2A — THE OBSERVER
SaTuRday, JanuaRy 23, 2021
LOCAL/REGION
Today in Interest high in new filmmaker residency program
History
By DICK MASON
TODAY
The Observer
Today is Saturday, Jan.
23, the 23rd day of 2021.
There are 342 days left in
the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On Jan. 23, 2020, Chinese
state media said the city of
Wuhan would be shutting
down outbound flights and
trains, trying to halt the
spread of a new virus that
had sickened hundreds of
people and killed at least 17.
The World Health Organiza-
tion said the viral illness in
China was not yet a global
health emergency, though
the head of the U.N. health
agency added that “it may
yet become one.”
ON THIS DATE:
In 1845, Congress decided
all national elections would
be held on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in
November.
In 1962, Jackie Robinson
was elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in his first year
of eligibility.
In 1968, North Korea
seized the U.S. Navy intel-
ligence ship USS Pueblo,
commanded by Lloyd
“Pete” Bucher, charging its
crew with being on a spying
mission; one sailor was
killed and 82 were taken
prisoner. (Cmdr. Bucher
and his crew were released
the following December
after enduring 11 months of
brutal captivity at the hands
of the North Koreans.)
In 1973, President Richard
Nixon announced an accord
had been reached to end the
Vietnam War, and would be
formally signed four days
later in Paris.
In 1977, the TV mini-series
“Roots,” based on the Alex
Haley novel, began airing
on ABC.
In 1998, a judge in Fairfax,
Virginia, sentenced Aimal
Khan Kasi to death for an as-
sault rifle attack outside CIA
headquarters in 1993 that
killed two men and wound-
ed three other people. (Kasi
was executed in November
2002.)
In 2002, John Walker
Lindh, a U.S.-born Taliban
fighter, was returned to
the United States to face
criminal charges that he’d
conspired to kill fellow
Americans. (Lindh was
sentenced to 20 years in
prison after pleading guilty
to providing support for the
Taliban; he was released
in May, 2019, after serving
more than 17 years.)
LA GRANDE — The
Eastern Oregon Film Fes-
tival’s new filmmaker resi-
dency program debuts this
spring with the aim to do
more than help boost prom-
ising filmmakers. The pro-
gram also may give North-
east Oregon a financial lift.
This is
the hope of
Chris Jen-
nings, director
of the Eastern
Oregon Film
Jennings Festival, a
La Grande-
based nonprofit. Jen-
nings explained this eco-
nomic goal is why writers
and directors partici-
pating in the program, all
of whom will be creating
screenplays, have to give
their works an Oregon
connection.
“This needs to be inte-
grated into the story they
are creating,” Jennings said.
“We want them to incorpo-
rate Oregon’s culture and
geography.”
Jennings said this could
mean those receiving EOFF
residencies may return
later to make their films in
Northeast Oregon, boosting
its economy.
“Filmmaking could have
a very positive impact on
Sabrina Thompson/The Observer, File
Local filmmakers J.J. Hill and Liberty O’Dell share their idea for their feature-length film
“Out of Character” in October 2019 at the Eastern Oregon Film Festival, La Grande. EOFF
debuts its filmmaker residency program in the spring of 2021.
the economic status of the
region,” Jennings said.
He said he thinks
this region, where few
movies have been made,
is an untapped gem for
filmmakers.
“Cinematically it is not
explored,” Jennings said.
Between six and 10
people will receive resi-
dencies through the new
program, and they will be
shown the virtues North-
east Oregon has to offer,
Wolf depredation grants
awarded to ranchers
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Two
ranching operations in
Union County received
more than $17,000 total
for nonlethal means to
protect their livestock
from wolves.
The county board of
commissioners voted
Thursday, Jan. 21, to award
$9,584.04 to Krebs Live-
stock and $7,745.96 to Eric
Harlow, according to a
Union County Board of
Commissioners staff report.
Krebs Livestock, a
company in Morrow
County that uses Union
County to raise some of
its sheep, will use the
money to pay for secure
night pens, four fox lights,
bluetooth speakers, spot-
lights, additional herders
and the removal of dead
livestock. Harlow, a Union
County rancher, will use
the funding to pay for two
additional herders.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture pro-
vides the funding for the
grants.
The board of commis-
sioners voted to award the
grants at the recommenda-
tion of the Union County
Wolf Depredation Com-
pensation Committee.
Readying the recreation center
including microclimates,
the natural beauty and com-
munities with people eager
to provide support services.
