LOCAL
A6 — THE OBSERVER
Apply for Beth
Gibans Memorial
Grant up to $5,000
Food producers
urged to apply
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Slow
Food Wallowas is looking
for the next winner of a
grant to provide fi nancial
assistance open to anyone
who grows, raises or makes
local food products.
“Small-scale food pro-
ducers are the movers
and shakers of Wallowa
County,” Lynne Curry, of
Slow Food Wallowas, said
in a press release.
This is the fi fth year of
the grant project, which is
now named to honor Beth
Gibans, the founder of the
Wallowa County Farmers
Market and owner of Back-
yard Gardens, who died
from cancer in June. The
grant award is for $5,000,
a signifi cant jump from
previous years, the release
stated.
“This is a great oppor-
tunity to highlight our
unsung heroes, celebrate a
pillar of the local food com-
munity and address why
local food production mat-
ters to rural areas,” Curry
said.
The grant award win-
ners will be announced at
an online celebration on
Gibans’ birthday, Jan. 22.
The grant is open to
small-scale food growers
and community innovators
in Northeastern Oregon for
projects that serve the food
community in Wallowa
County. Project proposals
HOW TO DONATE
Joseph council back
up to full strength
Nancy Parmenter
will fill vacant seat
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — The Joseph
City Council is back up to
full strength, having unan-
imously voted to appoint
Nancy Parmenter to fi ll
the last vacant at-large seat
at the council’s meeting
Thursday, Dec. 2.
Parmenter and Ryan
Swindlehurst had sub-
mitted applications for
the seat, but Swindlehurst
withdrew his application
Nov. 29.
The council developed
vacancies when Councilor
Lisa Collier was appointed
mayor upon the resigna-
tion of Belinda Buswell
when she moved out of
town and former Councilor
Kathy Bingham resigned
this summer after being
censured.
The council still needs
to fi ll some committee
assignments, which were
on Thursday’s agenda as an
optional item, but no action
was mentioned in an email
from interim city Adminis-
trator Brock Eckstein.
In another matter, the
council decided on a new
way to handle the city’s
annual Christmas lights
competition. The two top
prize winners will be able
to select a local nonprofi t
or school organization to
receive a donation from the
city. The fi rst-place winner
will receive a $200 dona-
tion and second place will
receive $100. The indi-
vidual winners also will
receive a credit to their
water/sewer bills. The win-
Union lands federal grant
Community
awarded $2.2M
grant for backup
power system
Slow Food Wallowas welcomes
end-of-year gifts to the pro-
gram to build Gibans’ vision
for a thriving local food com-
munity. Make donations online
through gofundme.com or by
check payable to Slow Food
Wallowas, P.O. Box 78, Joseph
97846.
for up to $5,000 are due by
midnight Friday, Dec. 31.
View the online application
at https://tinyurl.com/Beth-
Gibans-grant for complete
details on eligibility, evalu-
ation and timeline.
Over the past fi ve years,
Slow Food Wallowas has
awarded grants to fund a
low tunnel system to extend
the growing season, a new
tiller to improve gardening
effi ciency, a special hood
for propagating commercial
mushrooms and equipment
for a bakery with a focus on
utilizing heritage grains.
This new grant oppor-
tunity builds on Gibans’
legacy — a belief that local
food production is essen-
tial to our health, our well-
being and our community.
It is designed to provide
direct support for new and
existing food producers and
entrepreneurs to increase
their capacity to provide
food for the local com-
munity. Slow Food Wal-
lowas encourages fi rst-time
applicants, those with lim-
ited access to resources,
people of color and others
advancing sustainable agri-
cultural practices to apply.
ners will be announced
before Christmas to allow
residents to view the homes
while the lights are still on
display.
The council also directed
Eckstein to develop two
new ordinances.
One ordinance will
establish clearer water/
sewer rates for all zones
in the city with a basic
rate applied to each zone
irrespective of meter size
and make a more accurate
charge based on usage.
The other ordinance
will prevent a business
owner with multiple units
in one building from being
charged a master account.
Currently, if a business has
two shops located in one
building, they are charged
three total services: one for
each parcel and a “master”
charge. The individual
shops would be responsible
for their bills.
Eckstein said in his
email that both ordinances
are being developed in
an eff ort to provide fair-
ness to residents and busi-
nesses. He hopes to have
both ordinances ready for
passage at the council’s
Jan. 7, 2022, meeting. At
that time, the public will
have the opportunity for
comment.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2021
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION — The city of
Union will enter 2022 with
a brighter future.
The federal government
has notifi ed the city that it
has been awarded $2.2 mil-
lion from its federal Com-
munity Development Block
Grant Program to cover the
cost of installing a backup
power generation system.
“This is very good. It
will be even better when the
project is completed,” said
Union City Administrator
Doug Wiggins.
