FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021
LGSB
Continued from Page 1A
Hanson, the owner and
operator of an auto salvage
company, is the Position 2
candidate. Michelle Perry,
the Position 2 incumbent, is
not seeking reelection.
The Position 4 race fea-
tures two candidates with
deep La Grande School
District roots. Romer is a
2001 La Grande High grad-
uate whose mother, Kristy
Moore, teaches English at
La Grande High School.
Romer and his wife,
Jeanna, are the parents of
two daughters who attend
Central Elementary School
and a 3-year-old.
Shaw, who is completing
his fourth year on the school
board, is a 1987 La Grande
High graduate whose
mother, Carol Ann Farris,
was a secretary at Island
City Elementary School.
Shaw’s stepmother, Car-
olyn Shaw, also at one time
worked in the school district.
Randy Shaw and his wife,
Kathy, are the parents of a
daughter who is a freshman
at LHS, a son who is a 2020
LHS graduate school and
a daughter who graduated
from LHS in 2009.
Shaw said he is run-
ning for reelection because
he wants to help the school
district fi nish a number of
projects that were begin-
ning when he joined the
board in 2016. These
include the expansion of
the district’s career tech-
nical educational program.
Money from a $31.5 million
bond local voters approved
in 2014 built new facilities
for the program.
“I want to see it continue
to grow,” Shaw said.
Shaw is an auto body
mechanic who trained
at WyoTech in Laramie,
Wyoming. He credited La
Grande School District’s
CTE programs with having
a big infl uence on his life
while he was growing up.
The incumbent is
pleased with the direc-
tion the district is moving.
He said La Grande High
School’s graduation rate of
89.4% is an indication of
how well the school district
is doing at all grade levels.
“We have phenomenal
teachers. We are lucky to
have the caliber of teachers
we have,” said Shaw, who
also said he is impressed
with the quality of the
school district’s administra-
tors and staff .
One concern on the
horizon for the La Grande
School District is falling
enrollment. The school
district has 140 fewer stu-
Look for articles
about other candidates
in Union County school
board races in coming
editions of The Observer.
dents than it did before
the COVID-19 pandemic
hit in March 2020. Many
likely left for the opportu-
nity to be homeschooled or
to enroll in online educa-
tion programs outside of the
district. Shaw is optimistic
most of these students will
come back because of the
quality programs off ered by
the school district.
“I honestly think the
majority will (return),”
Shaw said.
Romer said he is not sure
how many of the students
will come back, noting con-
cerns about COVID-19
vaccines may prevent the
parents of some of these
students from sending them
back to school.
Romer, like Shaw, also
likes the progress that the
La Grande School District
has made.
“I am impressed,” he
said of the district. “It
has made so many strides
since I left. I want to help
it to continue to grow. It is
important that we do not
become stagnant.”
Romer has traveled
extensively throughout the
world during the past two
decades and said he wants
to serve on the school board
as a means of sharing what
he has learned.
“I want to give back to a
community that has done so
much for me,” he said.
Romer, who is a stay-
at-home father, has two
degrees from Eastern
Oregon University: a bach-
elor’s degree in sociology
with an emphasis on social
welfare and a master’s
degree in teaching. He and
his wife taught English as
a second language in Spain
for a year in 2007.
The candidate said he
has enormous respect for
the teachers who guided
him in the La Grande
School District.
“They shaped the direc-
tion of my life,” he said.
Romer said he is inter-
ested in education research
and the ideas of Scott
Barry Kaufman, an Amer-
ican cognitive scientist
and author. Romer said
Kaufman believes chil-
dren benefi t from imagina-
tive play opportunities and
more chances to express
themselves. Romer said he
would encourage the La
Grande School District to
look at Kaufman’s ideas if
he is elected.
RISK
Continued from Page 1A
Columbia, Crook,
Deschutes, Grant, Jackson,
Josephine, Klamath,
Lane, Linn, Marion, Mult-
nomah, Polk and Wasco.
The aff ected counties
account for more than half
of the state’s 4.3 million
population.
The extreme risk level
shuts down indoor dining,
limits crowd sizes, caps
entertainment and exer-
cise activities, and requires
most businesses to close by
11 p.m.
“If we don’t act now,
doctors, nurses, hospitals,
and other health care pro-
viders in Oregon will be
stretched to their limits
treating severe cases of
COVID-19,” Brown said.
