A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1718, hundreds of French col-
onists arrived in Louisiana, with
some settling in present-day New
Orleans.
In 1875, Capt. Matthew Webb
became the first person to swim
across the English Channel, get-
ting from Dover, England, to Calais,
France, in 22 hours.
In 1928, an expedition led
by Richard E. Byrd set sail from
Hoboken, N.J., on its journey to
Antarctica.
In 1944, during World War II,
Paris was liberated by Allied forces
after four years of Nazi occupation.
In 1958, the game show “Con-
centration” premiered on NBC-TV.
In 1980, the Broadway musical
“42nd Street” opened. (Producer
David Merrick stunned the cast
and audience during the curtain
call by announcing that the show’s
director, Gower Champion, had
died earlier that day.)
In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voy-
ager 2 came within 63,000 miles of
Saturn’s cloud cover, sending back
pictures of and data about the
ringed planet.
In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, the
schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V.
Andropov resulted in her famous
peace tour of the Soviet Union,
died with her father in an airliner
crash in Auburn, Maine, that also
killed four other passengers and
two crew members.
In 2001, R&B singer Aaliyah was
killed with eight others in a plane
crash in the Bahamas; she was 22.
In 2009, Sen. Edward M. Ken-
nedy, the liberal lion of the U.S.
Senate, died at age 77 in Hyannis
Port, Massachusetts, after a battle
with a brain tumor.
In 2014, a funeral was held in St.
Louis for Michael Brown, the Black
18-year-old who was shot to death
by a police officer in suburban
Ferguson.
In 2018, Sen. John McCain of
Arizona, who had spent years as a
prisoner of war in Vietnam before
a 35-year political career that took
him to the Republican presidential
nomination, died at the age of 81
after battling brain cancer for more
than a year.
In 2020, two people were shot
to death and a third was wounded
as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse
opened fire with an AR-15-style
rifle during a third night of pro-
tests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over
the police shooting of a Black
man, Jacob Blake. (Rittenhouse,
who was taken into custody in
Illinois the next day, said he was
defending himself after the three
men attacked him as he tried to
protect businesses from protesters;
he was acquitted on all charges,
including homicide.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Tom
Skerritt is 89. Jazz musician Wayne
Shorter is 89. Movie director Hugh
Hudson is 86. Author Frederick
Forsyth is 84. Movie director John
Badham is 83. Filmmaker Mar-
shall Brickman is 83. R&B singer
Walter Williams (The O’Jays) is 79.
Actor Anthony Heald is 78. Rock
singer-actor Gene Simmons is 73.
Actor John Savage is 73. Author
Martin Amis is 73. Country sing-
er-musician Henry Paul (Outlaws;
Blackhawk) is 73. Rock singer Rob
Halford is 71. Rock musician Geoff
Downes (Asia) is 70. Rock singer
Elvis Costello is 68. Movie director
Tim Burton is 64. Actor Christian
LeBlanc is 64. Actor Ashley Crow is
62. Actor Ally Walker is 61. Country
singer Cyrus (AKA Billy Ray Cyrus)
is 61. Actor Joanne Whalley is 61.
Rock musician Vivian Campbell
(Def Leppard) is 60. Actor Blair
Underwood is 58. Actor Robert
Maschio is 56. Rap DJ Terminator
X (Public Enemy) is 56. Alternative
country singer Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
is 55. Actor David Alan Basche is
54. Television chef Rachael Ray
is 54. Actor Cameron Mathison is
53. Country singer Jo Dee Mes-
sina is 52. Model Claudia Schiffer
is 52. Country singer Brice Long
is 51. Actor Nathan Page is 51.
Actor-writer-director Ben Falcone
is 49. Actor Eric Millegan is 48.
Actor Alexander Skarsgard is 46.
Actor Jonathan Togo is 45. Actor
Kel Mitchell is 44. Actor Rachel
Bilson is 41. Actor Blake Lively is 35.
Actor Josh Flitter is 28.
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.
