FROM PAGE ONE
Thursday, July 28, 2022
ThE OBsErVEr — A7
Wallowa County schools on track with new budgets
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA COUNTY
— The money is in place
and the three main school
districts in Wallowa County
are getting set for a new
school year with about $45
million earmarked for edu-
cation in Enterprise, Joseph
and Wallowa for the coming
year.
Enterprise
Some of that budgeting
includes construction work,
such as the $8 million bond
levy approved in November
2020 for the Enterprise
school building, largely to
replace the leaky roof and
upgrade access to Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act
standards, such as remod-
eling restrooms and adding
ramps and lifts for wheel-
chair-bound students and
removing asbestos flooring.
The $8 million was half
the voter-approved levy and
half matching funds from
an Oregon School Capital
Improvement grant from
the Oregon Department of
Education.
Work began on the
school this spring as soon
as it let out, although it was
slated to begin a year ear-
lier. The delay was caused
by the COVID-19 pan-
demic and resulting diffi-
culties in obtaining building
DEBATE
Continued from Page A1
long list of progressive pri-
orities including increasing
Oregon’s minimum wage,
providing paid sick leave
and raising business taxes
to increase funding for
schools.
She has raised $3.3 mil-
lion and has $454,000
on-hand, in part because
she has yet to receive large
donations from national
groups such as the Demo-
cratic Governors Associa-
tion. Separately, a political
action committee attacking
Johnson called Oregonians
for Ethics has raised more
than $200,000 including
from the Democratic Gov-
ernors Association, public
employee unions and the
Oregon League of Conser-
vation Voters.
Drazan, who won the
crowded Republican pri-
mary in May, was elected
to the state House in 2018
and served as House
Republican leader from
2019 until she stepped
down in 2021 to run for
governor. She led House
Republicans in a 2020
walkout to protest Demo-
crats’ greenhouse gas cap-
and-trade bill, which was
up for a vote in the Senate,
and united her caucus in
2021 to join Democrats
in voting to expel fellow
Republican Rep. Mike
Nearman for his role let-
ting violent demonstra-
tors into the state Capitol
in December 2020. She has
raised $4.2 million and has
$1.3 million on-hand.
With months to go
until the general election,
polls have shown the three
women in a close race
with the most recent pub-
licly available poll, paid
for by legislative Republi-
cans, showing Drazan and
Kotek in a statistical tie and
Johnson within striking
distance. With three serious
candidates on the ballot,
the winner will need only a
plurality of votes to become
governor.
The slate of debates
could provide opportunities
for the candidates to distin-
guish themselves on issues
including abortion access,
homelessness, gun violence
and other crimes.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Construction work is ongoing at the Enterprise schools, as was evident Thursday, July 14, 2022.
materials.
The overall budget for
Enterprise for 2022-23 is
$19,275,000, according to
Karen Josi, business man-
ager for fiscal services for
the Educational Service
District. She emphasized
that the amount includes the
$8 million for construction
work.
Tom Crane, Enterprise
school superintendent, said
he is pleased with the new
THE OBSERVER
TO LIVESTREAM
OREGON
GUBERNATORIAL
DEBATE
LA GRANDE — The three
leading candidates in the race
to become Oregon’s next gov-
ernor will appear live at a forum
Friday, July 29, hosted by the
Oregon Newspaper Publishers
Association.
Republican nominee Chris-
tine Drazan, Democratic nom-
inee Tina Kotek and unaffiliated
candidate Betsy Johnson are all
scheduled to debate starting at
2 p.m. in Welches.
The forum is moderated by
Pamplin Media Group Presi-
dent Mark Garber. Questions
will come from editors of news-
papers across Oregon.
The debate will be live-
streamed on The Observer’s
website, www.lagrande-
observer.com.
— The Observer
Along with the news-
paper publishers and KOBI
debates, two of the candi-
dates — Johnson and Kotek
— have already committed
to participate in other var-
ious debates.
