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TUESDAY EDITION
November 16, 2021
Protest
letter
penned
by timber
group
Eastern Oregon leaders
presented letter against
River Democracy Act
as their view
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
LA GRANDE — U.S. Sen.
Ron Wyden in August got a letter
critical of his plan to preserve
more Oregon streams from 14
county commissioners in Eastern
Oregon.
They represented the letter as
their view — but gave no indi-
cation the piece had been pro-
duced by the timber advocacy
group American Forest Resource
Council.
Oregon Wild, an environ-
mental organization based in
Portland, traced the emergence of
the letter through a public records
request to the Union County
Board of Commissioners and
shared its fi ndings with the Cap-
ital Chronicle.
The legislation
called the River
Democracy Act, pro-
posed by Wyden
and U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley, would
add 4,700 miles of
Anderes
Oregon streams and
rivers to the National Wild and
Scenic Rivers system.
It would also, according to
the American Forest Resource
Council, take about 3 million
acres of federal land out of use for
cattle and logging industries.
Some Eastern Oregon inter-
ests have pushed back on the pro-
posal, fearing that it would impair
ranching and forestry and pile on
new federal regulations.
Among the records the group
obtained was an email in August
from Heath Heikkila, a govern-
ment aff airs offi cer at American
Forest Resource Council and reg-
istered lobbyist, to Union County
Commissioner Paul Anderes.
Anderes doesn’t work in the
timber industry but comes from
a timber family in Roseburg,
according to the Union County
Commission site. He has been a
commissioner in Union County
for about three years.
See, Letter/Page A5
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Workers put on the fi nishing touches for the cottage-style homes at Veteran’s Village Union County on Russell Avenue in La Grande on Monday, Nov. 8,
2021. The aff ordable housing project is nearing completion and residents are beginning to move in.
It takes a village
Newly opened housing complex in La Grande offers housing to veterans in need
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — For local
veterans, a new housing area
in La Grande off ers a chance
for a clean slate.
Veteran’s Village Union
County, a micro-neighbor-
hood of cottage-style homes,
opened its doors to several vet-
erans in need of housing on
Wednesday, Nov. 3. The new
homes provide homeless or
low-income veterans with a
safe, community-style living
environment.
“This is my savior here,
this place,” local army vet-
eran Dennis Scudder said. “It’s
a new place and a brand-new
start.”
The village, on the corner
of Russell Avenue and N. Pine
Street, features small fully
furnished homes. Each unit
includes a bedroom, living
room, amenities and a fenced
backyard. The fi rst three units
are completed and have new
occupants, while construction
on the remaining seven houses
is still wrapping up.
Creating a community
Gust Tsiatsos, owner of
GCT Land Management,
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Dennis Scudder, left, a formerly homeless Army veteran, relaxes and
watches television in the living room of his new home at Veteran’s Village
Union County in La Grande on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021.
spearheaded the project after
seeing a need for aff ordable
housing in La Grande. The
project involves Veterans
Aff airs, which fi nds veterans
who meet the guidelines to live
in the village, and Northeast
Oregon Housing Authority is
set to manage the property.
“The need was substan-
tial after we did some research
on what that need really looks
like,” Tsiatsos said. “We just
tried to create a community
feel where they would be living
with similar types of folks.”
Brian Blais, the Veterans
Services Offi cer at the Center
for Human Development, con-
ducts the general screening
process and worked closely
with Tsiatsos in the planning
process. He emphasized that
there is a major need for aid to
homeless veterans.
“The housing shortage isn’t
a veteran-specifi c problem by
any means, but it is estimated
that there are over 1,300 home-
less veterans in Oregon, and I
am honored to be able to sup-
port my brothers and sisters
who served our country,” Blais
said. “Working with Gust has
been an amazing experience,
and I look forward to con-
tinuing the work that we do.”
The project is roughly 75%
grant funded, according to Tsi-
atsos. The bulk of that funding
came from Oregon Housing
and Community Services. Tsi-
atsos noted that there is spe-
cifi c grant funding for veterans
in rural areas, which helped
the Veteran’s Village Union
County score very well in the
grant application process.
A major goal of the housing
project is to foster a commu-
nity of individuals with similar
life experiences. Tsiatsos said
the setup of the village allows
the veterans to be as social as
they would like, or have pri-
vacy if that is preferred.
“We have learned that this
population of people has an
interest in being in a more
private setting and more of a
closed community,” he said.
“We situated all the houses
facing in and put up a pri-
vate fence around it. We’re
hoping that a small, controlled
space will be good for that
demographic.”
See, Veterans/Page A5
Trail-with-rails project gets $272K in grants
Trail would run 63 miles
between Elgin, Joseph
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The Joseph
Branch Trail Consortium, the
nonprofi t working to establish a
63-mile trail-with-rails between
Elgin and Joseph in Northeastern
Oregon, announced it has received
two grants totaling more than
$272,000 that will fund construc-
tion of the fi rst trailhead and inau-
gural trail segment, as well as fi nal
planning and design for another
13-mile segment.
The trail has been in the plan-
ning stages for about 10 years and
will eventually off er a nonmotor-
ized alternative transportation route
to Highway 82 in the form of a trail
that will run beside existing rail-
road tracks in the railroad right-
of-way owned by the Wallowa
Union Railroad Authority. With one
end in Elgin, the other will termi-
nate 63 miles later in Joseph.
See, Trails/Page A5
INDEX
Classified ......B4
Comics ...........B7
Crossword ....B4
Dear Abby ....B8
WEATHER
Home .............B1
Horoscope ....B4
Letters ...........A4
Lottery ...........A2
THURSDAY
Obituaries .....A3
Opinion .........A4
Sports ............A6
Sudoku ..........B7
Joseph Branch Trail Consortium/Contributed Photo
Members of the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium help with trail cleanup along the
tracks. A recent grant will go toward funding the fi rst 13 miles of a trail that will
ultimately run between Elgin and Joseph.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
32 LOW
44/40
A shower early
Mostly cloudy
NEW NORTH POWDER MAYOR DISCUSSES GOALS
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 134
2 sections, 16 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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