LOTTERY
Monday, Aug. 22, 2022
Megabucks
25-32-33-35-36-40
Estimated jackpot: $5.1 million
Lucky Lines
1-7-9-14-20-21-27-31
Estimated jackpot: $20,000
Win for Life
32-38-41-63
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 1-5-9-3
4 p.m.: 1-2-4-9
7 p.m.: 3-4-5-4
10 p.m.: 2-1-1-3
Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022
Mega Millions
3-5-47-48-67
Mega Ball: 7
Megaplier: 2
Estimated jackpot: $135
million
Lucky Lines
2-8-9-13-20-24-28-30
Estimated jackpot: $21,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 4-1-8-6
4 p.m.: 2-8-1-0
7 p.m.: 7-0-1-0
10 p.m.: 1-5-3-7
LOCAL
THuRSday, auguST 25, 2022
Superintendent: ‘We should be fine’ Schools
Insurance will
getting
cover many losses
Wallowa schools
COVID-
suffered due to the
Aug. 11 hailstorm
ready
By DICK MASON
Little has changed
since spring in
Wallowa County
classrooms
The Observer
WALLOWA — The
severe hailstorm that bat-
tered the Wallowa School
District’s campus earlier
this month will not shake
the district’s financial
stability.
“Insurance should take
care of everything we
need. We should be fine,”
Wallowa School District
Superintendent Tammy
Jones said.
The superintendent
said representatives of the
school district’s insurance
companies have indicated
that the Wal-
lowa School
District will
have most of
its losses cov-
ered. This
means the
new roofs
Jones
needed for
the school district’s major
buildings will be covered
by insurance, Jones said.
She said that as long as a
building has a foundation,
most restoration work will
be covered.
The roof replacement
will be done starting with
the roofs most seriously
damaged. The roof of the
high school’s gym and of
the building that houses
the school district’s voca-
tion-agriculture and music
programs will be replaced
first. Next the roof of Wal-
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Katy Nesbitt/For the Wallowa County Chieftain
An onsite construction trailer sits at the Wallowa School District campus on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. The
trailer lost its windows during the Aug. 11 hailstorm.
lowa Elementary School
will be replaced and finally
the roof of Wallowa High
School. The goal is to have
all of the roofs replaced
before winter, Jones said.
Temporary repair mea-
sures for the roofs have
already been taken. Tarps
have been placed over the
roofs of the high school
gym and the building
housing the school dis-
trict’s vocation-agricul-
ture and music programs.
Sealing work has been
done on the roofs of the
elementary school and the
high school.
Some water from the
thunderstorm that brought
the hail seeped through the
damaged roofs. Computers
and printers in classrooms
were seriously damaged as
a result but little else. Jones
said it has not been deter-
mined if insurance will
cover the cost of replacing
the computers and printers.
Items lost to the hail-
storm include the school
district’s greenhouse, its
Ford Expedition SUV, and
the scoreboard and field
lights at the football field.
Jones said it is not known
if insurance will cover
these losses.
Another expense the
Wallowa School District
will have to pay for will
be removing the glass that
fell from the football field’s
lights. About half of the
field will have to be vacu-
umed before games can be
played on it, Jones said.
The Aug. 11 hailstorm
that caused damage on the
Wallowa School District
campus struck the Wallowa
community with equal
force, leaving a high per-
centage of its homes with
badly damaged roofs and
windows.
The school district will
reach out to storm victims
in a big way on Friday,
Aug. 26, when it will con-
duct an open house from
noon to 2 p.m. Many items
will be provided to fami-
lies at the event, including
shoes, clothing, bedding
and backpacks — items
that will help the commu-
nity’s children be ready
for the new school year.
School will start in the
Wallowa School District
on Monday, Aug. 29, four
days later than originally
scheduled due to the storm.
Jones said the school
district’s staff wants to
make sure everything pos-
sible is done to help fam-
ilies, especially their
children.
“We want to make sure
that the kids feel safe and
cared for,” Jones said.
