LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1838, Britain’s Queen Vic-
toria was crowned in Westminster
Abbey.
In 1863, during the Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln
appointed Maj. Gen. George G.
Meade the new commander of the
Army of the Potomac, following
the resignation of Maj. Gen. Joseph
Hooker.
In 1914, Archduke Franz Fer-
dinand of Austria and his wife,
Sophie, were shot to death in Sara-
jevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo
Princip — an act that sparked
World War I.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles
was signed in France, ending the
First World War.
In 1939, Pan American Airways
began regular trans-Atlantic air
service with a flight that departed
New York for Marseilles, France.
In 1940, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed the Alien Reg-
istration Act, also known as the
Smith Act, which required adult
foreigners residing in the U.S. to be
registered and fingerprinted.
In 1950, North Korean forces
captured Seoul, the capital of
South Korea.
In 1978, the Supreme Court
ordered the University of Cali-
fornia-Davis Medical School to
admit Allan Bakke, a white man
who argued he’d been a victim of
reverse racial discrimination.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton
became the first chief executive
in U.S. history to set up a personal
legal defense fund and ask Ameri-
cans to contribute to it.
In 2000, seven months after he
was cast adrift in the Florida Straits,
Elian Gonzalez was returned to his
native Cuba.
In 2010, the Supreme Court
ruled, 5-4, that Americans had the
right to own a gun for self-defense
anywhere they lived.
In 2013, the four plaintiffs in the
U.S. Supreme Court case that over-
turned California’s same-sex mar-
riage ban tied the knot, just hours
after a federal appeals court freed
gay couples to obtain marriage
licenses in the state for the first
time in 4-1/2 years.
In 2019, avowed white suprem-
acist James Alex Fields, who delib-
erately drove his car into a crowd
of counterprotesters in Charlot-
tesville, Virginia, killing a young
woman and injuring dozens, apol-
ogized to his victims before being
sentenced to life in prison on fed-
eral hate crime charges.
Today’s birthdays: Comedi-
an-movie director Mel Brooks is
96. Comedian-impressionist John
Byner is 85. Former Defense Secre-
tary Leon Panetta is 84. Rock musi-
cian Dave Knights (Procul Harum)
is 77. Actor Bruce Davison is 76.
Actor Kathy Bates is 74. Actor Alice
Krige is 68. College and Pro Foot-
ball Hall of Famer John Elway is
62. Jazz singer Tierney Sutton is
59. Actor Jessica Hecht is 57. Rock
musician Saul Davies (James) is 57.
Actor Mary Stuart Masterson is 56.
Actor John Cusack is 56. Actor Gil
Bellows is 55. Actor-singer Dan-
ielle Brisebois is 53. Actor Tichina
Arnold is 53. Actor Steve Burton
is 52. Entrepreneur Elon Musk is
51. Actor Alessandro Nivola is 50.
Actor Camille Guaty is 46. Rock
musician Tim Nordwind (OK Go) is
46. Rock musician Mark Stoermer
(The Killers) is 45. Country singer
Big Vinny Hickerson (Trailer Choir)
is 39. Country singer Kellie Pickler
is 36. Jamaican Olympic track star
Elaine Thompson-Herah is 30.
CORRECTIONS
The Observer works hard to be
accurate and sincerely regrets
any errors. If you notice a
mistake in the paper, please call
541-963-3161.
Union County celebrates
Fourth of July holiday
Start the day
celebrating in
Imbler, end it
with fireworks
in Union
Friday, June 24, 2022
Megamillions
1-7-11-25-56
Megaball: 14
Megaplier: 2
Jackpot: $328 million
Lucky Lines
1-5-12-14-17-24-27-30
Jackpot: $18,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 6-3-9-5
4 p.m.: 7-0-6-7
7 p.m.: 8-2-3-8
10 p.m.: 4-9-0-9
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Powerball
6-12-20-27-32
Powerball: 4
Power Play: 3
Jackpot: $346 million
Megabucks
8-17-18-24-29-36
Jackpot: $2.6 million
Lucky Lines
4-7-12-16-17-24-27-29
Jackpot: $19,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 7-7-7-2
4 p.m.: 5-2-9-9
7 p.m.: 4-5-8-5
10 p.m.: 3-4-9-7
Win for Life
7-37-43-68
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Lucky Lines
3-5-10-16-19-24-25-29
Estimated jackpot: $20,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 3-8-2-7
4 p.m.: 4-6-6-0
7 p.m.: 7-6-4-2
10 p.m.: 4-7-5-7
Wallowa
County
teacher
caps career
Lorri Birkmaier Fischer
says farewell to Enterprise
Elementary after 38 years
By JACK PARRY
Wallowa County Chieftain
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — Local
residents will have no shortage
of Fourth of July activities to
choose from this year, culmi-
nating with the annual fire-
works show at Buffalo Peak Golf
Course in Union.
