LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1619, the first representative
assembly in America convened in
Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
In 1729, Baltimore, Maryland,
was founded.
In 1864, during the Civil War,
Union forces tried to take Peters-
burg, Virginia, by exploding a gun-
powder-laden mine shaft beneath
Confederate defense lines; the
attack failed.
In 1916, German saboteurs blew
up a munitions plant on Black
Tom, an island near Jersey City,
New Jersey, killing about a dozen
people.
In 1918, poet Joyce Kilmer, a
sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry
Regiment, was killed during the
Second Battle of the Marne in
World War I. (Kilmer is remem-
bered for his poem “Trees.”)
In 1945, the Portland class heavy
cruiser USS Indianapolis, having
just delivered components of the
atomic bomb to Tinian in the Mar-
iana Islands, was torpedoed by a
Japanese submarine; only 317 out
of nearly 1,200 men survived.
In 1956, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed a measure
making “In God We Trust” the
national motto, replacing “E Plu-
ribus Unum” (Out of many, one).
In 1965, President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed a measure cre-
ating Medicare, which began oper-
ating the following year.
In 1980, Israel’s Knesset passed a
law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as
the capital of the Jewish state.
In 2008, ex-Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic was extradited
to The Hague to face genocide
charges after nearly 13 years on
the run. (He was sentenced by a
U.N. court in 2019 to life impris-
onment after being convicted of
genocide, crimes against humanity
and war crimes.)
In 2010, the Afghan Taliban
confirmed the death of longtime
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar
and appointed his successor,
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
In 2016, 16 people died when
a hot air balloon caught fire and
exploded after hitting high-ten-
sion power lines before crashing
into a pasture near Lockhart, Texas,
about 60 miles northeast of San
Antonio.
In 2020, John Lewis was eulo-
gized in Atlanta by three former
presidents and others who urged
Americans to continue the work
of the civil rights icon in fighting
injustice during a moment of racial
reckoning. Herman Cain, a former
Republican presidential candidate
and former CEO of a pizza chain
who became an ardent supporter
of President Donald Trump, died
in Atlanta of complications from
the coronavirus at the age of 74;
he was hospitalized less than two
weeks after attending Trump’s
campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where he was photographed not
wearing a mask.
Today’s birthdays: Former
Major League Baseball Com-
missioner Bud Selig is 88. Blues
musician Buddy Guy is 86. Fem-
inist activist Eleanor Smeal is
83. Singer Paul Anka is 81. Jazz
musician David Sanborn is 77.
Former California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is 75. Actor Frank
Stallone is 72. Actor Ken Olin is
68. Actor Delta Burke is 66. Law
professor Anita Hill is 66. Sing-
er-songwriter Kate Bush is 64.
Country singer Neal McCoy is 64.
Movie director Richard Linklater
is 62. Actor Laurence Fishburne is
61. Actor Lisa Kudrow is 59. Actor
Vivica A. Fox is 58. Actor Terry
Crews is 54. Actor Simon Baker is
53. Actor Donnie Keshawarz is 53.
Movie director Christopher Nolan
is 52. Actor Tom Green is 51. Rock
musician Brad Hargreaves (Third
Eye Blind) is 51. Actor Christine
Taylor is 51. Actor-comedian Dean
Edwards is 49. Actor Hilary Swank
is 48. Olympic gold medal beach
volleyball player Misty May-Tre-
anor is 45. Actor Jaime Pressly is 45.
Alt-country singer-musician Seth
Avett is 42. Actor April Bowlby is
42. Former soccer player Hope Solo
is 41. Actor Yvonne Strahovski is 40.
Actor Martin Starr is 40. Actor Gina
Rodriguez is 38. Actor Nico Tor-
torella is 34. Actor Joey King is 23.
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.
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SaTuRday, July 30, 2022
New building could be up in about 18 months
Contractor awarded
bid for La Grande
School District
project will have
420-day window to
complete
construction
Wallowa
County
energy
planning
launched
Wallowa County Chieftain
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
new academic and athletic
center La Grande School
District voters approved a
$4.845 million bond for in
May, could be 1-1/2 years
from becoming a reality.
Construction of the new
building may start in late
May or early June of 2023
and could be finished by
late 2023 or early 2024,
according to Joseph Waite,
the La Grande School Dis-
trict’s facilities manager.
“We want the building
to be occupied in the fall of
2023 as early as possible,”
Waite said.
Proposals by contractors
bidding for the building
project will be accepted by
the school district through
Tuesday, Aug. 30. The La
Grande School Board will
award a bid to a contractor
in the early fall. Waite said
the contractor will have
420 days to design and con-
struct the building after
being awarded the contract.
“That is when the clock
will start ticking,” Waite
said.
