INSIDE
STUBBORN SNOW: PROJECT AIMS TO STUDY SNOWFIELDS IN WALLOWA, BLUE MOUNTAINS | OUTDOORS & REC, B1
June 4, 2022
lagrandeobserver.com | $1.50
WEEKEND EDITION
ELECTION 2022
Poll: Drazan,
Kotek claim
early lead in
governor race
A BIG
BOOST
But nearly 24% of likely
voters remain undecided
on next governor
Union businesses typically see
uptick during Eastern Oregon
Livestock Show week
The Observer, File
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
By DICK MASON
The Observer
U
NION — Everyone loves a
parade, and nobody has more
reason to enjoy one than Dennis
Falk, co-owner of Falk’s Mini
Mart on Main Street in Union.
The sales at his grocery store and gas station
soar each year before and during the Eastern
Oregon Livestock Show Parade.
“On the day of the parade, it is crazy. It is
absolutely nuts,” Falk said of his store’s sales.
The Eastern Oregon Livestock Show, the
oldest show in the Pacifi c Northwest, runs
Sunday, June 5, through Sunday, June 12.
Falk is hoping for another sales spike on
Friday, June 11, when parade spectators gather
along the route for the parade.
Unfortunately though, Falk, who owns the
store with his wife, Jodi, fears that his overall
sales during the EOLS week this year will not
jump like they have previously. This year’s
event will not have a carnival for the fi rst
time in decades, something Falk said could
diminish his sales because there will be fewer
carnival workers coming in to buy food, ice,
coff ee and soft drinks.
“It is amazing how many carnival workers
have come in,” he said. “We will miss them.”
High fuel costs are the reason there will
not be a carnival this year, according to
JoAnn Hefner, EOLS secretary-treasurer.
Hefner contacted four carnival companies and
all told her it would be cost prohibitive to haul
in carnival equipment for the short time they
would operate in Union.
“They all felt fuel prices are too high and
ABOVE: Cowboys
ready Mason Cooley,
of Prineville, as he
prepares to ride a bull
at the Eastern Oregon
Livestock Show in Union
in 2021. The Eastern
Oregon Livestock Show,
the oldest show in
the Pacifi c Northwest,
runs Sunday, June
5 through Sunday,
June 12. BELOW: The
Pete Davis Gate, the
main entry point into
the Eastern Oregon
Livestock Show
Grounds in Union, on
Thursday, June 2, 2022,
awaits the crowds of the
upcoming event.
See, Boost/Page A6
SALEM — Former House Repub-
lican Leader Christine Drazan and
former House Speaker Tina Kotek, a
Democrat, are leading in the race for
governor, but many voters remain unde-
cided more than fi ve months before the
decisive November election, a new poll
released Wednesday, June 1.
Nearly 30% of likely
Oregon voters picked
Drazan as their choice for
governor, while nearly
28% chose Kotek in a
poll conducted by Nelson
Research, an Oregon-based
public opinion research
fi rm. Unaffi liated candi-
date Betsy Johnson drew
more than 19% support.
Given the poll’s margin
of error, 4.3%, that puts
Drazan
Drazan and Kotek in a sta-
tistical tie for fi rst place
and also puts Johnson in
a statistical tie with Kotek
for second place — an
indication of just how com-
petitive the three-way race
for governor could be in
Kotek
November. Nearly 24% of
likely voters remain unde-
cided, the poll found.
The early poll of 516
likely voters conducted
on May 25-27 sheds some
light on the race, but
Johnson
should be viewed with cau-
tion, given that the gen-
eral election campaign has yet to begin
in earnest.
Kotek beat state Treasurer Tobias
Read to win the Democratic primary for
governor last month, while Drazan beat
out corporate consultant and former state
lawmaker Bob Tiernan and a half-dozen
other serious candidates in the Repub-
lican primary.
Johnson, a former longtime Demo-
cratic lawmaker, is running unaffi liated.
To get on the general election ballot,
Johnson will need to gather 23,743 valid
voter signatures, representing 1% of the
votes in the last presidential election,
according to state law.
The poll appears to have misidentifi ed
Johnson as a candidate with the Indepen-
dent Party. She is running independently
as an unaffi liated candidate.
See, Poll/Page A6
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
Oregon Trail Electric to build solar farm in La Grande
Community solar project will feature 500 solar panels
By ANDREW CUTLER
MORE INFORMATION
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative’s already
mostly carbon-free power supply is
about to get a little greener.
The Baker City-based coop-
erative will begin work this fall
on a 500-panel community solar
project near the cooperative’s
Gekeler Lane substation outside
La Grande. Construction on the
project is expected to take just one
month to complete and put into
service, according to the cooper-
For more information on the Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative’s solar farm, visit the
cooperative’s website at otec.coop.
ative, which serves about 23,000
customers in four Eastern Oregon
counties.
“Our highest priority is to serve
our membership so we put together
this project,” Charlie Tracy, the
cooperative’s director of engi-
neering, said. “It’s on property
here in Union County. It’s in La
WEATHER
INDEX
Classified ......B2
Comics ...........B5
Crossword ....B2
Dear Abby ....B6
Horoscope ....B3
Local...............A2
Lottery ...........A2
Obituaries .....A5
Opinion .........A4
Outdoors ......B1
Sports ............A7
Sudoku ..........B5
Grande. So we’re excited about it.
That’s also the district where we’ve
seen the most interest, so we’re
excited to be able to have it be
local and have a member be able to
drive by the place that they know
that their power is coming from.”
This is the utility’s fi rst solar
project.
“You can’t really say you’re
an expert in solar farms until you
build one, right? So a big part of
it is to gain expertise and become
experts in the changing land-
scape,” Tracy said. “In another
year, we’ll really know quite a lot
about it and I feel like we do now,
but this is part of that learning
process.”
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
53 LOW
66/47
Rain and drizzle
Heavy showers
Oregon Trail members will have
the option of helping fi nance the
project by buying subscriptions.
When the solar project begins gen-
erating clean energy, members will
start receiving a credit on their
utility bill for their portion of the
electricity generated.
“We meter it just like we would
a house or a load, and then we
divide the output, so the energy
that’s generated within a given
month, we divide it up into por-
tions,” Tracy said. “Those portions
are sold to a member as a subscrip-
tion. So essentially, they pre-pur-
chase the output of the array and
See, Solar/Page A6
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 67
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page A4.