LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
THuRSday, July 29, 2021
TODAY
WALLOWA COUNTY
Homes
spared
in path
of Elbow
Creek Fire
Today is Thursday, July 29, the
210th day of 2021. There are 155
days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
IN HISTORY
On July 29, 1958, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signed
the National Aeronautics and
Space Act, creating NASA.
ON THIS DATE
In 1856, German composer
Robert Schumann died in
Endenich at age 46.
In 1890, artist Vincent van
Gogh, 37, died of an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound in
Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
In 1914, transcontinental
telephone service in the U.S.
became operational with the
first test conversation between
New York and San Francisco.
Massachusetts’ Cape Cod Canal,
offering a shortcut across the
base of the peninsula, was offi-
cially opened to shipping traffic.
In 1965, The Beatles’ second
feature film, “Help!,” had its
world premiere in London.
In 1967, an accidental rocket
launch on the deck of the
supercarrier USS Forrestal in the
Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire
and explosions that killed 134
servicemen. (Among the survi-
vors was future Arizona senator
John McCain, a U.S. Navy lieu-
tenant commander who nar-
rowly escaped with his life.)
In 1968, Pope Paul the Sixth
reaffirmed the Roman Catholic
Church’s stance against artificial
methods of birth control.
In 1974, singer Cass Elliot
died in a London hotel room at
age 32.
In 1975, President Gerald R.
Ford became the first U.S. pres-
ident to visit the site of the Nazi
concentration camp Auschwitz
in Poland.
In 1980, a state funeral was
held in Cairo, Egypt, for the
deposed Shah of Iran, who had
died two days earlier at age 60.
In 1981, Britain’s Prince
Charles married Lady Diana
Spencer in a glittering cere-
mony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in
London.
In 1986, a federal jury in New
York found that the National
Football League had committed
an antitrust violation against
the rival United States Football
League. But in a hollow victory
for the USFL, the jury ordered
the NFL to pay token damages
of only $3.
In 1999, a former day trader,
apparently upset over stock
losses, opened fire in two
Atlanta brokerage offices, killing
nine people and wounding
13 before shooting himself to
death; authorities said Mark O.
Barton had also killed his wife
and two children.
Ten years ago: Norway
began burying the dead, a
week after an anti-Muslim
extremist killed 77 people in
a bombing and shooting ram-
page. Delaware carried out its
first execution since 2005, put-
ting to death Robert Jackson III,
who was convicted of killing a
woman, Elizabeth Girardi, with
an ax during a burglary.
Five years ago: Pope Francis
visited the former Nazi death
factory at Auschwitz and
Birkenau in southern Poland,
meeting with concentration
camp survivors as well as aging
saviors who helped Jews escape
certain doom. Former sub-
urban Chicago police officer
Drew Peterson was given an
additional 40 years in prison
for trying to hire someone to
kill the prosecutor who put him
behind bars for killing his wife.
One year ago: The body of
the Democratic congressman
and civil rights leader John
Lewis arrived in Atlanta;
people lined the streets as the
hearse carrying Lewis’ body
moved through downtown
before a ceremony at the Cap-
itol rotunda, where Lewis was
lauded as a warrior and a hero.
Both sides declared victory in a
political fight over the deploy-
ment of federal agents to guard
a U.S. courthouse that was tar-
geted during violent protests in
Portland, Oregon.
LOTTERY
Monday, July 26, 2021
Megabucks
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Estimated jackpot: $1 million
Lucky Lines
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Win for Life
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1 p.m.: 1-8-8-2
4 p.m.: 9-0-2-3
7 p.m.: 3-9-4-9
10 p.m.: 4-4-6-6
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Mega Millions
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Mega Ball: 11
Megaplier: 3
Estimated jackpot: $166
million
Lucky Lines
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Estimated jackpot: $40,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 5-3-6-6
4 p.m.: 4-5-9-9
7 p.m.: 5-0-5-9
10 p.m.: 1-5-9-4
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Construction of the Panda Express along Island Avenue continues on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Project managers predict completion of the
restaurant by late fall.
Construction on Panda Express to finish this fall
New fast food
restaurant going up
on Island Avenue
By CARLOS FUENTES
The Observer
ISLAND CITY —
Construction on the Panda
Express building on Island
Avenue is expected to be
completed by late fall this
year.
