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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Cars: ‘We’re caretakers of the cars’
Continued from Page A1
run by nonprofit organiza-
tions, generate money that
allow the clubs to hand out
gift cards to residents, buy
school supplies for strug-
gling students or donate to
women’s shelters and warm-
ing stations. He noted shows,
such as the annual Hermiston
Cool Rides Car Show, attract
car owners from as far as
Seattle or Portland to display
their chrome-covered rides
for thousands of visitors.
Lopez said the pandemic
last year shut down the events,
but this year, with new guid-
ance from the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion, they can resume again
as the shows themselves take
place outside, with minimal
risk of spreading the virus.
That’s good news for classic
car collectors who call East-
ern Oregon home.
“We have a lot of fun
with these cars. It’s almost
as if we’re in our right mind.
People say, ‘Look at those
guys, they’re still living like
they’re in the ‘50s and ‘60s —
and they’re right,” Lund said.
Lund, who ow ns a
modest collection of cars
he’s acquired and restored
over 40 years, keeps dice
on every rearview mirror.
But the cars he owns aren’t
just for showing off. Rather,
they hold personal stories of
a time when drive-ins were
king, a few dollars would
buy a burger and a full tank
of gas, and cruising “the gut”
was Friday night fun.
“My wife says I never get
rid of anything,” he said. “I
kept her for 51 years. She’s a
keeper.”
Of his collection, most
notable is the deep mahog-
any 1951 Chevrolet Bel-Air
— round and sleek with
plenty of chrome. It’s his
wife Dixie’s favorite car. It’s
also the second car he’d ever
owned, though upgraded
with newer mechanics and
brakes, putting some serious
power behind the wheel. And
the pair of fuzzy dice hang-
ing from the rearview mirror.
“You gotta have dice,” he
said.
Lund gets a kick out of
the reactions people have to
seeing a classic roll along.
“You can’t go down the
street without putting a smile
on people’s faces, and that’s
what it’s all about,” Lund
said as he drove down Adams
Avenue in La Grande. “The
whole idea, for me, is bring-
ing joy to other people, and
helping them remember a
much simpler, less stressful
time.”
Lund stepped on the gas
as he exited town and turned
on to Mount Glenn Road.
The gentle hum of the 1951
Chevrolet Bel-Air turned to a
thunderous roar as he shifted
into second, then third gear.
He smiled and cruised down
the road.
“Yeah,” Lund said, “it’s
got some power.”
Lund drove to meet fellow
car enthusiast Ken Leavitt, of
Island City. Leavitt, who long
since has sold off most of his
collection of cars — nearly
30, at one point — and now
only has a Chevrolet Corvair.
It was through Leavitt that
Lund was able to restore
some of the cars he owns.
“We’ve been friends since
1986. He’s been helpful to
me over the years, whenever
I run into problems fixing
things,” Lund said.
“And get you into deeper
problems,” Leavitt replied.
Car lovers
Love for classic cars, as it
turns out, is rather common
among Lund’s generation.
Around 40 members belong
to the Timber Cruisers Car
Club — and those are just
the dues-paying members.
Many more exist in La
Grande alone that have one
or two classic cars sitting in
a garage or barn or even in
front of their house collect-
ing rust.
It’s the latter that inter-
ests local classic car restor-
ers, such as Ken Bruce and
Leavitt.
Bruce is the type of collec-
tor for whom a car rusting in
a field is a personal challenge,
the silent voice of a frozen
engine like a siren song of
yesteryear. He only needs to
Port of Morrow/Contributed Photo
Contractors work on the expansion of the Port of Mor-
row’s freezer warehouse in 2019. At least 15 workers left
the warehouse on March 21, 2020, after an exposure to
the coronavirus. Port commissioners in the days after
that held executive sessions. The commissioners have
acknowledged they violated the state statutes guiding
those closed-door meetings.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Ken Leavitt’s cherry-red Chevrolet Corvair stands out Thursday, May 6, 2021, against the
backdrop of a shop near Island City Market & Deli, Island City. As summer approaches, more
vintage cars will be hitting the road to join classic car shows — including the Elgin Riverfest
car show Saturday, June 19, which sees hundreds of vintage car collectors across the county
congregate to show off their rides.
probe his memory to recall
what the engine should sound
like.
Along with restoring the
mechanics of classic cars,
Bruce is an especially skilled
mechanic in another way —
his ability to procure obscure
parts for classic automobiles
throughout the country is
remarkable. He searched
as far as Shelburne, Massa-
chusetts, which is where he
got parts for a 1966 Chevro-
let Corvair he was working
on. Little did he know, a car
collector in California was
working on the same car,
only three serial numbers
apart.
