A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1815, Napoleon Bona-
parte escaped from exile on
the Island of Elba and headed
back to France in a bid to regain
power.
In 1904, the United States
and Panama proclaimed a
treaty under which the U.S.
agreed to undertake efforts to
build a ship canal across the
Panama isthmus.
In 1942, “How Green Was
My Valley” won the Academy
Award for Best Picture of 1941,
beating out nine other films,
including “The Maltese Falcon”
and “Citizen Kane.”
In 1945, authorities ordered a
midnight curfew at nightclubs,
bars and other places of enter-
tainment across the nation.
In 1952, Prime Minister Win-
ston Churchill announced that
Britain had developed its own
atomic bomb.
In 1966, South Korean troops
sent to fight in the Vietnam War
massacred at least 380 civilians
in Go Dai hamlet.
In 1987, the Tower Commis-
sion, which had probed the
Iran-Contra affair, issued its
report, which rebuked Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan for failing
to control his national secu-
rity staff.
In 1998, a jury in Amarillo,
Texas, rejected an $11 million
lawsuit brought by Texas cat-
tlemen who blamed Oprah
Winfrey’s talk show for a price
fall after a segment on food
safety that included a discus-
sion about mad cow disease.
In 2005, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak ordered his
country’s constitution changed
to allow presidential chal-
lengers in an upcoming fall
election.
In 2014, Republican Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill
pushed by social conservatives
that would have allowed people
with sincerely held religious
beliefs to refuse to serve gays.
In 2016, New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie stunned the
Republican establishment by
endorsing Donald Trump for
president.
In 2020, the World Health
Organization reported that
the number of new corona-
virus cases outside China had
exceeded the number of new
infections in China for the first
time.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-di-
rector Bill Duke is 79. Singer
Mitch Ryder is 77. Actor Marta
Kristen (TV: “Lost in Space”)
is 77. Rock musician Jonathan
Cain (Journey) is 72. Singer
Michael Bolton is 69. The pres-
ident of Turkey, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, is 68. Actor Greg Ger-
mann is 64. Sen. Tim Kaine,
D-Va., is 64. Bandleader John
McDaniel is 61. Actor-martial
artist Mark Dacascos is 58. Actor
Jennifer Grant is 56. Rock musi-
cian Tim Commerford (Audio-
slave) is 54. Singer Erykah Badu
is 51. Actor Maz Jobrani (TV:
“Superior Donuts”) is 50. R&B
singer Rico Wade (Society of
Soul) is 50. Olympic gold medal
swimmer Jenny Thompson is
49. R&B singer Kyle Norman
(Jagged Edge) is 47. Actor Greg
Rikaart is 45. Rock musician
Chris Culos (O.A.R.) is 43. R&B
singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 43.
Pop singer Nate Ruess is 40.
Former tennis player Li Na is 40.
Latin singer Natalia Lafourcade
is 38. Actor Teresa Palmer is 36.
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LOCAL
‘A different kind of experience’
Understanding
the Civil Rights
Movement
through virtual
reality
SaTuRday, FEBRuaRy 26, 2022
Work to begin
at Oregon
Trail center
Baker City-based Oregon Trail
Interpretive Center undergoing
$6.5 million makeover
By JAYSON JACOBY
The Observer
Baker City Herald
LA GRANDE —
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity is giving students and
faculty the opportunity to
virtually step through time
to 1968 and witness events
of the Civil Rights Move-
ment during Black History
Month.
The EOU Library, in
collaboration with his-
tory faculty and the Office
of Student Diversity and
Inclusion, is providing two
educational virtual reality
programs during the
month of February — “I
Am A Man” and “Driving
While Black.”
“The ‘I Am A Man’
virtual reality experience
is an immersive docu-
mentary that focuses on
archival primary sources.
It has recordings from the
time period, both video
and audio. It has archival
images from newspapers,
photographs, pamphlets
and materials that have
been collected around
the time,” Sarah Ralston,
associate professor of
library, said.
Talks between the
library and history depart-
ment began in the fall
with planning and set up
beginning in January. The
VR rigs were originally
planned for set up in the
library, but moved to the
Multicultural Center to
increase student accessi-
bility and to prevent large
queues.
“We talked about set-
ting it up in the library,
but we don’t get quite the
same amount of foot traffic
BAKER CITY — The biggest
project at the Oregon Trail Inter-
pretive Center near Baker City
since it opened almost 30 years
ago will begin March 2.
The $6.5 million makeover
is designed to turn the center,
which has attracted almost 2.4
million visitors, from an energy
hog to a building with a more
modest appetite for electricity.
Achieving that will entail
much more than cosmetic work.
The Bureau of Land Man-
agement, the federal agency that
operates the Center on Flagstaff
Hill about 5 miles east of Baker
City, has hired Hess Contracting
of Preston, Idaho, to replace
most items attached to its frame.
That includes installing new
cement board siding, insulation,
roofing, windows and doors.
The contractor will also
replace the heating and cooling
system for the all-electric
building.
The Interpretive Center,
which has been closed since
November 2020 due to the
pandemic — work started in
October 2021 to remove exhibits
and other items in preparation
for the project — will remain
closed during the remodeling.
