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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2015)
Wallowa County Chieftain News wallowa.com February 11, 2015 A9 DEBT: ‘We set this goal and we’ll do our best to meet it’ Continued from Page A1 “We’ve had some recent donations that gave us some additional cash. You don’t make much on interest these days, but you can save quite a bit if you pay off some debt. It’s something we feel is im- portant,” Davy said. With rapid health care changes in the wind — includ- ing falling reimbursements for hospital care, as well as projected decreases in patient volume — Davy said that quickly carving down the hos- pital’s debt saves hundreds of thousands of dollars over a pe- riod of time. “That money can stay in the system and help us thrive instead of us sweating REPORT: Results expected in December Continued from Page A1 it would include all or part of the 63 miles, the level of Houston suggests those volunteerism that would be results will include some po- required to make the effort tential construction costs and feasible, and much more. potential use levels for the Still, says Kurtz, much proposed trail. work has been accomplished A man who has spent years on the feasibility study since working with State Parks to the effort was launched last design and develop public summer. trails throughout the state, Among those things, she Houston has no interest in says, was a push to interview voicing an opinion about 26 persons; a land use assess- whether the proposed 63-mile ment; a main street assess- trail beside the rails between ment; a cultural and historic Elgin and Joseph could hap- properties assessment; and a pen. “I just want us to get physical rail corridor assess- through the conceptual plan- ment. All of the information ning,” he says. “I look no fur- compiled during those stud- ther than December.” ies is available for public re- WURA owns the railroad view at https://www.eou.edu/ line and has made it clear rails-with-trails. from the start that, among Terry Edvalson, an active other things, all decisions in participant in the Rails With regard to a proposed trail will Trail push since its inception, be made by the WURA board says at least one survey again of directors, that the rails will to explore public interest on remain in the ground, and that the bi-county trail issue will WURA will incur no expens- be circulated in either April es in the construction of any or May. Houston is hoping future trail. there will be two separate According to Houston, surveys in March or April — some answers to questions a general survey and a scien- most frequently asked by the WL¿FUDQGRPVXUYH\ public will not be addressed Were results from the fea- XQWLOWKH¿QDOUHSRUWLIDWDOO sibility study, when present- Common concerns he has ed in December, to lead the heard include what the total WURA board to determine it cost of such a trail would be, wished to move forward with where money would come the construction of a trail IURPWR¿QDQFHWKHXQGHUWDN- alongside the railroad line, ing, and what steps would be Houston suggests grant mon- taken long-term to maintain ey from such sources as state the trail. and federal governments, the And yet, says Houston, Oregon Department of Trans- “there are many, many ways portation, private sources, to move forward.” and foundations might be Unknowns still to be ad- tapped to help foot the bill. dressed include whether the “But,” says Houston, “it’s trail would vary in width at all about public sentiment and different locations, whether patience.” down the road as the system gets tougher and tougher,” Davy said. Davy and Wanner created a debt list with suggested order of payoff. “Typically, with the ‘snowball theory’ you start off with your lowest loan, pay it off, and then roll those pay- ments into the second one,” Davy said. The hospital deviated somewhat from the plan, electing to pay off the medical RI¿FHGHEW¿UVWDOWKRXJKRQH of the hospital loans is smaller. “The reason we’re starting there is because the clinic debt adjusts to current market rates in 2017. So if the interest rates go up substantially, and odds are that they will, that could get expensive.” Davy said. The current strategy calls for the hospital to pay ap- proximately $1.5 million over and above scheduled loan re- payments each year. At that rate, the hospital’s 30-year loan shows a payoff in 16-17 years with a projected savings of more than $4.5 million. “It adds up quick if you just keep chipping at it,” Davy said. “Of course this is predicat- ed on our current economic status stays similar to the pres- ent. If it decays, it could push it out; if it gets better, it could shorten it. If you don’t set goals, you don’t accomplish anything. We set this goal, and we’ll do our best to meet it,” Davy concluded. CEMETERY: Board agrees to turn irrigation water back on Continued from Page A1 It covered the cemetery’s history, its importance to the community, and what she and dozens of others in the room viewed as a bare necessity: watering. “I would appeal to this board (to reconnect the water),” Hays said. Convincing the cemetery’s directors to reconnect the water system was Friends’ foremost goal. To accomplish it, Hays and fellow found- ing members Gail Swart and Sondra Lozier marshaled the support of scores of citizens who turned out for the Feb. 5 meeting. As stated by Lozier during her turn in front of the board and public audi- ence, the grassroots group also aims to boost public at- tendance at cemetery board meetings, and maintains a database of individuals in- terested in being contacted about cemetery matters. The issue of the brown- in-summer cemetery has been festering since 2011, when directors chose not to upgrade the cemetery’s connection to the city wa- ter system after a city crew replaced the city’s side of the connection, which un- til then had come through a wooden pipe. Part of the cemetery side upgrade would have included instal- lation of multiple backflow devices (although currently only one backflow device is contemplated), upping the upgrade cost estimate to around $6,000. Although Rob Ruth/Chieftain Sondra Lozier (standing, wearing black dress), a member of Friends of the Enterprise Cemetery, a group organized in response to three years without irrigation at the cemetery, reads a prepared statement during a Feb. 5 meeting of the cemetery district’s board. the cemetery