“I was working on that ‘66
one time and I called up for
something,” Bruce recalled,
“and the girl answered —
her name was Cheyenne,
I’ll never forget it — and she
answered and she said, ‘What
can I get you today?’ and I
gave her the list and she said,
‘Y’know, would it be alright
if I put that on your friend’s
account?’”
Bruce became cautious.
“I said, ‘Well, let’s be
careful, I don’t have too many
friends, and I don’t want to
wear out the friends I have,’”
he recalled. “‘Do you know
who it is?’ And she replied,
‘Yeah, you know him really
well — it’s Jay Leno.’”
Leno, American come-
dian and TV host, is an avid
collector, with some sources
pegging his sprawling collec-
tion at more than 150 cars and
160 motorcycles, from a 427
Shelby Cobra to McLaren P1
supercars. Leno and Bruce
had long since shared corre-
spondence, relishing over
new project cars they had
been working on, and how
much labor goes into restor-
ing the classic cars to their
former glory.
“They represent the abil-
ity to appreciate what we did
in an earlier time,” Bruce
said. “This is how we got to
where we are today.”
Bruce said Leno once
relayed that his restorations
would cost tens of thousands
to finish, only to turn around
and sell the car to a neighbor
for a fraction of the cost.
“If you go into this sort
of craft or this sort of profes-
sion, don’t ever go into it with
the intention of making any
money because you probably
won’t,” Bruce said. “If you
do, it’s going to be an excep-
tion.”
‘So much chrome’
Maintenance comes with
the territory.
In the past, cars came with
instructions in the user manu-
als on how to adjust valve
timings and other involved
procedures, a far cry from the
types of guidance you receive
with a newer car. Older cars
also had a certain panache,
according to the collectors
— the kind of style that you
don’t see on newer models.
“The stylings (on new
cars), really, are not good,”
said Leonard Wolf, a classic
car collector from Baker City,
during a meetup at the Baker
City Truck Corral, just off
Interstate 84 in Baker City.
A few of the collectors
who met for the Sunday
gathering nodded in agree-
ment. The group, which was
formerly known as the Char-
ley’s Angels due to meeting
up at Charley’s Deli & Ice
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Ken Leavitt flips through a photobook containing photos
of the numerous classic cars he has worked on through the
years in his Island City home on Friday, May 28, 2021. Leavitt,
retired, has sold off most of his cars, but can recall the work
he put into each vehicle. He remembered restoring one of his
first cars by painting it in the driveway, which he said wasn’t
a great idea at the time.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Ken Schuh of Baker City, wearing a Hawaiian shirt displaying
classic coupes, sits with a group of other classic car enthusi-
asts at Baker City Truck Corral on Sunday, June 7, 2021. The
group of nearly a dozen classic car collectors meets every
Sunday at the diner to swap stories and socialize.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Ken Bruce rests his hand on the front emblem of his family’s
1941 Buick Business Coupe in his Island City garage on Tues-
day, June 1, 2021. Bruce says that of the 99,000 miles on the
car, nearly all of them are from his adventures, and noted
that in his youth and college days, he would pick up young
women in this car and “teach them how to dance and drink
beer.”
Cream in Baker City, has
nearly a dozen members.
“There’s a few of them out
there that look pretty nice,”
Wolf said. “Others you can’t
even tell the brand because
they all look the same.”
The collectors gave vary-
ing responses to what they
find appealing about yester-
year’s rides, from form to
quality, but they all agreed
on one point:
“Chrome,” said Ken
Schuh, an avid collector and
long-time car enthusiast.
“So much ch rome,”
continued Sandy Payton,
another collector.
Lee Swiger, sitting across
from Wolf, flicked through
his phone while waiting for
his breakfast to arrive.
“I have lots of pictures of
cars on my phone,” Swiger
said, looking for a photo of
a DeSoto he owns. “I don’t
have any pictures of grand-
kids, but I’ve got pictures
of cars.”
Who comes next?
Classic cars and their
owners shared eras. As an
older generation leaves, a
question remains.
“What will kids restore
as they get older? What will
they like?” Lund said.
A fair few will, of course,
find an interest in the cars,
especially those for whom
classic cars run in the
family. Others, the collec-
tors contemplated, will move
on to start their own classic
car clubs with now-modern
vehicles.
“When they hit 50 years
old, they’ll be trying to find a
Datsun or a Nissan,” Swiger
said.
“We’re caretakers of the
cars,” Lund said. “We’re just
caretakers for this time in our
lives, and we’ll pass it on to
somebody else. Hopefully
they’ll appreciate the hobby,
and hopefully make people
smile just as much as we
do today.”
