2A — THE OBSERVER
Daily
Planner
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 22,
the 357th day of 2020. There
are nine days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On Dec. 22, 2001, Richard
C. Reid, a passenger on an
American Airlines flight
from Paris to Miami, tried
to ignite explosives in his
shoes, but was subdued by
flight attendants and fellow
passengers. (Reid is serving
a life sentence in federal
prison.)
ON THIS DATE:
In 1941, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
arrived in Washington
for a wartime conference
with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
In 1944, during the World
War II Battle of the Bulge,
U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C.
McAuliffe rejected a German
demand for surrender,
writing “Nuts!” in his official
reply.
In 1984, New York City res-
ident Bernhard Goetz shot
and wounded four youths
on a Manhattan subway,
claiming they were about to
rob him.
In 1989, Romanian Pres-
ident Nicolae Ceausescu,
the last of Eastern Europe’s
hard-line Communist rulers,
was toppled from power in a
popular uprising.
In 1991, the body of
Marine Lt. Col. William
R. Higgins, an American
hostage slain by his terrorist
captors, was recovered after
it had been dumped along a
highway in Lebanon.
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $5.9 million
1-2-5-7-28-44
Mega Millions: $310 million
1-10-18-20-46 — 5 x3
Powerball: $304 million
27-32-34-43-53 — PB 13 x2
Win for Life: Dec. 19
5-9-20-22
Pick 4: Dec. 20
• 1 p.m.: 1-8-7-5
• 4 p.m.: 0-9-5-4
• 7 p.m.: 0-7-0-1
• 10 p.m.: 5-9-7-2
Pick 4: Dec. 19
• 1 p.m.: 7-6-4-7
• 4 p.m.: 2-1-8-4
• 7 p.m.: 7-7-5-2
• 10 p.m.: 9-6-5-7
Pick 4: Dec. 18
• 1 p.m.: 0-7-1-5
• 4 p.m.: 3-7-8-2
• 7 p.m.: 0-2-2-1
• 10 p.m.: 7-4-0-5
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TuESday, dEcEmBER 22, 2020
LOCAL/REGION
Rocky Mountain elk arrive, with appetites
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Dan
Marvin chuckles as he
lampoons the way Rocky
Mountain elk sometimes
act.
He knows how tough
these animals are.
During winters when
sub-zero temperatures and
snowdrifts deep enough to
bury cars conspire to kill
hundreds of mule deer in
Northeast Oregon, most of
the elk make it through, a
bit undernourished, maybe,
but otherwise hale.
Yet Marvin finds it
amusing that when a couple
of snowstorms arrive ear-
lier than usual, while jack-
o-lanterns still sit on some
porches, the elk turn up,
looking for a free meal.
“Acting like they’re
going to starve to death,”
Marvin said.
He can laugh because
the storms that brought a
couple of feet of snow to the
mountains the first half of
November didn’t actually
imperil the elk.
Yet the animals have
become so accustomed to
Marvin and his crew doling
out alfalfa when the snow
lies deep, that sometimes
they arrive before he’s
ready to start bucking bales.
This was one of those
years, said Marvin, who’s
starting his third winter
as manager of the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Elkhorn Wildlife
Area.
S. John Collins/Baker City Herald, File
Rocky Mountain elk eat alfalfa at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area during a past winter.
The state started the
project in 1971, and Marvin,
who has worked for ODFW
since 2005, is just the third
full-time manager.
The project’s purpose
isn’t to spare animals from
starvation but rather to keep
them from munching hay
that cattle ranchers in the
Baker, Bowen and North
Powder Valleys put up each
summer to feed their herds.
Because the Elkhorns
lack a foothill zone where
elk and deer can find suffi-
cient natural forage during
winter, the animals adapted
to treat the valleys as their
winter range.
But once farmers and
ranchers began settling in
those valleys in the second
half of the 19th century,
the conflict between their
operations, and the hungry
wild animals, was all but
inevitable.
The wildlife area con-
sists of 10 sites along the
base of the Elkhorn Moun-
tains, ranging from Auburn
at the south end to Shaw
Mountain northwest of
North Powder.
Marvin said he doesn’t
start setting out alfalfa until
after Dec. 1, regardless of
early storms because until
then the wildlife area’s
sites are open to the public,
including elk hunters.
While hunting season is
going, Marvin said, state
officials don’t want to entice
elk to a specific area.
“We don’t want to create
a baiting situation,” he said.
The elk, in any case,
didn’t loiter long after the
early November tempests.
Once more typical mid-au-
tumn weather returned, and
some of the snow melted,
the elk drifted back into the
mountains, Marvin said.