district could have covered that cost, to board members it appeared that more pricey matters — aging maintenance equip- ment and a loss of volunteer labor for both irrigation and maintenance — were com- ing to a head, rendering reconnection a pointless ex- pense at that time. And those challenges re- main. “You’re all excited about the watering,” board mem- ber George Hill told the Feb. 5 audience. “Once the watering’s in, somebody’s got to do the irrigation.” District voters soundly rejected a November 2014 ballot measure proposing a nearly sixfold increase in the district’s permanent tax rate. The district planned to use the added income to reconnect the water, pur- chase a new above-ground irrigation system, and pay for landscape maintenance services. Even if the mea- ODE OWED TO STEVE LEAR WOLVES: State delisting recommended Continued from Page A1 last week that every level of on the state commission’s the ODFW he knows of in- final decision. He did ex- • Unlikely that the species tends to recommend delist- press hope for the current or its habitat will be over-uti- ing of the wolves to the Fish process. “It’s my gut feeling lized for commercial, recre- and Wildlife Commission. that the ODFW is going to DWLRQDOVFLHQWL¿FRUHGXFDWLRQ He added that after the April submit to the April 24 com- purposes. 24 commission hearings, a mission to go ahead and del- • Existing state or federal public comment period fol- ist the wolves, and I feel the regulations already protect the lows until the July or Au- commission will delist the species. gust commission meeting, wolves sometime in July or County Commissioner when that state board makes August.” Susan Roberts, who read the its decision. Nash urged the Rob Klavins, Northwest resolution aloud at the Feb. county commissioners to Oregon field coordinator 2 meeting where the BOC submit the resolution, say- of Oregon Wild, told the passed the measure, said the ing, “Some pressure from Chieftain, “There’s been an county would now send the you guys or anyone else will expectation from a lot of resolution to the Oregon Fish certainly be appreciated.” people that now that we’ve and Wildlife Commission, the The county commission- hit this milestone, wolves state body that decides the ers passed their resolution are going to be delisted. wolf’s endangered status. unanimously. What’s feeding that percep- In 2011, the federal gov- Nash said that while tion, is that it’s called a del- ernment delisted Oregon’s he appreciated the resolu- isting process. I would make wolf population east of tion’s support for delist- the argument it could just as highways 395, 78 and 395. ing wolves, he doubted it easily be called a re-affir- ODFW records show at least would have much bearing mation of protections pro- seven breeding pairs now in the eastern part of Oregon. A breeding pair constitutes an adult male and female with at least two pups sur- viving until December of the year. The Oregon Wolf Man- agement Plan contains three phases of management ob- jectives, which in theory perform a separate function from the ESAs of the federal or state governments. Phase one involved a wolf popula- tion objective of four veri- You may not need Life Insurance, fied breeding pairs for three consecutive years. When but your family does. ODFW recently confirmed the state had met that goal, the management plan au- tomatically slid into phase two, a transition that didn’t require action from the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The commission decides the delisting from the ESA but not the three phases of wolf Call us today population management. for a free quote. Wallowa County rancher Todd Nash, who chairs the Oregon Cattlemen’s Associ- ation’s wolf committee, told the county commissioners 541-426-4208 Locally owned & operated • 616 W. North Street, Enterprise sure had won with vot- ers, though, it apparently wouldn’t have passed mus- ter legally: district officials learned after-the-fact that they couldn’t lawfully raise the permanent tax rate. In the defeat’s aftermath, information that surfaced concerned not only the ballot measure’s viability, but also the feasibility of installing an underground sprinkler system, which could simpli- fy the irrigation task. Based on a landscape maintenance firm’s assessment, the board had concluded that an un- derground system would be prohibitively expensive, and possibly couldn’t even be made to function, given the area’s hydrology. At the Feb. 5 meeting, however, another landscape profes- sional, Dale Worden, of En- terprise, disputed that past conclusion. Worden cited successful installations of underground systems at cemeteries in Cove and Union under more trying conditions. “Six or eight years ago the hydrology wouldn’t al- low it, but it will today,” Worden said. And he further argues that the system can be purchased for consid- erably less than the board originally thought. The board and members of the cemetery supporters group are likely to examine the issue in greater detail when the meeting begun Feb. 5 continues in March, date and time to be an- nounced. Thank you, old buddy for your good words to nourish my mind, your good food to nourish my body, and your good heart to nourish my soul! cess. Internally, we’re call- ing it a status review,” Klavins added, “Nobody ever signed off on the fact that once we hit goal, we’re done and we automatically delist or keep them on the list. It is a process that ev- eryone agreed to.” Love, Sharon Sherlock Did You Know... 301 W. Main, Enterprise • 541.426.3177 BIRTHs A son, Angel Jaxon Norman, was born January 23, 2015 in Enterprise to Brady and Dawn Norman of Enterprise. Grandparents are Kathy and Donald Lepper, and Nicola and Tim Norman. According to Google: The true yam is native to Africa and Asia and usually only found in specialty markets in the US. So, what are we eating, yams or sweet potatoes? A famous American once said, “ I yam what I yam!” I think he knew! Email questions and thoughts to sherri4@myfrontiermail.com Currie’s Farm Direct Market Open Friday and Saturdays 8am to 3pm in Joseph (next to laundromat) Wallowa County HEALTH LINE 519 W. North Street, Enterprise 541.426.3413 Mon-Thurs 9 to Noon/1-5pm; Fri. 9-1 Specializing in Anti-Aging Skin Therapy Customized Facials Waxing Services, Brow Sculpting Body Polish-Back Facials High-Perfomance Products 541-398-0759 | Located @ beecrowbee 01 Main Joseph