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Grande Ronde
Model Watershed to host joint volunteer event
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
The Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest and the
Grande Ronde Model
Watershed are teaming
up to celebrate National
Public Lands Day on Sat-
urday, Sept. 24.
The two organizations
are hosting Public Lands
Day at Bird Track Springs
Restoration Site along
the Grande Ronde River,
about 14 miles southwest
of La Grande.
The event will take
place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The public is invited to
engage in hands-on proj-
ects including trail main-
tenance, monitoring water
quality, trash removal and
art and storytelling activ-
ities. Free transportation
to the event is available. A
bus will depart at 8:30 a.m.
from the Community Sta-
dium parking lot. The bus
will return at 1 p.m.
National Public Lands
Day is celebrated annu-
ally across the nation on
the fourth Saturday of
September. Started by
the National Environ-
mental Education Founda-
tion, NPLD is the nation’s
largest single-day volun-
teer event for public lands,
which include city parks
to national parks and
forests.
The Grande Ronde
subbasin is a tributary to
the Snake River and part
of the Columbia River
basin. The watershed sus-
tains thousands of acres
of forested and canyon
lands throughout North-
east Oregon on public and
private property and is
home to spring Chinook
salmon, summer steel-
head, bull trout, resident
trout and other native fish
species along with elk,
deer, river otters, great
gray owls, goshawks, bald
eagles and many other
wildlife species.
The long-term resto-
ration vision for the Bird
Track Springs Fish Hab-
itat Enhancement Project
is to improve physical
and ecological processes
by rehabilitating and
restoring the river channel
and floodplain to achieve
immediate and long-term
benefits to chinook, steel-
head and bull trout at all
life stages.
NEWS BRIEFS
Police release description of
suspect in armed robbery
ISLAND CITY — The Union
County Sheriff’s Office has released
information about the individual
believed to be responsible for the
armed robbery at Island City Market
& Deli on Saturday, Aug. 20.
The suspect is a white male
between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10. His
last known direction of travel was
south on South McAlister Lane. The
individual left the store on foot.
Anyone who can identify this
individual or has any informa-
tion about him should call the
Union County Sheriff’s Office at
541-963-1017.
Nobody was hurt in the robbery,
which occurred around 7:30 p.m. The
robber left the store with an undis-
closed amount of money, according
to the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
Oregon’s rural health care
facilities receive federal aid
LA GRANDE — Oregon State
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
announced Thursday, Aug. 18, that
$346,000 in federal funding from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture
will be allocated to health care facil-
ities in rural Oregon communities —
including Union County.
Elgin Health District is one of the
three recipients of these emergency
rural health care grants. The district
will use this $49,900 investment to
purchase equipment to start a tele
pharmacy and bolster capabilities to
respond to COVID-19.
The city of Elgin has been
without a pharmacy for 15 years.
Residents must drive 20 miles to La
Grande to pick up their prescription.
The Elgin Health District clinic,
built in 2008, currently offers med-
ical, dental and limited behavioral
health services, but does not have a
pharmacy.
“No matter your zip code, every
Oregonian should have easy access
to the care they need,” Wyden said in
the Thursday press release.
The health care clinic will use
this funding to purchase and install
telepharmacy equipment at the clinic
location and at Grande Ronde Hos-
pital in La Grande, according to the
press release.
Two other facilities — one in
Clatsop County and one in Lane
County — will also receive funding
for what the Senate news release
called a “Rural Development
investment.”
Of the funds, $237,900 will be
used to purchase two new food dis-
tribution trucks and food storage
equipment for Clatsop Community
Action food distribution facility in
Warrenton.
In Lane County, South Lane
Mental Health will receive $58,200
to purchase a covered gazebo, picnic
tables and chairs to facilitate out-
door COVID safe therapy sessions,
as well as implement security and
safety measures in the Cottage
Grove office.
