2A — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
LOCAL/REGION
DAILY New BMTD public access channel coming
PLANNER
By Dick Mason
The Observer
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Sept. 8,
the 252nd day of 2020. There
are 114 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Sept. 8, 1974, Presi-
dent Gerald R. Ford granted
a “full, free, and absolute
pardon” to former President
Richard Nixon covering his
entire term in offi ce.
ON THIS DATE
In 1565, a Spanish
expedition established the
fi rst permanent European
settlement in North America
at present-day St. Augustine,
Fla.
In 1892, an early version
of “The Pledge of Alle-
giance,” written by Francis
Bellamy, appeared in “The
Youth’s Companion.” It went:
“I pledge allegiance to my
Flag and the Republic for
which it stands, one nation,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.”
In 1900, Galveston, Texas,
was struck by a hurricane
that killed an estimated
8,000 people.
In 1935, Sen. Huey P.
Long, a Louisiana Demo-
crat, was shot and mor-
tally wounded inside the
Louisiana State Capitol; he
died two days later. (The
assailant was identifi ed as
Dr. Carl Weiss, who was
gunned down by Long’s
bodyguards.)
In 1941, the 900-day Siege
of Leningrad by German
forces began during World
War II.
In 1943, during World War
II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisen-
hower announced Italy’s
surrender.
In 1964, public schools
in Prince Edward County,
Virginia, reopened after
being closed for fi ve years
by offi cials attempting to
prevent court-ordered racial
desegregation.
In 1986, “The Oprah Win-
frey Show” began the fi rst
of 25 seasons.
In 2005, Congress
hastened to provide an
additional $51.8 billion for
relief and recovery from
Hurricane Katrina; President
George W. Bush pledged to
make it “easy and simple
as possible” for uncounted,
uprooted storm victims to
collect food stamps and oth-
er government benefi ts.
In 2014, Ray Rice was let
go by the Baltimore Ravens
and suspended indefi nitely
by the NFL after a video
was released showing the
running back striking his
then-fi ancee, Janay Palmer,
in an elevator. (An arbitrator
vacated the suspension two
months later, but Rice never
played in the NFL again.)
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Powerball: $56 million
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Win for Life: Sept. 2
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Pick 4: Sept. 5
• 1 p.m.: 4-0-2-4
• 4 p.m.: 0-9-1-4
• 7 p.m.: 2-6-5-1
• 10 p.m.: 8-6-3-8
Pick 4: Sept. 4
• 1 p.m.: 1-6-1-0
• 4 p.m.: 7-8-6-7
• 7 p.m.: 0-9-5-1
• 10 p.m.: 8-8-1-0
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer, call
the offi ce at 541-963-3161.
LA GRANDE — Union and
Baker county residents who
receive their television signals
from the Blue Mountain Trans-
lator District soon will be closer
to the emergency pulses of their
communities.
The district may be just a week
away from getting a non-com-
mercial, public access-type tele-
vision channel on the air that will
allow many Union and Baker
county residents to keep up with
what their government is doing
on the local level and receive
emergency information much
more quickly.
BMTD Executive Director
Alex McHaddad said on Saturday,
Sept. 5, he hopes the channel can
be launched on Sept. 14.
The new channel will provide
live broadcasts of meetings of
county commissioners meetings,
city councils and school boards,
information about emergency situ-
ations and more. It also will carry
what the translator district has
Photo contributed by Alex McHaddad
This transmitter on Mount Fanny,
Union County, broadcasts televi-
sion signals for the Blue Mountain
Translator District, which is work-
ing on adding a new public ac-
cess-type channel.
been livestreaming on its website
since mid-April.
“It will be a simulcast of the
livestream,” McHaddad said.
BMTD had planned to have the
channel on the air last spring but
the project was held up because of
a delay in the arrival in some of
the equipment it needed.
McHaddad said the new
channel will primarily benefi t
those in Union and Baker coun-
ties who rely on the district for
their television signals and do not
have internet connection. He said
he believes many of these North-
east Oregon residents are seniors.
McHaddad said emergency ser-
vice providers, including Union
County and Grande Ronde Hos-
pital, will be able to get urgent
messages out on the public access
channel quickly.
The BMTD Board is working
with TelVue Corporation, a broad-
cast technology fi rm, and Sin-
clair Broadcasting in airing the
channel at a cost of about $23,000.
McHaddad said he hopes sponsor-
ships will help offset the cost.
State denies Phase 2 appeal
from Umatilla County
By Alex Castle
EO Media Group
UMATILLA
COUNTY — The timing
of when Umatilla County
will be permitted to
move back to Phase 2 of
reopening is up in the air
after the state denied its
appeal last week.
“I no longer have any
forecast on when Phase
2 will happen,” Umatilla
County Public Health
Director Joe Fiumara said
on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
“We were aiming for that
three-week mark, which
was next week. I can no
longer tell that to anybody
with any confi dence.”
Umatilla County Com-
missioner John Shafer
confi rmed the county’s
appeal was denied during
a Sept. 2 conference
call with Oregon Health
Authority Director Pat
Allen and state epidemiol-
ogist Dr. Dean Sidelinger.
