2A — THE OBSERVER
Daily
Planner
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, July 28,
the 210th day of 2020. There
are 156 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On July 28, 1945, the U.S.
Senate ratified the United
Nations Charter by a vote
of 89-2.
ON THIS DATE
In 1794, Maximilien Robe-
spierre, a leading figure of
the French Revolution, was
sent to the guillotine.
In 1914, World War I began
as Austria-Hungary declared
war on Serbia.
In 1929, Jacqueline Bou-
vier Kennedy Onassis was
born in Southampton, N.Y.
In 1932, federal troops
forcibly dispersed the
so-called “Bonus Army” of
World War I veterans who
had gathered in Washington
to demand payments they
weren’t scheduled to receive
until 1945.
In 1943, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt announced
the end of coffee rationing,
which had limited people to
one pound of coffee every
five weeks since it began in
Nov. 1942.
In 1945, a U.S. Army
bomber crashed into the
79th floor of New York’s Em-
pire State Building, killing 14
people.
In 1959, in preparation
for statehood, Hawaiians
voted to send the first Chi-
nese-American, Republican
Hiram L. Fong, to the U.S.
Senate and the first Japa-
nese-American, Democrat
Daniel K. Inouye, to the U.S.
House of Representatives.
In 1976, an earthquake
devastated northern China,
killing at least 242,000 peo-
ple, according to an official
estimate.
In 1984, the Los Angeles
Summer Olympics opened.
In 1989, Israeli comman-
dos abducted a pro-Iranian
Shiite Muslim cleric, Sheik
Abdul-Karim Obeid, from his
home in south Lebanon.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton
accepted the Democratic
presidential nomination at
the party’s convention in
Philadelphia, where she
cast herself as a unifier for
divided times as well as an
experienced leader steeled
for a volatile world while
aggressively challenging
Republican Donald Trump’s
ability to lead.
In 2017, the Senate voted
51-49 to reject Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell’s
last-ditch effort to dismantle
President Barack Obama’s
health care overhaul with
a trimmed-down bill. John
McCain, who was about to
begin treatments for a brain
tumor, joined two other GOP
senators in voting against
the repeal effort.
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $4.4 million
1-8-19-27-36-45
Mega Millions: $124 million
8-33-39-54-58—17 x3
Powerball: $117 million
5-21-36-61-62—PB-18 x2
Win for Life: July 25
21-29-42-58
Pick 4: July 26
• 1 p.m.: 1-9-3-3; • 4 p.m.: 7-1-9-5
• 7 p.m.: 6-2-4-3; • 10 p.m.: 1-5-8-6
Pick 4: July 25
• 1 p.m.: 8-6-8-2; • 4 p.m.: 0-7-9-5
• 7 p.m.: 4-2-6-4; • 10 p.m.: 9-7-2-8
Pick 4: July 24
• 1 p.m.: 8-3-6-2; • 4 p.m.: 6-0-5-7
• 7 p.m.: 5-6-2-0; • 10 p.m.: 3-7-7-1
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer, call
the office at 541-963-3161.
TuESday, July 28, 2020
LOCAL/REGION
Elgin School District needs building work
By Dick Mason
The Observer
ELGIN — The Elgin
School District’s aging
buildings do not need to be
replaced, but they do need
$9.3 million in renovation
work.
This is the conclusion
Scott Marshall of Straight-
line Architecture of Boise,
Idaho, has arrived at after
preparing a School Facili-
ties Assessment Report for
the Elgin School District.
“The overall condi-
tion of the district’s pri-
mary facilities is fair to
below fair,” said Marshall,
Straightline’s principal
architect, in his assessment
report.
The buildings need
major repair and systems
upgrades, he said. The
good news is the school
district has some breathing
room.
“Overall, the buildings
currently do not appear to
be immediate health, life,
or safety concern for stu-
dents and staff in occupied
spaces,” Marshall wrote in
his report.
Marshall said an Oregon
Department of Education
methodology known as the
Replacement Cost Index
indicates it would be more
feasible financially for the
Elgin School District to
renovate its building rather
than replace them.
The cost of making
the renovations at Stella
Mayfield Elementary
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Stella Mayfield Elementary School in Elgin needs $4.28 million worth of renovations,
according to the Elgin School District’s new facilities assessment. Replacing the elemen-
tary school, which opened in 1949 and serves about 290 students, would cost almost
$18 million.
“The overall condition of the
district’s primary facilities is fair to
below fair.”
Architect Scott Marshall, in his assessment of Elgin
School District facilities
School, which opened
in 1949, would be $4.28
million. The expense of
replacing the school would
be $17.9 million, Mar-
shall told the Elgin School
Board on Monday, 21.
