LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
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In 1614, Indian Chief Powha-
tan’s daughter Pocahontas married
Englishman John Rolfe, a widower,
in the Virginia Colony.
In 1621, the Mayflower sailed
from Plymouth Colony in pres-
ent-day Massachusetts on a
monthlong return trip to England.
In 1764, Britain’s Parliament
passed The American Revenue Act
of 1764, also known as the Sugar
Act.
In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Ala-
bama, teacher Anne Sullivan
achieved a breakthrough as her
6-year-old deaf-blind pupil, Helen
Keller, learned the meaning of the
word “water” as spelled out in the
Manual Alphabet.
In 1976, reclusive billionaire
Howard Hughes died in Houston
at age 70.
In 1986, two American ser-
vicemen and a Turkish woman
were killed in the bombing of a
West Berlin discotheque, an inci-
dent that prompted a U.S. air raid
on Libya more than a week later.
In 1987, Fox Broadcasting Co.
made its prime-time TV debut by
airing the situation comedy “Mar-
ried with Children” followed by
“The Tracey Ullman Show,” then
repeating both premiere epi-
sodes two more times in the same
evening.
In 1991, former Sen. John Tower,
R-Texas, his daughter Marian and
21 other people were killed in a
commuter plane crash near Bruns-
wick, Georgia.
In 2008, actor Charlton Heston,
big-screen hero and later leader
of the National Rifle Association,
died in Beverly Hills, California, at
age 84.
In 2010, an explosion at the
Upper Big Branch mine near
Charleston, West Virginia, killed 29
workers. In a televised rescue, 115
Chinese coal miners were freed
after spending eight days trapped
in a flooded mine, surviving an
accident that had killed 38.
In 2016, UConn won an unprec-
edented fourth straight women’s
national championship, capping
another perfect season by routing
Syracuse 82-51.
In 2019, inspecting a refur-
bished section of fencing at the
Mexican border in California, Pres-
ident Donald Trump declared that
“our country is full,” and that illegal
crossings must be stopped.
Ten years ago: President Barack
Obama signed bipartisan jobs leg-
islation intended to help small
businesses and make it easier for
startups to raise capital.
Five years ago: President
Donald Trump declared that a
deadly chemical attack in Syria
the day before had crossed “many,
many lines” and abruptly changed
his views of Syrian President Bashar
Assad, but he refused to say what
the U.S. might do in response. A
senior U.S. defense official said a
North Korean missile test ended in
failure when the rocket spun out
of control and plunged into the
ocean in a fiery crash. YouTube TV,
Google’s new streaming package
of about 40 television channels,
made its debut.
One year ago: Baylor defeated
Gonzaga 86-70 in the champion-
ship game of the NCAA basket-
ball tournament in Indianapolis,
ending Gonzaga’s hopes for an
undefeated season.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie pro-
ducer Roger Corman is 96. Country
singer Tommy Cash is 82. Actor
Michael Moriarty is 81. Pop singer
Allan Clarke (The Hollies) is 80.
Writer-director Peter Greenaway
is 80. Actor Max Gail is 79. Actor
Jane Asher is 76. Singer Agnetha
Faltskog (ABBA) is 72. Singer-song-
writer Peter Case is 68. Hip-hop
artist/actor Christopher “Kid”
Reid is 58. Rock musician Mike
McCready (Pearl Jam) is 56. Singer
Paula Cole is 54. Actor Krista Allen
is 51. Actor Victoria Hamilton is 51.
Rapper-producer Pharrell Williams
is 49. Actor Sterling K. Brown is 46.
Actor Hayley Atwell is 40.
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The Eastern Oregon
Connection celebrates
small-town community
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Officers with the Oregon State Police carry the flag-draped casket of Sgt. Marcus McDowell out of Loveland Funeral Chapel, La Grande,
on Monday, April 4, 2022.
OSP sergeant’s death ruled suicide
all and especially those he
has worked so closely with
throughout the years.”
Wallowa County
Sheriff Joel Fish said he
and one of the county’s
By ZANE SPARLING
two other deputies dis-
The Oregonian
covered McDowell’s body
about 3:40 p.m. March 29.
ENTERPRISE — The
The sheriff asked the
death of an Oregon State
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment to help investigate
Police sergeant who was
the scene because those
found dead in his patrol
officers, located more than
car Tuesday, March 29,
120 miles away, aren’t part
killed himself while on
of the Joseph community,
duty, authorities said.
where “everybody
The suicide
knows everybody,”
of Sgt. Marcus J.
he said.