Electricity created
by the backup generator
will be used during out-
ages to operate the city’s
water system, allowing
Union residents to continue
receiving water if their
power ever goes out for an
Dick Mason/The Observer, File
One of Union’s two water storage tanks stands out against the sky-
line on the eastern side of town on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. The city
has been awarded a $2.2 million grant to allow backup electricity to
operate the city’s water system during outages.
extended period.
Wiggins said that
without a backup gener-
ator the city is reliant com-
pletely on the water in its
reservoir when there is a
power outage because elec-
tricity is needed to pump
water from its two wells to
its reservoir. Once the water
is in its reservoir, which is
in an enclosed tank near the
top of a hill on the eastern
edge of Union, it can be
delivered to residents using
gravity. The reservoir has a
capacity of close to 1 mil-
lion gallons.
If there were an extended
power outage, Union’s
water supply could last up
to four days, depending
upon the time of year and
how much water was in
its tank at the time of the
outage, Wiggins said.
The city worked closely
with the Community Devel-
opment Block Grant Pro-
gram throughout the appli-
cation process. For example,
it prepared a design for the
backup generation system
with the help of a $200,000
planning grant from the
program. The design work
was prepared by Anderson
Perry and Associates, a La
Grande-based engineering
fi rm.
The city will receive the
grant through the Oregon
Business Development
Department, a state agency
also known as Business
Oregon, Wiggins said.
The state agency will help
Union meet the fi nancial
requirements of the Com-
munity Development Block
Grant Program.
The city’s next step is to
take bids from companies
for the project in the winter.
After awarding a bid, instal-
lation of the backup power
system could begin in late
spring or early summer of
2022.
Storm raises hopes for ski season start
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
NORTH POWDER —
Winter remains more of a
rumor than reality, but a
weekend storm fulfi lled its
forecast in the mountains.
And although city
dwellers will have to wait
to construct the season’s
fi rst snowman, skiers and
snowboarders are getting
close to making their fi rst
runs at Anthony Lakes
Mountain Resort.
The potent storm was a
perfect illustration of the
rain shadow phenomenon,
although in this case the
precipitation was generally
frozen rather than liquid.
With winds in the upper
atmosphere coming from
the southwest, the moun-
tains, notably the Elk-
horns, intercepted most of
the moisture, according
to the National Weather
Service.
Snow showers fell peri-
odically in La Grande over
the weekend, with minor
amounts of accumulation.
And higher in the moun-
tains, much more snow
piled up.
Anthony Lakes Moun-
tain Resort reported 13
inches of new snow during
the weekend, with a snow
base of 18 inches on Dec. 13.
If the weather forecast for
the rest of this week proves
close to accurate, with snow
likely most days, there’s a
“very, very good chance”
that the ski area will open
for the season on Saturday,
Dec. 18, said Chelsea Judy,
Anthony Lakes marketing
director.
“We’re very optimistic,”
Judy said.
An automated snow-
measuring station near
Bourne, about 6 miles north
of Sumpter, reported 15
inches of new snow, with 16
inches on the ground.
Another station, at
Eilertson Meadow along
Rock Creek on the east side
of the Elkhorns, reported
about 14 inches of snow fell
during the weekend. There
was only one inch of snow
there before the storm.
At Schneider Meadows,
in the southern Wallowas
north of Halfway, about 22
inches of snow fell during
the weekend, bringing the
total to 31 inches.
The National Weather
Service predicts snow to
continue in the mountains,
with a foot or more during
the week in the Anthony
Lakes area.
NEWS BRIEFS
Single vehicle crash kills
one on Highway 203
The crash happened about 8 miles
south of Pondosa.
PONDOSA — A Pondosa man
died in a single vehicle crash on
snow-covered Highway 203 north-
east of Baker City on Friday, Dec. 10.
Gwyn Monroe Adams, 68, was
found in his overturned 1991 Dodge
Neon, according to Oregon State
Police.
A passing driver saw the car at
about 6:50 a.m. near Milepost 31,
about 8 miles east of Interstate 84.
Pondosa is an unincorporated
town along Highway 203 near
Medical Springs, near the border
between Baker and Union counties.
No rules in Enterprise
Elementary’s Christmas
tree contest
ENTERPRISE — It was a
“no-rules contest” last week at Enter-
prise Elementary School when two
groups of students pitted their cre-
ativity — and a trick — in a Christmas
tree contest.
Fourth- and fi fth-graders deco-
rated the “North Pole Tree” — com-
plete with Grinch — set up at the north
end of the main hallway at the school.
Second- and sixth-graders countered
at the opposite end of the hallway with
the “Santa’s Workshop Tree.”
“The ‘North Pole Tree’ is winning
because we handed out candy,” said
Kelly Brown, school reading specialist
who helped. “We’re winning by a land-
slide, but it was a no-rules contest.”
She said the trees were donated by
parents.
“The kids worked hard and made
all their own ornaments,” Brown said.
She said the judges were to be the
kindergarten through third-graders.
The formal announcement of the
winner would come today, Wednesday,
Dec. 15, during the school’s Christmas
assembly.
—The Observer
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