FROM PAGE ONE
A6 — THE OBSERVER
FESTIVAL
Continued from Page A1
updating three signs and
replacing awnings for the
Elgin Opera House com-
plex’s Alder Street building,
about two blocks south of
the opera house itself. The
money, which the Friends
of the Opera House applied
for, is from Union Coun-
ty’s Transitory Tax Discre-
tionary Fund. The transi-
tory tax is also known as
Union County’s motel tax.
The $8,738 will cover
65% of the project’s total
cost of $13,443. Bonney
said the funding from the
county will make an enor-
mous diﬀ erence in eﬀ orts
to prepare for the Shake-
speare Festival.
“Oh my gosh, that was tre-
mendous news,” Bonney said.
The Friends of the
Opera House was gifted
the Alder Street building in
2015, after many years as a
restaurant and lounge. The
building had been vacant
for a number of years.
The Hale Turner Little
Theatre in the Alder Street
building will be the site of
the festival’s opening pro-
duction, “The Merchant
of Venice,” at 7:30 p.m. on
Friday, June 17. It will be
historic for it will make the
United States premiere of a
six-character adaptation by
Bill Alexander, who is well
known for his work with
the Royal Shakespeare
Company, according to the
Elgin Opera House’s web-
site. Performances of the
play traditionally have 27
characters.
The ﬁ rst performance of
“The Merchant of Venice”
will follow an opening
party attended by Bermea,
who will star in the title
role of “Othello.” Also a
writer and director, he has
appeared in theaters from
New York City to Hono-
lulu, Hawaii. “Othello”
will be performed ﬁ ve
times during the festival;
“The Merchant of Venice,”
six times; “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream,” four times;
and “The Two Gentlemen
of Verona,” two times.
Stubbs will ﬁ rst appear
at the festival on Tuesday,
June 21, to speak about
her career and acting at
7:30 p.m. On June 25, she
will be the featured guest
at a 4 p.m. tea on the north
lawn of the Elgin Opera
House and speak that eve-
ning at the Jewel Theatre.
The actor and writer is
best known in England for
TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2022
her stage performances
at the Ipswich Repertory
Theatre and the Royal
Shakespeare Company,
according to the Turner
Classic Movies website.
All the plays will be
performed by the Opera
House Shakespeare Com-
pany except for “The Two
Gentlemen of Verona,”
which is now being
rehearsed at Blue Moun-
tain Community College
in Pendleton. Its cast will
perform the play ﬁ rst at
BMCC before coming to
the Elgin festival.
One reason for the
inclusion of the BMCC
production is to expand
the range of those partici-
pating in the June Shake-
speare festival.
“Our goal is to make
this an Eastern Oregon fes-
tival,” Hale said.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Director Grant Turner gives guidance to actors Abby Hale and
Maddie Hale at the Elgin Opera House on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, as
they rehearse Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” which was
performed on the new outdoor stage. In June 2022, the Friends of the
Opera House is hosting its inaugural Shakespeare Festival, featuring
multiple performances, workshops and special guests.
RESCUE
“There was so much
adrenaline.”
They took stock. Carter
had two collapsed lungs
and his glasses were gone.
Postma had a broken right
leg and pelvis. A bone stuck
out of his arm. Watson had
the most injuries.
“His leg was completely
shattered,” Carter said.
Postma and Watson, both
members of the Oregon
Army National Guard,
started thinking strate-
gically. Watson needed a
tourniquet on his leg. They
decided that Carter should
hike out.
Before leaving, Carter
used his shoelaces and a
stick to splint Watson’s leg
and fashion a tourniquet.
He stared up at the sheer
rock walls and decided to
head down the creek to ﬁ nd
a better way up and out of
the ravine. He planned to
hike back to the pickup, get
his cellphone and call 911.
As twilight faded into inky
blackness, he realized that
this wouldn’t be easy.
As he walked, care-
fully avoiding the edge,
he remembers feeling lost.