The governor said health
offi cials would review
infection statistics each
week and no county would
remain at extreme risk level
for more than three weeks.
Hood River County
Kristyna Wentz-Graff /OPB
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown tours a
drive-thru mass COVID-19 vacci-
nation clinic at Portland Interna-
tional Airport, April 9, 2021. The
governor on Tuesday, April 27,
announced 15 counties are in the
extreme risk category, but Union
and Wallowa counties remain in
the lower risk group.
and Umatilla County are
moving to the high risk cat-
egory, increasing restric-
tions on businesses and
gatherings as cases are
rising in the counties.
At high risk, restau-
rants, religious establish-
ments and fi tness facil-
ities can remain open
at 25% indoor capacity.
Grocery stores and other
retail establishments can
also remain open at 50%,
FIRE
Continued from Page 1A
through the Oregon Leg-
islature’s emergency
board gave the depart-
ment money to bring on
some seasonal employees
early this year and stage
a pair of single-engine
air tankers in The Dalles,
within “striking distance”
of Northeast Oregon.
A larger funding
package, waiting approval
by the full Legislature,
is Senate Bill 762, which
includes recommendations
from the governor’s wild-
fi re council. If approved,
$150 million will be dis-
tributed among several
state agencies for fi re sup-
pression, mitigation on pri-
vate and public land, and to
look at land use zoning and
smoke impacts.
Hessel said ODF’s
funding is split between
the state’s general fund and
landowners who pay an
assessment on their acres
for fi re protection. This
year, the northeast district
will support 20 engines
and a hand crew in Wal-
THE OBSERVER — 5A
lowa, Baker, Union and
Umatilla counties, two sin-
gle-engine air tankers and
a Type-2 helicopter sta-
tioned in Pendleton, and a
detection plane based in La
Grande.
The Umatilla National
Forest fi re staff is antici-
pating an above average
fi re year as well.
“The good snowpack
at higher elevations are
something we appreciate,
but the presence or lack
of precipitation in June
can also set the stage for
what type of fi re season
comes at us here in North-
east Oregon and Southeast
Washington,” said Darcy
Weseman, a public aff airs
offi cer for the Umatilla
National Forest.
Fire suppression staffi ng
will be similar to last
year, Weseman said, with
10 engines and six hand
crews, along with several
staff ed fi re lookouts.
“One constant that we
deal with every season is
that our workforce is often
asked to fulfi ll resource
requests for fi res in other
parts of the nation, through
engines, hand crews and
incident management team
support,” she said.
These requests are fi lled
based on local fi re danger,
and forest staff has histori-
cally been a large contrib-
utor to these sort of eff orts,
Weseman said, as fi re
resources often see mul-
tiple assignments across
the Western United States.
Higher elevation snow-
pack still is holding up
well in the Blue Moun-
tains and the Wallowas
where mid- and late-winter
snowstorms pushed the
snowpack well past the
100% mark. However,
many of the lower eleva-
tion areas of the Umatilla
and Wallowa-Whitman
national forests did not get
the snow, nor have those
areas received any spring
rain, according to Nathan
Goodrich, a deputy fi re
staff offi cer for the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National
Forest. He said conditions
aren’t good from a ranch-
er’s standpoint, because
there is little grass for live-
stock, but good for fi re
suppression, because there
will be fewer fi ne fuels to
start fi res, like cheatgrass.
Spring cruising through Union County
“Because they had dif-
ferent storm patterns the
desert could be active in
May and June,” he said.
The dry conditions have
one other positive for land
managers — the oppor-
tunity to meet spring pre-
scribed burning targets.
Steve Hawkins, a fuels pro-
gram manager for the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National
Forest, said some aspects
of the forest are fairly dry,
especially large fuels like
downed logs.
The south end of the
forest is dry and 2,000
acres have been burned on
the forest already, Haw-
kins said, including 1,500
just this past week ahead
of rain and snowstorms
predicted over the past
weekend.
“Near Baker City we’ve
been way down on pre-
cipitation for the last two
months, but one event can
change things,” he said.
No prescribed burning
has begun on the
Umatilla National Forest
yet, Weseman said, out-
side of pile burning on
the North Fork John Day
Ranger District.