The company selected
may do its own design
work or partner with
another firm.
dick Mason/The Observer, File
The La Grande School District’s aging maintenance and grounds building will be torn down to help
make room for a new academic and athletic center, funded by a bond voters approved in the May 17,
2022, election. The adjacent Annex gym also will be removed.
The La Grande School
District will have a total
of $8.845 million available
to construct the academic
and athletic center, which
will include two gyms,
because it will also receive
a $4 million Oregon School
Capital Improvement
Matching program grant
from the state to help fund
the construction of the
new building. The school
district would not have
received the matching grant
if the bond levy, Measure
31-105, had failed.
The new building the
bond package will fund
will replace the current
Annex gym, next to the
La Grande Middle School.
The Annex building, which
is about nine decades old,
will be torn down. In addi-
tion, the school district’s
maintenance building,
which is connected via a
sky bridge to the Annex
and was built around 1910,
will also be removed.
The maintenance
building facilities will be
moved in early 2023 to the
Adams Professional Plaza
on Adams Avenue, which
the school district has pur-
chased. Half of the building
space the school district
has purchased there will be
leased to La Grande Light
Truck, Waite said.
It has not been deter-
mined when the Annex
gym will be removed.
Waite said it would be best
if it can remain up until
the new academic and ath-
letic center is constructed,
for this would mean gym
space at the site would be
available to the school dis-
trict and the public while
the academic and athletic
center is being built. Waite
said though that the Annex
gym may have to be torn
down before the new struc-
ture is built to provide
the space needed for its
construction.
The new structure —
which in addition to two
gyms will have locker
rooms and multiple class-
rooms — will be a pre-en-
gineered building, one for
which parts will be manu-
factured before construc-
tion starts. Constructing
a pre-engineered building
will take less time. One
reason is that it is designed
to have the frame and roof
put up first, Waite said.
This will allow construc-
tion crews to do interior
work much earlier because
the structure’s interior
will be protected from
inclement weather.
Rappellers rescue woman in Eagle Cap Wilderness
The 78-year-old
woman is flown to
La Grande after
suffering an ankle
injury
By DICK MASON
The Observer
UNION COUNTY —
A 78-year-old woman may
owe her life to the U.S.
Forest Service’s Grande
Ronde Rappellers.
The Grande Rappellers,
who are based at the Union
County Airport, rescued the
woman, who suffered an
ankle injury after she fell in
the Eagle Cap Wilderness
on Wednesday, July 27.
The woman was in the
East Eagle Drainage of the
wilderness on the eastern
edge of Union County,
39 miles southeast of La
Grande when she was
injured at about 10 a.m. on
July 27.
Union County Search
and Rescue was notified
of the accident at 11 a.m.
on July 27, and requested a
hoist capable helicopter in
Western Oregon from the
National Guard to help in
rescuing the patient. The
request was made because
of the remoteness of the
location the patient was in,
her age, the extreme heat at
the time and the extended
Grande Ronde Rappellers/Contributed Photo
First responders load a woman injured in the Eagle Cap Wilderness
onto a Life Flight helicopter Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
amount of time it would
take to get to the site using
vehicles and other ground
resources, said Union
County Emergency Man-
ager Nick Vora.
After the request was
made the Union County
SAR officials began
checking to see what local
aviation resources were
available and discovered
that the Grande Ronde
Rappellers, who specialize
in firefighting, could be
sent to rescue the woman.
Vora said often the GR
Rappellers would not have
been available because
they are fighting fires but
they were not on July 27.
The rappellers were sent
to rescue the woman but
their Forest Service heli-
copter was not able to land
near the patient due to a
steep slope, so four rap-
pellers, including trained
wilderness first responders
and paramedics, rappelled
out of the helicopter and
began assessing the patient
and preparing a plan to
transport her out. The
Forest Service crew was
able to identify a landing
zone approximately 1,200
yards away by a trail where
a medivac helicopter could
land, and requested that
one be dispatched.
A Union County Search
and Rescue coordinator,
working with dispatch per-
sonnel at the Blue Moun-
tain Interagency Dis-
patch Center, then ordered
a Life Flight helicopter
to attempt landing at the
location identified. A Life
Flight helicopter responded
from La Grande, while
the rappel crew placed the
patient in a sked litter and
initiated transport down a
steep hillside to the landing
zone. The National Guard
helicopter was kept en
route from Western Oregon
in case the Life Flight heli-
copter was unable to land
but later was turned back.
The Life Flight heli-
copter landed at the des-
ignated helispot and sub-
sequently transported the
patient to the Union County
Airport where a city of La
Grande Fire Department
ambulance took her to
Grande Ronde Hospital.
The woman was treated
for nonlife threatening
injuries, Vora said.
Both the Life Fight and
the Forest Service helicop-
ters returned to the area
after the patient was trans-
ported and picked up all of
the remaining personnel
involved in the rescue.