After Dec. 1, small
herds of elk showed up, but
interest among the animals
was “kind of hit or miss,”
he said. But when wintry
weather resumed the second
week of December, the elk
began their seasonal migra-
tion, and this time in larger
numbers, to the feeding
sites.
“They know where the
hay sheds are at,” Marvin
said.
Significant numbers of
elk arrived the weekend
of Dec. 12-13, with close
to 300 head at the Auburn
site and 100 to 150 at the
Anthony Creek site near
the wildlife area headquar-
ters, about 10 miles west of
North Powder.
Those numbers are
pretty typical for early
winter, Marvin said.
Come January, unless
the winter is abnormally
mild, the wildlife area crew
likely will be feeding about
500 elk at Auburn and 250
at Anthony Creek.
Numbers vary at the
other sites, some of which
also attract deer.
The Auburn and
Anthony Creek sites are
the two publicly acces-
sible properties with main-
tained roads where people
can park and watch the big
herds of elk, which usually
include multiple mature,
branch-antlered bulls.
To get to the Auburn site,
drive south of Baker City
on Highway 7 for about 7
miles, and turn right on Old
Auburn Lane. Follow this
gravel road (maintained in
winter) for about 3.5 miles
where a sign marks the
wildlife area. The elk are
fed on a knoll south of the
road.
To reach the Anthony
Creek site, from North
Powder drive west on
River Lane for about 8.5
miles. The elk are fed in a
meadow south of the road.
You can also reach River
Lane via Haines and the
Anthony Lakes Highway.
La Grande K-6 students return to on-site learning Jan. 11
The Observer
UNION COUNTY
— K-6 students in the La
Grande School District
are returning to real-world
classrooms Jan. 11.
The district on its
website late last week
announced the move,
stating “LGSD has been in
constant communication
with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education to advo-
cate for students to return to
on-site learning.”
The state gave the
approval Thursday, Dec.
17, for K-6 students in the
district to return to on-site
learning under the Safe
Harbor exception of the
Oregon School Metrics.
Students in kinder-
garten through fifth grade
will attend on-site Monday
through Friday on a mod-
ified schedule of 8 a.m. to
1 p.m., according to the
district.
Also beginning Jan. 11,
La Grande’s sixth-grade
students will be in an A/B
cohort schedule, from
9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and will
work on four periods at a
time in two-week blocks.
Cohort A will be students
with last names starting
with the letters A-K. Cohort
B will be students with last
names starting with the let-
ters L-Z. Families with mul-
tiple last names will have
individual conversations to
determine their cohort, the
district reported.
Students will continue to
receive instruction through
Google Classroom on days
they are not on campus.
Teachers also will pro-
vide services to students
who are isolated, in quar-
antine or unable to attend
on site.
La Grande School Dis-
trict also announced it
has the potential to have
grades 7-12 returning to
on-campus learning on Jan.
27.
And Elgin School Dis-
trict Superintendent Dianne
Greif on the district’s
Facebook page last week
announced its students can
continue with in-person
instruction.
The district will have
to change to distance
learning only under cer-
tain conditions, including
if the school has two or
more individual cases
in two or more separate
cohorts or the school has
two more clusters — two
or more confirmed cases
— with onset within 14
days of one another.
News Briefs
Holiday spirit endures with
decoration-viewing caravan
post 8. State police
then cited Trumbo for
hit-and-run with prop-
erty damage, reckless
driving, driving while sus-
pended and driving while
uninsured.
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Union
County residents proved
over the weekend the hol-
iday spirit is enduring and
adaptable when more than
100 vehicles full of people
turned out for a holiday
decoration-viewing car-
avan, bringing charity and
cheer to the community.
The caravan, which the
Union County Chamber of
Commerce and La Grande
Main Street Downtown
organized in a joint effort,
brought people across the
community together to
enjoy one of the heart-
warming traditions of the
holiday season: seeing
homes decked out in daz-
zling light displays.
“It was fantastic,” said
Suzannah Moore-Hemann,
executive director of the
chamber. “We printed off
100 hard copies of the
maps, and we ran out well
before everyone was able
to get them. I would esti-
mate we had between 125
to 150 cars.”
The vehicles and their
occupants gathered in the
Bi-Mart parking lot in
La Grande before trav-
eling to view well-deco-
rated homes in La Grande,
Island City, Union, Imbler,
Elgin, Cove and North
Powder. A map of the des-
tinations is at visitunion-
county.org.
Some drivers reportedly
joined in spontaneously
after seeing the line of
cars — some of which
were decorated themselves
as part of the event —
perusing around town.