The county had
appealed to the state to
move into Phase 2 starting
Friday, Sept. 4, but Fiu-
mara said the state pre-
sented the county with a
set of requirements before
any appeal for Phase 2
will be granted.
“Where my under-
standing is for where we
are right now, they are not
going to allow Umatilla
County to move to Phase
2 until such time that we
meet all six public health
indicators and our case
rate for that week is less
than 100 per 100,000,”
Fiumara said.
In a Sept. 3 press
release announcing the
county’s appeal was
denied, Gov. Kate Brown
confi rmed that due to
higher case counts than
earlier in the pandemic,
no county will be per-
mitted into Phase 2
without a case rate below
File photo by Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
People bowl at desert Lanes Family Fun Center, Hermis-
ton, on June 8. When Umatilla County returns to Phase
2, bowling alleys, arcades and movie theaters will be
among operations with the approval to reopen.
100 per 100,000 people.
“The original prereq-
uisites for Phase 2 were
based on trend-based met-
rics,” the release stated.
“At that time, counties
had a relatively low infec-
tion rate.”
In Phase 2, indoor
and outdoor recre-
ation and entertainment
venues, such as movie
theaters and pools, are
able to reopen, in addi-
tion to youth clubs and
playgrounds.
According to a Sept.
3 update of the Oregon
Health Authority’s public
data dashboard, Umatilla
County is not meeting
three of the six metrics
for evaluating a coun-
ty’s status during the pan-
demic. Those metrics are
uptrends in hospitaliza-
tions over the last 14 days,
uptrends in positive test
rate in the last week and
an uptrend of more than
5% in new cases over the
last week.
There were eight
county residents hospi-
talized with the virus as
of Sept. 3, according to
Umatilla County Public
Health. The Oregon
Health Authority doesn’t
publicly provide the num-
bers it uses to deter-
mine that there’s been
an uptrend in the last 14
days, but Umatilla County
Public Health reported
there were seven hospi-
talizations in an Aug. 20
press release.
The Oregon Health
Authority also calcu-
lated a case rate of 180
per 100,000 people in
Umatilla County for the
week of Aug. 23-29, along
with a positive test rate of
13.3% that same week.
Those calculations see-
sawed from reports the
week prior, which listed
the county at a case rate
of 113 per 100,000 (repre-
senting a fourth consec-
utive week of declining
numbers) but a positive
test rate of 16.3% the
week of Aug. 16-22.
While those numbers
suggest a downtrend in
positive test rate from one
week to the next, Fiumara
said the Oregon Health
Authority indicated the
metric was determined
as showing an uptrend
because the rate increased
from the beginning of the
week to the end of the
week Aug. 23-29.
Oregon on pace for fi re season similar to 2019
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Bar-
ring a major fl are-up in
the next couple of weeks,
Oregon appears it is on the
way to escaping the 2020
fi re season in relatively
decent shape, especially
when compared to some of
the ravaging fi re seasons of
the recent past.
According to inciweb.
nwcg.gov, which tracks
the progress of fi res in the
U.S., Oregon has recorded
a little less than 110,000
acres burned in fi res on its
website, and the bulk of
that is coming from just
three blazes — the Indian
Creek, Lionshead and
White River fi res.
The season, to this
point, appears to be on a
path similar to the 2019
season. An Oregonian/
OregonLive report on
last year’s season said
that between Oregon and
Washington, just more than
200,000 acres burned. The
fi res reported on Inciweb
through Monday, Sept. 7,
are at a combined total of
about 207,000 acres in the
two states.
Inciweb’s site does
not necessarily include,
at least in Oregon, hun-
dreds of small fi res that
are quickly contained. For
example, through Monday,
the Oregon Department of
Forestry website reported
749 fi res, totaling just
less than 17,000 acres —
an average of about 22
acres per fi re. Conversely,
Inciweb includes only 16
fi res in Oregon on its site at
an average of about 6,741
acres apiece.
But regardless, the num-
bers don’t match 2017 or
2018, when, according to
The Oregonian’s article,
fi res burn well more than
1 million acres between
Oregon and Washington
both years, including 1.3
million in 2018.
The three biggest fi res
Screenshot from inciweb.nwcg.gov
This screenshot of a map at inciweb.nwcg.gov shows
where wildfi res are burning Monday, Sept. 7, in Oregon.
in the state have accounted
for more than 80,000 acres
of damage. The Indian
Creek fi re near Juntura is
larger than the next four
biggest fi res combined
and has scorched at least
48,128 acres. Lionshead is
responsible for 18,615 acres
burning, and White River
has cooked 17,507 acres.
Those are the only three
Oregon blazes, according
to the Inciweb data, that
are larger than 5,000 acres.
A trio of fi res have burned
between 4,000 and 5,000
acres — the P-515 Fire
(4,609 acres), Green Ridge
Fire (4,338 acres) and the
Frog Fire (4,020 acres).
Laurel, Neals and Crane
fi res all burned between
1,000 and 3,000 acres.
Tim Wallender, president of
the BMTD board, said the new
channel will serve a particu-
larly valuable role during the
COVID-19 pandemic because in
many instances people are not
allowed to attend meetings of
school boards, county commis-
sions and city councils due to
social distancing rules.