LEVY
Continued from Page 1A
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
A vintage baby blue Chevrolet cruises down 26th Street in Island City under bright blue skies on Mon-
day, April 26, 2021.
according to the state.
Umatilla County
recently was in a “two-
week caution period” after
surpassing the mark of 100
cases per 100,000 people
over a 14-day period, which
would move it from mod-
erate to high risk.
Now, with 114
COVID-19 cases reported
over the past two weeks,
Brown announced the
county would move back to
high risk.
Umatilla County offi -
cials have said many of
the cases are being traced
to social gatherings. Offi -
cials also pointed to the
county’s low vaccination
rates as part of the reason
why infection is spreading
rapidly.
“In almost every single
case, the people who are
now being infected aren’t
vaccinated,” Umatilla
County Commissioner
George Murdock said.
Umatilla County has
long reported some of the
lowest vaccination rates in
the state. According to the
ISLAND EXPRESS
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Oregon Health Authority,
approximately 23% of the
county’s population is at
least partially vaccinated,
the lowest total in Oregon.
To cushion the fi nancial
blow to businesses, which
will again have to shut their
doors or curtail capacity
and hours, Brown said she
is working with the Oregon
Legislature on an emer-
gency $20 million fi nancial
aid package.
The new limits will go
into eff ect Friday, April 30,
for at least two weeks.
Brown said April 6 that
no county would be moved
into the extreme risk level
as long as less than 300
people statewide were hos-
pitalized for COVID-19.
OHA on Monday, April
26, reported 319 cases,
bringing the three-week
hiatus of the most severe
restrictions to an end.
Oregon on Friday, April
23, reported more than
1,020 new infections, more
than double what it was two
weeks ago — the sharpest
spike of any state.
After more than a year
of being at the lowest end
of infections nationwide,
Oregon has seen new cases
of COVID-19 jump 54%
over the past 14 days while
infections have dropped
20% overall in the nation.
The key infection mea-
surement for larger coun-
ties is cases per 100,000,
with Klamath topping the
list at 787 and Deschutes
at 467.
The spread of more con-
tagious variants is out-
pacing vaccinations, which
now top 1.1 million out of
the state’s 4.3 million resi-
dents. OHA said the highly
contagious B.1.1.7, known
as the “UK Variant”
because it fi rst appeared in
Britain, now accounted for
the largest number of new
cases in Oregon.
Though only 27% of
the 4.3 million people
living in Oregon have
been completely vacci-
nated, demand for shots
has already started to slow
in some parts of the state,
OHA reported.
Noxious weeds also
choke out crops, destroy
range and pasturelands,
clog waterways and
threaten native plant com-
munities, Guttridge said.
Weeds create fi re haz-
ards and make land sus-
ceptible to erosion, Clapp
added. He explained weeds
have shallow root systems.
This means when weeds
take over an area it is vul-
nerable to erosion when
there is fl ooding or heavy
rain.
Clapp said 120-150 land-
owners participate in the
Union County Weed Con-
trol Department’s cost
share program each year.
Through this program the
county provides up to $500
in matching funds to land-
owners spending money
fi ghting noxious weeds.
About $40,000 a year is
dedicated to the landowner
cost share program a year.
Cost share projects
sometimes involved mul-
tiple landowners. For
example, many get together
on an almost annual basis
to pay, with help from
Union County matching
funds, to have a helicopter
spray a herbicide for yellow
star-thistle. This is a weed
that can take over elk hab-
itat, crowd out nutritious
plants and rob farmers of
cropland, Clapp said.
Weed removal is also
important, according to
information provided by
the Union County Weed
Advisory Board, because
some are toxic to horses
and cattle. These include
leafy spurge, tansy rag-
wort, poison hemlock and
hound’s-tongue.
Another of the many
weeds the county weed
department treats for is
puncture vine, commonly
known as goatheads. It
is well known for punc-
turing bicycle tires and
getting caught in the soles
of shoes. Puncture vine
also can cause injuries to
humans, pets and livestock
if stepped on.
Ballots for the mail elec-
tion must be returned to
the Union County Clerk’s
offi ce by mail or a drop
box by 8 p.m. May 18.
Drop boxes are at the Cook
Memorial Library in La
Grande; the city halls in
Cove, Imbler, Island City,
Union, North Powder
and Elgin; and the Union
County Clerk’s offi ce, 1001
Fourth St., La Grande.
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