INSIDE
STATE WILL RETAIN ABORTION RIGHTS DESPITE U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING | OREGON A7
June 25, 2022
lagrandeobserver.com | $1.50
WEEKEND EDITION
Enrollment
loss eff ects
La Grande
schools
budget
2022-23 budget calls for
position cuts, but no layoffs
in La Grande School District
By DICK MASON
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
The Observer
A MYSTERY
OF HISTORY
LA GRANDE — The La Grande School
Board, responding to declining enrollment,
has voted to adopt a 2022-23 budget that will
cut nine positions but not call for any layoff s.
The school board voted on Wednesday,
June 22, to adopt a 2022-23 general fund
budget of $29.65 million. The budget calls for
three teaching and six staff positions to be
eliminated because of falling enrollment.
However, adoption of the budget will not
result in any layoff s since reductions would be
made through attrition. The positions that will
be cut are either currently not fi lled, will be
vacated due to retirement and the like, or the
employee will be moved to another position
within the district.
“The budget is conservative but it will
allow the school district to continue to provide
great service,” school board member Joe Jus-
tice said.
Removing the three teaching
positions will save almost
$299,000 and trimming the six
classifi ed positions would save
more than $236,000. Classifi ed
positions include cooks, custo-
dians and maintenance staff , La
Grande School District Super-
Justice
intendent George Mendoza told
the board earlier this month.
In addition to the nine posi-
tion cuts, the budget calls for an
assistant principal position to
be reduced to a dean of students
position, saving nearly $13,800.
The $29.65 million general
Mendoza
fund budget is up $2.58 million
from the present budget. Much of the increase
refl ects a higher than anticipated boost in
what the state will be paying school districts
per student in 2022-23. Mendoza said it had
been anticipated the state would be paying
school districts $8,700 per student but instead
districts will be receiving $9,400 per student.
The main reason for the increase is that
enrollment in Oregon’s schools has dropped
about 30,000 over the past year, Mendoza
said, but the amount of money allotted by the
state for school districts in 2022-23 has not
changed, meaning the state has more money
available per student. Mendoza said the
school district also has a signifi cant amount
of COVID-19 relief funds for the next two
A crowd gathers at the corner
of B Avenue and Walnut
Street, La Grande, hoping to
witness the unearthing of a
time capsule from 1906 on
Thursday, June 23, 2022. The
Oregon Trail marker — placed
by famous pioneer Ezra
Meeker — had a special cavity
chiseled out so that a time
capsule could be placed inside.
Unfortunately, it was revealed
that the cavity was empty.
Ezra Meeker 1906
time capsule turns
out to be empty
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Dale Counsell had his
hammers and chisels
ready to help him
retrieve a 116-year old
message from the past.
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
Unfortunately, the Union County
historian didn’t need these tools on
Thursday, June 23, for the past proved
to be elusive in southwest La Grande
when a time capsule was opened and
turned out to be empty.
Counsell was among about 200
people gathered at 110 Walnut St. for
the opening of a time capsule reputed
to be in the stone Oregon Trail marker
put up by frontiersman Ezra Meeker,
the famous pioneer who spent the
later part of his life memorializing the
Oregon Trail. The marker, installed
in 1906, was removed from its base
Dale Counsell collects rock samples from inside an Oregon Trail marker at the corner of
B Avenue and Walnut Street, La Grande, on Thursday, June 23, 2022. The samples will be sent
off to Washington State University for analysis in an eff ort to determine the marker’s original
placement.
by a backhoe with assistance from
the La Grande Parks and Recreation
Department.
Dennis Larsen, the author of several
books about Meeker, then examined the
stone marker and found a space for a
time capsule.
“I’ve looked at it and unfortunately it
is empty,” Larsen told the crowd.
The author, who lives in Lacy,
Washington, said he was not sur-
prised that the time capsule was empty
because a number of people have
reported that the marker was moved
several times in the Walnut Street
area after it was installed in 1906. The
marker is now in the front yard of Jack
and Jennifer Boyd.
Jack Boyd noted that the empty time
capsule may give rise to a new mystery
as people try to fi nd out what happened
to its contents.
“This is something that could be put
into a Steven Spielberg movie,” he said.
Larsen is happy that the time cap-
sule, though empty, gave rise to a
See, Capsule/Page A8
See, Schools/Page A8
Drifts continue to block Elkhorn Drive, other roads
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
ANTHONY LAKES — Dan
Story didn’t fi gure a Harley-Da-
vidson motorcycle was a fi tting
substitute for a snowmobile.
But as the rumble of the dis-
tant engine materialized into a vis-
ible vehicle, Story had to concede
that it was indeed a Harley rolling
through a slushy snowdrift on the
highest paved road in Northeastern
Oregon.
That incongruous sight, along
the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway
on Wednesday, June 22, was
perhaps appropriate in what’s
been an abnormal season for the
byway and for other forest roads,
said Story, road manager for the
Whitman District on the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National Forest.
The drifts aren’t solely the
remnants of winter blizzards that
delighted skiers and snowboarders,
though.
Starting in early April and con-
tinuing into the middle of June, a
persistent weather pattern brought
a series of unseasonably chilly
storms into the region. Snow, in
some cases many inches of snow,
has accumulated at higher eleva-
tions, including sections of the
byway.
Dan Story/Contributed Photo
See, Snow/Page A8
Snowdrifts linger on the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway near the upper Crawfi sh Basin
trailhead on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
WEATHER
INDEX
Classified ......B2
Comics ...........B5
Crossword ....B2
Dear Abby ....B6
Horoscope ....B2
Local...............A2
Lottery ...........A2
Obituaries .....A5
Opinion .........A4
Outdoors ......B1
Oregon ...A6, A7
Sudoku ..........B5
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
52 LOW
86/55
Clear
Sunny
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Issue 76
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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