REGION
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Wallowa Lake Dam reconstruction plans underway
New project will
allow better fish
passage
By KATY NESBITT
For the EO Media Group
With
$16
million
earmarked in Gov. Kate
Brown’s budget to rebuild
the Wallowa Lake Dam,
irrigators are preparing for
its reconstruction in August
2020.
The Wallowa Lake Irri-
gation District owns the
100-year-old dam, long in
need of repair to ensure
safety for downstream
communities. When news
broke that the governor’s
budget included money for
the dam, the district’s board
of directors hired McMillen
Jacobs Associates of Boise
to manage the project.
At a public meeting
Jan. 16 in Joseph, Morton
McMillen said his timeline
is aggressive, but doable,
putting shovel to dirt in 18
months and completing
construction by the end of
June 2021.
McMillen said, “We need
to implement a schedule that
ensures completion within
Katy Nesbitt/For the Capital Press
The Wallowa Lake Dam will be rebuilt if $16 million in Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed budget
passes the legislature.
the state funding cycles.”
The board has been
getting ready for this
moment. Dan Butterfield,
the district’s board presi-
dent, said McMillen first
drew a conceptual recon-
struction design in 2002, but
money was always an issue.
“Mort’s been ready for a
long time,” Butterfield said.
“We got really close a couple
times to getting funding and
then it fell out.”
Now that funding is on
the horizon, McMillen said
he is focusing on regula-
tory and permit issues and
refining the conceptual
design in order to choose the
best alternative by July 1.
In February, McMillen
said he will present the work
plan and schedule to the
governor’s office followed
by meetings with the office
of Oregon Dam Safety and
local fisheries managers
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife and the Nez
Perce Tribe.
“We will have the
pre-planning work complete
when the full budget is allo-
cated,” McMillen said.
That starts about a
one-year clock for McMil-
len’s team to prepare the
final plans and specifica-
tions for the dam rehabilita-
tion, including fish passage.
In August 2020 the lake
will be drawn down and
the dam demolished in
September. McMillen said
he is leaving the founda-
tion of the existing dam
because it has adhered to
soil, creating a seal, and will
build on top of it.
The concrete at the base
is friction locked and we
don’t want to dig it up,”
McMillen said. “We will
peel off the bad concrete and
encapsulate the whole thing
— and have a 100-year dam
by doing that.”
While additional funding
may be sought to help pay
for screening downstream
diversions, McMillen said
he anticipates he can achieve
all of the rehabilitation goals
with the $16 million in
governor’s the budget.
The dam will be commis-
sioned, complete with fish
passage in 2021, McMillen
said.
Fish passage opens the
possibility of reintroducing
sockeye salmon to Wallowa
Lake, a species long extinct
from the Grande Ronde
River system.
Jeff Heindel, project
manager for McMillen
Jacobs Associates, said the
brood stock will likely come
from Redfish Lake in Idaho
where Snake River sockeye
were reintroduced several
years ago.
“It’s a great system
to reintroduce sockeye,”
Heindel said. “We know
the forest health benefits
of anadromous fish — our
generation is already seeing
the impacts of lakes without
salmon carcasses.”
Irrigators along five
ditches benefit directly
from diverted water from
Wallowa Lake, but Aaron
Maxwell of the Nez Perce
Tribe asked if Wallowa
River downstream water
users were being taken into
account.
Joe Dawson, the district’s
secretary, said a lower
Wallowa River Valley irri-
gator, Dennis Henderson,
requested that he and his
neighbors be included
in conversations about
rebuilding the dam.
BRIEFLY
Display features zodiac prints
HERMISTON — The artwork of Denisia Leon is
featured during the month of January at the Hermiston
Public Library.
While attending Oregon State University, the 2014
Hermiston High School graduate fell in love with print-
making. She created a “zodiac series” by carving out
the signs on a piece of linoleum and then using a press
to print them. Most of the small prints featured in the
exhibit are a result of Leon’s senior show.
“My goal is to make art that I love and will always be
proud of,” she said.
The library is open Monday through Thursdays from
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday/Saturdays from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. It’s located at 235 E. Gladys Ave. For more infor-
mation, call 541-567-2882 or visit www.hermistonli-
brary.us.
IMAC serves monthly breakfast
Photo contributed by Tamastslikt Cultural Institute
“Anatomy of Travel (Horse Curiosity)” by Phineas Barker was among the entries for the 2018 ArtWORKz Junior Art Show &
Competition. Submissions for this year’s event are due Jan. 30 at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.
