INSIDE
A ‘ONE-TANK’ TRIP FROM LA GRANDE TO PALOUSE FALLS |
June 5, 2021
OUTDOORS & REC, 1B
WEEKEND EDITION
$1.50
LA GRANDE
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Budget
looks
solid
District’s budget
committee
proposes $44M
budget for
adoption
The Observer, File
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande School District’s
budget picture looks solid
despite having 140 fewer
students since 2020-21 due
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The La Grande School
District’s budget committee
voted Wednesday, June 2,
to recommend that a total
budget of $44.345 million,
$3.180 million more than
its current year’s budget, be
adopted by the school board.
The recommended
budget would call for no
program reductions or lay-
off s and a net increase of .55
of one full-time employee
position.
The district’s budget is
solid because of $7.01 mil-
lion in federal funding it has
available to it to off set the
impact of the pandemic. This
is funding the La Grande
School District has quali-
fi ed for and will be reim-
bursed for once it is spent,
according to La Grande
School District Budget
Director Chris Panike.
A signifi cant portion
of this COVID-19 relief
funding would be put in
the school district’s reserve
fund, helping off set the
money the school dis-
trict lost due to declining
enrollment.
The school district
receives about $8,600 from
the state for each student.
The loss of 140 students
since the pandemic hit has
cost the school district about
$1.2 million in state funding.
Typically, a loss in
funding would mean the
school district would be
forced to make cuts in staff
and programs to balance its
budget. That is not the case
now because the school dis-
trict’s reserve fund is strong
On the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest over the past half century, lightning — not careless or intentionally destructive people — has sparked almost eight of every
10 blazes.
DEVASTATING COMBINATION
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
B
AKER CITY — Noel
Livingston and Joel
McCraw ponder the
coming fi re season with
not a small amount of
dread.
In this sense the pair
shares something in common with
people across Oregon, and indeed
across the West, whose task it is to
deal with wildfi res.
The combination of the drought
affl icting much of the region
and fresh memories of the fi res
that destroyed sections of sev-
eral towns and killed 11 people
in western and southern Oregon
in September 2020 is a troubling
concoction.
Livingston and McCraw work
on the 2.3-million-acre Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest.
Livingston is the Wallowa-Whit-
man’s fi re staff offi cer, and
McCraw the fi re management
offi cer for the Whitman District in
the southern half of the forest.
Bureau of Land Management/Contributed Photo, File
The unpredictability of human-caused fi res — when they might happen, as well
as where — is one reason the Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry
institute restrictions on campfi res, the use of chain saws and other activities when
fi re danger is high or extreme.
When they consider the threats
they’ll likely deal with during fi re
season, Livingston and McCraw
worry more about what’s going
to happen thousands of feet up
in the atmosphere, where elec-
trical storms sometimes brew on
hot summer afternoons, than what
will transpire on the ground.
On the Wallowa-Whitman over
the past half century, lightning
— not careless or intentionally
destructive people — has sparked
almost eight of every 10 blazes.
That’s quite a diff erent situa-
tion, Livingston said, than what
prevails in national forests closer
to metropolitan areas — the
Mount Hood, for instance, parts of
which are less than an hour’s drive
from Portland, or the Willamette,
a similar distance from both Salem
and Eugene. In those forests the
percentages are nearly reversed,
Livingston said, with human-
caused fi res predominant.
The Mount Hood and the Wil-
lamette national forests have fi re
staff who spend much of their time
patrolling, particularly in pop-
ular areas, such as campgrounds,
so as to be ready to douse human-
caused blazes, he said.
On the Wallowa-Whitman, by
See, Fire/Page 5A
EOU to mandate coronavirus vaccines on campus
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
See, Budget/Page 5A
contrast, those sorts of “preven-
tion patrols” are what Livingston
describes as a “collateral duty” for
fi refi ghters.
“We don’t typically do that
except in extreme conditions,”
Livingston said. “We don’t have to
do it in a normal year.”
He conceded, though, 2021 isn’t
likely to be a normal year. At least
not as that word was defi ned until
2020.
Livingston said the pandem-
ic-driven trend of more people
recreating outdoors in 2020, a
phenomenon seen across the
West, was noteworthy on the
Wallowa-Whitman.
“Any time we get more people
in the woods, the risk goes up,”
Livingston said. “We’re going to
pay more attention to that.”
Despite bigger crowds at camp-
grounds and other recreation sites
on the Wallowa-Whitman in 2020
— and the expectation for similar
scenes this summer — Livingston
said he was “pleasantly surprised
that we didn’t get more human-
caused fi res than we did.”
Indeed, the Wallowa-Whit-
man’s 12 human-caused fi res,
which burned a total of just 23
acres, was less than half the yearly
average of 30 fi res amassed from
1970-2019.
Lightning fi res also were
rarer than usual, with 60 blazes
Lightning starts most fires
in Northeastern Oregon,
but human-caused blazes
pose serious risk as well
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon University announced
Thursday, June 3, it will require
students and employees to be vac-
cinated in order to take part in
on-campus learning.
Eastern will offi cially require
COVID-19 vaccinations when the
FDA fully approves one or more of
the vaccines. Both Pfi zer and Mod-
erna have started the months-long
process of securing full approval,
and the FDA has indicated they’re
“highly likely” to be approved later
in 2021. But school offi cials don’t
want members of the campus com-
munity waiting for that, empha-
sizing in a news release that it
“strongly encourages students,
employees and partners to receive
a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as
possible.”
“We are focused on pro-
Insko
Reynolds
Seydel
tecting the safety and health of the
EOU community and returning
to a highly engaged, in-person,
on-campus experience that upholds
our mission and shared values,” said
Eastern Oregon University Presi-
dent Tom Insko.
EOU will allow students to
attend courses virtually if they
choose not to receive one of the
COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally,
the university will make accommo-
dations for medical and non-med-
ical exemptions as those decisions
are made accordingly by program
personnel.
With EOU’s announcement,
every public university in the
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TUESDAY
state of Oregon now requires
the COVID-19 vaccination for
on-campus participation. Oregon
Institute of Technology made a sim-
ilar announcement June 2.
Tim Seydel, vice president for
university advancement, said the
feedback from many students at the
school during the last year indicated
a desire to get back to an in-person
experience.
“Students came to college for
that experience of living in resi-
dence halls, going to football games,
seeing live entertainment,” he said.
“They’re not able to do that right
now.”
According to Seydel, Eastern
will likely be able to host outdoor
events in full next fall, as well as
tracking state guidelines for indoor
gatherings.
Since the 2020 fall semester,
Eastern Oregon has been holding
classes at roughly 50% capacity.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
40 LOW
70/39
Mainly clear
Sunny
LHS SENIORS SAY FAREWELL TO HIGH SCHOOL
With approximately 3,000 students
enrolled, the La Grande univer-
sity managed to avoid going fully
remote like many other colleges
and universities across Oregon and
the rest of the country, according to
Seydel.
Seydel said the conversation with
other universities about vaccination
requirements has been ongoing at
the state level for quite some time.
While EOU is the last public univer-
sity in the state to mandate vaccina-
tions, many students approved of the
diligence.
“It’s nice that they’re waiting
until it’s FDA approved, since a lot
of other colleges aren’t doing that,”
said EOU junior Anna Kestie.
Junior Mary Ellen Buxton
echoed Kestie’s sentiment and noted
both she and Kestie already have
been vaccinated.
See, Vaccine/Page 5A
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 65
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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