INSIDE
SOME LIKE IT HOTTER: EXPERIMENTING WITH PEPPERS |
HOME & LIVING, B1
$1.50
TUESDAY EDITION
August 10, 2021
Paying
tribute to
friends
lost to
pandemic
Judge
rejects
B2H
challenge
Right-of-way
across public land
for project ruled
in compliance
Jim Arnott has seen
three friends die
from COVID-19 in
the last 16 months
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION — With pen
in hand and heart on his
sleeve, Jim Arnott is
helping the state step up its
campaign to convince more
Oregonians to get vacci-
nated for COVID-19.
Arnott has lost three
friends to COVID-19
over the past
16 months, a
trauma he has
written about
in a piece now
part of the Vac-
cine Voices
Arnott
series the
Oregon Health
Authority is carrying on
its COVID-19 blog. The
piece was written based on
answers to a questionnaire
Arnott completed for the
Vaccine Voices series.
All three of the friends
Arnott writes about con-
tracted COVID-19 before
vaccinations were available.
“Losing friends is so
painful,” Arnott said.
The Union resident
focuses on the closest of the
friends he lost in the blog, a
Colorado man he knew for
fi ve decades whom he iden-
tifi es as “KP.”
“I miss him so much,”
Arnott said.
He wrote about KP to
honor him and found the
process heart-wrenching.
“I do not want to write
any more obituaries,” he
said.
Arnott said his friend
was a self-employed engi-
neer and was blessed with a
mind that was as curious as
it was innovative.
“One of the things
he was trying to do was
develop a helicopter which
could run on autopilot,”
Arnott said.
KP was also a wood-
worker who coveted the
wood from the stump of
a walnut tree Arnott had.
Today Arnott still has this
wood from the stump KP
See, Tribute/Page A5
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Workers remove dirt from Trice Community Field at Pioneer Park in La Grande on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021.
Project breaks ground
Installation of turf field, other renovations underway at Pioneer Park
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Construc-
tion workers have broken ground
on a project in La Grande that
will create one of the top base-
ball and softball facilities in the
region.
Optimist Field and Trice
Community Field at Pioneer Park
will both be getting facelifts,
with turf being installed on both
fi elds and drainage problems
being fi xed at Trice Community
Field. The city of La Grande,
Eastern Oregon University, the
La Grande School District and a
number of volunteers have com-
bined funds and eff orts for the
project.
“It’s going to make us the
premier baseball and softball
facility in Eastern Oregon,” La
Grande Parks and Recreation
Director Stu Spence said.
Both fi elds will have turf
installed on the infi elds by
Northwest Sports Turf Solutions,
a turf company based in Phi-
lomath. Three turf companies
made off ers, but Northwest Turf
Solutions was chosen at the La
Grande City Council meeting on
Wednesday, July 7, 2021.
Upon completion of the
project, the fi elds will be used
by La Grande High School base-
ball and softball teams, Eastern
Oregon University baseball,
Parks and Rec events and Little
League competitions. Funding
from the project is coming from
$150,000 from the school dis-
trict, $75,000 from Eastern
Oregon University and $25,000
plus labor and equipment from
the city.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Anna Gambill, with La Grande Parks and Recreation, on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021,
drives a pickup truck between ball fi elds under construction in Pioneer Park.
drainage problems, in addi-
tion to installing fencing
around the perimeter of
Trice Community Field.
Prior to the turf installa-
Project timeline
tion, work crews will be dig-
Spence
ging up the current fi elds
Construction crews have
and then laying rock that
begun digging up the out-
will go underneath the turf.
fi eld at Trice Community
Sod or seed will then be
Field, which will be one of
installed in the outfi eld at
the larger tasks involved
Trice Community Field after
in the project. In addition
the drainage maintenance is
to infi eld turf, drainage
completed.
McKinley
issues in the outfi eld will be
According to Spence, turf
improved.
will arrive in the next four to six
The land where the softball
weeks. The goal of the project is to
fi eld’s outfi eld is now located was
have all outfi eld renovations com-
a wetlands area. As of right now,
pleted and all the rock laid by the
stormwater does not fully drain
time the turf arrives. At that point,
properly, causing unplayable con-
the job will be mostly turned over
ditions at times. The Pioneer Park
See, Park/Page A5
project will address and fi x these
The city will also be
handling future mainte-
nance costs once the reno-
vations are completed.
PORTLAND — A fed-
eral judge has rejected argu-
ments by opponents of a
300-mile transmission line
in Eastern Oregon who
sought to stop the project for
allegedly violating environ-
mental laws.
U.S. District Judge
Michael Simon has deter-
mined the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management approved
a right-of-way across public
land for the project in com-
pliance with the National
Environmental Policy Act
and Federal Lands Policy
Management Act.
The Stop B2H Coali-
tion and other plaintiff s
fi led a complaint in 2019
claiming the transmission
line between Boardman and
the Hemingway substation
in Idaho should have been
more closely scrutinized for
impacts to the greater sage
grouse and other factors.
The proposal has also
stirred controversy for
taking farmland out of pro-
duction and disrupting agri-
cultural practices, such as
aerial pesticide spraying.
Jim Kreider of La
Grande, co-chair of the Stop
B2H Coalition, said his
group is meeting with attor-
neys to consider what its
next step will be in its eff ort
to prevent the transmission
line project from moving
forward.
“Of course we don’t
agree with the judge’s deci-
sion and the coalition is
evaluating the opinion and
assessing our next steps
regarding an appeal,”
Kreider said.
The complaint fi led by
Stop B2H and other plain-
tiff s argued that BLM
should have updated its
environmental analysis of
the project — known as a
fi nal environmental impact
statement or FEIS — with
new information about sage
grouse populations, which
have plummeted from his-
toric levels.
See, B2H/Page A5
Att endance fi gures strong for Union County Fair
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
The Union County Fair,
revived after a year’s
absence, ended on a prom-
ising note Saturday, Aug.
7.
The fair drew 6,434
people Saturday, its
second highest attendance
for a single day in the past
fi ve years.
“We fi nished with
a bang,” said fi rst-year
Union County Fair Man-
ager Kathy Gover-Shaw.
The only day in the
past fi ve years the fair had
higher attendance was on
Aug. 2, 2019, when about
7,200 came, many to see
nationally known rhythm
and blues artist Curtis
Salgado.
Gover-Shaw credits
the fair’s strong fi nale to
the popularity of its eve-
ning entertainment, the
INDEX
Classified ...............B2
Comics ....................B5
Crossword .............B2
Dear Abby .............B6
Wasteland Kings band
and a strong turnout for
its annual FFA-4H auc-
tion. The popular sale had
138 sellers, up from 127
in 2020 when it was the
only fair event conducted
because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The four-day atten-
dance for the fair was
13,893, which is close to
what the fair has averaged
See, Fair/Page A5
WEATHER
Home ......................B1
Horoscope .............B2
Letters ....................A4
Lottery ....................A2
THURSDAY
Obituaries ..............A3
Opinion ..................A4
Records ..................A3
Sports .....................A6
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
The Hog Wild Days piggy train visits the Union County Fair on Friday,
Aug. 6, 2021.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
60 LOW
96/61
Clear
Very hot
CIVIL WAR AMMO DONATED TO MUSEUM
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 93
2 sections, 12 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page 4A.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com