A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
April 1, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
EPD review
brings need
for openness
E
nterprise city government was prudent in its decision
to hire an expert to review current functioning of
the Enterprise Police
Department. With the recent
resignation of chief Wes
EDITORIAL
Kilgore, who served in the
The voice of the Chieftain
post for 13 years, the city has
a somewhat rare opportunity
to undertake such an evaluation when circumstances are least
burdensome to employees: at a time of transition, and when
there’s one job fewer immediately at stake.
Currently the department has only three full-time
employees, but that’ll bump back up to four if the city hires a
new chief. Michele Young, the city’s administrator, says the
Oregon Association Chiefs of Police (and no, there’s not an
“of” missing from that), the organization the city has turned
to for advice and referrals, doesn’t even recommend hiring an
interim chief until the city has results back from its planned
departmental review. Fortunately, that review, to be conducted
by someone the association recommends, shouldn’t take
longer than several days to complete, once it begins.
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will learn the city hasn’t been getting the most bang for its
public safety buck. If such is the review’s outcome, it’s easy
to imagine a lively debate ensuing, especially if it appears
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But we get ahead of ourselves with these imaginings. Not
only are we not there yet; “there” we might never be.
Regardless of whether the upcoming assessment spotlights
the EPD as a wise bargain or a troubling waste, however,
ZHKRSHFLW\RI¿FLDOVDQGWKHLUFRQVXOWDQWVWULYHPLJKWLO\WR
educate the public well on this issue at every juncture. For
starters, we’ll want to know something about any important
yardsticks that are applied to reach judgments about the
police department. For example, the Center for Public Safety
Management (CPSM), an entity under the umbrella of the
International City/County Management Association (ICMA),
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what it calls its “Rule of 60” in evaluating police departments.
The rule stresses the desirability of having approximately 60
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Is the Rule of 60 the most appropriate evaluative tool
for a very small department? Search us, but whatever the
tool the city’s hired expert deems most useful, we’d like to
understand exactly how it works and why, exactly, it should be
prominently factored into any decisions.
And while we’re issuing this request for helpful spoon-
feeding from the city’s hired gun, we should add that it’s
imperative the city itself takes pains to clearly draft and
communicate any price comparisons between city police
services and whatever might be on offer from the sheriff’s
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be).
What if the county’s policing service appears the better buy,
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could begin — the self-searching, the probing of less tangible
values.
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all channels open.
Correction
Former Enterprise police
chief Wes Kilgore’s March 23
letter resigning his position as
chief stated his decision was
“due to personal reasons.” Our
March 25 story incorrectly quot-
ed that as “personal problems.”
The letter’s complete text is as
follows:
Dear Mayor Lear:
I hereby resign from my
position as Chief of Police ef-
fective March 23, 2015. I regret
that I must leave my position at
the Enterprise Police Depart-
ment due to personal reasons.
Despite my departure I hope we
can keep an amicable profes-
sional relationship. I sincerely
appreciate the opportunities I
have been afforded at the Enter-
prise Police Department. I wish
the department the best of luck
in continuing to be as strong as
ever.
Respectfully,
Wes Kilgore
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Of¿ce 29 1W )irst St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone 27 • )ax 2392
Wallowa County’s 1ewspaper Since 88
Enterprise, Oregon
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Rob Ruth, editor@wallowa.com
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Able pranksters preceded us
If anyone encourages you to do some-
thing today, anything at all, remember
that it’s more than likely an April Fools’
joke, so just do the opposite. I don’t fall
for any of those tricks. If I get bills in the
mailbox April 1 — boop — right into
the paper shredder. The ol’ fake bill on
convincing-looking paper trick, eh? With
return envelope, postage paid and every-
thing, huh? Very elaborate ruse, whoever
you are. Nice try, but save it for some-
body who’s at least a little gullible. I was
born at night, but not last night. Last year
this fake bill gag went so far that they
even shut off my power a week later to
make it seem more convincing.
