FROM PAGE ONE
A6 — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022
ELGIN
Elgin starts its own police depart-
ment, it will be responsible for
paying police offi cers’ overtime.
Continued from Page A1
“We like the deputies we had
and we appreciate the job they
did, but it is time to move on,”
Hallgarth said.
The mayor added she believes
Eckstein will do well with the
budgeting work needed to start
a new police department. She
credits Eckstein with being good
at things like landing grants for
the city.
Union County Sheriff Cody
Bowen said that while his depu-
ties are unable to cite people on
charges of violating city ordi-
nances because they are with a
county agency, the deputies can
often enforce such violations indi-
rectly since in many cases people
violating ordinances also are
breaking state laws. He noted that
underage youths riding motor-
cycles in town without a helmet,
mirrors and signal lights are also
violating state laws that can be
enforced by deputies.
Bowen said that over the past
two years his offi ce has received
just two complaints about people
riding motorcycles or ATVs in
Elgin that are in violation of the
city’s code.
He said one of the instances
in which county deputies cannot
enforce city ordinances via state
laws is when the issue involves
animal control. He said because
Elgin has an animal control ordi-
nance, deputies cannot enforce the
county’s ordinance.
“A city ordinance trumps a
county ordinance,” Bowen said.
This means that when a dog
is at large, the city of Elgin’s
ordinance offi cer must handle
FALBO
Continued from Page A1
Falbo said the benefi ts
of playing chess are many,
and it can be a family
activity with parents
bringing children to the
club and everyone plays.
“We like to play the
adults against the kids to
teach them a little bit, and
the kids can teach us a
little bit,” he said.
Falbo also said the game
teaches young players to
follow rules and gives
them a jumpstart into math
and geometry through the
visual anticipation of plan-
ning moves many steps
ahead.
The club is designed
more to teach the game
than high-level play, but
that doesn’t mean oppor-
tunities don’t occasionally
present themselves.
The sheriff ’s concerns
Dick Mason//The Observer
Morris Capers, a Union County Sheriff ’s deputy, makes a call on his radio on Friday, May 20, 2022, while on patrol in Elgin.
the case. Dog bites are the only
animal control issues sheriff ’s
deputies can handle in Elgin,
Bowen said. He noted though
that previously when the city of
Elgin did not have an ordinance
offi cer for two months, arrange-
ments were made for the deputies
to assist with enforcing Elgin’s
animal control ordinance.
A one-year freeze
The contract set to expire at
the end of June is a one-year
$343,000 pact. This is the same
as what Elgin paid for enhanced
law enforcement services in 2020-
21. Bowen said he agreed to the
freeze to help Elgin with budget
said that in April Elgin received
500 hours of service and in March
it received 499 hours. The extra
hours were needed to allow dep-
uties to fi nish and follow up on
criminal cases.
“When the 420-hour mark is
reached they don’t just stop. They
have to keep on and close cases,”
said Bowen, who noted that his
department will have to lay off
three deputies if the Elgin con-
tract is not renewed.
The sheriff said overtime has
to be paid to deputies when they
work extra hours, money that
comes out of the UCSO budget
rather than being passed on to the
city of Elgin. He noted that when
Math and chess
WANT TO PLAY?
The Wallowa County Chess
Club meets Mondays from 3:30-
5:30 p.m. at the Josephy Center
for Arts and Culture. All are wel-
come. For more information,
call Clem Falbo at 541-263-1415.
“We had a grandmaster
stop by one night and he
played us all and beat us,”
Falbo said.
Falbo played in enough
tournaments over the
years to earn a 1,600 or
“B” rating, making him
an above-average player.
Grandmasters are rated
2,500 or above.
The Netfl ix series “The
Queen’s Gambit” became a
nationwide sensation when
it was released in 2020 and
sparked renewed interest
in the game. For those
wondering, Falbo favors
the London System as his
KEOL
Continued from Page A1
the eff orts to convert the
radio station space into a
fully functioning podcast
studio. According to Cimon,
the studio will be ready to
use by the fall term at the
latest — the pending ship
date for the audio inter-
face could have the space
ready for recording by this
summer.
“We’re most of the way
there, but have some stuff
that is back ordered,” he
said. “We’re hoping that
comes in the next month or
so and then expect to get it
up and running.”
