Turning back the clock on a great old house:
Arments’ remodel featured in special Home & Garden section! (Section B)
Enter-
www.wallowa.com
prise, Oregon
WVSL
residents
can stay
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The families of three Wal-
lowa Valley Senior Living
residents who were given 30
days’ notice by the facility to
¿QG DOWHUQDWLYH FDUH EUHDWKHG
a sigh of relief as the facility
rescinded the orders. WVSL
RI¿FLDOV RULJLQDOO\ WROG WKH
families the residents were
given notice because their
needs exceeded the level of
care WVSL provides.
“
June 24, 2015
$1
ENTERPRISE SIGN PROJECT READY TO BREAK GROUND
No one is going to think we’re some kind of subdivision of Joseph
See REPRIEVE, Page A7
Enterprise
library
wins big
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise Public Library is
going up ... and down. Or rath-
er, patrons with mobility issues
are soon going to be going both
up and down in the library el-
evator.
Librarian Denine Rauten-
strauch received word Tuesday,
June 23, that the library had
ZRQWKH¿QDOJUDQWWKDWEULQJV
the funding for the library ele-
vator project to over $244,000.
Local artist
Steve Arment
works on the
Enterprise city sign,
preparing it for display
later this year.
See LIBRARY, Page A7
A SIGN
OF THINGS
TO COME
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
ODFW: Wolf
killed calf
near Wallowa
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Sheriff’s
2I¿FH DQG WKH 2UHJRQ 'H
partment of Fish and Wildlife
investigated a suspected wolf
depredation to a 350-pound calf
outside of Wallowa on June 20.
Fred Steen, chief deputy for
WKHVKHULII¶VRI¿FHVDLGKHKDU
bored no doubts that a wolf was
responsible for the kill.
See KILL, Page A3
C HIEFTAIN
WA L L O WA
C O U N T Y
STORY
ON
A7
Wallowa County’s
Newspaper Since 1884
Volume 133 Issue No. 10
© 2015 EO Media Group
Fish deaths stump ODFW
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Anglers visiting Kinney
Lake had their hopes of huge
catches dashed after an un-
known malady left a good
QXPEHU RI ¿VK GHDG DQG
ÀRDWLQJDORQJWKHEDQNVRYHU
the June 13-14 weekend. The
lake is on the Triple Creek
Ranch about six miles from
Joseph and stocked and main-
tained by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
ODFW had stocked the
lake with 2,500 trout only a
couple of days before, so the
deaths came as a surprise to
Kyle Bratcher, ODFW as-
VLVWDQW GLVWULFW ¿VK ELRORJLVW
Bratcher learned about the
deaths via a June 14 Face-
book post. “We don’t know
what happened. We’re still
working on it,” Bratcher said.
0RVW RI WKH GHDG ¿VK DUH
bullheads with an occasional
Steve Tool/Chieftain
These two bullheads are among the many dead fish up at
Kinney Lake. ODFW biologists are still puzzling out the
mystery of why they died.
trout in the mix. ODFW had
planned to poison the lake in
the fall, and irate anglers who
either called Bratcher or post-
ed on Facebook thought the
department decided to move
up the date.
Bratcher guessed that
one of the possible reasons
for the deaths is because the
bullheads are in the middle
of spawning. “They spawn in
the shallows in less than two
feet of water and something
happened that caused the pH
(acidic levels) to go up, or
the D.O. (dissolved oxygen)
dropped. I walked around the
lake on Monday (June 15),
FRXQWLQJ ¿VK DQG LW GRHVQ¶W
seem to have affected the
trout nearly as bad,” Bratch-
er said. He added that most
of the dead trout were on the
west end of the lake and pos-
sibly died as a result of the
restocking process.
According to Bratcher, the
bullhead are in poor physical
condition during the spawn-
ing season, and because of
overpopulation are unsuc-
cessfully competing with
trout for resources.
See FISH, Page A7
Little Basin
Fire wanes
The Little Basin Fire is
breathing its last after about a
ZHHNRIEXUQLQJ7KH¿UHOR
cated in the Hells Canyon Na-
tional Recreation Area near
the Dug Bar Road in Imnaha
Canyon, at one time grew to
630 acres with minimal con-
tainment.
Nearly 100 personnel
from both the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry including 3
Hot Shot crews and several
¿UHWUXFNVDQGDLUFUDIWIRXJKW
the blaze to a standstill.
$W RQH SRLQW WKH ¿UH
threatened several cabins and
a commercial structure.
7KH ¿UH LV FXUUHQWO\
percent contained with 82
personnel, two helicopters
and four engines still on
scene.
7KHFDXVHRIWKH¿UHLVXQ
known.