion to $10 billion in
assets and $500 million to $1 billion in
liabilities.
The bankruptcy case will require all
victims to fi le claims with the federal
bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Dela-
ware, which will oversee a months-long
process to add up the Boy Scouts’ assets
and determine how much victims will
receive.
The Boy Scouts’ files made public in
Oregon indicate there may be several
thousand victims of sexual abuse who may
come forward to file claims, Mones said.
At least a handful of Oregon victims
who have already sued will now have
to fi le claims instead in the bankruptcy
case.
A key issue during the bankruptcy
will be how much local councils, like
the fi ve that operate in Oregon, have
to contribute toward paying victims,
said Peter Janci, a Portland lawyer who
was also part of the 2010 Portland case.
Janci and his law fi rm represent dozens
of victims in current cases across the
country and he said he plans to travel
to Delaware to be on hand to follow the
early bankruptcy proceedings.
He said he expects the Boy Scouts
will ask the court to extend bankruptcy
protections to local chapters, without
each group having to offi cially fi le for
bankruptcy. Janci said he believes
local councils should help compensate
victims in order to be protected from
future lawsuits.
The same debate may also extend to
organizations that sponsor Boy Scouts
troops, such as churches and commu-
nity clubs.
The national Boy Scouts, based in
Texas, reported more than $1 billion
in assets in its latest tax-exempt fi ling.
Four of the fi ve regional councils in
Oregon listed more than $56 million
worth of assets in their most recent fi l-
ings. The Cascade Pacifi c Council holds
three-quarters of those assets. The
Portland-based council oversees 20,000
youth and 9,000 adult volunteers.
Although the branch reported more
than $40 million in assets for tax
purposes, the true value of its holdings
is unclear. For example, it reported the
value of its land at $322,000. County
property records estimate the site of its
Portland headquarters alone is worth
more than $3 million. The council also
Anna Reed/The Associated Press
House Speaker Tina Kotek speaks Feb. 3 on the fi rst day of the short
legislative session at the Oregon Capitol in Salem. Kotek, D-Portland, took
action Tuesday night to remove Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, as chair
of a budget subcommittee after he and fellow House Republicans left in
protest over contentious legislation.
legislation.
“I felt it was appropriate for us to
push pause, step back and take a deep
breath,” he said.
After adjournment, House Demo-
cratic Leader Barbara Smith Warner
of Portland described Republicans’
absence as “the politics of obstruction.”
“Those members who refuse to
show up for work tonight and do their
job are saying to a large majority of
Oregonians: your voice doesn’t matter
and your vote doesn’t matter,” Smith
Warner said in a statement. “Orego-
nians deserve much better.”
Tuesday afternoon, House Repub-
lican Leader Christine Drazan, who
took over the 22-member caucus in
September, was opaque about the
idea that Republicans are denying a
quorum.
“We need to take time to look at
these issues and give them our full
consideration,” Drazan said. “So it’s
not about denying quorum, but it ab-
solutely is about setting a pace inside
the building that allows for us to give
all of these really big ideas in the short
session their due.”
Drazan’s announcement came a day
after Kotek said Monday the House
would be holding more hearings, in
response to Republicans’ concerns, on
a much-discussed proposal to cap the
owns land throughout Western Oregon
where it operates camps, including a
coastal property near Tillamook.
The council was at the center of the
lawsuit that led to the historic verdict
against the Scouts. During the trial,
lawyers spent days going over the
national organization’s internal fi les
that tracked reports of abuse on the
local level.
Mones said he clearly remembers
questioning an expert witness about
one specifi c fi le, in which executives had
concluded that a troop leader sleeping
nude with Cub Scouts was not “suffi -
cient reason” to permanently bar him.
“You could hear the oxygen go out of
the room,” Mones said. “It was so abhor-
rent to people.”
The Boy Scouts tried to block the fi les
from being disclosed after the verdict.
But the Oregon Supreme Court sided
with several news organizations, includ-
ing The Oregonian/OregonLive, and
ordered the fi les to be made public.
The fi les showed the public how the
organization had long known about
problems of sexual abuse and failed
to take appropriate actions to protect
children, Janci said.
The timing coincided with a shift in
national consciousness away from blam-
ing rogue bad actors to the institutions
that enable them, Mones said. In its
wake, many churches, schools and youth
groups have faced claims from people
who say they were abused as children
by adults in positions of power. Portland
private school Catlin Gabel is in the
news this year for just that reason.
Some local and regional groups,
including branches of the Catholic
Church, have turned to bankruptcy
before. Those cases provide a model for
some aspects of the Boy Scouts case,
such as how payments to individual vic-
tims might be determined, Mones said.
Janci said the bankruptcy trustee
will appoint a group of victims to weigh
in on the bankruptcy plan. Eventually,
the court will set a date by which all
victims need to fi le claims.
The court will decide between now
and then how potential victims will
be notifi ed of their legal rights to fi le
claims, Janci said.
Mones said if people do not fi le claims
by the fi ling deadline, they likely will
not be able to sue the Boy Scouts in the
future.
— Observer reporter Sabrina Thompson
contributed to this article.
state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Cap
and trade is the main course on the
political menu this session, and it’s an
issue that riles many Republicans —
and moderate Democrats.
In a written statement Tuesday,
Kotek said Drazan notifi ed her of the
Republican caucus’ intention to not
attend this evening’s session.
But Kotek pointed out she has
obliged Republican insistence that
each bill be read in its entirety, a
tedious process that by late Tuesday
afternoon had consumed nearly four
hours of a House session.
Kotek said that’s one reason she
had scheduled an evening fl oor session
for Tuesday.
“Our deadlines require that we
move bills that have passed out of
policy committees off the House fl oor
by Thursday,” Kotek said. “If the
House Republican Caucus wants to
continue reading bills tonight, that
alone will require nearly three hours
on the fl oor.”
Republicans in the House have been
refusing to suspend rules that require
clerks to read the bills aloud line by
line. It’s a tactic the minority party can
use to slow down the legislative process.
— Observer editor Phil Wright
contributed to this article.
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