“This crucial funding will better
equip Clatsop, Lane, and Union
Counties with the tools needed to
address hunger and improve health
in the community, by updating
existing food distribution facilities,
making treatment facility improve-
ments and ensuring easy and reliable
access to pharmacies for our rural
communities,” Merkley said in the
joint press statement on Thursday.
Traffic delays west of
Wallowa planned
WALLOWA — Drivers can
expect delays just west of Wallowa,
as work continues on the bridge
over the Wallowa River, the Oregon
Department of Transportation
announced.
Traffic will be controlled by flag-
gers or a temporary traffic signal
there during working hours, and by
the temporary traffic signal during
nonworking hours. Delays of as
much as 20 minutes 24/7. The signal
is expected to remain in place until
both travel lanes are available again
early this fall.
The contractor is installing false-
work — temporary framework
structures — and constructing
forms for construction of the new
bridge concrete superstructure.
Rebar placement will begin this
week.
Washington man dies in
cycle crash near Enterprise
ENTERPRISE — A Clarkston,
Washington, man died Saturday, Aug.
20, as a result of injuries suffered in
a single-vehicle motorcycle crash
on Zumwalt Road near Enterprise,
according to a press release from the
Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office.
Karl Daniel Schmidt, 34, was pro-
nounced dead at the scene. The crash
occurred less than a mile from Crow
Creek Road.
Deputies, medics and Oregon
State Police responded to the scene,
the release stated.
No other information was
available.
— EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — As
Wallowa County schools pre-
pare for a new school year,
another look at keeping kids
safe from COVID-19 is a
major part of administrators’
concerns.
Becky Nordtvedt, the
new superintendent for the
Wallowa County Educa-
tional Service District, said
Thursday, Aug. 18, that each
school district sets its own
policies and those plans must
be submitted to the Oregon
Department of Education by
Friday, Aug. 26 — or the first
day of school, whichever is
earliest.
The first day of school
for Enterprise students is
Monday, Aug. 29, while
Joseph students go back
Wednesday, Aug. 24. Wal-
lowa students were to return
Aug. 25, but damage to
buildings caused by the Aug.
11 hailstorm delayed that to
Aug. 29.
The Oregon Health
Authority and the ODE
held a press conference
Wednesday, Aug. 18, to dis-
cuss any changes for the
coming school year.
Colt Gill, ODE director,
emphasized during the con-
ference that nearly all health
and safety protocols will be
locally determined by district
leaders in conjunction with
local health officials.
Some statewide rules
remain in effect, Nordtvedt
confirmed, such as requiring
vaccinations — or approved
exceptions — for faculty and
staff.
But most requirements,
such as face masks, social
distancing, ventilation pro-
tocols and testing for the
coronavirus remain in local
hands.
Nordtvedt said she is not
aware of the specifics of each
district’s plan that will be
submitted, but she believes
they’re all quite similar, since
the county has a number
of students who may live
near one school and attend
another.
“The beauty is all of our
schools have very similar
plans,” she said. “In terms of
what things looked like in the
(past) spring, I think it’ll be
similar.”
Last spring, the state lifted
the requirement that students
and staff wear face masks,
but anyone is allowed to wear
one if they choose.
However, she said,
“Things can change if the
COVID transmission rates
change.”
Tom Crane, superinten-
dent at Enterprise schools,
said district officials meet
monthly instead of weekly
with Dr. Elizabeth Powers
at Wallowa Memorial Hos-
pital and get updates on the
current COVID situation,
such as whether the number
of cases is increasing or
decreasing and the number of
available hospital beds.
But this fall, there’s little
change from the spring,
when much of local con-
trol returned. In March, dis-
tricts changed to optional
face masks, social distancing
of 3 feet, daily monitoring
for COVID symptoms and
testing if one or more symp-
toms were discovered or a
known exposure to someone
sick with COVID was
determined.
“That’s where we’ll be
this year,” Crane said.
“It’s still about choice,”
he added. “We may have
students and staff who
want to wear masks and we
encourage them to” if they
choose.
Officials at Joseph Charter
School were unavailable for
comment.