FROM PAGE ONE
A6 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022
ARCHERS
Continued from Page A1
that longer journey is really,
really cool.”
Null is one of the club’s
founding members. She
fi rst found a knack for
the sport after taking a
summer class 13 years ago.
With a new passion for the
sport, Null and her father
Glen sought out a way to
make archery a part of the
county’s 4-H program. By
2013, Null was shooting
as an inaugural member
of the club, led by Tommy
Benitez, Brent Boulton and
Cody Peterson.
Clayton and Casey
Lowe — two of the club’s
current co-leaders — cred-
ited the many leaders and
parents who have pitched
in throughout the years
to support the young
archers and build the club’s
momentum.
Casey has been
involved with running the
club for almost 10 years.
She watched Null grow up
through the program. Now,
Null helps teach current
members.
“She was so itty-bitty,”
Casey recalled of Null. “I
remember her just fl inging
it out there like a boss. It
was great.”
Over nine years ago,
Casey helped establish
the club’s spot at the fair.
She wanted members to
feel that, as 4-H partici-
pants, they too could be
an integral part of the
yearly event. She also
noted that having the vis-
ibility of a fair competi-
tion has helped kids see
that shooting isn’t quite as
Shannon Golden/The Observer
Morgan Rynearson and her cousin, Maylie Eby, draw their bows back during the 4-H Archery Competition on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Both are
new members of the Union County Hawkeye Archery Club.
complicated as it looks.
“The livestock gets to
be there and the home ec
gets to be there,” she said.
“I wanted them to be able
to be part of the fair.”
Carole Ann Smith,
a 4-H agent for Union
County, said that clubs
like this one are a great
way for kids who may not
have livestock or a knack
for cooking and sewing
to get involved with 4-H
programs.
“This brings in kids
who have other interests,”
she said.
Although there have
been other shooting sports
events at the fair in the
past, archery has been the
only shooting event on
the schedule for the past
few years. Because it’s
held on the outskirts of the
grounds — for safety rea-
sons — Smith said that
fairgoers often don’t know
the event is taking place.
“It’d be nice if more
people came and watched,”
she said. “They would
really enjoy it if they did.”
When the fair was shut
down during the pan-
demic, Casey worried
that the club would lose
its momentum, especially
because it was still a rel-
atively new fi xture of the
fair. Nonetheless, in the
Shannon Golden/The Observer
Recently shot arrows rest in an archery block at the Fair Horse Arena at
the Union County Fairgrounds on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. The highest
score is achieved by shooting the target’s center, the bull’s-eye.
past two years, the club’s
popularity has grown,
reaching around 20 mem-
bers during the 2021
PROJECT
VERDICT
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
replacement of a particularly
troublesome culvert under
a section of the Hilgard to
Ukiah Highway — Oregon
Route 244 — approximately
12 miles west of La Grande.
The original culvert, a
decades-old corrugated metal
pipe approximately 5 feet
wide, caused a slew of eco-
logical and transportation
issues.
For one, size and incorrect
placement caused frequent
fl ooding after heavy rains,
rapid snowmelt, and other
weather conditions. This
fl ooding eroded the roadway
and shoulder of Oregon 244
and gave rise to unsafe road
conditions from ice and
water on the pavement.
The old culvert was not
just a public safety issue. It
also took a toll on natural
stream processes — espe-
cially fi sh passage. For Ken-
nington and the project team,
it was crucial to address the
highway needs and the envi-
ronmental ones, too.
“By doing both, we
double the amount of ben-
efi t,” he said. “That’s really
the way forward, is to look at
the landscape and say, ‘What
does it need?’”
Almost 16 miles of
Whiskey Creek serves as
a habitat for endangered
Snake River Basin steelhead.
Because of the high velocity
of water during high fl ows
and jump height during low
fl ows, the culvert impeded
fi sh passage from the Grande
Ronde River to Whiskey
Creek.
To address these issues,
ODOT opted to replace
the culvert completely and
Lee’s attorney, Dean
Gushwa, asked just three
questions: Did you know
Steve Hamilton, did he
perform sexual acts upon
you and was he afraid
your wife would fi nd out?