The school district’s pre-
school building, built about
70 years ago, would cost
$1.4 million to replace but
$161,000 to remodel.
At Elgin High School,
built in 1958, the cost of
doing the remodeling work
would be $4.91 million,
while the replacement cost
would be $23.12 million.
The total $9.3 million
would cover numerous
items, including new
boilers at Stella May-
field and EHS, a fire alarm
upgrade at the high school
Wallowa limits horse numbers
News Briefs
Construction work
closing Highway
204 for two days
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
WALLOWA — A
request for a variation
on an ordinance prohib-
iting more than one horse
per acre within city limits
was denied Tuesday, July
21, by the Wallowa City
Council.
Quinn Berry, who
keeps three horses at
his Holmes Street prop-
erty of less than 2 acres,
requested the variance
on the city’s animal ordi-
nance that requires 1 acre
of pasture for every horse.
The city had sent him a
letter asking him to fix
the problem after several
neighbors complained
about the horses.
Berry shared photo-
graphs of his place to
demonstrate its cleanli-
ness and invited council
members to view it per-
sonally to emphasize that
he was not in violation
of the spirit of the ordi-
nance enacted to prevent
odors and other nuisances
arising from too many
animals in town.
But Mayor Gary Hulse
said it can be a problem
for neighbors.
“It becomes a nuisance
to everybody downwind,”
he said.
Councilman Joe
Town agreed, saying the
and a new bus facility.
Marshall said he
believes EHS and Stella
Mayfield are not close to
growing to the point they
are meeting or exceeding
their student capacity. He
said Stella Mayfield, which
had 290 students in 2019-
20, is at 83% capacity and
Elgin High School, which
had 191 students, is at 55%
capacity.
Elgin High School is at
low risk of exceeding the
state’s recommended max-
imum capacity limits and
Stella Mayfield is at low
to moderate risk, Marshall
said.
Photo by Bill Bradshaw/EO Media Group
Incoming city library Director Holly Goebel, left, listens
as her predecessor, Kristin Tompeck, gives her final li-
brary report to the Wallowa City Council at its meeting
Tuesday, July 21. The city hired Goebel at the meeting
and accepted Tompeck’s resignation.
variance should not be
granted.
“We’re not going to
change the ordinance for
one horse,” he said.
When the mayor asked
if the council wanted to
vote on a variance, no
motion was made.
“I’m not willing to
make a motion on a vari-
ance until he’s looked for
other pastures,” Coun-
cilman Scott McCrae said.
Berry said that there
are no stables in the city
and he has not found any
pastureland outside of
town.
McCrae said that if the
council did approve such
a variance, others may
request one, too.
Berry mentioned 4-H
and FFA project animals
that are kept in town.
Councilman Oran
McCrae said those ani-
mals are acceptable
because they are in town
for a limited period of
time and gone by fair
time.
Berry was left in a
position of having to seek
other accommodations for
his horses, such as out-of-
town pastures.
In another matter, the
council officially hired
Holly Goebel as the new
director of the Wallowa
City Library, replacing
Kristin Tompeck, who
submitted her letter of
resignation.
Marshall suggested the
school district look into
getting voters to pass a
bond to help finance the
renovations recommended
in the report. He recom-
mended that the school dis-
trict also consider applying
for a Oregon School Capital
Improvement Match grant
from the state before pur-
suing passage of a bond.
School Districts which
receive OSCIM grants are
eligible to receive up to
$4 million. Marshall said
school districts will receive
such funding to match bond
levies approved by voters.
The Elgin School Dis-
trict, Marshall said, is now
in a position to apply for
a OSCIM grant because
it has had a school facili-
ties assessment conducted.
Union County school dis-
tricts which have received
OSCIM grants, or ones
similar to them, over the
past decade for major
building and maintenance
projects include Imbler,
North Powder and Union.
The Elgin School Board
will discuss the facili-
ties assessment report in
August. No members of the
board commented Monday
on what direction they
believe the school district
should take in light of the
information presented in
the report.
“There are lot of
options,” said Elgin School
District Superintendent
Dianne Greif.
TOLLGATE — The
Oregon Department of
Transportation is closing
Oregon Highway 204 —
the Weston-Elgin/Toll-
gate Highway — at mile-
posts 34 and 35 from 6 a.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 4 through
6 a.m. Thursday, Aug.
6, for construction of a
retaining wall to protect the
highway from future flood
damage.
The flooding of Phillips
Creek this spring caused
significant damage, ODOT
reported in a press release.
