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THURSDAY
•
June 11, 2020
• $1.50
Good day to our valued subscriber David Ebel of La Grande
Union County sees eighth case of COVID-19
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Public health
offi cials Wednesday afternoon
announced the eighth confi rmed
positive case of COVID-19 in
Union County.
The day before, the Center
for Human Development Inc.
reported the seventh case. Union
County has had no deaths from
the disease, and only three of
the cases are considered active,
according to the Oregon Health
Authority.
These are the fi rst and second
confi rmed cases in the county
since May 18. They came less
than a week after the county
entered Phase 2 of reopening but
nearly four weeks after the county
went into Phase 1.
This seventh case was com-
munity acquired, according to
the press release from the center,
meaning the individual does not
have a direct epidemiological link
to a known confi rmed case.
“This means that the infection
was acquired from an unknown
source and place in the commu-
nity,” the press release stated.
The center did not provide
details on how the eighth case was
acquired. As in previous cases,
the center reported it is working
to contact and isolate or quaran-
tine those who may have been in
close contact with individuals. A
close contact is defi ned as anyone
within 6 feet of the individual for
more than 15 minutes.
“If you are identifi ed through
this investigation as someone that
may be at risk for COVID-19,”
the center reported, “public health
will contact you.”
Oregon has 5,060 total cases
and 169 deaths as of Wednesday,
according to the Oregon Health
Authority’s COVID-19 website.
Just less than half of the cases —
2,457 — are considered active.
The state has conducted 156,605
tests for the disease, and 151,698
have come back negative.
EOU may
still change
name of
its library
Library moniker
draws criticism, petition
calling for change
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
La Grande’s Granada Theatre, which has been closed since mid-March, will reopen Friday, with the slate for the upcoming week including the
1981 classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Granada set to reopen Friday
By Ronald Bond
“You pretty much got classics right now until
July. We’ll be doing different things. We might
bring some Star Wars in, Lord of the Rings
(or) Harry Potter.”
The Observer
LA GRANDE — It’s been
three months since digital images
played on the screens at the
Granada Theatre in La Grande.
The coronavirus-induced
hiatus will offi cially end Friday
as the venue reopens with Union
County in Phase 2 of the state’s
reopening plan.
The reopening moves the
theater one step closer to nor-
malcy after what manager Patty
Johnson said has been a chal-
lenging time since the cinema
closed in mid-March.
“It’s been hard not knowing
when we would be able to open
up,” she said. “Luckily we
were able to open the drive-in
(recently). It’s hard to get a
rhythm going when you’re not
working.”
Johnson said the reopening
of the La Grande Drive-In a few
weeks ago helped staff fi nd that
rhythm again.
All three theater rooms at the
Granada will be operating, but
Patty Johnson, Granada manager
Johnson said alternating rows
will be taped off to help the
venue comply with social dis-
tancing protocols.
“We’re still doing some mea-
surement to see what I can get in
each theater,” she said.
She noted the largest theater
of the three typically would hold
a maximum of 175 moviegoers.
Between the three there are 323
seats.
Staff didn’t need to do a whole
lot of deep cleaning to ready the
venue for patrons in the lead-up
to the reopen as Johnson said it
already was being kept up during
the closure.
“While we were closed we
went through and were doing
some cleaning,” she said. “We
were wiping down (and) cleaning
off seats.”
The theater will open with
two movies that were released
just days before state-imposed
closures due to the coronavirus
pandemic — the animated chil-
dren’s movie “Trolls World
Tour” and the superhero actioner
“Bloodshot”— but is also
cracking open the vault to air an
early-1980s classic, “Raiders of
the Lost Ark.”
The Granada was showing
“Bloodshot,” featuring Vin
Diesel, before the closure.
“We were trying to fi nd a kids
movie,” Johnson said of selecting
“Trolls,” and of the 1981 Indiana
Jones fl ick, she said, “We were
throwing in a classic.”
Showing old favorites, in
fact, will probably be a theme
in coming weeks with new
releases unlikely until later in the
summer.
“You pretty much got classics
right now until July,” Johnson
said. “We’ll be doing different
things. We might bring some Star
Wars in, Lord of the Rings (or)
Harry Potter.”
Each of the movies fi ring up
on Friday will have three daily
showings — two matinees and
one in the evening. Johnson said
prices have been lowered, and
the Granada’s website shows
matinees for $5.75 and the night
fi lms at $7.75. Seniors and chil-
dren get into the evening shows
at the matinee price.
Once it does reopen, the the
Granada Theatre will operate
daily.
The drive-in will revert to a
Friday-Sunday schedule after
this weekend. It, too, is showing
classic hits, this weekend airing a
double feature of “E.T. the Extra
Terrestrial” and “Jaws.”
LA GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon University still is recon-
sidering the name of its campus
library.
The university named the
building the Walter M. Pierce
Library, after the 17th governor of
Oregon. Pierce was a landowner
in the Grande Ronde Valley with
progressive attitudes on gender
issues and taxation. EOU changed
the name in 1999 to the Pierce
Library to include the contribu-
tions of his third wife, Cornelia
Marvin Pierce, who was Oregon’s
fi rst state librarian.
But as Tim Seydel, the vice
president of University Advance-
ment, put it: “They represent
a part of Oregon’s history that
sometimes contradicts today’s
values.”
That’s because Walter Pierce
supported eugenics and had ties
to the Ku Klux Klan. Nothing
indicates he was a member of the
La Grande KKK chapter, but he
attended several meetings. The
minutes of those meetings from
1922-23, which the Oregon His-
torical Society obtained and orga-
nized, document a clear con-
nection between Pierce and the
Klan, which supported him in
his bid for governor. He and the
Klan also supported the Oregon
Compulsory Education Act,
which required school-age chil-
dren to attend only public schools
and not parochial schools. Ore-
gonians approved the measure,
but the United States Supreme
Court struck down the law as
unconstitutional.
While the Klan would later try
to recall support for Pierce, his
connection to the organization
makes him a controversial fi gure
See, Library/Page 5A
July 4 fi reworks to be a blast on Wallowa Lake
Private backers step up after others cancel show due to virus
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
WALLOWA — The
usual backers of the annual
Fourth of July fi reworks
display on Wallowa Lake
may have bailed, but other
organizers are picking up
the ball and running with
it.
The annual “Shake
the Lake” fi reworks dis-
play was previously put on
by the Wallowa County
Chamber of Commerce
with help from the county,
but this year both groups
declined to help fund it
over concerns that the
event would draw together
too many people and vio-
late COVID-19 restrictions
on gatherings.
“We didn’t want to do
something that would make
the governor deny us Phase
2 or Phase 3,” Chamber
Director Vicki Searles
said before the Wallowa
County Commission June
3. “If an outbreak happens,
it could be assigned to the
Fourth of July event, and it
would mean that we broke
the protocol, and (the gov-
ernor’s) statement about
opening is pretty strong
about not having any large
events.”
While the chamber
and the county won’t be
involved, Searles said
she’s not opposed to it
See, Fireworks/Page 5A
INDEX
Business ...... 1B
Classified ..... 2B
Comics ......... 7B
Crossword ... 5B
EO Media Group fi le photo
Fireworks fi ll the night sky in 2019 at Wallowa Lake. This
year, the fi reworks may be on again despite COVID-19.
CONTACT US
Dear Abby .... 8B
Horoscope ... 5B
Lottery.......... 2A
Obituaries .... 3A
SATURDAY
Opinion ........ 4A
Sports .......... 7A
Sudoku ........ 7B
Weather ....... 8B
MEALS ON WHEELS SEES A BOOST
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La Grande, Oregon
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