Lee answered yes to each
question.
On cross-examination,
McDaniel asked Lee for
more details about the
relationship. Lee said the
relationship progressed
through their work on
Hamilton’s RV and
that Hamilton was the
one who turned things
sexual.
McDaniel asked Lee
why he never mentioned
his relationship with
Hamilton during the last
four years. Lee said that
he did not talk about sex.
McDaniel then refer-
enced video recordings
of Lee’s interviews with
law enforcement after
Williams’ death — where
Lee spoke to officers
about his sex life, or lack
thereof, with his wife and
denied being in any other
relationships.
McDaniel then asked
Lee why Hamilton was
worried about Williams
fi nding out about their
relationship when Ham-
ilton testifi ed that he had
never met Williams. Lee
responded he thought
Hamilton knew Williams
a lot more than he said and
he was going out to the
Conley property to look
at her. Just a few minutes
earlier, Lee told McDaniel
he was not sure if Ham-
ilton knew Williams.
PSILOCYBIN
Continued from Page A1
including psilocybin-as-
sisted psychotherapy, as the
future of psychiatric treat-
ment,’’ she said.
Dr. Joel
Rice, of La
Grande, a
psychiatrist,
said that psi-
locybin is the
fi rst drug that
has provided a
Rice
real advance-
ment in the treatment of
PTSD in many years. Rice
said that banning psilocybin
would not be fair to military
veterans.
“It would be a huge dis-
service to people who have
put their lives on the line for
Paul Kennington/Contributed Photo
The inlet of the pipe at the confl uence of Whiskey Creek and the
Grande Ronde River is barely able to pass water on June 30, 2014, as
it swirls into a vortex.
kicked off the project in 2018.
Construction got underway
in the summer of 2020, and
crews raced against the clock
to complete the project in one
season.
Kennington noted that if
the project had needed two
construction seasons, erosion
control and fl ood protection
would have increased con-
struction costs. In addition,
fi sh passage could have been
impeded.
From sensitive environ-
mental resources, including
wetlands and waterways,
to maintaining continuous
traffi c fl ow, the project team
had several components
to juggle throughout the
project.
The project team replaced
the old pipe with a new,
22-foot-wide precast rein-
forced concrete box culvert.
To complete the project, the
department implemented
temporary water manage-
ment in the project area. A
contractor then excavated the
roadway and placed the new,
larger culvert in better align-
ment with the confl uence.
Only a portion of the
project area was on ODOT
land, and the team had to
work with adjacent land-
owners to complete the rest
of the project.
“Oftentimes we only have
infl uence over a little tiny
portion,” he said, noting that
without landowner coop-
eration, it would have been
impossible to connect the
new culvert to the creek.
Once landowners gave the
go-ahead, the project team
got to work enhancing a por-
tion of the creek with weirs
— creating a fi sh ladder
eff ect — to improve the
grade of the creek and help
migrating fi sh on their return
journey upstream to spawn.
Several state and fed-
eral agencies were involved
in the project, including the
National Marine Fisheries
Service, U.S. Fish & Wild-
life Service, Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife,
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality, Oregon
Department of State Lands
and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
The hydraulic design was
contracted out to Keller &
Associates. The fi sh pas-
sage portion of the project
was a high priority for the
ODFW and the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
us,” he said.
A concern addressed
at the meeting is that the
state has not yet developed
detailed rules for regulating
Measure 109. Rice said he
is confi dent the state will
do a good job of developing
these rules.
Union County Sheriff
Cody Bowen said he does
not have confi dence in how
the state will develop rules
for regulating Measure 109.
“I don’t have a lot
of faith in the state of
Oregon,” he said.
The sheriff also said he
fears that legalizing psi-
locybin will increase the
crime rate in Union County.
Oregon is one of the fi rst
states, and possibly the only
one, to have legalized psilo-
cybin. This concerns Union
County Commissioner Matt
Scarfo.
“I don’t want to be a test
case for the country in this,”
he said.
Scarfo also said the lack
of rules for regulating psilo-
cybin bothers him.