“I want to say at least
10 or 15 cars were deco-
rated,” Moore-Hemann
Union County death
toll rises to 13
Oregon State Police/
Contributed Photo
Union County sheriff’s
deputy Tad Butcher on Fri-
day, Dec. 19, 2020, checks
Michael Steven Trumbo,
37, of La Grande, after law
enforcement caught him
after a crash near Imbler.
Police catch fleeing
man after crash
Union County Chamber of Commerce/Contributed Photo
A Volkswagen Beetle with decorations befitting old Saint
Nick himself awaits the start of the inaugural holiday dec-
oration-viewing caravan on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, at the
Bi-Mart parking lot, La Grande. More than 100 vehicles
were part of the caravan that traveled around Union Coun-
ty to take in the lights.
said. “It really neat to be
driving around and once
in a while you see a couple
of cars with the lights.”
The event’s competition
for best decorated vehicle
selected three winners.
“We awarded first,
second and third place,”
Moore-Hemann said. “Just
bragging rights only for
this year, but hopefully
next year we can have
some really great prizes.”
As part of the caravan
event, the chamber and
Main Street Downtown
helped collect donations
of nonperishable foods
and toys to distribute
throughout the community
in conjunction with the
local Boy Scouts and the
Presbyterian Friendship
Center. The effort received
enough donations to fill an
entire van with food.
“I would say at least a
van-load full of food, and
quite a bit of toys,” Moore-
Hemann said. “I was really
shocked and impressed. …
We were really impressed
with the number of people.
It was impressive.”
While the COVID-19
pandemic has turned life
on its head, especially in
recent months, the success
and spirit of the holiday
decoration-viewing
caravan show that the
spirit of the season
continues to endure.
IMBLER — A man
who bolted Friday morning
after crashing into another
vehicle near Imbler man-
aged to evade police more
than an hour. But Oregon
State Police reported it
soon enough issued several
citations to Michael Steven
Trumbo, 37, of La Grande.
The wreck occurred at
approximately 5:55 a.m.
on Highway 82 near mile-
post 10, about two miles
south of Imbler, according
to OSP, when Trumbo
was driving a Kia Optima
heading west in the east-
bound lane. The driver
of an oncoming Dodge
Dakota steered toward
the right shoulder but
was unable to avoid the
collision.
State police reported no
one was injured, but tow
trucks hauled away both
vehicles.
Trumbo took off on
foot from the the crash.
State police reported law
enforcement searched
for Trumbo 60-90 min-
utes before finding and
arresting him near mile-
UNION COUNTY —
The death toll from the
COVID-19 pandemic rose
again over the weekend as
the virus claimed another
local life, bringing the
Union County death toll
to 13.
The most recent person
to die of COVID-19 in the
county was a 78-year-old
woman who tested posi-
tive Nov. 17 and died Dec.
18. The Oregon Health
Authority reported she
died at her residence.
The Center for Human
Development, Union
County’s public health
arm, reported her death on
Saturday, Dec. 19. CHD
and the OHA reported
11 new cases in Union
County over the weekend,
bringing the county’s total
number of cases to 946.
As of Sunday, Dec. 20,
the state death toll had
reached 1,341, and 102,930
cases of COVID-19 had
been recorded in Oregon
since the start of the
pandemic.
The Observer to
observe Christmas
holiday
LA GRANDE —
In observance of the
Christmas holiday, The
Observer will not publish
an edition on Saturday,
Dec. 26.
“It’s a chance to give
our employees an oppor-
tunity to spend an unin-
terrupted holiday with
their families,” said
Andrew Cutler, regional
editor for the EO Media
Group, which owns The
Observer. “But we will
beef up our Dec. 24
edition.”
The Observer will pub-
lish an expanded edi-
tion, including additional
comics and puzzle fea-
tures on Thursday,
Dec. 24. The Observer’s
office will close at noon
on Dec. 24 in observance
of the holiday.
— The Observer
Police investigate
kidnapping
at marijuana
dispensary
ONTARIO — Police
are investigating a kid-
napping that occurred
early Sunday morning in
the parking lot of a recre-
ational marijuana dispen-
sary in Ontario.
Argus Observer
reporters heard a police
dispatcher at about
9:25 a.m. tell police the
incident happened at about
6:30 a.m. to an employee,
who was reportedly safe
in Payette and wanted to
report the incident.
Ontario Police Depart-
ment Sgt. Victor Grimaldo
responded to an email
request about informa-
tion this afternoon, saying
officers responded at
about 9:25 a.m. to Burnt
River Farms regarding the
report.
He said officers learned
the victim, a woman, was
in the parking lot when
“she was approached by
an adult male suspect who
forced her to drive outside
city limits.”
Ontario Police along
with Malheur County
Sheriff’s Office and Pay-
ette City Police are inves-
tigating the incident,
according to Grimaldo.
— The Argus Observer
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