LOCAL
TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2020
JUDGE
Continued from Page 1A
plaintiffs can continue to
utilize social distancing and
safety protocols at larger
gatherings involving spiri-
tual worship,” he wrote.
Courts in other states
have ruled against sim-
ilar orders. The Wisconsin
Supreme Court struck down
Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-
at-home order last week,
ruling his administration
overstepped its authority
when it extended the order
for another month without
consulting legislators.
A federal judge in North
Carolina on May 16 sided
with conservative Chris-
tian leaders and blocked
the enforcement of restric-
tions that Gov. Roy Cooper
ordered affecting indoor
religious services during the
pandemic.
The order from Judge
James C. Dever III came
days after two churches,
a minister and a Christian
revival group fi led a federal
lawsuit seeking to immedi-
ately block enforcement of
rules covering religious ser-
vices within the Democratic
governor’s executive orders.
In Louisiana, however, a
federal judge refused a min-
ister’s request to temporarily
halt Gov. John Bel Edwards’
stay-at-home order, which
expired that same day.
Shirtcliff’s ruling turned
on the legal mechanism
Brown used to issue her
THE OBSERVER — 5A
orders. The plaintiffs allege
— and the judge agreed —
they were issued under a
statute pertaining to public
health emergencies and
not an older provision that
addresses natural disasters
such as storms, earthquakes
or fl oods.
The public health statute
contains the 28-day time
limit, while the other does
not contain a time limit.
Brown maintained in
court papers the statute on
public health emergencies
BOND
Continued from Page 1A
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
La Grande High School freshmen Owen Rinker, left, and Jace Schow attach grommets
Thursday to a banner for Cove High School seniors.
BANNERS
Continued from Page 1A
large-format printer to
design vinyl signs to honor
the seniors for each school.
“I contacted the super-
intendent of every school
in the valley,” Rinker said.
The schools were on
board — even those who
already had signs for their
seniors, such as Union and
Elgin.
Each school is
receiving a variety of
signs they will be able
to display. Imbler and
Powder Valley are get-
ting individual portraits
of the seniors to hang on
light or telephone poles.
Cove, Elgin, Union and La
Grande are getting longer
signs — some 20-25 feet
long — Rinker said.
Some, like Cove, have
photos of the seniors on the
banner. Some, like Elgin,
have the names of the
seniors. Union’s has photos
of seniors’ missed spring
sports. Many of the signs
have the school logos. Many
say “Congratulations” or
“We are proud of you.”
La Grande, given the
large number of seniors
in the class — more than
150 — will have several
longer banners hung along
the route the seniors will
take when they have their
drive-by graduation cere-
mony May 30 rather than
individual ones for each
senior.
“Not as simple to do the
HONORS
Continued from Page 1A
national fraternal organi-
zation composed of Civil
War veterans, annually
placed decorations at the
grave sites of their fellow
veterans.
The article also indi-
cated that the GAR post
had recently stopped con-
ducting Memorial Day
marches because many of
its members were getting
too old to participate.
The GAR, founded in
1866, was open to hon-
orably discharged sol-
diers, sailors or marines of
the United States’ armed
forces who served between
April 2, 1861, and April 9,
1865, according to a sub-
mission written by Cora E.
Gillis for the 1964 edition
of the World Book Ency-
clopedia. The organization
had 409,489 members in
1890, and its last member
died in 1956.
The GAR is cred-
ited with being one of the
fi rst organized advocacy
groups in American pol-
itics, supporting causes
including voting rights for
“It’s the right thing to do to reach
out and do what you can do to
make things special for those
kids.”
Lance Rinker, director of purchasing, marketing and
information technology at Northwood and Outdoors
upright signs individually,
but we wanted to do some-
thing special for them,”
Rinker said.
He said roughly 40-50
hours went into settling
on the details the schools
wanted for their signs,
designing them, and then
printing them.
Close to 18 hours went
into attaching grommets
to each sign to hang them,
which was where a pair of
volunteers came into play
— Rinker’s son, Owen,
and Jace Schow, both
freshmen at LHS.
“I was talking about
(the grommets), Owen
heard and was like ‘You
need help doing that?’”
Lance Rinker said. “He
called Jace. They play
sports (and) they know all
these kids.”
The younger Rinker
said he and Schow jumping
into help was “the right
thing to do.”
“Jace and I from sports
and athletics (know) a
lot of seniors who have
affected us in real ways,”
Owen Rinker said. “In
soccer this year Tyler
Leigh, Westin Blake and
Ty Rivas welcomed me
with open arms. They were
always nice to me. Still all
(are) really close friends
to me.”
Schow pointed to senior
baseball player Justin
Frederick as one of the
upperclassmen who helped
him during the spring
season before it was can-
celed, even noting it was
just the presence that was
impactful.
“We just wanted to help
out because they are not
getting what most people
get (for graduation),”
Schow said. “They deserve
more, especially because
they went through all the
schooling process as us,
and they don’t get the same
graduation as everyone
else. It’s barely anything
for us to help make these
posters.”
Lance Rinker pointed
to the attitude of the
freshmen — doing any-
thing to provide support
— as the reason behind the
project.
“That sums up what
we’re trying to do,” he said.
“It’s the right thing to do to
reach out and do what you
can do to make things spe-
cial for those kids.”
African American veterans
and patriotic education,
according to Wikipedia.