“There are so many
unknowns,” he said.
Commissioner Paul
Anderes is opposed to Mea-
sure 109 in part because it
does not require the drug
to be dispensed by licensed
health care providers and it
is not approved by the Food
and Drug Administration.
Anderes said if the FDA
decides to allow pysilocybin
to be prescribed by licensed
health care professionals, he
would be all for it.
“I would be 100%
behind that,” he said.
season and 18 this year.
“It’s grown and it’s
shrunk,” Casey said.
“But it’s defi nitely been
When Hamilton testi-
fied earlier in the trial he
denied having a sexual
relationship with Lee.
Throughout his tes-
timony, Lee said he
could not recall Hamil-
ton’s name. Lee suffered
a series of strokes while
in custody, which has
affected his memory.
Closing arguments
During her closing,
McDaniel once more
took members of the jury
through the timeline of
events that led to Wil-
liams’ death. She high-
lighted key pieces of
evidence and witness tes-
timony that supported
the state’s theory that
Lee murdered Williams
to avoid paying spousal
support and having his
fi nances exposed.
The district attorney
started her description
with April 2018, when
police were dispatched
to Conley Road for a
domestic disturbance,
progressed through Lee’s
“stalking” behavior and
need to control his soon-
to-be ex-wife, and cul-
minated in Williams’
murder.
According to
McDaniel, Lee seem-
ingly got what he wanted.
The divorce deposi-
tion and proceeding
were canceled, but then
the assets were moved
into an estate and Peggy
Titus — Williams’ sister
— was named the per-
sonal representative. Lee
objected to this, tried to
get homeowners insur-
ance payouts for damage
to the property during the
murder deposited into his
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Many of the club’s
members this year,
including Morgan
Rynearson, are new.
Rynearson, 17, has been
shooting for over four
years, and said that in
between work, school and
caring for her two pigs, she
likes to practice shooting
as much as she can.
“It keeps me busy,” she
said. “It keeps me out of
trouble.”
Throughout the year,
members practice indoors
at La Grande’s Alpine
Archery Fish and Fly. In
the spring, they move out-
doors to the Grande Ronde
Bowmen range, where
they practice shooting
3D targets, learn range
safety and practice judging
yardage.
The year-round prac-
tice seems to be paying
off , as four of the club’s
members qualifi ed for
the national team. This
year, club member Danner
Burton was named reserve
champion for the state of
Oregon.
As the Thursday, Aug.
4, event wrapped up, club
members fi ltered out of
the arena to greet their
family and friends. Casey,
Clayton and Null stood in
front of a stack of ribbons,
poised to announce the
fi nal scores of the night.
As club members looked
on, Casey took a moment
to thank them for their
year of meetings, support
and commitment.
“It’s what keeps our
club alive every year,” she
said. “Thank you guys
very much.”
account, and sued Titus.
McDaniel closed by
saying that Williams ded-
icated her life to being
Lee’s wife, and that he
killed her.
During his closing
argument, Gushwa said
the state had not pro-
vided suffi cient evi-
dence to prove to the
jurors, beyond a reason-
able doubt, that Lee com-
mitted the murder. He
told the jury that Lee was
in the unlucky 5% — ref-
erencing his opening
statements, where he
acknowledged that 95%
of the time when a spouse
is killed it is the other
spouse who did it.
According to Gushwa,
Lee stood to gain nothing
from killing his wife,
whereas Hamilton had a
motive to kill Williams
— keeping his relation-
ship with Lee secret.
Gushwa said that Ham-
ilton planted key evi-
dence — a work glove, an
unfi red bullet, the .22-cal-
iber revolver and Glock
accessories — as insur-
ance that law enforcement
would pursue Lee.
Gushwa concluded his
argument by saying the
state had mischaracter-
ized evidence and had not
pursued evidence to the
fullest degree.
During rebuttal,
McDaniel reminded
jurors that anything she
or Gushwa said was not
considered evidence. She
said Gushwa had not pro-
vided any evidence for the
claims he made in closing
and no evidence sub-
mitted by either the state
or the defense pointed to
Hamilton’s guilt.
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