“We will show them how
their story can come alive
in this region,” Jennings
said.
The residency program
will run from April 30
through May 27. It will be
for writers and filmmakers
who are working on screen-
plays. Some may be nearing
completion of their screen-
Traffic stop nets weapons, drugs
The Observer
UNION COUNTY
— Oregon State Police
reported a traffic stop in
Union County led to arrests
on drugs and weapons
charges.
OSP Lt. Daniel Conner
on Wednesday, Jan. 20,
at about 1:10 p.m. pulled
a vehicle over on Inter-
state 84 for multiple traffic
infractions. When the lieu-
tenant contacted the driver
and passenger, he observed
“reasonable suspicion of
criminal activity.”
State police dog Ore
alerted to the vehicle, and
a search revealed a “com-
mercial quantity of meth-
amphetamine, scales,
Baker City Herald
John Hillock/Contributed Photo
OSP/Contributed Photo
Oregon State Police dog
Ore alerted to a vehicle
during a traffic stop on I-84
in Union County, leading to
two arrests.
packaging material, para-
phernalia, U.S. currency,
prohibited weapons for a
felon and a stolen 9-mm
pistol,” according to state
police. “As a result, the
driver and passenger were
arrested.”
The inmate roster for
the Union County Correc-
tional Facility and state
court records show state
police booked Joshua Bar-
ritt, 33, of Caldwell, Idaho,
into the jail at 4:31 p.m.
on charges of delivery
and possession of meth,
theft, felon in possession
of a firearm and felon in
possession of a restricted
weapon. According to
court documents, the
state alleges Barritt stole
a 9-mm pistol.
Halfway to get new fire station
By SAMANTHA
O’CONNER
Volunteers gathered Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, to continue work on the indoor city recre-
ation center near the baseball fields in Enterprise. The center is expected to be ready
for use by March 1.
play while others may be in
the more formative stages.
All will be anything but
filmmaking first timers.
“They will be past the
novice stage. They will
know how to create a script
and produce a film,” Jen-
nings said.
He said early interest in
the residency program is
strong. Jennings noted 30
people from all around the
United States took part in a
Zoom video conference on
how to apply on Tuesday,
Jan. 19, and another 30
were set to attend a similar
online meeting Friday.
The application deadline
for the residency program
closes on Feb. 21.
The residency will cover
lodging and writing space,
travel costs, meals and
more. All this is to help par-
ticipants have the freedom
they need to be innovative.
“We want to enable art-
ists to create,” Jennings
said. “The more hurdles we
can remove, the better off
they will be.”
Residents will work
with experts, including
H. Nelson Tracey, a Los
Angeles-based filmmaker
and EOFF alumni who is
helping to develop the res-
idency program. Tracey is
best known for directing
a number of short films
including “Spare the Kid”
(2013) and “Conspiracy
Party” (2019). Tracey on
EOFF’s website stated a
residency “is a step away
from inevitable commit-
ments and distractions in
life at home, and an added
purpose of creation that can
be difficult to conjure when
left to one’s own devices.”
For information on the
residency program go to
https://www.eofilmfest.
com/filmmaker-residency.
HALFWAY — The city
of Halfway is using a $1.5
million federal block grant
to build a new station for
the Pine Valley Rural Fire
Protection District.
Halfway received the
Community Develop-
ment Block Grant in 2019
from the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban
Development.
In an email to the Baker
City Herald, Lisa Dawson,
executive director of the
Northeast Oregon Eco-
nomic Development Dis-
trict, wrote the city has con-
tracted with the district to
prepare the environmental
review for the construction
project.
The new 7,800-square-
foot station, which will
replace a structure built
in the 1960s, will be in
the northwest portion of a
two-acre property the fire
district owns in Halfway,
adjacent to the Pine Valley
Fairgrounds and near Pine
Haven Cemetery.
Dawson wrote that
construction is slated to
start this summer, and the
project should take about a
year to finish.
She said the Pine
Valley station, which will
include five equipment
bays with room for the
department’s vehicles and
equipment, will be sim-
ilar in size to one built
recently in Richland for
the Eagle Valley Fire Pro-
tection District.
The current fire station
can’t accommodate all the
equipment, and it also is
inefficient to heat, Dawson
wrote. The new station also
will have restrooms, office
space and a training room.
There will be a paved
parking area and poten-
tially a helicopter landing
pad for emergency medical
flights.