Along with Cimon,
equipment system specialist
Davon Dunajski is assisting
in renovating the podcast
studio. Dunajski has a back-
ground in live recording,
modern equipment and the
tools necessary in stream-
lining the project. Cimon
and Dunajski have worked
together in developing the
procedures that will be uti-
issues it was experiencing in
part because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
Bowen said the contract the
sheriff ’s offi ce off ered this spring
was a three-year pact that would
charge Elgin about $348,000 in
2022-23, $358,000 in 2023-24 and
$368,000 in 2024-25.
Elgin would again receive 420
hours of enhanced law enforce-
ment services each month under
the terms of the contract if the
city council changed direction and
decided to renew its contract with
the Union County Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
Bowen said there are many
months when Elgin receives more
than the 420 hours it pays for. He
This is one reason Bowen
believes that if Elgin does create
its own police department, it
would end up paying considerably
more for law enforcement than it
does now. He said start-up costs
including the purchase of vehi-
cles, uniforms and equipment plus
annual liability insurance and dis-
patch center fees would also bal-
loon the city’s law enforcement
budget.
Finding people willing to serve
as offi cers is another hurdle the
city of Elgin would face.
“Nobody wants to get into law
enforcement now,” Bowen said.
He believes it will be diffi -
cult to recruit people certifi ed to
work in law enforcement or indi-
viduals now working in the fi eld
who would be willing to come to
Union County.
Bowen noted that one county
in Eastern Oregon is so desperate
to fi nd deputies that it is off ering
$10,000 hiring bonuses but is still
having a diffi cult time getting
applicants.
The sheriff also said another
drawback Elgin would face if it
starts its own police department
is that it will no longer receive the
same level of help from the Union
County Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
“It will have to shoulder every-
thing,” Bowen said.
Not surprisingly, the sheriff
does not believe the Elgin
City Council is making a wise
decision.
“I do not think that it will be in
the best interest of Elgin,” Bowen
said.
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Equipment in the Eastern Oregon
University podcast studio in the
Hoke Union building stands at the
ready on Friday, May 13, 2022.
lized once the podcast studio
is up and running.
Cimon noted that the pri-
ority is to have a studio for
students interested in broad-
cast media production to
use. He stated that the hope
is making resources avail-
able will grow interest in
podcasting among students,
clubs, faculty and staff at the
university.
Students will be able to
record their podcasts and
leave the space with their
recording on fi le. Those
involved with the transi-
tion from radio station to
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Clem Falbo of Joseph on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, shows a poster he is
creating to help revive a local chess club. The club, Eastern Oregon’s
oldest club, had been going since 2011 until it went on hiatus due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
opening when playing the
white chess pieces.
“Chess just needs pub-
licity,” said Falbo, who
called the series the best
representation of chess he
has seen on screen.
Locally, he hopes to
continue adding members
to the club and is trying
to put together tourna-
ments and learning events
to bring the game to more
youth.
Falbo learned chess
from his grandfather at 12,
but he developed the fi ner
points of the game during
his time in the Navy
during the Korean War.
He earned a PhD in
mathematics from the
University of Texas,
Austin, and has written
numerous books on
mathematics.
He also continues to
write published papers
on mathematics, the most
recent was in 2021 in a
British journal.
It is continued work in
the fi eld that keeps driving
him daily even after being
diagnosed with prostate
cancer two years ago.
He taught mathematics
— specializing in diff er-
ential equations — in Cal-
ifornia at Fresno State
University and Sonoma
State University, the
latter stop for 35 years.
He retired in 1999 and
began working with his
wife, Jean — also a chess
player — in the U.S. Peace
Corps teaching math in
the African nation of Zim-
babwe before coming to
Joseph.
His love of mathe-
matics translates to the
chessboard and feeds his
mind that has always hun-
gered to fi nd answers to
tough questions.
“It is a thinking game
and with every move
you have to try to think
of every possible out-
come of that move,” he
said. “I play positional
chess and that appealed
to me because what it
amounted to was pattern
identifi cation. It is kind
of like weather predic-
tion because when you get
a certain pattern you can
predict things.”
podcast studio are hoping
to establish a cost-effi cient
venue that will allow stu-
dents and faculty to have a
voice in the community and
sharpen their media produc-
tion skills.
“The main overhead
with the radio station was
FCC licensing,” Cimon
said. “There are obviously
depreciating assets involved
with the podcast studio, but
because we’re not broad-
casting the podcasts over
FM airwaves, it’s quite a bit
more aff ordable to produce
content.”
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