STUDENT FROM JORDAN STRIVES
TO DISPEL STEREOTYPES - page A2
www.wallowa.com
Enterprise, Oregon
Police
chief
will lead
review
April 8, 2015
$1
HEADING UP
County’s real estate
market improves
By Rob Ruth
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Mayor
Steve Lear says a forthcoming
review of the Enterprise Po-
lice Department will be led by
a police chief from Pendleton.
Acting on a referral
through the Oregon Associ-
ation Chiefs of Police, Lear
says, the City of Enterprise
contacted Pendleton Police
Chief Stuart Roberts, who
will head a team of two or
more people evaluating inter-
nal functioning of the EPD.
On March 17, the Enter-
prise City Council held a spe-
cial meeting to accept the res-
ignation of police chief Wes
Kilgore, who had held the
post since March 2002.
See REVIEW, Page A9
No health
insurance?
Fines loom
By Rocky Wilson
Wallowa County Chieftain
The approaching April 15
WD[¿OLQJGHDGOLQHFDUULHVZLWK
it a penalty for selective non-
compliance never previous-
ly seen. Persons who earned
more than minimum incomes
in 2014 and
have no health
insurance will
have
penal-
ties assessed
from their tax
returns in ac-
cordance with
the Affordable Johnson
Care Act, aka
Obamacare.
And those minimum in-
come levels are low; $11,150
for single persons and $13,050
for two-person families.
Still, Cathy Johnson, own-
er of Silver Creek Financial
Services, in Lostine — who
HPSOR\V ¿YH SHUVRQV WR SUH
pare tax forms and three more
as support staff — says among
her clients only 5 percent to 10
percent are being “docked” for
not having health insurance.
See INSURANCE, Page A9
C HIEFTAIN
WA L L O WA
C O U N T Y
Wallowa County’s
Newspaper Since 1884
Volume 132 Issue No. 51
© 2015 EO Media Group
A property in rural Enterprise. Activity in Wallowa County’s real estate market has been heating up.
H
By Rocky Wilson
Wallowa County Chieftain
ome/property sales in Wallowa
County continued to rebound in
2014 when the total number of such
sales, including 10 “unusable” sales
between relatives, eclipsed compa-
rable sales made throughout 2013 by
31 percent.
Wallowa County Appraiser II Randy Wort-
man says 189 “usable” sales were culminated
in the county during 2014, the last full year
from which data is available, compared to a
total of 136 sales the previous year.
The usable/unusable distinction applies
within the context of ratio studies that county
assessors periodically conduct to update real
market values. Figures from unusable sales,
which include not only sales between relatives
but also other sales that aren’t open-market
transactions, aren’t used in the ratio studies.
Wallowa Mountain Properties Principal
Broker Anette Christoffersen says the upswing
in real estate within Wallowa County has con-
WLQXHGWKURXJKWKH¿UVW
quarter of 2015 and ex-
pects that trend will not
stop. “We are coming
out of the hole we were
in,” says Christoffersen,
adding, “I think we are
going to have a really
good year.”
Although Christof-
fersen’s numbers, those
Wortman
of one broker, only
offer a snapshot of overall real estate sales
locally, she says her 2014 sales more than
doubled her 2013 sales total and that the same
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2015.
Christoffersen, who has been selling real
estate for 10 years, also notes that prices of
properties she has sold in the past three months
are up an average of 9.2 percent over sale prices
during the same three months a year ago.
Although only midway in the process of de-
termining, for taxation purposes, differences be-
tween property values in county records and sales
”
WE ARE COMING OUT OF THE
HOLE WE WERE IN. I THINK WE
ARE GOING TO HAVE A REALLY
GOOD YEAR.
Annette Christoffersen,
Wallowa Mountain Properties Principal Broker
prices for the 199 transactions completed in 2014,
Wortman does say that the highest percentage of
sales last year was in residential housing.
The locations where overall sales of properties
in Wallowa County were made in 2014, in de-
scending order by number of sales, according to
Wortman, were Enterprise, Joseph, Wallowa, and
then Lostine. “There were very few sales made
around Wallowa Lake,” adds Wortman, who has
been appraising property in Wallowa County for
about 20 years. “The lake area has high property
values and people don’t want to live there year
around.”
See SALES, Page A9
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By S.F. Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
Prairie Creek Center still ex-
periences the daily hustle
and bustle of clients for its
Department of Human Ser-
YLFHVRI¿FHVEXWWKHKRSHRI
getting in-person assistance
in one’s search for gainful
employment is no more. The
Oregon Department of Em-
SOR\PHQW FORVHG LWV RI¿FH D
year ago, citing cost-cutting
purposes.
Not everyone in the Wal-
lowa Valley is convinced the
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what the community has lost.
Executive director of the
Wallowa County Chamber of
Commerce, Vicky Searles, is
one of those people. “We’re
so far out here, and we’re such
a limited area for services, we
QHHG WKH HPSOR\PHQW RI¿FH
here,” Searles said.
The chamber director also
said that because much of the
employment issues, which the
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closing the Wallowa County
RI¿FH³7KDWPD\EHJRRGWR
DSRLQWEXWPDQ\SHRSOH¿QG
it’s a challenge to do business
with them online. It’s not the
same,” Searles said.
Oregon’s Training and
Employment
Consortium
Rob Ruth/Chieftain
(TEC), a state entity closely
The Worksource Oregon office on Adams Avenue in La Grande allied with the employment
is now the closest location for Wallowa County residents to department, also shared the
access Oregon Employment Department services in person. RI¿FH 3UDLULH &UHHN &HQWHU
and provided job training.
work force is seasonal, the some at Wallowa Lake — that
TEC is now limited to one
loss of the employment of- she said were feeling the em- GD\DZHHNLQDVPDOOHURI¿FH
¿FH FRUUHVSRQGV ZLWK D ORVV ployment pinch.
which is staffed by a member
of expediency in the hiring
Searles said that rumors RIWKHLU/D*UDQGHRI¿FH
process.
(not from the employment
It is possible for job-seek-
Regarding local employ- department) indicate at least ers or businesses to make
er complaints. Searles said, the possibility of a partial appointments to meet with
“The tramway is a good ex- reopening. “When that hap- employment department per-
DPSOH7KH\QHHGWR¿QGWKH pens, we’ll need to be more sonnel at the Prairie Creek
right people to work in their YRFDODQG¿JKWLQJWRNHHSWKH Center, but employment de-
business, but don’t always RI¿FHRSHQ´6HDUOHVVDLG
SDUWPHQW RI¿FLDOV VD\ WKRVH
have a lot of time (to screen
Searles said that the La opportunities aren’t regularly
candidates).” Searles also *UDQGH RI¿FH DQG WKH HP scheduled.
mentioned several other busi- ployment department’s online
nesses — some in Joseph, site handle most of the local See EMPLOYMENT, Page A9
Annual
tab for
office:
$58K
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
By closing its office
in Enterprise, a step
finalized by the middle
of last year, Work-
source Oregon appears
to have shed around
$58,000 of annual
expense for the staffed
facility. It’s not clear
how much the state is
spending for the sharp-
ly reduced in-person
services now provided
at the site.
See COST, Page A9
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