The work is slated to be fin-
ished in the spring of 2023,
but the Center will stay closed
for several more months while
exhibits and fixtures are
reinstalled.
That’s a shorter duration
than BLM originally expected,
said Larisa Bogardus, public
affairs officer for the BLM’s Vale
District.
Initially the agency expected
the remodeling would take more
than 2 years.
The impetus for the project
was a nationwide survey com-
paring the energy efficiency of
BLM buildings, Bogardus said
in 2021.
That survey, which included
an inspection of the Inter-
pretive Center in May 2018,
earned the Center the “dubious
distinction” of being the agen-
cy’s least efficient building,
Bogardus said.
Among the findings is that
the Center’s “Energy Use Inten-
sity” — a measure of its ineffi-
ciency — was 170 kilo-British
Thermal Units per square foot.
The average for BLM facilities is
84, according to the survey.
The Center when operating
had a monthly power bill aver-
aging about $10,000.
The remodel is estimated to
reduce the Center’s energy use
by 73%, according to a press
release from the Vale District.
“We want to be good stewards
of our natural resources,” said
Vale District Manager Wayne
Monger, whose office oversees
the center. “This design utilizes
high thermal insulation value
materials and high efficiency
heating and cooling technology
to counter summer and winter
energy demands of the site.”
Approximately 16% of the
project is funded through the
Great American Outdoors Act,
which allocates up to $1.9 bil-
lion annually for maintenance
and improvements to critical
facilities and infrastructure in
national parks, forests, wild-
life refuges, recreation areas and
Tribal schools.
During the extended closure,
a new exhibit at the Baker Her-
itage Museum in Baker City,
scheduled to open in May 2022,
will serve as an Oregon Trail
Experience, with BLM park
rangers on site to provide inter-
pretive programs.
A series of living his-
tory demonstrations and other
events will take place across
Grove Street from the Heritage
Museum at Geiser-Pollman Park.
“We recognize the important
role the center plays in telling
the history of Eastern Oregon
and the settlement of the Pacific
Northwest,” Monger said.
Although the Center itself will
remain closed, the access road
will be open to allow visitors to
get to the network of paved and
unpaved trails on Flagstaff Hill,
which lead to Oregon Trail ruts.
For more information and to
learn more about the Oregon
Trail, visit oregontrail.blm.gov or
call 541-523-1843.
Eastern Oregon university/Contributed Photo
The Multicultural Center at Eastern Oregon University is hosting a pair of educational virtual re-
ality programs during the month of February — “I Am A Man” and “Driving While Black.” The
experiences will run until the end of February. Two Oculus VR headsets are available, one for each
program. A separate screen is available in the Multicultural Center to view the programs while
they are being experienced by other students.
as Hoke gets, so it was a
good idea to have it hosted
over there by the Multicul-
tural Center so people can
just drop by and try it out,”
Ralston said.
“I Am A Man,” created
by Derek Ham, puts users
on the ground during the
1968 Memphis sanitation
workers strike and cycles
through various comput-
er-generated scenes and
locations, culminating in
the assassination of Martin
Luther King. The experi-
ence lasts 10 minutes and
uses a mix of animation
and archived images with
some interactivity.
“Basically, the experi-
ence takes you through a
few scenes. In the opening
scene, there’s a garbage
truck and garbage can and
you’re able to pick up the
can and dump it into the
truck,” Ralston said. “It’s
meant to set the stage to
where you’re participating
in events leading up to the
sanitation workers’ strike.
There’s a scene where
there are actual strikers
marching down the streets
with signs and there are
tanks going up and down
the street.”
“Driving While Black,”
a virtual reality experience
created by Felix & Paul
Studios, includes more
real-world imagery and
functions similarly to an
oral history, as the user is
being told personal stories
while sitting in a restau-
rant booth.
“It provided a com-
pletely different kind of
experience. Have the set
on and look to your left
and you see an actual
person rather than a com-
puter-generated person. To
me, ‘Driving While Black’
left more of an impression
just because it felt like I
was really sitting next to
someone in a coffee shop,”
said Interim Director of
Student Diversity and
Inclusion Mika Morton.
Both experiences are
part of a greater Black His-
tory Month project to pro-
vide students context to
Civil Rights Movement
events, along with the
greater cultural, social and
historical impact of the era.
“Part of advancing
and promoting equity and
inclusion and moving the
DEI needle is being able
to experience and really
listen and try to under-
stand other perspectives. If
you don’t understand what
others are experiencing,
that could lead to dis-
missing somebody else’s
experience as less than
yours,” Morton said.
The VR set-ups are
meant to act as a jumping
off point for greater stu-
dent curiosity. Morton
hopes that the greater ease
of access and the unique
in-person experiences
will generate more stu-
dent interest in the history
of civil rights and racial
inequality.
“I hope that stu-
dents will take it as a
learning opportunity
and really consider what
they hear and what they
see in either one of the
apps, and that it will be
thought-provoking for
them. Whether or not
they are able to empha-
size and put themselves
in somebody else’s shoes,
it can’t not make them
think twice about looking
at history in this partic-
ular way,” Ralston said.
