NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Progress made on EOU fieldhouse
Athletic facility is
about eight months
from completion
ing brings to EOU will be felt
for many years to come. It’s
great to hear students talking
about the new building and
saying, ‘I can’t wait to get
in there.’ It’s going to be
awesome.”
The facility will provide
space for the Mountaineers’
athletic teams to workout in
the winter and other times
of the year when there is
inclement weather. Some
EOU track athletes may view
it as a second home because
it will have a small track, a
runway and sandpit for long
jumpers and triple jumpers
and pole vaulting facilities.
The structure also will
house a classroom for East-
ern’s Health and Human
Performance program that
will double as a lab. In addi-
tion, the facility will be the
new home of the univer-
sity’s Outdoor Adventure
Program, now in the Hoke
Union Building. The space
for the program will feature a
40-by-47-foot indoor climb-
ing center.
Upper-level features will
include a mezzanine above
the classroom space.
Once completed, the
fieldhouse will be the larg-
est building of its kind at
any college or university in
Oregon, Washington and
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
athletic skyline at Eastern
Oregon University in La
Grande is rising.
The $9 million fieldhouse,
which is under construction
on the south side of campus,
will be at least 60,000 square
feet and have a top height of
about 33 feet. The facility is
expected to be completed by
April 2022 and be ready for
use by students and student
athletes by fall 2022, accord-
ing to John Garlitz, EOU’s
director of planning and
facilities.
The steel frame for the
fieldhouse is nearly complete
and soon exterior panels will
be installed, providing the
protection from the weather
for crews to do extensive
interior work this winter.
“Seeing the fieldhouse
come to life is a welcome
addition to our campus,”
said Tim Seydel, Eastern’s
vice president for univer-
sity advancement. “The
improved capacity and
opportunities this new build-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
The steel frame of Eastern Oregon University’s new fieldhouse gives a sense of the facility’s
size against a blue sky on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021.
Idaho that is not a NCAA
Division I school, said Ben
Welch, EOU’s head men’s
and women’s track and field
coach.
“It will be a difference
maker for us,” he said.
Welch said he believes
some student athletes may
not fully appreciate what is
Forecast for Pendleton Area
being built because many
universities do not have such
facilities.
“I don’t know if they
totally understand the signif-
icance of this because they
have nothing to compare it
to,” he said.
Original designs for the
building called for it to have
88,300 gross square feet,
which would have allowed
for a 200-meter track,
making indoor track meets a
possibility. However, budget
constraints led to reducing
the space by about 25%.
Welch said the smaller
building and track still will
be a big plus for his team in
the winter. He said the track
team conducts its winter
practices in Quinn Colise-
um’s small gym, which has
4,545 square feet. But in the
fieldhouse, he said, his team
will have access to about
48,000 square feet for prac-
tices.
The track coach said the
south side of the fieldhouse
will be designed so an addi-
tional 80 feet could be added
later when funding becomes
available, providing the
space needed to house a
200-meter track and making
indoor track meets a possi-
bility.
Garlitz said the biggest
obstacle to getting the build-
ing constructed on sched-
ule is receiving construction
materials on time. He said
there continues to be ship-
ping delays because of
COVID-19.
Fieldhouses are more
common in the Midwest than
in the Northwest, accord-
ing to Welch, a University
of Kansas alum. Welch had
been working to help East-
ern get a fieldhouse since
coming to the university in
the 1990s.
“It has been a long-term
goal and dream,” he said. “It
is nice to see it coming to
fruition.”
