Wallowa County Chieftain News wallowa.com March 4, 2015 A7 WHITTLE: Not all assignments good BOND: Company ups proposed levy intake Continued from Page A1 Whittle credits his artist fa- ther for indirectly helping him pursue photography. “I really wanted to be an artist like my dad, but I could never get the images in my head on paper, so I decided to try photography, and once I did, it was all over.” Graduating Brooks on the WDLOHQGRIWKHPP¿OPHUD Whittle quickly adapted to GLJLWDO SKRWRJUDSK\ ¿QGLQJ that the instant access to pho- tos largely eliminated the stress of waiting to see the quality of a photo shoot. “Once I bought P\ ¿UVW '6/5 GLJLWDO VLQJOH OHQVUHÀH[FDPHUD,JUHZLQ- credibly rapidly as a photogra- pher,” Whittle said. 2QH RI :KLWWOH¶V GH¿QLQJ photography jaunts included a WULSWR6SDLQ³6SDLQZDVDQHZ door for me as far as travel, street photography, documen- tary and photojournalism. I hit the streets with my camera and just started shooting whatever caught my eye.” Because of his membership LQ WKH 'HODZDUH DQG &DGGR American Indian tribes, Whit- WOHDOVR¿QGVKLPVHOIGUDZQWR photography of Native Ameri- FDQWULEHVZKLFK¿JXUHSURPL- nently in his website. As much as he loves pho- tography, Whittle gets his share of unpleasant assign- ments. “The worst was this contract I took for a week and a half as a K-Mart photographer during the holiday season be- cause money was short. After the week and a half, I thought, ‘I’ll do anything but this.’ It re- ally saps your creative spirit,” Whittle said. His jobs come through lo- cal word-of-mouth and scan- ning craigslist and other sites as well as sending out queries to various publications. “Out- side,” “Backpacker,” “1859” and other publications publish his work regularly. He credits a former Oregonian outdoor and travel editor with honing his ZULWLQJ FKRSV DQG H[SDQGLQJ Continued from Page A1 Courtesy photo/Joe Whittle An example of Whittle’s photography of the local area. his potential market. When asked about his fa- vorite photo, Whittle laughed. “I can’t decide on a favorite DQ\WKLQJ LQ P\ OLIH H[FHSW the Wallowas are my favorite place to photograph. There’s a lot of the world I haven’t seen, but this is the most beautiful.” Whittle generally spends four months a year working as a backcountry ranger for the 86)6 GXULQJ VXPPHU LQ KLV beloved Wallowas and Hells Canyon. “It’s a great supple- ment job for what I love doing anyway, which is spending time back there,” Whittle said. As his daughter is now JURZQ DQG DWWHQGLQJ 6WDQIRUG University, Whittle looks to H[SDQGKLVKRUL]RQV³,¶GOLNH to get a staff gig with a nice publication doing photojour- nalism. It’s really my number one love as far as photography goes,” he said. The bond issuing company also suggested a small proper- W\WD[LQFUHDVHWRVHUYHDVUHY- enue backup in case too many of the city’s utility customers failed to pay their bills, includ- ing the fee for streets, leaving the city short of funds to pay its bondholders. 6FKZDE VDLG WKH SURSHUW\ WD[ FDYHDW ZRXOG SURWHFW WKH city from dipping into general funds in case of a shortfall and also make the bond more at- tractive to potential investors. 6DQGV DVNHG 6FKZDE IRU D timeline on issuing the bonds and getting street work start- ed if the levy passed. Without WKHSURSHUW\WD[FODXVHUHSOLHG 6FKZDE WKH SURFHVV FRXOG take as long as two years. If it’s included, however, it could begin as early as June or July. 6FKZDE VDLG VKH SODQQHG WR ZRUN RQ WKH ¿JXUHV WKH IRO- ORZLQJGD\WRJLYHDGH¿QLWLYH answer. The mayor said he planned to ask for a $1.3 million levy as it still worked out to about $11 per month as a transporta- tion utility fee. He added that the council needed to consider placing two items on the ballot: imposition of the transportation utility fee, and the issuance of general obligation bonds to be repaid by the transportation XWLOLW\ IHH RU WKH SURSHUW\ WD[ backup. 6FKZKDE VXJJHVWHG PDN- ing it very clear to voters that property owners would only EHSD\LQJWKHDGGLWLRQDOWD[LI there were a shortfall in trans- portation utility fees collected. &RXQFLORU 6KDURQ 1HZHOO VDLG -RVHSK FLWL]HQV VKH NQHZ GLG QRW VXSSRUW SURSHUW\ WD[ increases for any reason. “This is a gamble. When people hear WKHZRUGSURSHUW\WD[DQGNQRZ what government is capable of doing — I can’t vote for it.” “I think we’re at a stand- VWLOO´ VDLG 6DQGV ³,I ZH JR ahead with this, it’s gonna be a helluva sales job to convince people it’s basically $11 a PRQWKDQGWKDWWKHSURSHUW\WD[ is just an insurance policy for the bondholders. Or we could go through all of this and come up short again – or we say it’s an unsolvable problem and live with it.” The council followed with a discussion about writing an ordinance to shut off the water of people who do not pay their transportation utility fees. City UHFRUGHU 'RQQD :DUQRFN VDLG the city typically sends out 20 late notices per month to water users with one to four users per month getting their water shut RII IRU QRQSD\PHQW 6DQGV said he planned to look through records to ascertain the month- ly delinquency rate and see if the city could still pay the bond service with only the fee reve- nue. The council followed with a vote to increase the bond total to $1.3 million with a trans- portation utility fee of $11 per month and a measure to issue a general obligation bond of $1.3 million payable by the trans- portation utility fee with prop- HUW\WD[HVOHYLHGRQO\LQFDVHRI an anticipated shortfall in fees. The motion passed, 3-1, VXSSRUWHG E\ 6DQGV %DOODUG DQG6WXUPZKLOH1HZHOOYRWHG against it. DOLLARS: Some payments could fall through cracks Continued from Page A1