Johnson plans to par-
ticipate in a debate hosted
by KTVZ, the City Club of
Central Oregon and Oregon
State University Cascades
at an unspecified date,
according to Johnson’s
campaign spokesperson
Jennifer Sitton. She wants
her opponents to commit
to one televised debate or
forum in Medford, Port-
land, Eugene, Bend, Pend-
leton and Coos Bay.
Kotek does not plan
to participate in the Cen-
tral Oregon debate but
has said she will partici-
pate in the KGW/The Ore-
gonian debate, which will
take place in October, and
the OPB and Our Chil-
dren Oregon debate Oct.
22. Kotek also plans to
participate in the City
Club of Eugene and City
Club of Salem gubernato-
rial forums, the dates of
which are not yet known.
She has called for Johnson
and Drazan to join her for
a forum that would focus
specifically on gun safety
but “neither Johnson or
Drazan have responded,”
Kotek’s spokesperson Katie
Wertheimer said in an
email.
included cost-of-living
allowances and $200,000 in
budgeting for increased fuel
costs.
budget, particularly that the
district has completed a col-
lective bargaining agree-
ment for four-year contracts
for the teachers.
“I think we’re in good
shape,” he said.
Josi said the only fac-
ulty addition is that of a
new agriculture teacher
for middle school and high
school students.
Some noteworthy
increases in the budget
Wallowa
Joseph
Joseph Charter School
adopted a budget of just over
$14 million on June 13, Super-
intendent Lance Homan said
Thursday, July 14.
“It’s pretty standard,” he
said, adding that the coming
year’s budget is much like
Continued from Page A1
“I don’t want to throw
the county’s dollars at
something that will not get
results,” the Union County
commissioner said.
20 cats on 10 acres
Girard feels sympathy
for homeless cats that have
to fend for themselves.
They are in a bad situation
through no fault of their
own, he said.
“The whole reason they
were put in this position
is because of humans,”
Girard said.
When someone releases
a feral cat on his property
Girard begins a three-step
process. First, he attempts
to capture the feline in a
live trap that causes no
harm. Once the animal is
trapped, he has it spayed or
neutered, and after that he
releases the cat — unless it
is a kitten he might be able
to find a home for.
He said that since 2020
he has spent about $2,000
a year on spaying and neu-
tering the cats that have
appeared at his farm. He
dick Mason/The Observer
Mark Girard operates a piece of machinery on his hobby farm in Union on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
said he can’t continue to
do this because the 4 acres
he owns and a 6-acre con-
nected parcel owned by a
neighbor now have a total
of 20 feral cats. This is all
the feral cats the combined
10-acre area can hold,
Girard said.
For his daughter
Girard does not
describe himself as a cat
FIRE
can catch them when the
fires start to go extreme,”
said Johnson, who’s a wild-
land fire technician for the
Vale District.
“Any fire that started on
your urban interface area,
we’re just trying to keep
it off federal land and vice
versa — if we have a fire
on federal land, we really
don’t want to push it onto
the urban interface,” he
said.
Fire breaks are cre-
ated using tractors with
metal disk attachments
that remove vegetation and
expose bare dirt, which
deprives flames of fuel.
Workers also mow grass
and use herbicides to con-
trol grass.
When built near roads,
the breaks create a 50-foot
buffer — a zone where fire
crews have a better chance
to stop advancing flames.
Each spring or summer,
typically in May or June,
— Toby McBride,Vale Rangeland Fire Protection District, talking
about how firebreaks helped stop the Willowcreek fire in late June
BLM workers maintain
the firebreaks, Johnson
said. They bring in heavy
machinery to clear out veg-
etation in preparation for
fire season. Johnson said
they completed this year’s
maintenance on the breaks
in the Willowcreek fire
area just two weeks before
it ignited on a 100-degree
day with gusty west winds.
“We’ve been main-
taining these man-made
fuel barriers over the last
two decades,” said Justin
Robinson, fuels techni-
cian for the Vale District.
“We’re making it safer for
our firefighters and our
communities.”