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Mostly sunny and
nice
Showers and a
heavier t-storm
Partly sunny and
nice
Nice with clouds
and sun
Partly sunny and
pleasant
87° 60°
68° 52°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
75° 53°
73° 49°
75° 53°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
90° 63°
72° 57°
78° 52°
78° 49°
76° 53°
OREGON FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
68/54
85/58
88/57
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
88/64
Lewiston
75/55
90/64
Astoria
66/53
Pullman
Yakima 88/56
75/52
92/67
Portland
Hermiston
83/59
The Dalles 90/63
Salem
Corvallis
77/55
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
88/57
Eugene
Bend
84/57
85/55
Ontario
96/64
Caldwell
Burns
0.00"
0.00"
0.08"
1.93"
1.66"
5.39"
WINDS (in mph)
93/62
93/52
Ranchers lose appeal
over ‘grazing priority’
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
PRECIPITATION
John Day
93/58
From left to right, Mike Hanley and his wife, Linda, stand with daughter Martha Corrigan and
her husband, John, at the family’s ranch near Jordan Valley. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals has ruled against the family in its dispute with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
93°
57°
84°
50°
99° (1944) 34° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
79/56
0.00"
0.00"
0.12"
4.37"
8.68"
8.77"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 88/53
84/58
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
87/60
88/64
88°
57°
82°
53°
98° (1981) 34° (1910)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
77/53
Aberdeen
86/59
86/61
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
76/57
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press, File
ALMANAC
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
88/62
Fri.
WSW 4-8
WNW 6-12
SW 6-12
WSW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
86/50
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:26 a.m.
7:18 p.m.
9:28 a.m.
8:53 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Sep 13
Sep 20
Sep 28
Oct 6
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 111° in China Lake, Calif. Low 25° in Randolph, Utah
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
PORTLAND — An
Oregon ranch family has
failed to convince a federal
appeals court to preserve
their property’s “priority”
to graze livestock on public
allotments.
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals has ruled
that ranchers automatically
lose the “grazing preference”
for their property upon the
expiration of their permit to
release livestock onto federal
allotments.
The ruling has broad
implications for Western
ranchers, since it rejects legal
arguments that a private
“base” property must retain
its grazing preference even
if a grazing permit isn’t
renewed.
The 9th Circuit’s deci-
sion indicates the concept
of “grazing priority” doesn’t
mean much anymore, said
Mike Hanley, a rancher
involved in the litigation.
“It could be the death
knell of the Taylor Grazing
Act,” he said, referring to the
federal statute that regulates
public land livestock allot-
ments.
In practical terms, the
decision will make it tougher
for ranchers to transfer
private property, including
to family members, without
encountering heavy regula-
tory burdens, he said.
The case demonstrates
the difficulty of litigating
against the federal govern-
ment, particularly in the 9th
Circuit, Hanley said. “In the
long term, you’re going to
lose.”
Grazing preferences
provide private ranch prop-
erties with the top priority
to obtain grazing permits on
neighboring federal allot-
ments.
Within the livestock
industry, such preferences
are crucial to the financial
value of private ranches.
They’re also considered
to stabilize the long-term
connection between ranch-
ers and surrounding federal
lands.
After the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management refused to
renew their grazing permit,
Mike and Linda Hanley of
Jordan Valley leased their
1,900-acre private ranch to
their daughter and son-in-
law, Martha and John Corri-
gan.
However, in 2017 the
BLM refused to issue the
Corrigans a permit to graze
cattle on about 30,000 acres
of nearby federal allotments
across the border in Idaho.
The agency decided the
Oregon base property had
lost its grazing preference
when the Hanley permit
wasn’t renewed, which both
couples challenged in federal
court.
The BLM’s decision
raised an alarm among ranch
organizations, such as the
Owyhee Cattlemen’s Associ-
ation and Idaho Cattlemen’s
Association.
The groups argued the
agency’s inter pretation
undermines due process
rights and “threatens to
subvert the entire system of
public land livestock graz-
ing.”
The 9th Circuit now has
upheld a court ruling that
determined BLM’s actions
were consistent with the
Taylor Grazing Act and the
Federal Land Policy and
Management Act, which
govern public allotments.
“After a permit expires,”
the 9th Circuit said, “a
former permittee does not
retain any preference to
stand first in line for a future
permit.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
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