Vora said the Life Flight
Network’s staff and Forest
Service staff involved,
especially the Grande
Ronde Rappellers, deserve
much credit for the rescue.
“Without their profes-
sional assistance, this call
would have taken many
more hours to resolve and
may have resulted in a dif-
ferent outcome for the
patient,” Vora said.
The total rescue process
took about five hours, Vora
said, adding that without
helicopters the process
could have taken about 14
hours.
LG City Council to discuss psilocybin facilities
Council may ban
psilocybin facilities
within city limits at
next meeting
By ISABELLA CROWLEY
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande City Council
will consider adopting an
ordinance banning or tem-
porarily banning psilo-
cybin service centers and
manufacturing of psilo-
cybin products within city
limits during the regular
council session on Tuesday,
Aug. 3.
In November 2020,
Oregon voters passed
Ballot Measure 109 with a
56% majority.
Currently, there are four
options available to the city
council. First, the council
could not refer the issue
to the voters and allow the
measure to go into effect.
This would give the city
the least amount of control
over psilocybin within La
Grande.
Option two, again not
refer the issue to the voters,
but establish time, place
and manner restrictions,
which was allowed by the
measure.
Third, refer voters to
a total ban on psilocybin
facilities within city limits.
The fourth option
would be to refer voters to
a two-year ban on psilo-
SHROOMS AND MEASURE 109
Psilocybin is the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, and
research has indicated it may be a useful drug in treating a variety of
conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research
has treated psychiatric and behavioral disorders with psilocybin, as well
as on healthy patients, saying positive results extend for up to a year,
according to its website. But psilocybin’s greater use has been as a recre-
ational hallucinogenic drug.
Oregon voters legalized supervised therapeutic use of psilocybin in
2020, and the law is intended to go into effect January 2023.
cybin facilities within city
limits in order to see how
other counties handle the
situation.
Both option three and
four would require the city
council to pass the ordi-
nance with an emergency
clause because the dead-
line to get titles onto the
upcoming ballot is Aug. 19.
The meeting will be
open for public comment.
The regular session
meeting will be open to the
public at La Grande City
Hall, with the meeting set
to begin at 6 p.m. on Aug.
3. The meeting will be
streamed on the La Grande
Alive website and on
Facebook.
ENTERPRISE — Com-
munity input is being
sought for a comprehen-
sive Community Energy
Strategic Planning pro-
cess to proactively plan and
manage Wallowa County’s
energy future, according to
a press release.
The effort is being
launched in a collabo-
ration between the Wal-
lowa County Board of
Commissioners and Wal-
lowa Resources Commu-
nity Energy Program, with
funding from the Energy
Trust of Oregon.
The move comes after
years of quiet discussion,
energy development and
energy challenges, the
release stated, and focuses
a special eye on lowering
energy costs and stabi-
lizing energy access for the
county’s “end of the line”
communities.
The effort will use the
tagline “We have Good
Energy.”
Early estimates show
county residents currently
spend up to $40 million
annually for various types
of energy, according to
Nils Christoffersen, Wal-
lowa Resources executive
director. He said most of
those dollars currently leave
the county.
“Finding ways to keep
some of (those dollars)
working here creates real
opportunities for all of us,”
he said.
The plan takes a hard
look at how all kinds of
energy are used in the
county right now and then
figuring out what residents
can do to lower energy
costs for everyone, how to
put those saved dollars to
work locally, how to ensure
having stable and reliable
access to energy for critical
services in times of emer-
gency and, at the same time,
how to be good stewards of
the environment, according
to Joe Basile, plan manager
and Wallowa Resources
community energy program
manager.
Critically important too,
Basile said, “this energy
plan will also deliver a com-
prehensive prioritized list of
local energy opportunities
with short-term and long-
term strategies and funding
to make projects happen.”
“This is a communi-
ty-generated plan,” Wal-
lowa County Commissioner
John Hillock said. “We are
wanting input and assis-
tance from interested groups
and individuals from every
sector of the community
— from homeowners and
renters to ag to business and
beyond.”
An 11-member leader-
ship team has been estab-
lished and team members
are now beginning to iden-
tify key stakeholder groups
and interested individuals
willing to contribute some
time and expertise in small
group work sessions over
the next several months,
Basile said.
The team is headed by
Mike Hayward, a former
county commissioner and
past general manager of
Wallowa County Grain
Growers. He said the plan is
intended as a blueprint for
the next 20 years.
“We want the people
who will be impacted to be
part of the planning. Stay
tuned,” he said.
JOIN IN THE
PLANNING
For more information on the
planning process and how
to become involved, contact
members of the leadership
team or Joe Basile, plan man-
ager and Wallowa Resources
community energy program
manager, at joe@wallowa-
resources.org or 541-426-8053,
ext. 52.