FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
THE OBSERVER — 5A
FOOD BANK
Continued from Page 1A
space, allowing the regional
food bank to provide more
fresh food items, such as
milk and eggs.
“It will give us more
options. We will be able to
provide a wider variety of
healthier foods,” Davidson
said.
The new distribution
center will not only pro-
vide more space inside but
also outside, with an expan-
sive parking area, making
it much easier and safer for
large trucks to make deliv-
eries. Davidson noted that
presently it’s diffi cult for
large trucks to make deliv-
eries at the Union County
Senior Center which has
a much smaller and more
crowded parking lot.
The distribution center’s
move to Island City will
have no impact on the ser-
vices it off ers to the public
at the Union County Senior
Center. All services there
now will continue at its
present site, including food
distribution services.
Community Connection
began looking for a larger
distribution center site
about 2-1/2 years ago.
GAU
Continued from Page 1A
that’s occupied, with the
faculty and staff still being
in there,” Moore said. “Get-
ting everybody coordinated
can be a big challenge.”
‘A win-win for
everyone’
For Gau, the close prox-
imity of his music classes
in Loso Hall to the McK-
enzie and Schwarz theaters
made it easy to balance
school with work because
he was always in the same
building. A major project
Gau worked on was the
refl ooring of the McKenzie
Theater, which he says was
a much-needed renovation.
“He did a really good
BILL
Continued from Page 1A
aid were eligible for Oregon
Opportunity Grant funds,
but only about 16% of those
students received grants
because of limited available
funding.
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown had initially rec-
ommended funding for
the Oregon Opportunity
Grant at about $171 mil-
lion last December. If
lawmakers pass the most
recent iteration of a budget
bill, the grant would stand
at $200 million for the
upcoming two-year budget
period.
The Oregon Higher
Education Coordinating
Commission says that
COUNCIL
Continued from Page 1A
the mapping methodology,
questioning whether the
LiDAR technology is accu-
rately taking into account
areas covered by trees as
well as if newly added
areas are necessary if there
has never been fl ooding
there in the past. The range
determining method used
a 20-foot by 20-foot grid
across the entire city of La
Grande to track the fl ood-
plain data and compile an
updated map.
The renewed map will
directly impact home-
owners who have been
added to fl ood zones in
terms of the tax value of
Dick Mason/The Observer
The Northeast Oregon Regional Food Bank sign hangs on the old
Pendleton Grain Growers building in Island City on June 11, 2021.
The building is being converted into a food distribution center for
the food bank.
The search was frus-
trating at fi rst. The fi rst
six sites looked at failed
to meet all of Commu-
nity Connection’s needs.
Davidson said for a while it
appeared that Community
Connection would have to
construct its own building.
Then it was learned that
the PGG building, which
Romans’ Precision Irriga-
tion had just moved out of,
was available for sale.
Community Connection
leaders soon determined
that the PGG building had
met all its needs.
“Everything clicked.
It was perfect,” Davidson
said.
Renovation work started
in late March. The con-
struction manager for
the project has been Mat
Barber, of Community
Connection.
“He has been invalu-
able in keeping the project
moving,” Davidson said.
The Northeast Regional
Food Bank must be out
of its storage building at
the Union County Senior
Center by July 31 due to
an order from the Federal
Transit Administration.
The FTA issued its order
because the food bank’s
present location was orig-
inally built to serve as a
site for the operation of a
public transportation opera-
tion, Davidson said. North-
east Oregon Public Transit,
which Community Connec-
tion also operates, will later
use the site to house vehi-
cles and equipment.
Davidson said the FTA
order spurred Commu-
nity Connection to begin
job and it was a win-win for
everyone,” Moore said.
Additionally, Gau’s other
biggest takeaways from
the improvements are the
extended handicap accessi-
bility and new riggings that
are faster and safer. McK-
enzie Theater will now
operate with a digital sound
system and LED lighting,
which are major improve-
ments from the standalone
speakers used in previous
years.
“Now having everything
connected and plugged
together within itself is
super nice,” Gau said. “It
will make our performances
and shows even better than
they were.”
McKenzie Theater
will be utilized during the
Eastern Oregon Film Fes-
tival, the fi rst big event
that EOU has planned in
the theater since the reno-
vations. In previous years,
the fi lm festival organizers
would have to bring in their
own equipment and were
limited in the scale of the
fi lm presentation. Now with
a 13-foot by 24-foot pro-
jector screen and digital
setup, McKenzie Theater
is better suited for a large-
viewing event.
“From the quality
improvements all around as
far as infrastructure, we’re
really excited,” said EOFF
director and co-founder
Chris Jennings.
as well. Construction crews
installed the same sound
and light upgrades as McK-
enzie Theater, but also
added a rotating turntable
fl oor and painted the walls
black for black-box style
performances.
