LOCAL/REGION
2A — THE OBSERVER
TuESday, apRil 20, 2021
Today in EOU students get firsthand look at restoration project
History Program allows
Today is Tuesday, april 20, the
110th day of 2021. There are 255
days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On april 20, 1999, the Colum-
bine High School massacre took
place in Colorado as two students
shot and killed 12 classmates and
a teacher before taking their own
lives.
ON THIS DATE:
in 1863, president abraham
lincoln signed a proclamation
admitting West Virginia to the
union, effective in 60 days (on
June 20, 1863).
in 1914, the ludlow Massacre
took place when the Colorado
National Guard opened fire on
a tent colony of striking miners;
about 20 (accounts vary) strikers,
women and children died.
in 1916, the Chicago Cubs
played their first game at Wrigley
Field (then known as Weeghman
park); the Cubs defeated the
Cincinnati Reds 7-6.
in 1938, “Olympia,” leni Riefen-
stahl’s documentary about the
1936 Berlin Olympic games, was
first shown in Nazi Germany.
in 1945, during World War ii,
allied forces took control of the
German cities of Nuremberg and
Stuttgart.
in 1971, the Supreme Court
unanimously upheld the use of
busing to achieve racial desegre-
gation in schools.
in 1972, apollo 16’s lunar
module, carrying astronauts John
W. young and Charles M. duke Jr.,
landed on the moon.
in 1986, following an absence
of six decades, Russian-born pia-
nist Vladimir Horowitz performed
in the Soviet union to a packed
audience at the Grand Hall of
the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in
Moscow.
in 1988, gunmen who had
hijacked a Kuwait airways jumbo
jet were allowed safe passage out
of algeria under an agreement
that freed the remaining 31 hos-
tages and ended a 15-day siege in
which two passengers were slain.
in 2003, u.S. army forces took
control of Baghdad from the Ma-
rines in a changing of the guard
that thinned the military presence
in the capital.
in 2010, an explosion on the
deepwater Horizon oil platform,
leased by Bp, killed 11 workers
and caused a blow-out that began
spewing an estimated 200 million
gallons of crude into the Gulf
of Mexico. (The well was finally
capped nearly three months later.)
Ten years ago: Two Western
photojournalists, including
Oscar-nominated film director Tim
Hetherington, were killed in the
besieged libyan city of Misrata
while covering battles between
rebels and government forces. The
u.S. government announced new
protections for air travelers when
airlines lose their bags, bump
them off flights or hold them on
the runway for hours.
Five years ago: Five former
New Orleans police officers
pleaded guilty to lesser charges in
the deadly shootings on a bridge
in the days following Hurricane
Katrina in 2005. Treasury Secre-
tary Jacob lew announced that
Harriet Tubman, an african-amer-
ican abolitionist born into slavery,
would be the new face on the $20
bill, replacing president andrew
Jackson. (The redesign of the
bill was delayed during the ad-
ministration of president donald
Trump, who had called the move
“pure political correctness”; the
effort was resumed by the Biden
administration.) pro wrestler
Chyna (Joan Marie laurer) was
found dead in her Redondo
Beach, California, apartment; she
was 46.
LEARN MORE
groups of students
to restore and
enhance sites in
Eastern Oregon
Find information about
EOu’s sustainable rural sys-
tems degree at eou.edu/
sustainable-rural-systems.
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Thick
dust and bird droppings
cover what used to be bus-
tling high school hallways.
A small group of students
from Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity are some of the
first to leave footprints
since Baker Central High
School was abandoned in
2009, but their visit marks
a turning point for the his-
toric building.
These students, all
majoring in sustainable
rural systems at EOU, will
play a key role in trans-
forming the contaminated
building into a community
asset, according to a press
release from the university.
The sustainable rural
systems degree program
opened in fall 2020. After
two terms of virtual and
then on-campus meet-
ings, students took their
first field trip Wednesday,
April 14. Professor Shannon
Donovan arranged for
the small class to visit the
former Baker Central High
Eastern Oregon university/Contributed Photo
Eastern Oregon university students in the sustainable rural systems degree program tour an abandoned school
in Baker City on Wednesday, april 14, 2021. The students will help draft a request for proposal for contractors to
clean up the building, which is a brownfield, a site contaminated with lead, asbestos and other toxins.
School building, which
was recently designated as
a brownfield — a site con-
taminated with toxins. An
EPA assessment found lead
and asbestos contamina-
tion in tiles and paint, but
students could safely walk
through the building so
long as they didn’t disturb
the collected dust particles.