IRRIGON — A hearty home-cooked meal is avail-
able during the Irrigon Multicultural Arts Center fund-
raising breakfast.
The event is Saturday from 7:30-10:30 a.m. at Stokes
Landing Senior Center, 150 Columbia Lane, Irrigon. The
cost is $4.50 per person.
The group is dedicated to preserving Irrigon’s 1921
school building and developing a regional art venue. For
more information, call Peggy Price at 541-567-3806.
Junior art show showcases youth talent
Exhibit submissions
due Jan. 30
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
All area artists ages 18
and under are invited to
enter the 2019 ArtWORKz
Junior Art Show & Compe-
tition at Tamástslikt Cultural
Institute
In addition to showing
their work in a professional
gallery setting, participants
will vie for prize awards,
which will be presented
during a public reception.
Also, artists may offer their
works for sale during the
show. The artist will set
their own price and Tamást-
slikt will collect a 30 percent
commission on artwork
sold.
All art media forms are
welcome, including digital
computer-generated art and
traditional tribal artforms.
Past entries have included
everything from sculptures,
paintings and drawings to
printmaking, photography
and fiber art. Submissions
may be an individual’s work
or the result of a collabora-
tive effort. For group pieces,
all artists are to be identified
and must be under the age
of 19.
Each artist may enter one
piece into the show. There
is no entry fee. Submissions
are due by Wednesday, Jan.
30 at Tamástslikt.
The show runs Feb. 9
through March 30. Admis-
sion to the exhibit is free on
the opening day. The artists’
reception, which includes
awards presentations, is
Saturday, March 9 at 1 p.m.
Awards will include
grand prizes, awards of
excellence and awards of
merit in each age cate-
gory. In addition, honorable
mentions will be presented
at the judge’s discretion.
Staff from Tamástslikt will
select the best emerging
artist, and participants will
vote for an artists’ choice
award.
Tamástslikt is located off
Interstate 84 Exit 216, near
Wildhorse Resort & Casino,
Mission. The museum
is open Monday through
Saturday from 10 a.m to
5 p.m. Regular admission is
$10 for adults, $9 for seniors,
$7 for students/youths and
free for ages 5 and under.
For more information,
including ArtWORKz entry
forms, visit www.tamast-
slikt.org. For questions,
contact Randy Melton,
collections
curator,
at
541-429-7700 or randall.
melton@tamastslikt.org.
———
Contact Community
Editor Tammy Malgesini at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539
HAPPY 50th
ANNIVERSARY!
Harold & Sarah Bruce
Married January 24, 1969
St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t
Dr Schwartz is
now accepting
new patients.
Local radio station powers up with new turbine
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The community radio
station KBLU now has a
better turbine to power its
signal.
The nonprofit operates
from a small office on 413
S.E. Fourth St., Pendleton,
but relies on solar panels
and a turbine to power its
50-foot-tall antenna atop a
blustery hill south of Pilot
Rock. Husband and wife
Gary Betts and Virginia
Blakelock founded the
nonprofit Blue Moun-
tain Community Radio
Inc. to provide local radio.
The couple, with the help
of KLBU board member
Karen Wagner, recently
braved the slippery road
along West Birch Creek
and high winds to install an
11-blade fan on the turbine
to improve performance.
“I opened my [pickup]
door and I thought it was
going to rip the door right
off the hinges,” Betts said.
“It did bend them.”
The gusts proved too
much, so the trio packed it in
and returned the following
day. Betts said the weather
was about to best them
again, but they put their
backs and shoulders and
legs into hefting the turbine
into place and securing it
within guidelines.
“The three of us walked
it up just pushing on it,”
he said. “We got it up —
I couldn’t believe it. … It
was whirring along and
putting out the power like
anything.”
Betts and company had
to wait weeks for the parts
to upgrade the turbine. The
upshot has been the reliably
of the solar panels. They are
on a 17-degree tilt perpen-
dicular to the sun to maxi-
mize power during the
shorter days of winter. Betts
also said the slope is enough
that snow falls off the panels
rather than piles on.
KBLU’s upgrades are
not finished. Betts said in
the coming weeks they aim
to install a more powerful
transmitter. Soon enough,
he said, the station’s signal
should reach into the “brick
canyon” of Pendleton’s
downtown. Betts explained
all the iron oxide in the red
brick in many of Pendleton’s
historic buildings blocks
weaker transmissions.
You can tune into KBLU
at 90.5 FM and find a variety
of programming, from local
poets reading their work
to old time radio shows to
jazz, country and classical
music. To find out more
about KBLU, visit www.
kblu-fm.org/cgi/index.rb.
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