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A6 — THE OBSERVER
DEVELOPER
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improved the situation at the Boys Jungle,
which is one of the more popular sections of
the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.
That paved path for pedestrians and bicy-
clists, which the city built about 20 years ago,
runs through the eastern edge of the Boys
Jungle.
“We really appreciate the eff ort in cleaning
that area up,” Bornstedt said.
She said the city, which has a street right-
of-way east of the path, also plans to do some
tree trimming and other work in that area
this year to complement the Boys Jungle
transformation.
Bornstedt said the city has received many
comments from residents since Tsiatsos
started work in the Boys Jungle this winter,
and almost all were pleased about the changes.
Tom Clement, of Baker City, who spear-
headed projects over the past two years to
trim trees, remove underbrush and generally
spruce up the riverside strip next to two other
sections of the Adler Parkway, also lauded Tsi-
atsos’ work in the Boys Jungle.
Clement said he’s talked to many people
who mistakenly credited him with cleaning up
Boys Jungle, and the vast majority were happy
CRIME
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A big reason for the con-
fi dence is that task force
members went to the Finley
Creek site where the wom-
an’s remains were found
twice in 2021 with cadaver
dogs. The task force brought
a single dog once and two on
another trip. Each of the two
dogs indicated they found
ground under which there
are human remains at the
same site at or near a tree.
“One dog pawed at the
ground near the tree,” Jeder-
berg said.
The task force mem-
bers did not dig at the site
because it is a crime scene
and thus it would be illegal
to disrupt it. They instead
notifi ed the Oregon State
Police who later decided to
investigate the site and pos-
sibly dig there.
Suzanne Timms of Walla
Walla, Washington, who is
assisting with the search as a
volunteer, is glad that highly
trained OSP investigators
will soon be examining the
Finley Creek site.
SENATOR
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was working toward training
National Guard members to
assist fi re chiefs, as well as
fi ghting for better pay for fi re
teams to combat high turn-
over. Merkley also said that
his team was trying to see if
“fi re teams can be hired to
do forest management work
when they’re not fi ghting
fi res so they can have year-
round work.”
Closely related to the
fi re season is the ongoing
drought. The senator said
that the irrigation dis-
trict’s top goal has been to
improve the effi ciency of
their distribution systems
across Oregon.
“I have worked to get
about $130 million in
Oregon for piping for irri-
gation systems,” Merkley
said. “Obviously, the task of
piping is much larger than
that, but that is still a huge
eff ort of an unusual possi-
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Gust Tsiatsos of La Grande, who bought the parcel
that includes the Boys Jungle last year, surveys the
cleaned-up lot on Thursday, March 31, 2022. He
hopes to transfer the property to the city for use
as a public park.
with the results.
Tsiatsos said he realized when he bought
the property that even though it’s private,
people did trespass, and that the conditions,
with overhanging limbs and obstacles hidden
by brush, were potentially dangerous.
“We recognized it to be a bit of a hazard,
and we’re trying to be good neighbors and get
rid of some blight and still keep its romantic
appeal to the city,”
“They know how to col-
lect evidence without con-
taminating the site. I can’t
wait,’’ Timms said.
A daughter’s search
Timms is elated that the
OSP will be investigating
the site since she is certain
the Finley Creek Jane Doe is
her mother, Patricia “Patty”
Otto, of Lewiston, Idaho,
who has been missing since
Sept. 1, 1976.
Timms fi rst suspected that
the Finley Creek Jane Doe
was her mother in 2021 when
she saw an image created by
a forensic artist in Massa-
chusetts, Anthony Redgrave,
the operator of Redgrave
Research Forensic Services.
Redgrave was assisting
the Finley Creek Jane Doe
group, and the image he cre-
ated look very similar to that
of Timms’ mother.
Other details have con-
tributed to Timms’ belief
that the Finley Creek Jane
Doe is her mother. The
remains were was found
with a white shirt and red
pants, which is what Patty
Otto was last seen wearing
before disappearing.
bility for that much funding
to help irrigation districts.
(We’ve) really been focused
on that program.”
Merkley also said that he
was looking into agricul-
tural research related to how
to grow crops that are better
in drier environments.
“The agricultural
research station is doing
a lot more work on how
to conserve water in La
Grande for our dry wheat
farming, and what versions
of wheat will do better in
drier conditions,” he said.