“The Pine Valley Rural
Fire Protection District is
an all-volunteer organi-
zation that provides fire-
fighting services for the
city of Halfway as well
as the surrounding com-
munity,” Dawson wrote
in her email. “The nearest
fire station is in Richland.
Because of the remote,
rural location, PVRFD
volunteers are often the
first responders to fires on
public lands (BLM, USFS)
within a 20-mile radius.
The PVRFD acquired the
vacant land for the pro-
posed fire station in 2015.”
Records chronicle events leading to melee at Ontario prison
By LILIANA FRANKEL
Malheur Enterprise via AP
StoryShare
ONTARIO — A fight
between two inmates in
December 2020 at Snake
River Correctional Insti-
tution, Ontario, escalated
into one of the largest dis-
turbances in recent times
at the prison, according to
records the Malheur Enter-
prise obtained.
The Oregon Department
of Corrections recently
released more than 100
pages of documents about
the disturbance as a result
of a public records request.
They provide new details
about an episode that put
the prison in lockdown,
required corrections offi-
cers to deploy pepper spray
and sent two inmates to the
hospital.
The Dec. 9 night-time
fight in Complex C of the
prison eventually involved
37 inmates and required 37
corrections officers to quell.
The fight was contained
in Unit C, a housing unit for
80 inmates. The arrival of a
new inmate led corrections
officer Brandon Kropp to
report “an intangible sense
of an increase in tension”
among the inmates and
a “change of tone on the
unit,” according to an inci-
dent brief by Capt. Robert
Campbell.
Kropp moved to conduct
a standard inmate count the
evening of Dec. 9 when at
9:16 p.m. he radioed other
prison workers a fight had
broken out.
“The incident began in
the dayroom, when adult
in custody (AIC) Torren
Cooksey was verbally dis-
respectful to AIC Alec
Imel,” according to Jennifer
Black, communications
manager with the correc-
tions department. “The two
men decided to resolve their
issue with a one-on-one
fight inside a cell. After
they fought, other AICs on
the unit did not agree that
there was resolution to the
fight and the larger fight
ensued.”
Cooksey said in a
recent letter to the Enter-
prise that it was a “bum
beef” — prison slang for
a false charge — and the
fight “could’ve been hours
or even days before this
spoken of disturbance.”
Cooksey said the dis-
turbance really was a gang
fight between the White-
Boys and the Paisas, two
ethnic factions in the
prison. Black confirmed
members of ethnic gangs
participated in the fight.
Kropp estimated 25
inmates were “actively
fighting and not com-
plying with staff directives
to stop fighting and other
AICs were joining in the
fight,” an incident report
recounted.
Kropp gated the housing
unit, and his backup, Sgt.
James Kenyon, arrived with
two teams of corrections
officers. Within three min-
utes, the entire prison was
put on lockdown.
Almost immediately
after the fighting began,
the response teams began
pepper spraying the inmates
in short bursts. Five offi-
cers in total deployed their
spray. At first, according to
chemical agent deployment
forms, the pepper spray had
“little to no effect.”
Lt. Mike Real reported
he then responded with
what he described as “spe-
cial munitions” and warned
the fighting inmates they
would be deployed.
Prison spokesperson
Amber Campbell clarified
“special munitions” refers
to weaponry designed to
“incapacitate, distract, and
control a subject with less
likelihood of life-threat-
ening injury” — likely
rubber or foam bullets.
The reports show that by
9:50 p.m., the officers had
successfully quelled the
fighting between inmates.
“Several AICs were
celebrating with each
other, walking around and
shaking hands with each
other,” the incident report
said.
“Many inmates already
were laying on the ground
bleeding profusely,”
Cooksey wrote. “When
everyone was on the
ground, guards rushed in
and started cuffing people
up and taking them either to
(disciplinary segregation) or
the hospital.”
Inmates who hadn’t suf-
fered visible facial inju-
ries were filmed and their
hands inspected for signs
they had been involved in
the fight, such as red or
swollen knuckles. All of
the inmates who had been
exposed to the pepper spray
were offered the chance to
rinse their faces, change
their clothes and take a
shower.
One inmate was taken
to the hospital and Cooksey
soon followed after cor-
rections officers found him
with a badly injured face,
according to the incident
reports.
While inspecting cells,
SRCI staff found Cooksey’s
blood in a cell where he did
not live, leading them to
formulate their hypothesis
about the origin of the fight.