Ethics:
Continued from Page A1
According to the prelim-
inary reviews, the violations
came to light when perfor-
mance auditor Ariana
Denney of the Oregon
Secretary of State Audits
Division was conducting an
audit related to the federal
stimulus bill known as the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief
and Economic Security Act,
or CARES Act. Denney
detailed the complaint in an
email on Nov. 6, 2020.
The port’s commission in
March 2020 created a bank
of 80 hours of emergency
paid sick leave for COVID-
19 and approved payments
of any unused portion of
the leave to all employees in
December 2020 as an incen-
tive to keep them coming to
work during the pandemic.
The port commission
discussed the leave payout
during executive sessions
during two special meet-
ings on March 23 and 26,
according to the ethics
commission’s review, while
discussing specific staff
members’ medical condi-
tions. Denney learned of
the sessions while exchang-
ing emails with Eileen
Hendricks, the port’s chief
financial officer, who was
addressing how the port
determined spending the
federal money was neces-
sary to respond to the coro-
navirus crisis.
Oregon law allows
the discussion of medical
records of personnel in an
executive session, had the
commission advertised the
session under the correct
Oregon Revised Statute
for discussing informa-
tion “exempt by law for
public inspection” instead
of advertising it as a discus-
sion of “leases and legal.”
But the leave payout does
not fall under the reasons
Oregon allows for govern-
ing bodies to meet out of the
public’s eye.
Port commissioners said
the violation happened at
emergency meetings during
a time of immense pressure
as they attempted to navi-
gate executive orders shut-
ting down businesses while
keeping essential services
at the port running and
trying to protect thousands
of workers there.
Healy called it an unde-
niable mistake, but an
inadvertent one. He said if
people look at the commis-
sion’s agendas dating back
for years, they will see that
each one includes a poten-
tial executive session to
discuss leases and legal
issues, such as lease negoti-
ations between the port and
private companies inter-
ested in locating there.
“Ninety nine point
nine percent of the time,
that’s what those executive
sessions are about,” he said.
Commissioners knew
they were able to talk about
employees’ medical condi-
tions in executive session
and simply forgot to update
their standard agenda line to
the correct ORS number, he
said, and then strayed into
territory they shouldn’t have
when they also discussed
the leave policy.
They did hold the vote on
the policy in public session,
he pointed out.
According to the ethics
commission’s preliminary
reviews, executive orders on
COVID-19 shutdowns and
two events on March 21,
2020, set the stage for the
pair of executive sessions.
That day the por t
commission and manage-
ment staff received notice
that port Executive Direc-
tor Ryan Neal was “out for
an undisclosed reason for
an undisclosed amount of
time,” the reviews stated.
Management staff also
received information about
a major COVID-19 scare
at the freezer warehouse,
where at least 15 employees
left work in a panic about
being exposed.
The preliminary review
stated the port commission-
ers “appear to recognize
their errors relating to these
two executive sessions and
are receptive to taking steps
to improve their compli-
ance” with the law.
Padberg echoed his
colleagues, telling the East
Oregonian that commis-
sioners did not deny they
had made a mistake and
were committed to not
letting it happen again. He
said they were not trying
to hide anything from the
public.
“It was just a slip on our
part. There wasn’t some
kind of secret deal going on
between commissioners,”
he said.
Jim Doherty, who sits on
the Morrow County Board
of Commissioners, was
critical of the mistake, but
acknowledged it was “easy
to stray” from public record
law. He said he believes the
incident will lead to more
transparency in the port.
“I think you want to be
open and honest and trans-
parent, so I think this is
healthy, ultimately,” he said.
Doherty said he heard
from officials close to the
state’s investigation that the
findings were supposed to
be released in late April,
right around the time of
the board’s election. But
for some reason, he said,
it got set back. He said that
was unfortunate, because
he believes the outcome of
some of the races in the May
18 election might have been
different.
Stokoe, Healy and
Taylor were up for reelec-
tion, and all retained their
seats despite challengers for
Stokoe and Healy.
“A few of the folks that
I’ve just talked to down-
town have said, well,
likely they’d have punched
a different ticket in light
of this,” Doherty said.
“I think you’re talking a
couple hundred votes was
the difference.”
Oregon Government
Ethics Commission inves-
tigator Susan Myers
prepared the final orders,
and she, ethics commission
Executive Director Ronald
Berson and Assistant Attor-
ney General Joshua Nasbe
signed off on the orders
March 23.
The five members of
the port board agreed to
the orders and signed them
before Dan Mason, the chair
of the Oregon Government
Ethics Commission, signed
each order on June 11,
making them public.
Despite a report from
another media outlet, the
ethics commission did not
fine the port members.
Oregon law allows the
ethics commission to issue
fines of $1,000 per viola-
tion of executive session
laws, but in most cases
the commission instead
issues letters of education.
That is what happens in
this case.