Access to internet and
housing
Among those infra-
structure projects are
increased access to broad-
band internet in rural areas
that have relied on satellite
internet connections. An
increasing number of com-
panies are installing fi ber-
optic cables, but those solu-
tions can be expensive and
have a low return on invest-
ment for network providers
TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022
Tsiatsos expects construction to start
within 45 days on the fi rst phase, which
will include 13 rental cottage-style homes
and a community center. Those will be
built in the lot directly north of Memory
Lane Homes assisted living facility on
F Street just east of Elkhorn Village
apartments.
The cottages are in the “tiny home”
style, he said, covering about 500 square
feet for the one-bedroom version and
slightly larger for the two-bedroom units.
A new private street will access the cot-
tages, running north and south between F
and H streets.
The development is similar to the 10-cot-
tage Veterans Village Union County that
Tsiatsos built in La Grande. It opened in the
fall of 2021.
For the Baker City development,
Tsiatsos said he secured a $1.5 million grant
from Oregon Housing and Community Ser-
vices to go along with $350,000 to $450,000
of private investment. He said the Northeast
Oregon Housing Authority would manage
the development.
The second phase of the development
involves building cottages that would be
available for sale to veterans, rather than
rental units, Tsiatsos said. That phase would
be south of the fi rst phase, nearer F Street.
Tsiatsos said. “We tried to keep the feel of
what it was. We’re really happy with how it
turned out.”
Tsiatsos said he would prefer to transfer
the Boys Jungle to the city for use as a public
park.
Bornstedt said Tsiatsos has suggested a
deal by which the city could make concessions
for utility payments for the rest of the property
he bought, in exchange for his donating the
Boys Jungle.
That’s not possible, Bornstedt said, because
of accounting issues, since the water and
wastewater departments are separate funds in
the city’s budget from the parks department,
which is in the general fund.
Tsiatsos said he understands the potential
bureaucratic obstacles.
But he still hopes he can work out an
agreement with the city to transfer the Boys
Jungle.
“I’d prefer it to be a park,” he said.
Veteran housing
Although the Boys Jungle work has been
the most conspicuous evidence of Tsiatsos’
purchase of the parcels between D and H
streets, it’s actually a relatively small part of
his overall plan.
His chief purpose is to create housing for
military veterans.
As part of the investi-
gation in 1978, Lewiston
police believed the Jane
Doe could be Patty Otto,
and Timms’ grandparents
Thomas O’Malley and Ardys
O’Malley were fl own from
Lewiston to La Grande to
identify the body. Timms said
they were sure the remains
were those of their daughter,
because the white shirt and
red pants were found with the
remains at Finley Creek.
“I found records indi-
cating that they told the Lew-
iston police that the white
shirt and red pants looked
very similar to what my
mother was wearing before
she disappeared,” Timms
said, who discovered this
information earlier this year.
Timms believes that her
mother was murdered in
Lewiston by her father, and
then taken to Finley Creek
where he buried her in a
shallow grave.
The OSP’s autopsy
records for the Finley Creek
Jane Doe, however, do not
match those of Patty Otto.
Timms believes the dis-
crepancy is due to an error
made by the OSP’s med-
ical examiner while doing
examinations of the skeletal
remains for two Jane Does
in his offi ce at about the
same time in 1978. She sus-
pects he assigned his reports
to the wrong Jane Does
because his report for the
second Jane Doe matches
her mother’s autopsy photos
and dental records.
“It appears that he had
the two Jane Does confused
based upon documents he
wrote himself,’’ Timms said.
if they lay a line to rural
areas outside of a munici-
pality. A proposed solution,
Merkley said, could be in
newly developed microwave
repeater networks and tech-
nology that keeps informa-
tion signals terrestrial.
“Laying fi ber becomes
too expensive for just a
couple of houses,” Merkley
said. “Many counties are
designing their system
using microwave relays,
which unlike satellites, can
carry a much higher band-
width at lower cost.”
He also touched on the
growing housing crisis and
how it impacts rural Orego-
nians who are getting priced
out of the real estate market,
or are facing homeless-
ness as rents and real estate
prices continue to increase.
Those real estate changes
have also hurt the economy
as businesses struggle to
attract workers in areas
where housing costs have
far outpaced wages.
