2A — THE OBSERVER
Daily
Planner
TODAY
Today is Saturday, Oct. 3,
the 277th day of 2020. There
are 89 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Oct. 3, 1995, the jury
in the O.J. Simpson murder
trial in Los Angeles found
the former football star not
guilty of the 1994 slayings
of his former wife, Nicole
Brown Simpson, and Ronald
Goldman (however, Simp-
son was later found liable
for damages in a civil trial).
ON THIS DATE
In 1863, President Abra-
ham Lincoln proclaimed the
last Thursday in November
Thanksgiving Day.
In 1961, “The Dick Van
Dyke Show,” also starring
Mary Tyler Moore, made its
debut on CBS.
In 2001, the Senate
approved an agreement nor-
malizing trade between the
United States and Vietnam.
In 2003, a tiger attacked
magician Roy Horn of duo
“Siegfried & Roy” during a
performance in Las Vegas,
leaving the superstar illu-
sionist in critical condition
on his 59th birthday.
In 2008, O.J. Simpson
was found guilty of robbing
two sports-memorabilia
dealers at gunpoint in a Las
Vegas hotel room. (Simpson
was later sentenced to nine
to 33 years in prison; he was
granted parole in July 2017
and released from prison in
October of that year.)
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $2.5 million
1-26-35-38-41-44
Mega Millions: $32 million
14-39-43-44-67—19 x3
Powerball: $25 million
14-18-36-49-67—PB-18 x2
Win for Life: Sept. 30
23-57-67-70
Pick 4: Oct. 1
• 1 p.m.: 1-3-1-9; • 4 p.m.: 1-5-2-9
• 7 p.m.: 6-4-2-9; • 10 p.m.: 7-7-5-2
Pick 4: Sept. 30
• 1 p.m.: 8-8-5-3; • 4 p.m.: 3-3-6-8
• 7 p.m.: 3-4-3-2; • 10 p.m.: 9-2-7-0
SaTuRday, OcTOBER 3, 2020
LOCAL
Observer honored in newspaper contest
First place for best
news photo, sports
story among the
honors received
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A
year after not submit-
ting any entries into the
Oregon Newspaper Pub-
lishers Association’s annual
Better Newspaper Contest,
The Observer claimed five
awards in the 2020 edition
of the event, including best
news photo and best sports
story.
The awards are based
on work newspapers in the
state did during the 2019
calendar year.
The Observer’s cen-
terpiece photo on Friday,
March 22, 2019, of a
Grande Ronde River rescue
attempt in the story “Body
sighted in river, not recov-
ered,” won for best news
photo in combined circula-
tion groups A-C, which are
the three groups for daily
publications in Oregon.
The Observer, File
The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association selected this March 2019 photo by The
Observer as the best news photo for daily publications in 2020.
The publication’s other
winner was the Wednesday,
Oct. 9, 2019, EOU soccer
feature “Head over heels to
be healthy and on the field,”
by sports editor Ronald
Bond, which won for com-
bined groups B and C.
The newspaper also gar-
nered a second-place finish
for best general feature in
the Monday, Dec. 2, 2019,
story “La Grande struggles
to help the homeless,” by
reporter Dick Mason and
editor Phil Wright, which
Morgan Lake reopens Monday
The Observer
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer,
please call 541-963-3161.
Correction
Dick Mason/The Observer
Morgan Lake will reopen Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, due to reduced fire danger. Extreme
fire danger forced the city of La Grande to shut down Morgan Lake on Sept. 11. The
lake will remain open until its normal closing date of Oct. 31, according to an an-
nouncement from La Grande Parks and Recreation Department, barring any emer-
gencies. The Oregon Department of Forestry is allowing campfires in designated fire
rings. For additional information, call parks and recreation at 541-962-1352.
La Grande lifts ban on recreational fires
By Dick Mason
The Observer
LA GRANDE — La
Grande residents can once
again have recreational
fires.
The La Grande Fire
Department announced it
lifted the ban Wednesday,
Sept. 30. The ban was
in place since Sept. 16
because of extreme fire
conditions.
The city’s move is due
to cooling temperatures
and rising humidity and
LG School District
launches new app
By Dick Mason
DELIVERY ISSUES?
The Oct. 1 Observer
article “Fresh faces seek
to lead Island City into
the future,” incorrectly
named the Island City
mayor. The correct name
is Delmer Hanson.
chronicled the battle over
the city’s warming station
ahead of last winter. The
ONPA listed the feature
second in combined groups
B and C.