The GAR also is cred-
ited with helping start the
Memorial Day commemo-
ration. Memorial Day cele-
brations began in the 1860s
after the Civil War in the
north. It became a national
federal holiday in 1971.
Evidence of the GAR’s
presence in La Grande is
at Hillcrest East ceme-
tery where a stone memo-
rial marker and fl agpole
commemorating the local
post stand. One side of the
marker, installed in 1916,
states that it is a memo-
riam to “The boys who
wore the blue. They kept
the stars in the fi eld of
blue. They kept the states
to allegiance true. To them
the Nation’s life is due.”
“The boys who wore
the blue” refers to the blue
uniforms worn by Union
soldiers. They contrasted
to the gray uniforms Con-
federate troops wore.
An editorial in the May
28, 1910, Observer told
of how the bloody gulf
between Blue and the Gray
had virtually disappeared
over the prior 45 years.
“The country has over-
come what sectional strife
it once held and today
the saying of ‘No north,
no south,’ is very true
indeed,” the editorial
stated.
Veterans who fought
in the Civil War who are
buried in Union County
include Jerome Lawrence,
who was buried about
10 feet west of the GAR
memorial at Hillcrest East
Cemetery. Lawrence was
born June 15, 1839, and
died Aug. 14, 1919. “GAR”
is prominently etched into
his headstone.
The Union County post
of the GAR was founded
1890 and disbanded in
1936 and was open only to
Civil War veterans from
this county, according to
a June 3, 2013 Observer
article.
William Thompson was
one of its last surviving
members.
The Observer reported
in its May 29, 1940, edi-
tion that Thompson was
then living in Portland
and believed to be one of
15 surviving members
of the GAR in Oregon.
Thompson was then 92.
and capital construction
Union voters approved in
November and a $4 mil-
lion matching grant from
the state’s Oregon School
Capital Improvement
program.
Union School District
Superintendent Carter
Wells said the COVID-19
pandemic, which has led
to the closure of all school
buildings in Oregon, is not
interfering with the dis-
trict’s bond project. How-
ever, he said, the corona-
virus pandemic could later
affect the availability of
materials and cause their
prices to rise or fall.
The Hutchinson
upgrades will be just the
start of the bond project
work over the next three
years. The others, which
the bond design team con-
tinues to plan, include
work on making the Union
School District’s build-
ings more accessible and
improving heating and
ventilation systems.
High on the design
team’s priority list is the
installation of an elevator
at Union High School. The
elevator will be available
for people with mobility
issues.
“We want people to be
able to access the building
with dignity,” Wells said.
Another high priority
accessibility project, Clark
said, involves the high
school gym. The design
was intended by the Legis-
lature to supplement, and
not supersede, the emer-
gency powers granted her
for natural disasters —
including disease — and
therefore the time limit
doesn’t apply.
Brown declared a state of
emergency due to the virus
on March 8 and has issued
multiple executive orders
since then, including the
closure of all schools, non-
essential businesses and a
ban on dine-in service at
restaurants and bars.
Earlier this month,
Brown extended the order
another 60 days until July 6.
All but one Oregon county,
however, has since received
the state’s approval to begin
loosening the coronavirus
restrictions. In those coun-
ties, restaurants can pro-
vide dine-in service with
6 feet of social distancing
and salons, gyms and other
nonessential businesses
can also reopen with strict
safety precautions.
team wants a ramp out-
side the north entrance
and a wider vestibule to
make it easier for people
to enter the gym. Prelimi-
nary plans call for seating
inside the gym to meet
the needs of those with
mobility issues, Clark
said.
A third accessi-
bility project under con-
sideration is the resto-
ration of the cracked
old steps leading into
the high school’s grand
east entrance. which fea-
tures iconic columns.
This served as the main
entry way into Union
High School, built around
1912, for decades before
its doors were closed to
the public as a safety pre-
caution to prevent people
from using the deterio-
rating steps.
Clark said restoring
the steps to allow the his-
torical main entrance to
reopen would boost secu-
rity because people who
enter would go past the
school’s offi ces, allowing
staff to better mon-
itor who enters the high
school.
The design team also
is looking at altering the
main entrance in the ele-
mentary school’s S.E.
Miller building. It is pres-
ently on the southwest
side of the building off
its playground. This is
far from ideal because
it means children have
to walk from a drop-off
point through the parking
lot between the building
and the high school to
get into their school. The
design team is studying
the possibility of moving
the main entrance of the
S.E. Miller building to the
middle of the east side of
the building and installing
a sidewalk that would run
from Union’s Main Street
west about 50 yards to
the new entrance. Chil-
dren would not have to
walk through the parking
lot, and those who drop
them off would be able to
see them enter the school,
Clark said.
Members of the design
team include school dis-
trict staff, project archi-
tects, contractors and the
bond project manager. The
team shares all of its pro-
posals with the school dis-
trict’s staff and its bond
oversight committee to
for their approval, and the
Union School Board has
the fi nal say.
Wells said the proposed
bond projects are creating
a sense of excitement in
the school district during
an uncertain time.
“It is really phenom-
enal that we are able to
move forward (on the bond
project),” he said.
The superintendent said
he believes major prog-
ress will be made in the
summer of 2021.
“I am very, very opti-
mistic that when students
get back to school in the
fall of 2021 they will see
signifi cant improvements
in the school district,”
Wells said.
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