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October 21, 2021
BUSINESS, AG LIFE, B1
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THURSDAY EDITION
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Recent grants
show end in
sight for Liberty
Theatre project
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Things are looking up at
the Liberty Theatre in
downtown La Grande.
The Liberty Theatre
Foundation, the organi-
zation renovating the his-
toric theater, recently
announced it received
a $250,000 grant from
the MJ Murdock Chari-
table Trust in Vancouver,
Washington. The most
recent funds, along with
$10,000 in grant money
from the Wildhorse Foun-
dation in late June, bring
the project within reach of
completion.
“We’re approximately
three-quarters completed
with the overall project and
we were recently awarded
$250,000 from the Mur-
dock Charitable Trust,
which really takes us over
the fi nal hump,” Vice
Chair of the Liberty The-
atre Foundation Jeff Clark
said at the most recent La
Grande Urban Renewal
Agency meeting.
The project was orig-
inally put into place in
2009, when the nonprofi t
organization was created
by La Grande locals. After
years of renovations, the
end is getting closer for the
historic venue.
The MJ Murdock Chari-
table Trust grant will close
the gap in needed funds
to complete the project,
according to Liberty The-
atre Foundation Chair
Ashely O’Toole in a press
release.
“When an organization
of their stature has such a
high belief in our project
and confi dence in our abil-
ities, it gives us all the
more motivation and con-
fi dence that we can get it
done — despite the chal-
lenges we’ve been facing
during the pandemic,”
O’Toole said.
See, Liberty/Page A5
Supply chain
casualties
Alex Wittwer/The Observer, File
A young boy walks out of the Riveria Activity Center’s kitchen after receiving a free lunch on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Programs such as the Summer Seamless
Option, Summer Food Service Program and other school lunch programs are slated to continue despite supply chain problems.
School lunches in
disarray amid nation’s
supply chain troubles
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Supply chain issues
gripping the nation have found a new,
unexpected victim — local schools.
Those issues prompted state leaders with
the Oregon Department of Education to
issue temporary waivers for schools for
nutritional requirements.
That meant that long-time staples of
the cafeteria such as pizza or spaghetti
were absent. Offi cials grappled with bro-
kering deals with new suppliers to get
food to the students.
With supplies short on hand, local
school lunch cooks had to improvise to
get food out to hungry students.
“There are products we’re only sup-
posed to serve for child nutrition, and
all of the pizza was zeroed out — it was
nothing — so basically I did pizza that
I put my own toppings on,” said Tanya
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Kristi Ritchie, head cook with La Grande High School, hands out lunches on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. A
shortage of fi ve-compartment lunch trays led to students receiving plastic bag lunches. Ritchie, who
has been an employee with La Grande High School for 21 years, laments the ordering hiccups and menu
changes due to the pandemic and supply chain issues.
Corta, a kitchen supervisor with Imbler
School District. “We’re running on a
tight ship here.”
Tight ship or not, the supply chain
woes leave little certainty about the
menus — typically planned a month
in advance — and whether or not the
ingredients will even be available. That
puts extra strain on kitchen workers
and supervisors.
See, Lunch/Page A5
State vaccination mandate goes into eff ect
Organizations in
Union County affected
by mandates feel
minimal impact
By DAVIS CARBAUGH and
DICK MASON
The Observer
Alex Wittwer/The Observer, File
Demonstrators outside of La Grande City Hall protest against vaccine mandates on Saturday, Sept.
18, 2021.
INDEX
Business & Ag.......B1
Classified ...............B2
Comics ....................B5
Crossword .............B2
Dear Abby .............B6
WEATHER
Horoscope .............B2
Lottery ....................A2
Obituaries ..............A3
Opinion ..................A4
Records ..................A3
SATURDAY
Spiritual Life..........A6
Sports .....................A7
State ..................... A10
Sudoku ...................B5
Weather .................B6
UNION COUNTY
— Union County resi-
dents can breathe a sigh of
relief.
The state vaccination
mandate that took eff ect
earlier this week has not
resulted in a mass exodus
of employees that would
hobble its public schools,
health care services and
state government agencies.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Friday
49 LOW
50/42
Showers late
Rain, some heavy
WOLF CREEK GRANGE CELEBRATES MILESTONE
Under Executive Order
21-29 all public school staff
for students in kindergarten
through 12th grade, health
care workers and employees
of state government agen-
cies must have been vacci-
nated for COVID-19 by Oct.
18 or have been granted an
exception on religious or
medical grounds. It appears
that this order has resulted
in only a limited number
of employees leaving their
positions in Union County.
Grande Ronde Hos-
pital was directly aff ected
by the deadline, with
health care workers falling
under the umbrella of the
vaccination mandate.
See, Mandate/Page A5
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 124
3 sections, 36 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page A4.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com