The tradition of playing practical
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to Mesopotamian times, when a court
jester named Kugel is said to have placed
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cushion of Roman emperor Constantine,
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known as a whoopee cushion. The result
was so popular among those in atten-
dance that the event was commemorated
the following year on the same day with
further acts of mischief. Sadly, Kugel
lived the rest of his life in chains and did
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oxen bladders.
I did some research in the Chieftain
archives for memorable pranks played
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practical jokes in the area were played by
a dedicated local trickster named Coy-
ote, whose exploits are remembered in
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features.
AND
FURTHERMORE
Jon
Rombach
Barn lowerings were an elaborate
prank enjoyed by early Wallowa Valley
residents. Community members would
coordinate to lure a farmer into town un-
der some pretense, then work together
quickly to disassemble a barn while the
farmer was away.
Another popular gag among early
Grande Ronde and Wallowa Valley set-
tlers was to sneak onto a neighbor’s farm
under cover of night and move a haystack
EDFNRXWLQWRWKH¿HOGDQGSODFHLWQHDW-
ly in rows. This practice was known as
“har-har-vest,” but was eventually out-
lawed by the Territorial Governor in the
late 1800s after an Elgin area farmer did
not see the humor in this little bit of fun,
resulting in what became known as “The
April 2nd Battle of the Pitchforks.”
In the mid-1920s the local chapter
of the Loyal Order of the Water Buffa-
lo, Lodge 26, advertised Wallowa Lake
Monster rides, departing from the pad-
dlewheel dock at the north end of Wal-
lowa Lake. Rides on the Wallowa Lake
Monster cost two bits for adults, but kids
got to ride for free. The joke was that two
bits was only for a one-way ride. If you
wanted to come back to shore you had
to pay another two bits. A picnic lunch
and pie social was provided by The East
Moraine Grange Auxiliary and proceeds
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the dirt and boardwalk Main Street in
Joseph. Bronze was not available at the
time due to rationing, so the foundries
had to retool and cast the sculpture in
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horsehair and Mazama ash. The sculp-
ture was controversial at the time, as it
depicted a cowboy wearing short sleeves,
which some thought was immodest.
Also, the dog in the sculpture was not fol-
lowing commands, which some residents
felt did not represent Eastern Oregon in
the best light. A wealthy San Francisco
banker later purchased the sculpture for
the garden of his mansion on Telegram
Hill. The house and grounds are now a
museum and the sculpture, “Sit, Boy,
Sit.” is still on display and available for
public viewing.
Visitors to The Wallowa County Mu-
seum can see photographs of the 1938
April Fools’ Day prank when a group
of loggers packed mule strings carrying
barrels of beet juice from the local sugar
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seph and dumped the contents, turning
the slopes pink. Bears could be seen lick-
ing the snow for several weeks afterward.
Wallowa County has a rich tradition
of April Fools’ Day practical jokes, and
some that weren’t useful at all. Keep the
tradition going and see if you can pull
a fast one today that’s good enough to
make it into future editions of “Out of the
Past.”
Jon Rombach is a local columnist for
the Chieftain. He wasn’t really born at
night. That was just a joke.
News consumers’ habits shifting
By Rocky Wilson
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Internet research skills exceed those of
my 93-year-old father who neither owns,
has owned, or ever wants to own a com-
puter. But, today, the difference between
my skills and his are not so great.
My goal was to research and write
a sublime column on which sections of
newspapers people most like to read, but
was halted in my tracks. In technological
jargon, if you don’t have the proper key
words you ain’t going nowhere, and my
research on the subject went nowhere.
Well, that’s not entirely true because I
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newspapers published in Australia, but
such wasn’t my intent.