The Fourth of July slate fea-
tures popular traditional events
plus new ones including a per-
formance that may spark dis-
cussions about an old unsolved
mystery in Union.
Festivities will kick off with
the annual Imbler Fourth of July
Parade, which begins at noon at
Seventh Street and travels south
down Ruckman Avenue (also
Highway 82) to the end of town.
The lineup for the parade will
start at 11 a.m.
The Imbler Christian Church,
440 Ruckman Ave., will host
its annual picnic for the public
following the parade. Free hot
dogs, watermelon, chips, ice
cream and soda will be served.
The focus will then turn to
Union, where vendors, for the
first time in recent memory,
will be selling local crafts and
foods on the Fourth of July. The
vendors will operate on a por-
tion of Main Street and inside
the Little White Church on the
south side of Union City Hall
from 4-9 p.m. Vendors will be
able toset up for no charge, and
anyone interested in having a
vendor table should call Hugh
Johnson at 541-786-6731.
Johnson and Sarah Hartley are
the co-organizers of the pre-fire-
works activities in Union, which
are being put on by Union Main
Street.
People coming to downtown
Union will also have a chance
to visit the Union County
Museum, 331 S. Main Street,
which will be open from noon to
5 p.m. Downtown visitors will
also have a chance to attend an
antique car show from 4-9 p.m.
on Center Street.
The Union Lions Club will
also be adding to the downtown
July Fourth fun by providing
rides on the kiddie train, which
is pulled by a small vehicle.
At 5 p.m. there will be a reen-
The Observer, File
Hundreds of spectators watch fireworks light up the night sky at Buffalo Peak Golf
Course in Union Sunday, July 4, 2021.
actment of an attempted bank
robbery that took place in Union
in October of 1900. The reen-
actment will be in front of the
Union County Museum, which
once housed the bank where the
robbery attempt was made.
Johnson said three men broke
into the bank and then cut a hole
through the concrete wall of its
vault. The men then unsuccess-
fully attempted to blow open
the safe with nitroglycerine, an
explosive liquid. They set off a
blast that blew a hole in one of
the bank’s walls and shattered
one of its windows but did not
open the safe.
The men ran out immedi-
ately after the unsuccessful blast
attempt with nothing,
“They probably worried
that they woke people up and
thought they would get caught,”
Johnson said.
The would-be robbers, who
were seen by one person run-
ning away from the bank, were
never arrested and their identi-
ties remain a mystery, Johnson
said.
The reenactment, which will
take between 15 and 20 minutes,
will be performed by Union
County residents who volun-
teered to participate. People will
be able to watch the reenactment
across the street from the Union
County Museum.
This year’s Thunder at the
Peak fireworks show will begin
around 9:45-10 p.m. at Buffalo
Peak Golf Course. Should the
golf course draw a large crowd,
people will be encouraged to go
to a field directly north of the
Union High School football field
to watch the fireworks. Parking
will be available at the site.
The fireworks show will be
put on by the Union Chamber of
Commerce.
County to vote on law enforcement contract
Contract was approved
June 20 by the Elgin
City Council
By DICK MASON
LOTTERY
TuESday, JunE 28, 2022
dick Mason/The Observer
The Observer
LA GRANDE— The Union
County Board of Commissioners
is set to vote on the ratification
of a new six-year law enforce-
ment services contract between
the Union County Sheriff’s Office
and the city of Elgin.
The board will vote on the rat-
ification of the contract when it
meets on Wednesday, June 29,
at 8:30 a.m. in the east meeting
room at the Joseph Building, 1106
K Ave., La Grande.
The Elgin City Council
approved the contract on June
21. The city council did so after
voting against a proposed con-
tract to retain the services of the
Union County Sheriff’s office
in May. The council intended to
reestablish Elgin’s police depart-
ment to replace the enhanced law
enforcement services Elgin has
been receiving from the Union
Morris Capers, a Union County Sheriff’s
deputy, makes a call on his radio on
Friday, May 20, 2022, while on patrol in
Elgin.
County Sheriff’s Office for about
10 years.
Under the terms of the con-
tract the city of Elgin approved
June 21, the city would pay Union
County $315,400 in 2022-23
for law enforcement services,
$337,603 in 2023-24 and $350,771
in 2024-25 during the first three
years of the new contract.
The payments the city of
Elgin will make during the final
three years of the contract will
be dependent on the cost of
living increases granted to Union
County’s sheriff’s deputies. The
increases will be negotiated
by the Union County Sheriff’s
Office with the Union County
Law Enforcement Association.
