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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2022)
LOCAL A2 — THE OBSERVER TuESday, MaRcH 8, 2022 Measure to discuss Oregon’s border back on ballot TODAY In 1618, German astronomer Johannes Kepler devised his third law of planetary motion. In 1817, the New York Stock & Exchange Board, which had its beginnings in 1792, was for- mally organized; it later became known as the New York Stock Exchange. In 1948, the Supreme Court, in McCollum v. Board of Education, struck down voluntary religious education classes in Champaign, Illinois, public schools, saying the program violated separation of church and state. In 1971, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali by decision in what was billed as “The Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in New York. In 1983, in a speech to the National Association of Evan- gelicals convention in Orlando, Florida, President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.” In 1988, 17 soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, col- lided in mid-flight. In 1999, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio died in Holly- wood, Florida, at age 84. In 2000, President Bill Clinton submitted to Congress leg- islation to establish perma- nent normal trade relations with China. (The U.S. and China signed a trade pact in November 2000.) In 2004, Iraq’s Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution. In 2008, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from sus- pected terrorists. In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, van- ished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, setting off a massive and ultimately unsuc- cessful search. Ten years ago: Jesse Owens was posthumously made an inaugural member of the IAAF Hall of Fame more than 75 years after he won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olym- pics. (Owens, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and nine others were the first athletes to be hon- ored by the IAAF in its newly cre- ated Hall of Fame.) Five years ago: Hawaii became the first state to sue to stop President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban (the state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that law- suit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country). One year ago: According to some long-awaited guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fully vac- cinated Americans could now gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing. Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musi- cian George Coleman is 87. Actor Sue Ane Langdon is 86. College Football Hall of Famer Pete Daw- kins is 84. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 78. Actor-director Micky Dolenz (The Monkees) is 77. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 76. Pop singer Peggy March is 74. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 69. Jazz musi- cian Billy Childs is 65. Singer Gary Numan is 64. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 63. Actor Aidan Quinn is 63. Actor Camryn Man- heim is 61. Country-rock singer Shawn Mullins is 54. Neo-soul singer Van Hunt is 52. Actor Andrea Parker is 52. Actor Boris Kodjoe is 49. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. is 46. Actor Laura Main is 45. Actor James Van Der Beek is 45. R&B singer Kameelah Williams (702) is 44. Actor Nick Zano is 44. LOTTERY Friday, March 4, 2022 Megamillions 11-19-28-46-47 Megaball: 5 Megaplier: 4 Jackpot: $126 million Lucky Lines 1-5-11-15-18-23-27-29 Jackpot: $21,000 Pick 4 1 p.m.: 9-2-7-7 4 p.m.: 5-4-4-3 7 p.m.: 6-7-3-4 10 p.m.: 7-8-3-9 Saturday, March 5, 2022 Powerball 8-23-37-52-63 Powerball: 13 Power Play: 2 Jackpot: $90 million Megabucks 8-10-14-34-37-40 Jackpot: $2.5 million Lucky Lines 1-8-11-16-18-23-28-32 Jackpot: $22,000 Pick 4 1 p.m.: 7-9-0-4 4 p.m.: 0-3-7-3 7 p.m.: 3-6-2-2 10 p.m.: 5-9-4-0 Win for Life 18-47-59-65 Sunday, March 6, 2022 Lucky Lines 3-6-10-14-18-23-25-31 Estimated jackpot: $23,000 Pick 4 1 p.m.: 8-1-0-1 4 p.m.: 5-1-6-6 7 p.m.: 1-1-4-6 10 p.m.: 4-0-5-3 By RONALD BOND Wallowa County Chieftain alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File A masked Monty the Mountaineer poses for a photo on campus at Eastern Oregon University on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. The university will drop indoor mask requirements along with the state, effective Saturday, March 12, 2022. EOU will drop mask mandate March 12 Officials base decision on low on-campus rates of COVID-19 cases By DAVIS CARBAUGH The Observer LA GRANDE — In the midst of consistently low cases on campus and across Oregon, Eastern Oregon University is set to drop its mandatory indoor