In days arrears when I co-owned a
weekly newspaper, I learned (probably
DW D QHZVSDSHU FRQIHUHQFH DQG GH¿QLWH-
ly not on the Internet) that the most-read
section of newspapers was letters to the
editor. I was hoping today to discover
some important cultural trend, or para-
digm that would indicate where our so-
ciety might be heading — possibly even
listing obituaries as the most-read section
JABBERWOCK II
— but my way-too-lengthy, repetitious
quests to punch the appropriate trigger
on my computer proved fruitless.
So, instead, let’s see what Australia
has to say.
As a journalist, albeit one working
maybe 8,500 miles away from Australia,
the popularity of general news and sports
as the two most-read newspaper sections
Down Under sounded great, as those are
two topics I most cover.
The survey I perused, taken from a
year-long study that included more than
21,000 Australian participants, differenti-
ated between newspaper readership during
weekdays and readership on weekends,
and the results were telling. Where cover-
age regarding holidays and travel was the
fourth most popularly read newspaper sec-
tion during the week, it was the most-read
section on weekends. Business news, not
even ranked in the top 10 during weekends,
claimed the No. 5 spot during the week.
Then again there was the section on real
estate that ranked No. 7 on weekends when
people could have been seriously contem-
plating a move, yet real estate didn’t even
hit the charts during the week when those
same people likely were buried in work to
make such potential moves possible.
Next behind general news and sports,
plus holidays and travel on weekends of
course, were editorial and opinion, and let-
ters to the editor.
But maybe the biggest trend-changer in
the newspaper world is not what sections
are being read, but instead how the news is
being delivered.
Look around, and the overall number
of newspapers in the U.S. and elsewhere is
shrinking. And those that choose to remain
in business in a highly competitive market
are having to adapt to survive.
Although many hard-core individuals
still contend that holding reading materi-
al in one’s hands remains the way to go,
such, at an ever-increasing rate, seems to
be losing favor. More and more newspaper
readers are turning to the Internet and smart
phones to access news stories they have an
interest in.
See JABBERWOCK, Page A
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Local food is great. What’s not to
like? Anyone would agree with the state-
ment that buying from the farmer down
the road is a good thing.
But during the past decade or so,
since the advent of the term “locavore,”
we have found that “local” is in the eye
of the beholder. While some consum-
ers assiduously measure “food miles,”
others care only whether the food was
grown within their state. Still other con-
sumers consider “local” to be a synonym
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West Coast or even just the West. Others
believe “local” equals “Product of the
U.S.”
And so it goes.
That’s why we watched with interest
as the Washington House of Represen-
tatives passed a bill calling for a “food
policy forum” whose job it would be to
promote “local” food.
One legislator stated that local food
who work those long hours and create a
high-quality product. They just don’t do
COMMENTARY
it on a smaller scale,” he said.
Seasonality is another issue. Unless
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will make people slimmer and healthier. cally grown strawberry in January. Other
And, we should add, it’ll help them than what’s available from a greenhouse,
locally grown strawberries — or many
jump tall buildings in a single bound.
The lone advantage of food grown other types of produce — are available
near the consumer is a smaller fuel bill only a portion of the year, usually late
IRUWKHWUXFN%H\RQGWKDWLW¶VGLI¿FXOW summer and fall. Some fresh fruits and
to see how food grown across the region vegetables store well and are available
is any better, or worse, than any other year-round, but the list is short.
In the meantime, a cornucopia of pro-
food.
Rep. Vincent Buys, the ranking Re- duce, products and meats are available,
publican on the House Agriculture Com- no matter what season it is, at the neigh-
borhood grocery store. It is part of a
mittee, summarized our thoughts.
“To somehow imply our large-scale “food system” that offers a vast selection
agriculture products are unsafe or not of fresh produce and meats at reasonable
as ... high quality as some of the locally prices and is the envy of the world.
The Capital Press, based in Salem,
produced agriculture products, I think,
does a disservice to the state, and I think is a sister publication to the Wallowa
is offensive to a lot of those farmers County Chieftain.