Since starting con-
struction in May, there
have been no major
delays, according to Brad
Lindsay, project super-
intendent with Millen-
nium Construction Group,
a California-based con-
struction company hired
to build the restaurant.
“Progress has been
good. We are expecting
to be finished by late
October, early November,”
Lindsay said.
When finished, the
2,381-square-foot restau-
rant will feature a drive-
thru, full kitchen and
dining area.
Workers are setting
up the framing of the
building.
In the next few weeks,
they will begin the roofing
process before starting
work on the inside.
As of now, there is no
set opening date.
Panda Express is a Chi-
nese American fast food
restaurant with more than
2,100 locations nation-
wide, according to its
website.
There are more than 30
in Oregon.
The Island City City
Council approved the con-
struction application in
October 2020.
“It’s always good to
have a new employer in
the city,” Karen Howton,
Island City’s city
recorder, said. “It means
more opportunities for
employment and should
help out the economy.”
Air quality will become unhealthy by weekend
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Air
quality in La Grande and
Enterprise may not be
good on Friday, July 30.
The air monitoring
website +IQAir is pro-
jecting that the two
communities will both
have air quality in the
unhealthy category by the
end of the week.
La Grande is pro-
jected to have a rating of
117, which would place
it in the orange cate-
gory, a level at which
people in sensitive groups,
including those with
respiratory issues, will be
impacted.
The air will be worse in
Enterprise where +IQAir
is projecting it will be in
the red category with a
151 rating.
Air quality falling to
the red category can neg-
atively impact members
of the general public,
according to AirNow.
gov, a federal government
website.
The good news is that
air quality ratings for La
Grande and Enterprise
on July 29 will not be in
the unhealthy category.
+IQAir is projecting both
communities will have
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Smoke from the Bootleg Fire in south-central Oregon fills the sky
above Booth Lane on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
air quality in the mod-
erate yellow category. La
Grande’s air quality rating
is projected to be 64, and
Enterprise’s is forecast to
be 82.
No haze is in the
National Weather Ser-
vice’s forecast for the
Grande Ronde and Wal-
lowa valleys through Aug.
2. The reasons are two-
fold, according to Mar-
ilyn Lohman, a meteo-
rologist for the National
Weather Service office in
Pendleton.
Lohman said North-
eastern Oregon is
receiving less smoke
from the large Bootleg
Fire in south-central
Oregon because of cooler
weather there, more mois-
ture and greater cloud
cover. The cooler weather
and increased moisture
are preventing the blaze
from generating as much
smoke. The added cloud
cover in south-central
Oregon is also helping by
limiting the amount of
smoke that is traveling to
Northeastern Oregon.
The lack of haze in the
forecasts for the Grande
Ronde and Wallowa val-
leys, though, can be mis-
leading. Lohman said the
Grande Ronde and Wal-
lowa valleys have been
receiving greater cloud
cover, making haze less
visible.
“Cloud cover obscures
smoke,” she said.
The cloud cover is a
reason why the National
Weather Service is not
including haze in its local
forecasts, which it had
been doing for much of
the past month.
Lohman said she
expects the haze will
return in the near future,
with the decline of cloud
cover and more wind from
the southwest carrying
smoke from the Bootleg
Fire back into our region.
“It will get more
smokey later on,” she said.
Smoke from the
Bootleg Fire could be
cleared out July 31 in
Northeastern Oregon by
rain, according to Robert
Cramp, a meteorologist
with the National Weather
Service in Pendleton.
“It would wash it to the
ground,” he said.
The National Weather
Service is forecasting a
40% chance of rain in the
Grande Ronde Valley on
July 31 and a 20% chance
in the Wallowa Valley.
NEWS BRIEFS
Elbow Creek Fire
up to 43% containment
WALLOWA — The Elbow Creek
Fire is 43% contained, with backup
firefighters and equipment still
arriving to support the fire line on
the 22,901-acre fire, according to a
press release from the morning of
Wednesday, July 28.
“Crews continued with burnouts
in the east side of Elbow Creek and
working grids to locate and sup-
press any spot fires in the area,” the
statement from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry said. “Work by
firefighters is now transitioning to
mop up and patrol along all Divi-
sions, while ongoing work continues
on known, scattered hot areas such
as those discovered in dozer berms
along fire lines.”
As of the July 28 press release,
there are 1,057 personnel working
on the fire, which has destroyed two
houses and four additional build-
ings. Handheld infrared detection
cameras are being used to monitor
hot spots.