“It’s a bigger building
than I expected, and I was
surprised how worn down
things are and how much
New principal set to take
reins at Cove High School
By DICK MASON
The Observer
COVE — Cove High
School soon will have a
new leader.
Dustin Clark, a Bandon
educator, has been named
Cove High School’s next
principal. Clark will start
work April 29 at Cove
High School.
Clark has served as the
principal of Harbor Lights
Middle School in the
Bandon School District
the past two years. He also
is the Bandon School Dis-
trict’s athletic director, a
position he has held the
past nine months.
Clark will succeed
Mat Miles as Cove High
School’s principal. Miles
retired at the end 2020
after serving as principal
for 10 years. Miles came to
Cove from the La Grande
School District, where he
worked for 11 years.
Clark was one of seven
candidates who applied for
the position. Cove School
District Superintendent
Earl Pettit said Clark was
selected because of his
strong leadership traits.
Pettit said he is is glad
Clark will be able to come
on board for the final
month of the school year
because this will put him
in a position to get off
to a strong start in the
2021-22 school year.
Clark is no stranger
to Northeast Oregon.
His wife, Julia, is a
Cove High School grad-
uate, and he worked in
the Burns School Dis-
trict from 2017-2019. He
served as assistant prin-
cipal of Burns High
School his first year and
as assistant principal of
Slater Elementary School
his second year in Burns.
Clark also has six
years of experience as an
elementary school teacher
in Oregon, including four
in the Beaverton School
District.
One of the educator’s
earliest teaching expe-
riences was in South
Korea.
From 2006-2008
he taught English as a
second language to K-12
students in Suncheon
Public Schools.
After leaving his posi-
tion in South Korea, he
served as a volunteer
mentor at an orphanage
in Suncheon City for a
month.
Clark, a 1999 graduate
of Powers High School in
Coos County, has a mas-
ter’s degree in elementary
education and teaching
from Oregon State Uni-
versity and a bachelor’s
degree in business admin-
istration from Southern
Oregon University.
NASA balloon takes flight over Madras
By KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
MADRAS — The
150-foot-tall balloon, made
of plastic thinner than a
sandwich bag, rose above
the high desert at sunrise
with the goal of helping
future missions in space.
The helium-filled bal-
loon shined in the early
morning sunlight as it dis-
appeared into the atmo-
sphere, on its way to an alti-
tude of 110,000 feet.
A NASA-sponsored
research team launched
the balloon at about 6 a.m.
Thursday, April 15. from
the Madras Municipal Air-
port. The balloon carried
a 100-pound cone-shaped
device that later in the day
was dropped with a para-
chute over the high desert
east of Prineville.
“That went well,” said
Kevin Tucker, president
at Near Space Corp., who
oversaw the test flight. “It’s
always interesting. The wind
was actually changing, and
that’s a big deal. We were
very careful about that.”
Tucker’s company, which
work it’ll take to clean it
up,” EOU junior Joanna
Campbell said. “It’s cool
to think about how it could
be transformed, and I’m
excited to work through the
whole process.”
The program is designed
with a cohort model so
groups of students work on
real-world, multi-year proj-
ects to restore and enhance
sites in Eastern Oregon. The
one-of-a-kind curriculum
combines environmental
Contributed photo
Near Space Corp. personnel prepare to launch a large helium-filled bal-
lon, in the background, from the Madras Municipal airport on Thursday,
april 15, 2021. The ballon would rise to 111,000 feet and perform a high
altitude drop test. Scientists will use data from the test to determine how
to return items from the international Space Station back to Earth.
produces balloons for sci-
entific tests, partnered with
researchers from the Uni-
versity of Kentucky to
launch the balloon and test
a delivery system that could
be used to return individual
items from the Interna-
tional Space Station back to
Earth. The team tracked the
balloon’s flight Thursday
and recovered the dropped
device.
The university engi-
neering students call the
delivery system the Ken-
tucky Re-Entry Universal
Payload System and their
research was sponsored by
NASA’s Flight Opportuni-
ties program, said NASA
spokesperson Megan Person.
science, public adminis-
tration, community orga-
nizing, project management
and leadership. EOU fac-
ulty collaborated with Baker
Technical Institute’s existing
brownfields program that
engages high school stu-
dents in similar work.