McDowell, who
“Everybody goes
was discovered in
to the church or
the driveway of
Safeway together.
his home in Joseph
That’s what makes
with a single gun-
shot wound to
it difficult,” Fish
McDowell
the head, has left
said. “Something
the entire agency “grief
like this affects the whole
stricken,” state police
community.”
said in an announcement
Fish declined to release
Thursday.
details of the ongoing
“Our hearts go out to
investigation, but said
his family, friends, and
McDowell, 48, had “made
co-workers as they cope
notice” of his suicide.
with this tragic incident,”
McDowell, a 17-year
the state police statement
OSP veteran, was set to go
said. “He was respected by to trial over divorce pro-
Trooper found in
driveway of his
Joseph home
HELP IS AVAILABLE
Confidential help for those
experiencing thoughts of self-
harm is available for free at
all times.
Contact the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline: call 1-800-
273-8255 or text “273TALK”
to 839863.
ceedings with his wife
of 24 years in May, court
records show.
The sheriff declined to
comment if the divorce
played any part in the
suicide.
“In the end, who really
knows,” he said.
McDowell had worked
in the Patrol and Fish &
Wildlife divisions over the
years and as a police dog
handler around John Day
and La Grande, and cur-
rently served as the super-
visor for state troopers in
Union and Wallowa coun-
ties, according to Fish.
Oregon State Police
Superintendent Terri
Davie said the agency’s
Critical Incident Response
Team was offering peer
“It’s just
important to
keep checking on
your family and
friends’ mental
health.
— Joel Fish, Wallowa
County Sheriff
support to fellow troopers
in mourning.
“Our heartfelt thoughts
and prayers go out to the
family, friends, coworkers
and responding emer-
gency personnel,” Davie
said in a statement.
Fish said the death was
reverberating through the
close-knit town of just
under 1,000 people.
“It’s just important to
keep checking on your
family and friends’ mental
health. You go to the den-
tist, you go to the doctor,
but you don’t necessarily
go to get checked at a
counselor,” he said. “We
need to do away with the
stigma of doing that.”
Commissioners to discuss Union cleanup day
UC Board of
Commissioners
will meet April 6
in La Grande
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Union’s upcoming
cleanup day will be
among the subjects dis-
cussed when the Union
County Board of Com-
missioners meets
Wednesday, April 6.
The meeting will start
at 9 a.m. in the board of
commissioners meeting
room on the east end
of the Joseph Building,
1106 K Ave., La Grande,
and is open to the public.
Doug Wiggins,
Union’s city adminis-
trator, will be in atten-
dance to discuss the
city’s cleanup day, which
is set to run from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. on Saturday,
May 14. Wiggins will
answer questions about
the cleanup day and ask
for advice in seeking
matching funding for
the event from the
county, according to a
staff report from Union
County.
All garbage, refuse
and recyclables with
the exception of general
household trash, tires or
household waste will be
collected at the cleanup
day. The city of Union is
working with the Union
Garbage Service to orga-
nize the effort.
Action items the
county commissioners
will consider include a
proposal to adopt a res-
olution updating the
Union County Natural
Hazard Mitigation Plan.
A draft of an updated
plan was developed in
2021 by Union County
Emergency Services
and the local NHMP
Steering Committee. The
plan identifies hazards,
vulnerabilities and risks
facing Union County and
identifies and prioritizes
local actions that can
be taken to reduce these
risks.
The Natural Hazard
Mitigation Plan is a
tool that can be used
to reduce the impacts
of natural hazards and
disasters such as earth-
quakes, flooding and
severe weather events.
The draft plan of the
Union County NHMP
was made available to
the public for review
in 2021 and no public
comments on it were
received, according to
a Union County staff
report.
The Union County
NHMP was submitted
to the Oregon Office of
Emergency Management
and then to the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency for final review
on Nov. 8, 2021.
The plan has since
been approved by both
agencies pending adop-
tion by the Union County
Board of Commissioners.
To listen to the April
6 meeting by phone, dial
253-215-8782 or 301-
715-8592. The meeting
ID number is 814 2000
6863.
The link for watching
the meeting online via
Zoom is www.us02web.
zoom.us/j/81420006863.
Written comments
for the meeting may be
submitted via email to
amoore@union-county.
org by 5 p.m. April 5.
Chilly weather will get warmer as week progresses
A high-pressure
system will trigger
a warming trend
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Snow, chilly tempera-
tures and windy con-
ditions are in the
immediate forecast for
the Grande Ronde and
Wallowa valleys and
Meacham.
However, these con-
ditions will be followed
by a warming trend for
the rest of the week,
according to the National
Weather Service office in
Pendleton.
The National Weather
Service is forecasting a
20% chance of snow in
La Grande and Enterprise
the morning of Tuesday,
April 5, before 11 a.m.