The two-day closure allows
for construction at the work
site 6 miles west of Elgin.
There is no local detour
available for highway
traffic, the transportation
department advised, and
travelers will need to use
alternate routes around the
closure. A single lane clo-
sure now at the work site
with up to 20-minute delays
will change to the tempo-
rary full closure on Aug. 4.
Hiker rescued on
Snake River
HAT POINT
LOOKOUT — A
45-year-old Portland man
was rescued Saturday, July
25, after being missing
more than 72 hours during
a hike that took him down
to the Snake River, said
Mike Hansen, incident
commander for Wallowa
County Search and Rescue.
The man, whom Hansen
declined to name, had
some scratches, bumps and
bruises, Hansen said.
“He was very, very tired,
hungry and had sore feet,”
he said.
When Hansen inter-
viewed him the next day,
the man — who was hiking
alone — said he intended
to spend one night on the
bench below Hat Point on
Wednesday, July 22. How-
ever, while traveling south
and looking for a way back
to the top, he missed the
trail and ended up where
Sluice Creek empties into
the Snake River.
Hansen said the man
decided to go on down
to the Snake in hopes of
finding help. There, he
found some commer-
cial rafters, who took him
downstream until they
came upon a jet boat oper-
ated by Hells Canyon
Adventures out of Oxbow.
The jet boat took him about
15 miles upstream to Hells
Canyon Dam where there
is a boat launch and road
access.
“He got lucky,” Hansen
said.
— EO Media Group
Death, mutilation of cow near Fossil bewilders investigators
By Sierra Dawn McClain
Capital Press
FOSSIL — Authori-
ties are investigating the
death and mutilation of yet
another cow — this time,
on rangeland near Fossil.
And the culprit may have
left a clue: a boot print.
The black Angus cow,
a breeding animal worth
about $1,000, was found
Thursday dead and muti-
lated — tongue, genitals
and reproductive organs cut
out. Her carcass was found
upright, front legs tucked
underneath, a position
investigators say they hav-
en’t seen before.
The cause of death is
unknown, and authorities
told the Capital Press the
case is ongoing.
“She died in a position
she couldn’t have gotten
into by herself. I don’t have
any kind of logical expla-
nation for it,” said David
Hunt, owner of Hunt Ranch
and a partner-producer for
Painted Hills Natural Beef
Inc.
Photo contributed by Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office
Rancher David Hunt of Wheeler County found a dead and mutilated cow Thursday with
her tongue, genitals and reproductive organs cut out — and she was placed in an upright
position.
“There was definitely
foul play involved in this
animal’s death,” said deputy
Jeremiah Holmes of the
Wheeler County Sheriff’s
Office.
This isn’t the first time
Hunt has lost an animal
to mysterious mutilation.
Last December, he found a
dead bull in the snow with
its nose, lips, ears, tongue,
tail and genitals removed
and blood drained. Deputy
Holmes said he worked on
that case, too, with no leads.
Hunt isn’t the only
rancher to lose an animal
this way. FBI case files
record thousands of killings
and mutilations of cattle
across the U.S. since the
1970s. The animals are usu-
ally found with the same
body parts missing — and
no culprit has ever been
arrested.
Hunt said he found the
cow Thursday morning
when he visited the pasture,
as he does once a week, at a
spot about half a mile from
the nearest road. He said
he immediately called the
sheriff’s office.
Holmes said it’s hard to
tell how the cow died. By
the time authorities arrived,
the animal had likely been
dead a few days, past
the window to perform a
necropsy.
The tongue and genital
wounds were “clean-cut,”
said Holmes, not by a wild
animal. But Hunt noted the
wounds weren’t as clean-cut
as those of his bull last
winter.
How the cow died is a
mystery.
There were no dart punc-
tures, no bullets, no stran-
gulation marks, no rope
burns, no tire tracks, no
signs of poison.
In previous cases, people
have speculated culprits
may be cult members,
satanic worshipers, even
aliens.
But something makes
this case unique.
Deputy Holmes said
about 100 yards away from
the carcass, officers found a
partial boot print.
It’s possible it was the
rancher’s own print. But
Hunt says he hadn’t stepped
out of his vehicle in that
area for a long time, it
didn’t look like his boot
and Holmes said wind and
rain would likely have cov-
ered over the print by now
if he had. The print, he said,
appears fresh.
The case continues.
“I didn’t say much when
my bull died last winter,”
said Hunt. “But this time,
the cops wanted permis-
sion to publicize so maybe
people can keep their eyes
open. I say: all right, tell
anyone you want. It won’t
bring back my dead cow,
but maybe we’ll catch the
killer.”