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THURSDAY • April 1, 2021
• $1.50
Good day to our valued subscriber Dennis Hohstadt of Imbler
Car shows,
yard sale
and brews
EO Beer Festival and
Grassroots Festival
return on Aug. 14
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — Grande
Ronde Valley residents will have
a chance to do a summer fest dou-
ble-dip in mid-August.
The coronavirus pandemic in
2020 led to the cancellation of La
Grande’s Eastern Oregon Beer
Festival and Union’s Grassroots
Festival. This summer, the annual
events are set to reemerge on the
same day, Aug. 14.
Donna Beverage, Union
County commissioner and
director of the Grassroots Fes-
tival, said she believes the two
Saturday events can complement
each other.
“We are hoping to work
together so that more people will
be able to enjoy activities at both
festivals that day,” Beverage said.
Beverage noted people could
be encouraged to attend morning
activities at the Grassroots Fes-
tival, which starts at 7 a.m., and
then go to the beer festival later in
the day.
The festivals are scheduled to
Dick Mason/The Observer
Tanner Hibbert, of Challis Concrete Construction of La Grande, works in Imbler on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, on a curb ramp project. Hibbert is helping install new curb ramps
as a part of an Oregon Department of Transportation project.
Improving curb courtesy
ODOT curb ramp project eases access for people with mobility issues
See, Events/Page 5A
House
GOP says it
won’t delay
budget bills
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — People with
mobility issues soon will have a much
easier time getting to and from side-
walks in Imbler, Elgin, Island City and La
Grande.
The Oregon Department of Transporta-
tion this spring and summer is installing
238 new curb ramps in the Union County
communities as part of a statewide
project. The Union County work, which
will cost $5.1 million, started in March in
Imbler where 52 new curb ramps, almost
all replacing old ones, are going in on
Highway 82 through downtown.
The small new ramps are designed to
make it easier for people using wheel-
chairs to pass between the sidewalk and
the road. Via the ODOT project, many
ramps that are at least 20 years old are
being replaced with ones that have more
gradual grades. Also, the ramps are bright
yellow, making them easier to see.
This work is part of an ODOT eff ort to
boost accessibility throughout the state.
“We are committed to this goal,” said
ODOT spokesperson Tom Strandberg.
ODOT will install thousands of ramps
across Oregon. The state transporta-
tion agency installed some of the fi rst in
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon House
Republicans said Tuesday, March
30, they will not use delaying tac-
tics on budget bills when they
come up for a vote.
House Minority Leader Chris-
tine Drazan, R-Canby, in a state-
ment reported Republicans would
drop their delaying strategy of
requiring bills to be read in full
when it came time to consider the
budget legislation.
“Part of this commitment is to
ensure we have a balanced budget
prior to our constitutional dead-
line before adjourning this ses-
sion,” Drazan said.
Under the Oregon Constitu-
tion, the Oregon Legislature must
adjourn no later than June 28.
Budget bills are often among the
Dick Mason/The Observer
Tanner Hibbert of Challis Concrete Construction helps with an installation of new curb ramps on Tuesday, March
30, 2021, in Imbler. The Oregon Department of Transportation is installing 238 of the ramps in Union County over
the next seven months to improve access for people with mobility issues.
LOCATIONS FOR NEW CURB RAMPS
• La Grande: Highway 30 from 20th Street to
McAlister Road and on Highway 82 at its intersection
with 26th Street.
• Cove: Highway 237 from Foster Street to Church Street.
• Imbler: Highway 82 from Hull Lane to Brooks Road.
• Island City: Highway 82 from Walton Road to West Rail-
road Avenue.
• Elgin: Highway 82 from Hemlock Street to North Third
Avenue and on Highway 204 from North 10th Avenue to North
17th Avenue.
See, Curbs/Page 5A
See, Bills/Page 5A
Wallowa School District puts
$2.3 million seismic grant to work
By ELLEN MORRIS BISHOP
For the Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — Wallowa may
look like a placid little town, but
there’s a monster lurking under-
ground just a few miles to the
southeast. The Wallowa School
District is outfi tting its Cougar
Dome to ensure safety for stu-
dents and a safe haven for the
community should the monster
ever strike.
The “monster” is the nearly
40-mile-long Wallowa fault and
related faults that defi ne the Los-
INDEX
Business .................1B
Classified ...............4B
Comics ....................7B
Crossword .............4B
Dear Abby .............8B
tine and other river valleys, as
well as other parts of the Blue
Mountains. Historic seismic
activity in Wallowa County has
produced only magnitude 5 and
smaller quakes, and many have
been centered around Joseph.
In January, two magnitude
2 quakes occurred six to seven
miles from of Lostine. Locals
felt the tremblers. Although no
fault scarps younger than 17,000
years have been found, some
geologists, notably U.S. Geolog-
ical Survey’s Gary Mann, con-
WEATHER
Horoscope .............4B
Letters ....................4A
Lottery ....................3A
Obituaries ..............3A
Opinion ..................4A
SATURDAY
Spiritual .................6A
Sports .....................7A
State ........................8A
Sudoku ...................7B
Weather .................8B
SHELTER SOUP SUPPER
sider the Wallowa fault, which
has been active for about 12 mil-
lion years, to be capable of a
magnitude 7 quake.
The Wallowa School District
is addressing this potential threat
with the $2.29 million Seismic
Rehabilitation Grant it received
in May 2020.
State bonds fund the grants,
and Business Oregon, the state’s
economic development agency,
administers the program.
In the spirit of April Fools’
Day, The Observer has an April
Fools’ gag of its own inside the
paper. Find that content, which
contains numerous popular
culture references, and send
us an email or a message on
Facebook with the name of the
article and a list of the refer-
ences. The person who lists the
most correct responses wins a
$20 gift certifi cate to the local
restaurant of their choice. In the
event more than one person
gets them all, whoever sub-
mitted the complete list fi rst is
the winner. Entries are due by
Thursday, April 8, at noon.
See, Grant/Page 5A
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
APRIL FOOLS’ DAY CONTEST
Friday
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CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 39
3 sections, 24 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page 4A.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com