Increases greater than 4% for
materials and services would be
negotiated between the city and
Union County.
In another action item the
board of commissioners on
June 29 will vote on whether to
approve recommendations of
Union County’s Transient Tax
Advisory Committee. The com-
mittee met earlier this month to
make its recommendations for
grants that would be paid from
the country’s transient tax, also
known as its motel tax.
The Transient Tax Advisory
Committee is recommending that
the Union County Fair Associa-
tion receive a grant of more than
$26,000 for a bleacher replace-
ment project. Other recommenda-
tions include the Eastern Oregon
Livestock Show receiving a total
of $45,000 for phases one and two
of its exterior lighting project,
$6,500 for the 2022 Eastern
Oregon Film Festival, $3,000
for the city of Union’s Fireworks
Committee for this year’s Fourth
of July celebration and more than
$2,200 for the Union County
Chamber of Commerce for its
crop tour video project.
IN BRIEF
Public hearing planned at July Joseph
council meeting
JOSEPH — A request for a zoning change from
commercial to residential and a conditional use
permit for a recreational vehicle park at the same
address is on the agenda for the Joseph City Council
meeting Thursday, July 7.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Joseph
Community Events Center.
The zone change and conditional use permit
have been requested by John Zurita for 709 N. Main
St. Zurita is listed as the property owner on the
application.
The matter will be addressed in a public hearing
during the council meeting.
The public is welcome to attend in person or via
Zoom.
— EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — Lorri Birkmaier
Fischer first walked into Enterprise
Elementary School as a young girl
with a knack for reading and writing.
She liked school so much she would
teach her younger brother, Tommy,
lessons of her choice when she had
the chance.
After graduating from Eastern
Oregon University with a degree in
elementary education and a reading
endorsement in 1981, Fischer would
return to Enterprise Elementary as
an educator in 1984. The principal at
the time, Bob Eddy, gave her quite
simple instructions to start.
“He threw me into a room and
said, ‘Teach.’”
Now, 38 years later,
Fischer is putting down
the chalk and eraser
following a career
teaching students from
fourth through eighth
grade. It was a deci-
sion based on the need
Fischer
to be there more for her
family — her two daughters and four
grandchildren.
“I always say that you are replace-
able at work, but irreplaceable within
your family,” she said.
Throughout her career, Fischer
prided herself on lesson plans that
made it fun for students to learn.
Her classes have shot themed
movies about the 100-year anni-
versary of the school and Lewis
and Clark to name a couple. Most
recently, she brought her fifth
grade class to the Wallowa County
Museum in Joseph to donate an
antique dress and a stack of old Wal-
lowa County Chieftains along with
her daughter, Aliyse Shetler, and her
kindergarten class from Joseph.
She thought that big projects like
these were the secret to teaching
some of her kids.
“They would be doing what you
want them to do, but yet they didn’t
really feel like it was hard work
because it was fun,” she explained.
And it’s this style of learning that
may cause her to resonate with the
students in Enterprise, even when
they’ve gotten older.
“One girl said to me from junior
high the other day, ‘Mrs. Fisher, you’re
leaving us, how can you leave us?’”
For Fischer, who prides herself on
having a reading endorsement, lit-
erature is near and dear to her heart.
She remembered what she would tell
her students about how to perfect the
craft of writing.
“It’s like making a necklace and
every word is a stone, a precious gem
that you’re stringing,” she said. “And
you’ve got to make sure you pick
each one carefully.”
Through all of her years putting
effort into educating her students
as well as growing up in the school
system, Fischer has recognized how
much importance a public school can
hold in a small town like Enterprise.
“The community, the town
revolves around the school,” she
proclaimed.
Tom Crane, the superintendent
of the Enterprise School District,
taught fourth grade at Enterprise Ele-
mentary with Fischer at the begin-
ning of his career. He recounted
how in every interview he’s had as
an administrator, he’s waited for the
teacher to say they love working with
kids, attributing this to the devotion
displayed by his former co-teacher.
When describing Fischer in one
word, he emphasized how much his
colleague cares.
“Passionate, because her whole
life is about helping kids,” he said.
Fischer choked up when talking
about this aspect of the job,
explaining how important it is for a
teacher to put the effort in.
“Every grade, you’re that piece,”
she said. “When you’re that person
in their life, you have to make the
puzzle complete so when they’re
done they have a full puzzle.”
Having been at the school as a
student when they just started using
computers to leaving the school as
a teacher when the whole classroom
has laptops, Fischer sees the coming
years of education in her hometown
as a slightly different version of the
fundamentals.
“I think that the future will just
be similar to what it is now, kids
learning and teachers teaching.”