BTI instructor Robbie
Langrell, who led the
building tour, has worked
with a group of local stake-
holders to earn an EPA
grant that will fund decon-
tamination of the Baker
City site. Following their
visit, EOU students will
draft a request for proposal
and open the bidding pro-
cess for contractors who
want to take on the project.
Langrell will use the stu-
dents’ work to begin inter-
viewing contractors and
ultimately select a company
that will safely remove haz-
ardous materials from the
building. Once it’s cleaned
up, she expects to put it on
the market for sale or fur-
ther development.
This is the first of many
hands-on projects sustain-
able rural systems cohorts
will tackle. The same stu-
dents who visited the dark,
messy building will return
regularly throughout the
restoration process and have
a role in its revitalization.
“You get to see for
yourself and have the
first-person experience
of being here,” EOU
junior Monte Zufelt said
of the visit. “I hope to be
able to see the progress
as we move forward with
hiring contractors.”
Dousing a shed fire
dick Mason/The Observer
Firefighters on Sunday, april 18, 2021, extinguish a shed fire about 75 yards north of deal Canyon Road in la
Grande. Nobody was injured in the blaze and there was no major property damage. The blaze was reported
at 1:32 p.m. Seven firefighters from the la Grande and the la Grande Rural fire departments responded to
the fire with two engines and a command vehicle. The cause of the fire was connected to a nearby burn pile,
according to the la Grande Fire department.
Joseph city administrator resigns
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Joseph City Administrator
Larry Braden submitted his resignation
Friday night, April 16, during an emer-
gency city council meeting.
Braden, who was not at the meeting,
cited “harassment” from the city council
in his resignation letter, which was read at
the meeting. The type of harassment, and
who it was by, was not cited in the letter.
The resignation comes barely two
weeks after a heated exchange at the
April 1 city council meeting during which
Braden cited confusion over the role of
the mayor and the city administrator, and
his role in the day-to-day function of the
city.
“It’s very frustrating for me to do my
job,” Braden said at that meeting. “We
currently are not compliant with the city
charter. We are not compliant with the
council rules, and almost every single
aspect of my employment contract has
been violated. Doing my job in a func-
tional, efficient manner is almost impos-
sible right now.”
News Briefs
Tamkaliks Celebration
remains on hiatus
due to COVID-19
WALLOWA —
COVID-19 has again post-
poned the annual Tamka-
liks Celebration.
The Nez Perce Wallowa
Homeland and Tamka-
liks Committee announced
the decision April 13. The
committee met April 7 to
deliberate whether or not to
host the event.
“This was not an easy
decision, but Nez Perce
Wallowa Homeland and
the Tamkaliks Committee
agree that this is the best
decision for the safety of
our elders and our com-
munities,” a release
announcing the decision
stated.
The annual summer
event traditionally includes
three days of dancing,
music, naming ceremo-
nies, memorials and a
Friendship Feast in cele-
bration of the continuing
Nez Perce presence in the
Wallowa Valley.
The committee still will
award two $500 scholar-
ships — the Taz Conner
and Terry Crenshaw
Memorial scholarships.
The postponement of
the annual event, which
also was postponed in
2020, will not impact the
organization’s other plans
in the county. The vis-
itor center will be open
during the summer and
the powwow grounds
are open for dispersed
camping, according to the
release.
Baker City removes trash
from property — again
BAKER CITY — For
the fourth time in four
years, Baker City has
removed trash and other
debris from a property on
the east side of town.
The city also cited the
resident, Lucas Gwin, for
violating the city’s prop-
erty maintenance ordi-
nance, said Lt. Ty Duby
of the Baker City Police
Department.
The latest incident hap-
pened April 14.
Duby, who will take
over as the city’s police
chief July 1, said the city
had received complaints
from multiple residents
who live near Gwin’s
house at 1975 Birch St.
Duby said the city’s
public works department
used a front-end loader to
remove debris from the
backyard of the property.
He and Dallas Brockett,
the police department’s
code enforcement officer,
also participated in the
cleanup, along with two
people doing community
service through the Baker
County Parole and Proba-
tion Department.
Duby said the city also
removed trash from the
property in October 2020.
According to city and
court records, a city code
enforcement officer cited
Gwin for violating the
property maintenance
ordinance in May 2015,
August 2015 and October
2016. In 2017, the city paid
a contractor $2,000 to
clean up the property.
The city cited Gwin
for violating the property
maintenance order Dec. 27,
2017, and four more times
in 2018, according to court
records.
— EO Media Group