Finally he opted to wait
until dawn to get his bear-
ings. He worried about his
friends down in that hole
since they were likely cold
with the mist of the water-
fall constantly blowing over
them. After dawn, he made
it to the pickup.
He grabbed a rock and
broke the window of the
pickup, found his cellphone
and called 911, telling the
operator that he and his
friends had fallen oﬀ a
waterfall and had serious
injuries. The next call went
to his mother, who spread
the word to the families.
A little after 9 a.m., SAR
supervisor Sgt. Dwight
Johnson got a call at home
that three men had fallen
about 50 feet into a deep,
brushy canyon. One had
hiked out and two lay
injured at the bottom, one
with a tourniquet on his leg.
Johnson began gathering
resources.
“Our unit is all volun-
teer,” he said. “Our key
rope guy wasn’t avail-
able so my next call was to
Union County for mutual
aid. They have more rope-
trained people than we do.”
Johnson activated Uma-
tilla County’s SAR unit,
then requested a Black
Hawk helicopter from
the National Guard with
the ability to hoist people
from narrow, hard-to-reach
places.
“We knew a litter pack
out would be diﬃ cult (in
that terrain),” Johnson said.
“It’s one of the hardest
things to do. All the heli-
copters (crews) were oﬀ on
a holiday.”
It would probably take
ﬁ ve hours. Johnson ordered
the ﬂ ight anyway. The heli-
copter soon would head to
Pilot Rock from Salem.
The list of responders
grew. LifeFlight, Pilot Rock
Fire Protection District,
Pendleton Fire’s rope rescue
personnel, U.S. Forest Ser-
vice ﬁ re crew from Ukiah, a
Forest Service short-haul heli-
copter, Union County’s rope
team and Umatilla County
Fire District No. 1 Chief Scott
Stanton who ran the opera-
tion along with Johnson.
In the canyon, sleep
evaded Postma and Watson.
They spent the night trying
to stay warm, talking about
family and friends and
wondering if this would be
their last conversation.
ground caverns in the spring
when ﬂ ows are high, and
then pumping it out in the
summer when ﬂ ows are
lower.
This study will be
conducted with the aid
of grants, including a
$114,000 Oregon Water
Resources Department fea-
sibility study grant and a
$75,000 Oregon Water-
shed Enhancement Board
in-stream ﬂ ow grant.
Hassinger said that the
storage in underground cav-
erns would likely be best
done at higher sites. This
would be an ideal situation
because it would create the
deeper water salmon need
at higher levels and provide
more irrigation water to
farmers on the ﬂ oor of the
Grande Ronde Valley.
“It would be the win-win
everyone is looking for,”
Hassinger said.
He added that improving
late-summer stream ﬂ ows
would boost water quality.
Much late-summer water
now in the Upper Grande
Ronde Basin streams
is poor, Hassinger said,
because the low ﬂ ows cause
water to have high tem-
peratures and low dissolved
oxygen levels.
Tim Wallender, also
a Grande Ronde Valley
farmer who assisted with
the formation of the plan,
said he would prefer to
have aboveground water
storage. He explained that
he would feel more com-
fortable about being able to
visually monitor the water
being stored.
The plan also calls for
steps to be taken to better
collect river ﬂ ow data in the
Upper Grande Ronde Basin,
said Dana Kurtz, an envi-
ronmental scientist who
served as a technical con-
sultant for the development
of the plan. Improved river
ﬂ ow data would help to
better determine how much
water is available, resulting
in informed decisions about
water management.
Links to the Upper
Grande Ronde Watershed
Partnership Place-Based
Integrated Water Resources
Plan can be found at www.
union-county.org/planning/
place-based-integrated-
water-resources-planning.
Continued from Page A1
Birch Creek above a cas-
cading waterfall that spills
into a steep rocky canyon.