Fire break history
The idea for the fire-
breaks that helped stop the
Willowcreek Fire dates
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lover, but he does not have
it in him to turn a home-
less cat away.
“It would harden my
heart to throw them
aside,” Girard said. “I
can’t turn any animal
away that is suffering.”
The Union farmer is
inspired to reach out to
feral and stray cats by the
memory of his daughter
Nicole, who died in 2016
“Being proactive saved us from having a
fire twice as big.”
Continued from Page A1
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Tammy Jones, super-
intendent of the Wallowa
schools, said the school
board there also adopted its
budget June 13. Wallowa
approved a general fund
budget of $4,116,767 that
“addresses our district mis-
sions and goals,” she said.
Wallowa, like Enter-
prise, is undergoing major
construction work, having
approved a $7 million bond
levy that includes a $4 mil-
lion OSCIM grant and a
$2.3 million seismic grant.
The general budget,
she said, was able to pare
back a little, eliminating a
half-time distance learning
teacher that was employed
because of the COVID-19
pandemic and the need for
some students to attend
class from home.
The district is adding
new math curriculum for
all grade levels, a half-time
physical education teacher
for K-8 and a new middle
school teacher for grades
six through eight.
No layoffs have been
scheduled, Jones said.
She said enrollment went
up just a little, which affects
the budgeting the state does
every two years. Schools are
now entering the second year
of the two-year budget cycle.
“In the second year of a
biennium, you expect where
you are,” Jones said. “When
you get to the end of it, you
wonder where the state
is going. … Do I wonder
about the year after next?
Yes I do.”
But Jones isn’t worried.
“It will be interesting to
see where enrollment goes,”
she said. “We’re tight but
always been solid.”
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the 2021-22 budget.
He said the school is
adding a STEAM (science,
technology, engineering,
arts and mathematics) room
for K-6 and has two new
teachers coming on board.
Cameron Scott will be a
new English teacher for
the new English language
arts program at the college
level for junior high and
high school students. Also,
Hannah Schmidke is a new
third-grade teacher.
Homan said JCS can
expect a new seismic grant
of $2.5 million next year.
He said the district has until
September 2024 to spend
it. It will be used to add
structural support and a
new roof on the main part
of the school building. A
new heating, ventilation and
air conditioning (HVAC)
system also will be funded
separate from the seismic
grant, “but it’ll work
together,” he said.
“That’ll be in the budget
so you’ll see an increase
next year,” Homan said.
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In 2000, the Jackson
fire burned about 80,000
acres — twice as many as
the Willowcreek Fire — of
similar terrain in Malheur
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That fire prompted local
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fires, and residents created
the Malheur County Com-
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That plan included
building firebreaks across
public and private land.
Johnson said the system
of firebreaks “gives our
personnel something to
work off of,” but it’s not
guaranteed, because of
varied weather patterns,
that the breaks will stop a
blaze dead in its tracks.
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at age 26. Nicole was a cat
lover who devoted much
of her life to reaching out
to suffering felines. She
would give up her rent
money to help a sick cat,
Girard said, and once she
ran across a four-lane
freeway to get to a feline
that needed help.
“I’m doing what I do
today to keep her passion
alive,” Girard said.
fire activity, because you
can have fire whirls that
bring embers across the
road,” Johnson said.
But with the Willow-
creek Fire, the breaks ful-
filled their purpose despite
the gusty winds.
“Being proactive saved
us from having a fire twice
as big,” said Toby McBride,
a volunteer with the Vale
Rangeland Fire Protection
District who helps main-
tain the firebreaks and was
on the ground during the
Willowcreek Fire. “The
wind was blowing pretty
good, but the fire burned
right up to the lines and
went out. I don’t think we
would’ve held it at the road
without them.”
Robinson agreed.
“Fuel breaks helped
firefighters contain the
Willowcreek Fire without
bulldozers or other heavy
equipment,” he said. “This
project’s success shows
us how important collab-
oration can be to protect
local communities from
wildfires.”