“This is one government entity
helping other government enti-
ties get their word out,” Wallender
said.
Senate Bill 394, which the Leg-
islature passed in 2019, made the
addition of the channel possible.
The bill allows a public trans-
lator district the authority to use
the technology to create public
access-like channels.
The Blue Mountain Trans-
lator District, founded in 1978,
has broadcast towers on Mount
Fanny and Mount Harris in Union
County and Beaver Mountain in
Baker County and is funded by
service fees. It provides about 24
channels to viewers, including
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
NEWS BRIEFS
Joseph City Council
discusses urban
growth boundary,
ordinance proposal
JOSEPH — Illness kept
members of the Joseph City
Council from attending
an uneventful meeting in
person.
The short meeting took
place Thursday, Sept. 3,
in the parking lot outside
the Community Center,
where the council has been
meeting to ensure social
distancing.
City Administrator
Larry Braden said Friday
that illness affected him,
two council members,
two staff members. He
said none of the illnesses
were serious, but given the
COVID-19 pandemic, they
chose not to attend.
Even though the council
has a quorum in attendance,
the local governing body
made no decisions.
Braden said the council
during the 45-minute
meeting discussed an
update on the city’s urban
growth boundary. He said
the city began the pro-
cess of expanding zoning
or property boundaries last
winter after seeing a state
economic analysis. The
council must adopt the anal-
ysis, which may occur this
winter.
Braden said changes in
the boundary could take
place several months later,
possibly in March or April.
The council also dis-
cussed an update on the
city’s process of having
the American Legal Pub-
lishing Corp. codify and
serve as a third-party host
for city ordinances. Braden
said by completing that pro-
cess, city ordinances would
be easily accessible to the
public.
The council’s next
meeting will be at 6 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 8.
Men face charges
for string of thefts
in Grant County
JOHN DAY — Five
young men face a variety of
charges related to a string
of thefts — including 14
chainsaws and 12 fi rearms
— over the last year in
Grant County.
The thefts began Sept.
14, 2019, and continued
until June 26, according to
multiple indictments Grant
County District Attorney
Jim Carpenter fi led Aug.
19. The court documents
reported at least 38 victims
and list a variety of goods,
including chainsaws, guns
and tools.
The district attorney
charged the following:
•Tanner E. Walczyk,
born in 1999, of Mount
Vernon, with more than
100 counts from Sep-
tember 2019 to June 2020,
including 30 counts of
criminal conspiracy, 22
counts of theft and 18
counts of unlawful entry
into motor vehicle. Walczyk
faces separate charges in
Umatilla County of robbery
and assault, according to a
Feb. 14 indictment in Uma-
tilla County.
•Austin J. Catron, 18,
of John Day, with more
than 70 counts from Sep-
tember 2019 to June 2020,
including 20 counts of
criminal conspiracy, 15
counts of fi rst-degree theft
nd 13 counts of second-de-
gree theft.
•Clayton W. Ellis, born
in 1998, of Prairie City,
with 16 counts, including
four counts of criminal
conspiracy, two counts of
fi rst-degree theft and one
count of second-degree
burglary.
•Jonas C. Waite of Pilot
Rock is charged with four
counts of criminal con-
spiracy, one count of sec-
ond-degree theft and one
count of unlawful entry into
a motor vehicle allegedly
committed Sept. 27, 2019,
according to an Aug. 19
indictment.
•Cody R. Combs, born in
2000, of Prairie City, with
one count each of criminal
conspiracy, second-degree
theft and second-degree
criminal trespass.
In a July 1 press release
about the thefts, Carpenter
said Grant County experi-
enced an uptick in thefts,
including the thefts of
chainsaws, fi rearms, tools
and other equipment. Car-
penter also encouraged res-
idents to lock their cars
and homes, not leave valu-
ables in plain sight and be
vigilant in watching out
for themselves and their
neighbors.
Fires and smoke
dominate Lostine
council
LOSTINE — Fires and
smoke management were
at the top of the agenda
Wednesday, Sept. 2, when
the Lostine City Council
held its monthly meeting.
Lisa Mahon and Katy
Nesbitt introduced the
council to Wallowa Coun-
ty’s community response
plan for smoke manage-
ment. The committee is
conducting a survey with
the aim of developing better
alerts to high smoke volume
and to provide the public
with ways to handle the
smoke.
Mayor/Fire Chief Dusty
Tippet said the city’s fi re
department had received
more than the normal
number of calls. He said
there was a good turnout
from volunteer fi refi ghters
but hopes to meet with the
Oregon Department of For-
estry to discuss how the
city and the state can better
work as a fi refi ghting team.
In another matter, City
Recorder Toni Clary dis-
cussed the possibility of
moving the Lostine Post
Offi ce from city hall to
Neal Park on Elizabeth
Street. Clary said the post
offi ce will require the city
to have a survey of the
property, which will cost
between $2,000-$5,000,
and to propose a monthly
lease rate.
Council members asked
what the monthly cost
to maintain such a move
would be. and Clary said
she would inquire.
— EO Media Group