The chance of snow
in Meacham, about 4
miles north of the Union
County border, will be
40% on April 5 in the
morning and afternoon.
Winds in the 16 to 21
mph range are projected
for the La Grande, Enter-
prise and Meacham areas
with gusts reaching up to
30 mph.
La Grande is forecast to
have a high of 43 degrees
and a low of 25 degrees
April 5, while Enterprise is
projected to have a high of
38 degrees and a low of 19
degrees. Meacham’s April
5 forecast is a high of 39
degrees and a low of 21
degrees.
The chilly conditions
will be the result of a
cold air mass coming in
from the north Pacific
Ocean, said Jim Smith,
a meteorologist with the
National Weather Service
in Pendleton.
The weather in
Northeastern Oregon
is expected to warm up
and become calmer after
April 5 because of a ridge
of high pressure that will
start building over the
region.
“High pressure is
associated with benign
weather,” Smith said.
La Grande is pro-
jected to have a high tem-
perature of 55 degrees
on Wednesday, April 6;
65 degrees on Thursday,
April 7; and 63 degrees
on Friday April 8. Low
temperatures will be 35
degrees on April 6, 44
degrees on April 7, and
36 degrees on April 8.
Enterprise’s high tem-
peratures are forecast to
be 49 degrees on April
6, 60 degrees on April
7, and 63 degrees on
April 8. Enterprise’s lows
during this period are
forecast to be 27 degrees
on April 6, 36 degrees on
April 7, and 29 degrees
on April 8.
The National Weather
Service is projecting that
Meacham will have highs
of 54 degrees on April
6, 65 degrees on April 7,
and 60 degrees on April
8. Meacham’s low are
forecast to be 32 degrees
on April 6, 40 degrees on
April 7, and 30 degrees
on April 8.
PENDLETON — Shannon
Hartley and Ryan Smith are
trying to turn the art of a
small-town conversation into a
podcast.
The pair of longtime
friends are behind The Eastern
Oregon Connection, an inter-
view series where Hartley and
Smith talk with various com-
munity members about their
life and times.
“We’re celebrating small-
town community,” Smith said
in an interview. “We’re having
conversations with people
to share their stories. It’s not
necessarily one set of people.
These are business owners.
They’re going to be people
involved in charities and local
events that are going on that
we want to talk about.”
The duo have varied profes-
sional and personal histories.
Hartley grew up in Pend-
leton but only recently
returned after initially leaving
for college. He attended
Eastern Oregon University in
La Grande before transferring
to University of Oregon, where
he did a stint cleaning met-
alsmithing labs. After grad-
uating from college, he stuck
in Eugene as an admissions
officer for Bushnell University,
a small liberal arts college.
He worked in marketing for
a book publisher and became
a real estate agent upon his
return to Pendleton.
Smith was born in Pend-
leton, raised in Salem and
returned to Pendleton a few
years before graduating high
school. He worked at the
Pepsi bottling plant in Pend-
leton during high school and
transferred to the plant in
La Grande, while attending
college at EOU. He gradu-
ated with a degree in busi-
ness and worked in accounting
before settling in his job at
McLaughlin Landscaping.
When Smith had the idea
to start some sort of commu-
nity podcast, he reached out to
Hartley, who had done a sports
podcast in the past, so the
inquiries originally revolved
around equipment and setup.
But Hartley himself had
been considering starting some
sort of community-minded
project, maybe a YouTube video
or Instagram post that would
also act as a promotional tool
for his real estate business.
With their interest aligned,
they decided to partner up and
The Eastern Oregon Connec-
tion was born.
The concept behind the
podcast is that people may
think they know their neigh-
bors, but when given the
chance for locals to unwind
over a couple of hours, they
may reveal interesting new sto-
ries about themselves.
“It’s pretty rare even in a
small-town community that
you actually get to hear some-
one’s story and their thoughts
on things for that amount of
time,” Hartley said.
For their first few guests,
Smith and Hartley targeted
recognizable names, including
Dean Fouquette, former owner
of Dean’s Pendleton Ath-
letic, and Debbie Kishpaugh,
the coach of Rhythmic Mode,
the vaunted Pendleton High
School dance team. While
the first spate of guests has
been heavy on Pendletonians,
the pair want to extend their
reach to interviews with guests
from the surrounding area,
including Hermiston, Mil-
ton-Freewater and La Grande.
They’d also like to focus on
new business owners in need
of a little extra publicity or
people behind worthy chari-
table causes.
“We enjoy getting to know
people,” he said. ”At the heart
of things, it’s just really a lot of
fun, because these are people
that we know fairly well, but
we are learning so much from
each person just by visiting
with them.”