And The Observer took
home second and third
follows the Union Board of
Commissioners ending its
ban on recreational fires on
Tuesday.
“We want to make our
rules more consistent,”
said La Grande Fire Chief
Emmitt Cornford, who
made the decision to lift
the city ban on recreational
fires, which include back-
yard fires for family activi-
ties or social events.
The fire department
asks residents to call the
department at 541-963-
3123 to advise on-duty
crews of their intention to
have a recreational fire.
Capt. Robert Tibbetts of
the La Grande Fire Depart-
ment said fire dangers
remain high and people
still need to exercise cau-
tion with recreational fires.
“It is vital that resi-
dents follow the guidelines
and restrictions that are
in place for these types of
fires,” he said.
The city also announced
it will not issues permits
Cove charter vote won’t
impact municipal court plan
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
COVE — Cove residents in Novem-
ber’s general election will vote on an
update to the city charter.
And although a proposed language
change in the charter, which last was
updated in 2000, includes the mention
of a “municipal court,” voters won’t be
voting on whether or not the city can add
a court, both Mayor Del Little and City
Recorder Donna Lewis explained.
“It was mainly updating, and the
legal update was done by the League of
Oregon cities,” Lewis said of the changes
to the charter, which largely are minor.
The proposed charter is available on
the city’s website, and the change to the
language about the court is in section 5 of
the document. That portion reads:
“The charter shall be liberally con-
strued to the end that the City may have
all powers necessary or convenient for the
conduct of its municipal affairs, including
all powers that cities may assume pur-
suant to state laws and to the municipal
home-rule provisions of the constitution
of the State of Oregon.”
The updated charter would insert the
words “and its municipal court” after
municipal affairs.
The city is looking into the pros-
pect of adding a court regardless of if
the language is changed in the charter,
but having a draft before the city council
likely isn’t a feat that will be accom-
plished before the end of the year, Little
said.
“We have possibly months before any-
body (on the city council) sees or the
public sees a proposal for a municipal
court,” Little said, noting a committee
currently is working on a draft to give
to the council. “The state statute already
allows us to create a municipal court.
They (the statute and the charter lan-
guage) are totally separate.”
The purpose for the municipal court,
both noted, is to deal with ordinance
violation complaints that arise and go
unsolved. An example that Lewis gave
would be if a neighbor had trash piling
up at their home and it began impacting a
neighbor who then reached out to the city.
The city to asks for compliance when
a violation comes up, and Lewis said that
largely has been a success. Increased
instances of a lack of compliance lately,
though, has moved the city to a position
of seeing the court as necessary.
“We’ve really had good compliance
over the years,” Lewis said. “There have
been a few things over the last couple
of years that have made us look to this
avenue.”
The preferred method moving for-
ward, though, would be for citizens to be
compliant if a violation is brought to their
attention.
“What we really want to get to the
public is the city really likes to have the
citizens cooperate,” Little said.
for yard debris burning
until Oct. 15. Cornford told
The Observer fire danger
is expected to drop in two
weeks and yard debris fires
tend to be a little larger and
are easier for people to lose
control of.
A copy of the ordinance
for yard debris burning,
which includes the appli-
cable rules, is available
on the city’s website, city-
oflagrande.org. The fall
burning season will end on
Nov. 30.
place in group C for best
special section, with the
paper’s annual “Kickoff”
football preview maga-
zine earning second and
the publication’s “Year in
Review” placing third. The
“Kickoff” preview was part
of a region-wide collab-
oration that included five
Northeast Oregon newspa-
pers and profiled 21 high
schools, while the “Year in
Review” not only looked
back at the year’s top stories
but also the biggest of the
last decade.
The Observer was part
of a sweep in that category
by its parent company, EO
Media Group, as the East
Oregonian’s annual Pend-
leton Round-Up magazine
took the top spot.
As a company, EO
Media Group had a solid
showing with dozens of
awards, including three
papers — the EO, the
Hermiston Herald and the
Wallowa County Chief-
tain — all winning general
excellence in their respec-
tive divisions.
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande School District
is dialing it up digitally by
launching a new smart-
phone app.
The app provides a one-
stop resource for users
seeking to keep up with
the often nonstop world of
La Grande School District
activities.