According to the statement,
stinging insects and poisonous
snakes are adding to the risk that
firefighters are experiencing. There
have been six minor injuries among
fire personnel, although the causes
are not known.
Within the incident com-
mand center and fire camp, strict
COVID-19 restrictions are in place
to reduce further health risks.
Landmarks Commission
holds special session
LA GRANDE — The La Grande
Landmarks Commission is holding
a special session on Thursday, Aug.
5, to discuss proposals for the La
Grande Downtown Historic District
Standards update.
The commission will discuss a
potential project that will involve
renovations to the storefront at
1214 Adams Ave. The renova-
tions include repainting the exte-
rior, replacing tile bulkheads and
installing wood trim in the entry.
Any renovations performed
on the building would be sub-
ject to compliance with the city of
La Grande’s historic preservation
requirements, because the structure
is classified in the national register
of historic places.
The Planning Division received
three proposals, which it will
review at the meeting. The three
proposals are from Cultural Recon-
naissance, Sears Preservation Con-
sulting and Peter Meijer Architect.
Commission Chair Cassie Hibbert
can move to choose a consultant for
the City Downtown Historic Dis-
trict Standards or move that the dis-
cussion be continued at Thursday,
Aug. 12.
The special session will take
place at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers
at La Grande City Hall.
Wallowa County sees
spike in COVID cases
ENTERPRISE — There
were 12 new coronavirus cases
reported in Wallowa County in
the past five days, the Oregon
Health Authority reported
Monday, July 26.
The largest single-day count
came Thursday, July 22, when
five were reported. Another
seven cases were reported over
the weekend, the OHA said in a
press release.
There were no coronavirus-re-
lated deaths in the county during
the reporting period.
— EO Media Group
EDEN BENCH — They
were given the notice to
evacuate within an hour
of the Elbow Creek Fire
starting.
Yet, Dick and Shirley
Hone saw their home
spared despite the blaze’s
quick-burning nature when
it started the afternoon
of Thursday, July 15, and
almost immediately started
moving east.
“They saved, I think,
basically every structure,”
Shirley Hone said.
The Hones own the
last home on Eden Bench,
closest to Elbow Creek,
Shirley Hone said.
“I think within two
hours, it was burning hard
right below our house,” she
said.
The couple heeded evac-
uation notices and were
out of their home by about
6 p.m., she said.
“We left the first night,
and my two brothers-in-law
from Enterprise and Joseph
came and stayed at the
house,” Hone said.
She added they brought
a water truck and stayed at
the house in case they could
help.
The Hones stayed
in Enterprise on July
15-16, but returned home
within about 36 hours of
evacuating.
“We just wanted to be
there. We built this house
ourselves, and it’s not easy
to leave a place like this,”
she said.
Hone said she hadn’t
measured how close the
fire came to their home, but
her brothers-in-law “said it
was within 500 yards of our
lowest property.”
Hone had immense
praise for the efforts put
forth by firefighters who
stopped the blaze before it
reached their home.
“This state fire group
did an outstanding job with
this fire. It was moving very
rapidly,” she said. “The
organization this group
has was unbelievable, both
aerial and ground.”
Hone added that she
and her husband never felt
unsafe.
“These guys were right
on top of it. What they did
was totally amazing. And
the ground personnel was
unbelievable,” she said,
adding the aerial attack was
key. “Without them, I think
everybody would have
burned.”
Farther upriver, Gary
and Pennie Rials were
ready to evacuate but
elected to wait it out.
The couple’s home along
the Grande Ronde River is
about 3 miles southwest of
Troy and a handful of miles
away from Wildcat Creek,
the easternmost point of the
fire.
“We’re 5 miles from
Wildcat Creek. It was
coming down our way,”
Pennie Rials said. “It was
getting kind of close. It
turned and went the other
way.”
She said the couple
would have evacuated if
they had seen the fire get-
ting closer.
“If it would have come
over the hill here called
Peacock … if we would
have seen flames, we were
leaving,” she said.
Rials said her husband,
Gary, was keeping their
property wet throughout the
duration in case the fire did
close in.
With the fire now largely
burning in the opposite
direction of their home,
the couple drove up Eden
Bench to see the aftermath,
and to inform residents who
were not present that their
homes had made it.
“I’ve been trying to keep
people kind of alerted about
what’s going on,” Rials
said.