mask mandate on March 12. According to a state- ment from the university, masks will be welcomed but not required. “As with anything, we’re utilizing OHA’s guidelines and our local health authority in making our decisions,” said Lacy Karpilo, the university’s vice president of student affairs. “We’ve stayed true to the sci- ence and our local health authorities.” The university has taken a number of steps in loosening mitigation efforts, including allowing travel for field trips and limiting testing for vacci- nated individuals. Eastern stopped its large-scale testing clinics, moving COVID-19 testing to the university’s health center. Eastern is continuing to host vaccine clinics, offering initial doses and primarily booster shots — the university most recently hosted a vacci- nation clinic on March 2. Across in-person stu- dents, 75.7% are vacci- nated and 24.2% received an exemption. The uni- versity’s employee vac- cination numbers stand at 80.1% vaccinated and 17.7% exempt. According to Karpilo, Eastern has tried to stay extra cautious with fed- eral and state mandates that have fluctuated over the course of the pan- demic. A close connection with the Oregon Health Authority and the Center for Human Development has allowed the university to make timely, fact-based decisions. “We’ve been able to pivot very quickly on things when we’ve needed to,” Karpilo said. “We make sure that we’re taking the time to con- nect with Karpilo all of our resources. With every decision, there’s an impact. I think that’s what has made COVID such a difficult thing to manage.” The university tallied just one case among stu- dents and faculty in the two-week period from Saturday, Feb. 18, through March 5. Eastern has tallied 295 total COVID-19 cases since the start of the aca- demic calendar in July, with 157 coming from off- campus students. There have been 56 cases among employees and 42 cases in on-campus students. The university had one reported off-campus iso- lation/quarantine over the last two-week period, a number that has stayed steady since late January. In the past several months, students at the university have reported non-COVID illnesses. The typical increase in winter illnesses such as the flu without traces of COVID-19 is a prom- ising sign for university officials. “Right now what we’re seeing is that students are getting other things,” Karpilo said. “There’s still illness going around, but it’s not COVID. It’s great because it signifies that our students are still being responsible. Our students are doing really good work on that front.” According to Karpilo, Eastern will continue making its decisions based on COVID-19 trends and consulta- tions with health author- ities. While the steady low numbers are a prom- ising sign, the university is continuing to monitor cases and trends. “We really look at what’s best for our community, both the EOU community and the local community,” Karpilo said. “We don’t view ourselves as just a silo, we see ourselves as part of the bigger community.” Eight candidates vie for four positions on city council By DICK MASON The Observer LA GRANDE — The La Grande City Council will see some new faces after this fall’s election. Two candidates will be vying for mayor and six will be competing for three open city council positions in the Nov. 8 election, according to filing information released Friday, March 5. The race for mayor will match Mathew Miles, a retired educator, against Justin Rock, a current member of the La Grande City Council. Steve Clements, the incumbent, did not file for reelection. Clements is completing his fourth two-year term as mayor. The city council berths up for election are posi- tions 5, 6 and 7. Two candidates have filed for each of the three spots. Aaron R. Cooper and Molly A. King filed for Position 5, now held by Gary Lillard, who is not running for reelection. The candidates for Posi- tion 6 are David Moyal and Denise Wheeler. John Bozarth, the incumbent, did not file for reelection. Cody R. Vela and Cor- rine Dutto, who recently served a four-year term on the council, will be run- ning for Position 7, the spot now held by Rock. The filing deadline for the La Grande City Council positions was March 1. All candidates were required to submit sig- nature petitions. Only candidates who had the needed number of veri- fied signatures were able to successfully file. No La Grande City Council races will be on the May primary ballot because none of the races for the open berths have three or more candidates. The city’s charter states that when there are at least three candidates for a position, an election for it must be conducted in May. School board accepts superintendent’s resignation Tammy Jones plans to stay on as superintendent