They parked and walked
about 2 miles to the deep
pool where they swam,
talked and took photos and
videos. The rocks near the
edge were slippery with
moss.
What happened next is
both a blur and a succes-
sion of still frames in their
minds.
“I fell ﬁ rst,” Postma
said. “Cody tried to save
me. Then Kyler tried to
save Cody.”
Carter described the
moment even more simply.
“We tried to save each
other.”
All the men survived
the initial fall, but Cody
Watson would die before
help could arrive.
To honor Watson, Uma-
tilla County’s Search
and Rescue Foundation
received a $5,000 dona-
tion in his name from the
Blue Mountain Insurance
Professionals presented at
the Wednesday, March 16,
Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners meeting.
Joined by Watson’s mother
and grandmother was Scott
Sager, of BMIP, who spoke
to the commissioners about
Watson.
“Cody was a sergeant
with the National Guard,”
Sager said. “He was a very
inquisitive, inspiring and
motivated individual. He
was on his way to a dream
of being a military pilot.
He died that night on that
mountain.”
Watson’s mother, Holli
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Holli Hill, right, mother of Cody Watson, receives a hug on March
16, 2022, after presenting a $5,000 check to representatives of the
Umatilla County Search and Rescue at a Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners meeting in Pendleton. The donation honors her son,
who died in a fall in July 2021.
Dwight Johnson/Contributed Photo
A National Guard Black Hawk helicopter hovers July 2, 2021, during a
rescue operation near Big Falls on West Birch Creek near Pilot Rock.
Three men had fallen from a waterfall into a narrow canyon. Cody
Watson, 21, died before ﬁ rst responders could reach them.
Hill, presented the $5,000
check to three SAR mem-
bers in attendance who
wrapped her in a hug. The
money likely will go to the
county’s new SAR founda-
tion for purchasing a light-
weight rope system to help
with extractions in steep
terrain like the ravine on
West Birch Creek.
Aftermath of the fall
After falling, Postma
remembers landing in
shallow water and a rocky
creek bed, Watson hit
nearby and Carter fell
into deeper water on his
stomach with his head
submerged. He appeared
unconscious. When Postma
ﬂ ipped him over, he felt
relieved as Carter took a
breath.
The trio attempted to
make sense of what had just
happened.
“We were dazed and
confused,” Postma said.
WATER
Continued from Page A1
goals with mutual bene-
ﬁ ts. We’ve been able to
acknowledge each others’
needs and put together a
plan that oﬀ ers beneﬁ ts for
everyone and takes proac-
tive steps to mitigate issues
we’re likely to face in the
future,” Hassinger said in
a statement he made to the
planning group.
Hassinger said he is
excited about putting the
plan into eﬀ ect.
“Now that we’ve made it
through the planning phase,
I look forward to the rubber
hitting the road as we
implement our plan. Using
the strategies outlined in
it, I’m hopeful that we’ll
make real improvements
to the water quantity and
quality issues that we’ve
been dealing with and also
make our basin more resil-
ient in the face of whatever
changes the future holds,”
Hassinger said.
Storage options
Some of the steps to
improve water quality
and quantity in the water-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
The Grande Ronde River runs high near Imbler on Tuesday, March
22, 2022. Addressing ﬂ ooding concerns in the winter and spring
and low ﬂ ow in the summer are among the goals of long-term water
management plans in the Upper Grande Ronde Basin.
shed include looking into
accessing aboveground
storage opportunities, such
as expanding portions of
rivers and streams to pre-
vent the creation of ice jams
in narrow stretches that can
lead to ﬂ ooding.
Options the plan calls
for studying also include
storage sites that would not
impact stream channels.
The plan sets the stage for
investigative work to be
done into the possibility of
having reservoirs to which
water from streams could
be diverted. Storage of the
water would help prevent
ﬂ ooding in the winter and
spring, and its release in the
summer would boost low
stream ﬂ ows.
Another option could be
pumping water from Cath-
erine Creek into under-
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