In order to add the
rotating fl oor, the workers
elevated the entire ground
level to align with the rest
of the building and make
the space more accessible
for individuals with phys-
ical disabilities. The per-
forming area previously had
a step down at all entrances.
“It makes it much easier
to work with and adapt,”
theater professor Mike
Heather said. “Getting a
piano in here or a lift to
work on lighting is now
possible.”
Gau will mostly perform
in McKenzie Theater, but
recognizes what the renova-
tions mean for the future of
the music and theater pro-
grams at EOU.
“When people come
in and they see this
brand-new, high-tech and
fully optimized theater, it’s
just an extra sway in the
way of Eastern,” Gau said.
While the renovations
will make Loso Hall an
integral part of the school’s
performing arts programs,
Gau pointed out that the
professors in the music pro-
gram are the best he’s had
in college.
“They’re less profes-
sors and more mentors and
friends,” Gau said. “I think
that helps with how small
we are, but it doesn’t stop
us from doing anything we
want to.”
extra bump of funding
would increase the total
number of grant recipi-
ents from roughly 65,600
to about 76,600 in the
upcoming biennium.
“That is really
important, especially for
students in this region
because we have a lot
of students with fi nan-
cial need who want to go
to college,” Seydel said.
“That Oregon Oppor-
tunity Grant makes it
possible.”
Seydel said the pan-
demic has many students
having to make tough
fi nancial decisions, but
the increased funds could
make college a reality for
more of them.
Along with the
increased funding to
the Oregon Opportunity
Grant, lawmakers are also
examining changes to
another state fi nancial aid
program — the Oregon
Promise.
The Oregon Promise
was created in 2015 to
help cover most tuition
costs at Oregon commu-
nity colleges for recent
high school graduates and
GED recipients. At the
time it was announced,
Oregon Promise was
touted as the state’s “free
community college” fi nan-
cial aid program.
Another bill in the Leg-
islature would broaden
the program’s focus and
change who’s eligible to
use it. House Bill 2093
would expand the eligi-
bility requirements for the
their property and the price
of fl ood insurance. This
apprehension was voiced
by a handful of La Grande
citizens and echoed by
the councilors as they dis-
cussed potential appeal
options for homeowners
added to the fl ood zones
once the map is sent to
FEMA.
The thought of reeval-
uating the mapping and a
potential do-over was dis-
cussed, but Boquist and
the council agreed that
spending more money to
reevaluate the map would
leave the city short in the
long run if citizens need
help appealing to FEMA
once the maps are put
into eff ect. Carpenter and
Boquist noted that using a
smaller grid in the LiDAR
measurement would likely
still result in the same fl ood
zones.
Clements moved that
the city council authorize
Anderson Perry to send the
map to FEMA and council-
woman Mary Ann Miesner
seconded the motion.
Councilors John Bozarth,
David Glabe and Justin
Rock joined Clements and
Miesner in voting yes.
Upon sending FEMA
the updated fl oodplain
maps, the process of offi -
cially marking the new
zones will take two or more
years to refi ne. FEMA will
work back-and-forth with
the city during this time
frame if any adjustments
need to be made.
Dick Mason/The Observer
Mat Barber and Margaret Davidson, of Community Connection of Northeast Oregon, discuss the renova-
tion of the old Pendleton Grain Growers building into a food distribution center on June 11, 2021. David-
son is the executive directer of Community Connection and Barber is the construction manager for the
project.
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Major changes
The most noticeable
changes at Loso Hall are the
updates to McKenzie The-
ater, but Schwarz Theater
underwent a major upgrade
(541) 963-8889
program and make other
changes such as: lowering
the grade point average
requirement for students
from 2.5 to 2.0, doubling
the minimum grant award
to $2,000 and cutting a
$50 per term copay.
Notably, the bill would
also expand the permitted
uses of the grant funds
to include students not
only looking to attend
community colleges, but
also public universities
and nonprofi t, region-
ally accredited private
institutions.
searching for a new distri-
bution center site. She noted
though that even before
the order, the organization
needed a larger distribution
center.
“We knew we needed
more space before then,”
she said.
The Northeast Oregon
Regional Food Bank pro-
vides food to 18 pantries
in Union, Wallowa, Baker
and Grant counties plus
additional sites including
Department of Human Ser-
vices offi ces. The food bank
provided 1.3 million pounds
of food in 2020.
Gau has his eyes set on
becoming a music edu-
cator, preferably at the
high-school level. How-
ever, he says construction
is a fall-back for him and
that those skills can take
someone far in life.
With the recent
COVID-19 trends, music
and theater students at
EOU will likely get the
chance to return to per-
forming at live events
in the 2021 school year.
For Gau, it will be a full-
circle experience getting
to perform in the spot-
light of a theater he helped
construct.
“I think that this fl oor
will last many years,” Gau
said. “Seeing all the work
I’ve done and helped put
in really puts a smile on
my face.”
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