Council to tackle sidewalk improvement district
La Grande City Council meeting meet
virtually on Wednesday, March 2
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande City Council is
set to meet for its monthly
meeting, discussing two
items of new business.
The council will meet
virtually at 6 p.m. on
Wednesday, March 2. The
meeting can be viewed on
the city’s charter communi-
cations channel 180 and at
Eastern Oregon Alive TV.
The first item of new
business up for discussion
is the approval of the City
Wide Voluntary Sidewalk
Local Improvement Dis-
trict’s final study and report
and the establishment of a
public hearing date.
The district was created
during May 2021, with the
goal of providing property
owners with a means of
improving their property
and preserving sidewalks
throughout the city. The
contract allowed for prop-
erty owners to seek out
sidewalk repair work by
request.
The overall project costs
during 2021 were $16,258.
The price breakdown was
split into 12 different cat-
egories, with the highest
costs coming from hand-
icap access ramps ($3,600),
curb and gutter ($2,320),
six-inch driveway ($2,100)
and four-inch sidewalk
($1,900).
The council will vote on
whether or not to establish
a public hearing date for
the City Wide Voluntary
Sidewalk Local Improve-
ment District, which is cur-
rently scheduled for the
April regular session.
The second item of
new business is the poten-
tial appointment of Rod
Muilenburg to the La
Grande Landmarks Com-
mission. The term lasts
three years and expires at
the end of 2024.
Muilenburg is applying
for reappointment to the
commission. Muilenburg’s
current open position is
one of two openings on the
five-person commission.
The council’s two
main items on the consent
agenda regard the approval
of liquor licenses at two
businesses in La Grande.
Local Harvest and Smoke
City are both seeking
approval for a Oregon
Liquor and Cannabis Com-
mission license.
Local Harvest is pur-
suing a change of owner-
ship, limited on-premises
sales license. Smoke City
filed for an off-premises
sales permit, allowing for
the sale and delivery of
malt beverages, wine and
cider in factory-sealed con-
tainers to customers off the
premises.
The council’s third item
on the consent agenda is
the approval of minutes
from the January session.
Written comments can
be submitted to the city
manager by 5 p.m. on
March 1. Those looking
to speak at the virtual
meeting can contact the
city manager by 5 p.m. on
March 2.
Duo charged with mail theft set to appear in court
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A pair of La
Grande residents charged with mail
theft earlier this month are set to
appear in Union County Circuit
Court on Monday, Feb. 28.
George Kelly, 26, and Gracee
Shelley, 22, will appear at an
arraignment hearing for an indict-
ment issued by a grand jury. Kelly
and Shelley have been charged with
79 counts of mail theft and two
counts of identity theft. The majority
of the alleged thefts occurred in La
Grande. Some of the thefts were
in other areas of Union County,
according to Union County District
Attorney Kelsie McDaniel.
The duo were arrested by the
La Grande Police Department on
Sunday, Feb. 20. Bail for Kelly has
been set at $73,000, while Shelley’s
bail is set for $50,000. Both remain
lodged in the Union County Jail in La
Grande.
Acting La Grande Police Depart-
ment Sgt. Brandon Boucher said all
of the stolen mail has been located
and returned. Boucher said mail was
taken from 54 addresses.
Kelly and Shelley were initially
charged with 61 counts of mail theft,
but the total was raised to 79 counts
after police did additional investi-
gative work, according to Union
County Deputy District Attorney
Ryan Rodighiero.
One count of mail theft was
charged for each victim who had at
least one piece of mail stolen, he said.
Mail theft is a federal crime,
Rodighiero said. This means the fed-
eral government could choose to
prosecute the case.
The arrests of Kelly and Shelley
were made at about 8 a.m. on Feb.
20 after La Grande police officers
responded in the area of South 20th
Street to a report of mail theft. The
La Grande Police Department was
assisted by the Union County Sher-
iff’s Office and the Oregon State
Police.
The Feb. 28 hearing is set for
1:30 p.m.
NEWS BRIEF
Local artist, EOU professor
receives fellowship
LA GRANDE — A local
artist recently earned a statewide
recognition for her work.
Susan Murrell, who is an
associate professor in the arts
program at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity, received a $5,000 fellow-
ship award from the Oregon Arts
Commission.
The Oregon Arts Commis-
sion awarded the 2022 visual arts
fellowships to 10 artists
Murrell’s work focuses
across the state. The fel-
on how the climate crisis
lowship program is open
impacts the conception of
to over 20,000 Oregon art-
landscape art pieces. The
ists, 103 of which applied
local professor has previ-
ously been awarded resi-
for this year’s fellowships.
dencies in Finland and Ice-
The commission alternates
Murrell
land, in addition to showing
yearly in awarding visual
exhibits in Portland and
and performing artists.
Adrian, Michigan in 2021.
Applicants are reviewed by
Murrell earned a master of
a panel of Oregon arts profes-
sionals, which considers talent,
fine arts degree from Savannah
demonstrated ability and commit- College of Art and Design.
ment to creating new work.
— The Observer