“Almost every commu-
nity is wrestling with many
aspects of housing. From
housing homeless individ-
uals to services related to
some kind of addiction or
to mental health, or the fact
that it’s getting too expen-
sive for middle-class Amer-
icans to buy homes, or
there’s just no homes built,”
Merkley said. “There’s no
easy solution. We need to
provide a lot of support for
rural housing.”
A cash award
Timms said she is excited
about the OSP’s plans to
examine the Finley Creek
site because if bones are
found their DNA tests could
prove that they are the bones
of her mother. Currently,
there are no known bones of
the Finley Creek Jane Doe
because they are believed to
have been cremated by the
state after they were found,
Timms said.
A recent cash award for
information on the Finley
Creek Jane Doe also off ers
hope that new evidence may
come to light.
Interest in the Finley
Build Back Better
Noting the omnibus
infrastructure spending plan
approved by the Senate,
the Build Back Better act,
Merkley said he is fi ghting
to get projects approved in
rural areas of the state.
“The question is how
many applications can we
get in,” he said. “I’m going
to fi ght to get those appli-
cations funded, and we’re
hoping there will be proj-
ects throughout rural
Oregon as a result of the
infrastructure bill.”
Creek Jane Doe has picked
up since Crime Stoppers
of Oregon announced in
March that it was off ering a
cash award of up to $2,500
to help identify the mur-
dered woman.
“It has generated a lot of
calls about the case,” Jeder-
berg said.
Jederberg, of the Finley
Creek Jane Doe Task Force,
said she hopes the reward
and increased interest will
encourage people to step
forward.
Mikel Terry Holbrook
November 18, 1940 - March 27, 2022
Mikel Terry Holbrook, 81,
of Joseph, passed away at his
home of heart failure.
Terry
was
born
in
Grangeville, Idaho, the third
child of Charles Holbrook and
Ruth Harris Holbrook. Early
in his childhood the family
moved to Joseph, Oregon,
where his two younger sisters
were born. He attended school
in Joseph and graduated in
1959. In 1962 Terry and Judi
Cornwell were married in Enterprise where they lived
in town until their new home on Alder Slope was
completed. Alder Slope remained their home for the
next 56 years. There he enjoyed raising his two sons,
sheep, cattle and pasturing retired horses and mules for
others.
Terry was hired by The Wallowa County Road Dept.
as part-time help the spring he graduated high school.
He remained on the job 43 years, retiring in 2002 as road
superintendent. After retiring, Terry enjoyed working
for Jones Excavating and Moffit Brothers driving truck
and travel bus with his buddy Jim Mackin.
He was a member of the Enterprise Elks Lodge
and held a Voting Membership with Chief Joseph
Days Rodeo, Inc. He was proud of being named Elk
of the year in 1968. Terry was instrumental in forming
the Enterprise Booster Club and was selected by
the wrestlers to the Boosters’ Honor Roll. He was
appreciative of being recognized as an Honorary
Chapter Farmer for FFA.
He was selected Grand Marshal of the Chief Joseph
Days Parade in 2008.
Terry participated and volunteered for everything
involving his sons. He spent many years coaching
youth baseball and raising 4-H and FFA sheep. He
loved camping, fishing, hunting and making summer
sausage, jerky and smoked cheese.
Terry is survived by his wife; son Ron (Denise) of
Broomfield, CO; son Dan (Barb) of Keizer, OR; five
grandchildren, Kyle, Sarah and Abby of Broomfield,
CO; Wyatt of Scotts Mills, OR; Wade of La Grande,
OR; and great-granddaughter Emberlynn of Scotts
Mills, OR; three sisters, Dawn Meyers of Sutherlin,
OR; Kathy Lamm (Kevin) of Leavenworth, WA;
Connie Simonis (Larry) of Clarkston, WA; and many
nephews and nieces.
He was preceded in death by his father, mother,
sister Sharon, step-father Wayne Davis and brother-in-
law Max Meyers.
The celebration of life will be at 11 a.m. Friday,
April 8, 2022, at the Thunder Room in Joseph, Bollman
Funeral Home entrusted with arrangements
Memorial contributions may be made to the Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo, Inc. Hall of Fame fund or charity
of choice.
2022
I
Northeast Oregon
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