App users can find a
smorgasbord of informa-
tion, including cafeteria
menus, up-to-the-moment
sports scores, contact infor-
mation for staff, emergency
alerts for school bus delays
and more.
The app also has a cal-
endar feature and makes
it easy for users to share
photos and access infor-
mation with other school
district platforms. Users
also can place events
from a school calendar in
their personal smartphone
calendar.
The app, now avail-
able, has been in the
making since last spring,
said Casey Hampton, the
La Grande School Dis-
trict’s technology man-
ager. The app will work
on any Android or IOS
smartphone.
“We know families are
using smartphones as a pri-
mary means to commu-
nicate. That’s why we’ve
created an app that is cus-
tom-built for mobile,”
Hampton said.
The app essentially links
users to webpages for all
of the district’s schools
plus the La Grande School
District’s.
“It is a very valuable tool
that helps us be an informa-
tion outlet,” Hampton said.
An outlet that is conve-
nient and not be unwieldy.
“It can all be put in your
pocket,” Hampton said.
The app also allows par-
ents to register their chil-
dren for school bus pickups
and drop-offs, making it
easier for the school district
to determine what routes its
bus service must provide.
That could come in
handy when kindergarten
through third grade stu-
dents in La Grande begin
attending schools Monday,
Oct. 5, the first on-site
instruction in the dis-
trict since mid-March
because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The new app also allows
educators to add to it and
share what is happening in
their classes, and coaches
will be able to update
scores.
The school district’s
campaign’s slogan for
the mobile app is “Con-
nect with the La Grande
School District, Anytime,
Anywhere.”
To find the app, visit app
stores for Apple or Android
phone and search for “La
Grande School District.”
Sheriff’s office reports catching trio
after deputy dodges fleeing vehicle
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Union County Sheriff’s
Office reported it arrested
three men after a deputy
dove out of the way of their
fleeing vehicle.
Law enforcement on
Wednesday, Sept. 30,
at 11:02 p.m. responded
to the 69500 block of
Ruckle Road, Summer-
ville, on a report of a pos-
sible burglary in progress.
According to the press
release from the sher-
iff’s office, deputies on the
scene identified themselves
and commanded people in
a vehicle to get out.
Deputies were on foot
in the driveway to prevent
the suspects from leaving
the scene, according to
the press release, but “the
vehicle took off and accel-
erated toward the deputies,
swerving into one deputy
who dove out of the way
and who was subsequently
struck in the foot by the
vehicle’s tire.”
The deputy was in pain
but the injury to his foot
was minor, according to
the sheriff’s office, and he
got back in his vehicle with
the second deputy and pur-
sued the suspects.
Their vehicle lost con-
trol and crashed approx-
imately 4 miles from
the burglary scene, and
they took off on foot. K-9
unit Molly and her han-
dler, deputy Dane Jensen,
tracked down and caught
34-year-old Troy Eldon
Baker. And early on
Thursday, the sheriff’s
office caught a second sus-
pect, Justin Allen Farmer,
37, of La Grande, on a road
near the scene.
The sheriff’s office
at 8:43 a.m. received a
report from employees of
Grant Custom Homes, La
Grande, of a suspicious
person on a bicycle in the
area of Hunter and End
roads, La Grande, near the
Blue Mountain 4-H Center.
Deputies responded,
knowing there was pos-
sibly a third suspect
involved in the Ruckle
Road burglary, according
to the sheriff’s office, and
found and arrested Thomas
Edward Sampson Jr., 38.
Deputies also told the
owner of the bicycle about
the theft.
The sheriff’s office
arrested Farmer for sec-
ond-degree trespass and
on a parole and proba-
tion detainer and Baker for
third-degree theft, felon
in possession of a weapon,
first-degree trespass, pos-
session of burglary tools
and first-degree burglary,
which is a Class A felony
in Oregon.
The sheriff’s office
arrested Sampson for sec-
ond-degree trespass, felony
eluding in a vehicle and
attempted second-de-
gree assault, indicating
he was who the sheriff’s
office pegged as the driver
that tried to run over the
deputy.
The sheriff’s office also
reported Oregon State
Police troopers assisted
throughout the night
Wednesday and Thursday,
and La Grande police in
the morning tried to find
the third suspect at a res-
idence in La Grande. The
Imbler Rural Fire Depart-
ment also responded to
treat minor injuries.