until end of June By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain WALLOWA — The Wallowa School Board made it official, during an emergency ses- sion Tuesday, March 1, accepting the resignation of the school district’s super- intendent, Tammy Jones, from her position. “I think we should skip this one,” said board Chair- person Woody Wolfe, as he looked at the next item on the agenda. How- meetings in Joseph ever, he opened it up because she had to for discussion. be at school func- tions. Also, in the Jones, who also two weeks sep- resigned from her arating the two position on the resignations, she Joseph City Council Jones hadn’t yet received effective Feb. 15, financial planning infor- said before the school mation regarding her board meeting that the two state job. resignations are in no way Jones plans to stay on connected. as superintendent until the “In some ways but not really,” Jones said. “It’s just end of June. Board member Matt time for me and my health.” Howard made the motion, She also said she is saying, “Reluctantly, I resigning to spend more move to approve the retire- time with her family. ment/resignation of the Her letter of resigna- tion in Joseph said it was superintendent.” because of pressures and The board voted unan- imously to accept the responsibilities at work. motion. She said that she was unable to attend evening This is the second time in four years the district has lost a superintendent. In 2020, Jay Hummel resigned after just two years on the job, being replaced by Jones at that time. Wolfe asked the board for authorization to contact the Oregon School Boards Association and employ it to begin finding an interim superintendent to replace Jones. Since it usually talks six to eight months to find a permanent superin- tendent, the district doesn’t have the time before Jones resigns. Board members did note that should they be pleased with the person hired as interim superintendent, it may be possible to offer a permanent contract. ENTERPRISE — A variation of a measure that just missed passage in Wallowa County in the November 2020 gen- eral election will be on the ballot this May. Measure 32-007, which would require the county commissioners twice a year to meet to discuss the relo- cation of Idaho’s border, will be voted on in the May 17 primary election. If the measure sounds similar, that’s because it is. Measure 32-003, in the 2020 general elec- tion, required county com- missioners to meet three times a year to discuss the interests of Hillock the county joining Idaho, part of the Move Oregon’s Border move- ment that has gained Nash traction in recent years. The measure passed in several coun- ties in 2020, but fell by a razor-thin margin in Wal- lowa County, receiving 2,478 yes votes and 2,519 no votes. “I thought we would be like Union County and it would pass here in Wal- lowa County was what I anticipated,” Commis- sioner Todd Nash said fol- lowing the failed 2020 vote and referring to neigh- boring Union County’s passage of the measure. “I think there’s some senti- ment and frustration with the way Oregon has legis- lated, and so I thought that it might be tilted a little bit more. Not completely surprised, either, that it failed.” The measure to be voted on in May is almost ver- batim of what was voted on in 2020. The main dif- ference is commissioners would be required to meet just twice a year — on the fourth Wednesday of Feb- ruary and August — “to discuss how to promote the interests of Wallowa County that would be rele- vant to a relocation of state borders, and to prepare the county for becoming a county of Idaho.” “The commissioners, if the voters vote it in, we’ll comply with what they said,” Commissioner John Hillock said. Since Jefferson and Union counties voted in 2020 to hold meet- ings about the potential of moving to Idaho, six other counties have joined this investigation phase: Harney, Malheur, Baker, Grant, Lake and Sherman counties. Voters in Douglas, Jose- phine and Klamath coun- ties have a similar measure on the ballot this May. Four additional counties expect to put a measure on the ballot in November. Also on spring ballot In addition to the ballot measure, two positions are up for election this spring: Position 3 on the county board of commissioners, held currently by Hillock, and the county clerk, which currently is Sandy Lathrop. Both Hillock and Lathrop have filed to run again for their respec- tive positions. Currently, nobody else has filed to run in opposition. “I’ve been honored to serve the county, and feel like I still have some energy left to carry on another four years. I think things have been running relatively good in county govern- ment,” Hillock said. The filing deadline is March 8.