Their just desserts: Education
Foundation friends raise $23K.
- story at bottom of this page
www.wallowa.com
Enterprise, Oregon
April 15, 2015
$1
Rail-trail groups share development tales
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County residents packed
Hurricane Creek Grange last Thursday
evening to hear how two rail-trail proj-
ects worked out for the communities
along their routes.
The presentation, which was ar-
ranged by the citizen group Joseph
Branch Trail Consortium, was made
by representatives from two rail-trails:
the 85-mile Weiser River Trail in Ida-
ho and the 105-mile OC&E Woods
Line out of Klamath Falls. The Jo-
seph Consortium intended that the two
groups would address issues similar to
those Wallowa County residents will
face should Wallowa Union Railroad
Rhodes
charged
again
By Stephen Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Authority (WURA) agree to allow de-
velopment of its rail bed to include a
trail for public use. No such agreement
has yet been made and the Consortium
emphasized that their current work
was to gather information about what
the residents of the county wanted for
future presentation to WURA.
Panelists at the presentation includ-
ed trail-adjacent landowners, citizen
organization members and supporting
players such as Oregon State Trails
Coordinator Rocky Houston and Ore-
gon Parks and Recreation Collier Park
Unit Manager Todd Honeywell (for-
mer manager of Wallowa Lake State
Park).
See PROJECTS, Page A9
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
SORRY, NEIGHBORS
NOT SORRY AT ALL
During an April 8 Wallowa
County Circuit Court hear-
ing on her motion to modify
conditions of her release on
charges of delivery of a con-
trolled substance to a minor
and endangering the welfare
of a minor, Stephanie Larae
Rhodes, 35, of Enterprise,
learned she was facing addi-
tional charges.
See HEARING, Page A9
CJD queen
coronation
Saturday
Saturday, April 18, is the
big day for contestants of the
70th Annual Chief Joseph
Days rodeo court. Addie Kil-
gore, Mari Tracy-Mallory and
Jesse-Ellen Woodhead are
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title CJD Queen at the Harley
Tucker Rodeo Grounds.
The girls will compete in rid-
ing and public speaking. Their
contestants’ respective ticket
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come. The competition starts at
11 a.m. The competition is free
and open to the public.
A dinner, dance and the
queen’s coronation at the Joseph
Community Center follows the
competition.
See COURT, 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. 52
© 2015 EO Media Group
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Casey Kiser (left) and Patrick Powers ready to take the blues/rock world by storm.
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
F
or anyone looking outside
of the standard singer-song-
writer fare offered in Wal-
lowa County, there’s no need
to look further than Sorry,
Neighbors for a tasty dose of
blues and rock music. Band members Ca-
sey Kiser and Patrick Powers deliver their
brand of blues/rock with enough of a pro-
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bit different.
Amazingly, Kiser, the guitarist, and
Powers, the bass player, both 16, are only
sophomores at Enterprise High School yet
manage to deliver the blues with an au-
thenticity beyond their years. The band’s
name has to do with a teacher neither of
them liked.
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grade from EHS music teacher Randy
Morgan before taking some private les-
sons but teaching himself the blues.
See BAND, Page A8
Members of the
Joseph Branch
Trail Consortium,
Friends of the
Weiser River
Trail, and OC&E
Wood Line State
Trail put some
muscle into the
turn-around as
they head back
to Joseph from
Enterprise after a
pleasure ride in a
railrider prior to
the Rail with Trail
informational
meeting April 9 at
Hurricane Creek
Grange.
Ellyn
rejoins
news
staff
Kathleen Ellyn has re-
turned for her second tour as a
reporter for the Chieftain.
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Chieftain
alongside
Elane Dick-
enson from
2007
to
2010 before
moving to
the
west
side to as-
Ellyn
sist friends
and family
with terminal illnesses.
Now, she’s back and glad to
be back.
“I look at what Elane did
— 36 years chronicling the life
and times of Wallowa Coun-
ty — and I think that’s a great
legacy,” Ellyn said.
Chieftain Editor Rob Ruth
was also pleased to have El-
lyn on staff. “Kathleen is an
experienced reporter who
knows our community,” Ruth
said. “She hit the ground run-
ning, just as we expected she
would.”
Ellyn replaces reporter
Rocky Wilson, who retired in
April.
Ellyn is a multiple
award-winning writer in a
variety of genres including
screenplay, poetry and jour-
nalism and is a contributing
editor to the online literary
magazine Elohi Gadugi.
Cemetery board Education Foundation’s
reorganizes, eyes big night brings in $23K
new funding
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
It’s been an exciting
spring for the Enterprise
Cemetery Board. In just
three meetings since the
New Year the group has seen
three resignations, an ex-
pansion of the board to five
members, and a significant
pledge made by a volunteer
group.
To reprise events, En-
terprise Cemetery District
Board member Lee Bollman
resigned in March and cem-
etery manager Mike Moore’s
resignation followed. Boll-
man was replaced by Perry
Davis.
Then, board member
George Hill’s resignation
was announced at the April
9 meeting.
See CEMETERY, Page A8
Courtesy photo
W.C. Locke’s tombstone
demonstrates several of
the care issues the Historic
Enterprise Cemetery Board
hopes to tackle in the
coming
years:
settling,
moss damage and lack
of irrigation. Other issues
include severe damage to
gravesites caused by ground
squirrels, and breakage of
markers.
It might have looked like re-
cess to the visitor, but the 11th
Annual Enterprise Education
Foundation (EEF) “We Love
Our Kids” banquet and auction
made the grade, as usual.
Early accounting on the
April 10 event tabulated over
$23,000 donated in one night
toward the $40,000 goal. The
money goes to help pay both
K-6 music and K-12 art teach-
ers in the district.
“That amount gives us a
very good jump on our pledge
to the school,” said EEF Pres-
ident Cindi Aschenbrenner.
“This community is amazing.”
An away game thinned
out the banquet tables usual-
ly crammed with parents, but
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crowd was lively and appre-
ciative.
Aschenbrenner started the
night by recognizing the hard
work of the board, the forev-
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftainwwww
Anette Christoffersen bids on and wins dinner for eight with
Gail Swart.
sight of the founding mem-
bers, the excellent work of
the teachers, and “the school
administrators,
secretaries,
janitors and aides. They’re not
only keeping the school run-
ning like clockwork, they are
ready to jump in and mother a
child — or a parent — as need-
ed,” Aschenbrenner said.
See FUNDRAISER, Page A10