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wallowa.com
July 8, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
LEGAL NOTICE
PUBLIC NOTICE
Tri-County Cooperative Weed Management Area Board of
Directors will be holding a public quarterly meeting and re-
ceiving a financial review on July 16th, 2015 at 9:30 am.
This meeting will be held at the OSU Extension Building in
La Grande, Oregon located at 10507 N. McAlister Rd. in the
South Conference room.
LEGAL NOTICE
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Troy School Board will hold their regular meeting on
Tuesday July 14th at 4:00 p.m. in the Troy School House.
A copy of the agenda may be seen at the Wallowa Education
Service District administrative office at 107 SW First Street
#105 in Enterprise.
The DEADLINE for
LEGAL NOTICES
is 10AM Monday
MENUS
WALLOWA COUNTY SENIOR MEALS
Meal site information: Wallowa 886-8971,
Enterprise 426-3840, Home delivered meals 426-3840.
To sponsor a senior meal, call 426-3840 or stop by the
Community Connection office.
Monday, July 13: Oven baked chicken, pasta salad,
green salad & fruit dessert
(sponsored by Bollman's Funeral Home)
Weds., July 15: Spaghetti with meat sauce, seasoned
green beans, green salad & cookie
(sponsored by Carnation Rebekah's #157)
Friday, July 17: Hamburgers with tomatoes, lettuce
& onion, potato salad, Jell-o with fruit & cookie
(sponsored by Leap of Faith Ministries)
SEE CROSSWORD
PUZZLE ON A6
SOLUTION
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
He may be rushed, but U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is enjoying his visit to Wallowa County as he meets with local citizens at the
Wallowa Lake Lodge to discuss what he can do to support tourism in the county. Left: Todd Davidson, Chief Excecutive
Officer of Travel Oregon; Right: Kathleen Ackley of Wallowa Land Trust.
Wyden partners
with Travel Oregon
to talk tourism
Furthermore, Christoffersen said, his group is creating
natural resource programs for children and working
against a complicated permitting system to do so.
It’s hard to say how much U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
“We are filling a hole the Forest Service should be
is enjoying his busman’s holiday visiting the 7
filling,” he said.
Wonders of Oregon, given the pace he keeps up. But
The crowd at Wallowa Lake Lodge was very clear on
what was clear from his July 3 visit to Wallowa
why funds for vacation resource upkeep and programs
County, in tandem with the Travel Oregon creators of
in National Forests have dwindled.
the 7 Wonders Campaign, was that he is intensely
“Fifty-eight percent of Wallowa County is federal
interested in seeing rural Oregon capitalize on the
land and is managed by the Forest Service,” said
tourism boost that campaign has brought.
Wallowa County Commissioner Mike Hayward.
There is no question that the campaign has created
“Money keeps going away to fire suppression.”
increased interest in vacationing in the seven hot spots
According to Wyden, working to address that
chosen by Travel Oregon. The numbers are in.
imbalance — and fixing the poor money management
And tourism in general is big business in Oregon.
in the Forest Service — is at the top of his list.
According to studies commissioned by Travel Oregon,
“My top priority when Congress comes back next
Oregon’s tourism industry is a $10 billion business and week is to fix a thoroughly broken system,” he said.
100,000 Oregonians work in it.
“Prevention gets the short end of the stick and (then)
But what is in question is whether or not Wallowa
because we’ve had so many fires, we run out of money.
County and the other areas can meet the infrastructure The bureaucracy borrows from prevention funds to put
needs of the visitors coming their way.
the fire out.”
And that is what Wyden wants to help with.
The biggest problem in resolving the problem of poor
What, exactly, he can do to help is what he wanted to infrastructure leading tourists out to natural wonders,
know and why he was meeting with interested parties
and then poor maintenance as they recreate, is to get
during his whirlwind tour of the 7 Wonders.
the state and federal agencies to “bond,” Wyden said.
Throughout the meeting at Wallowa Lake Lodge,
“We need to see if we can build a partnership between
Wyden repeatedly reminded the crowd of business
the Secure Rural Schools Act, Land and Water
owners, foresters, boosters, commissioners, artists and Conservation Fund and the Payment In Lieu of Taxes
citizens that he needed to hear what a man on the
program,” he said.
Energy and Natural Resources Committee could do
Another idea that Wyden likes is the reprise of the
— not what local agencies ought to be tackling.
successful Build America Bonds effort of 2009. Wyden
Given Wyden’s position on that committee and others, backed the original legislation that created the $188
his work to revitalize the National Forest Service top to billion market for Build America Bonds, which expired
bottom and return to reasonable timber harvest, and his in 2010, and last month introduced his “Move
dedication to the Secure Rural Schools Act, it was clear America” bill with Republican Senator John Hoeven
that the Senator was looking at what he could do to
of North Dakota.
improve usage of National Forests.
“You cannot have a big-league economy with
“What I’ve heard is that the natural resources people
little-league infrastructure, “ Wyden said in a statement
in particular have not been front and center with their
before the Finance Committee in June. “Picking up on
mission,” Wyden said.
several of the best features of Build America Bonds,
Nils Christoffersen of Wallowa Resources addressed
our new proposal, according to the Joint Tax
that issue directly when he suggested that the Forest
Committee, will turn an $8 billion taxpayer investment
Service ought to be picking up the responsibility of
into $226 billion worth of infrastructure projects.”
campground and trail upkeep — responsibilities that
To contact Senator Wyden with your comments
Wallowa Resources and others have picked up as
and suggestions visit:
Forest Service funds have dwindled.
https://www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Winners of the Children's Division for parade entries at the
2015 Wallowa City 4th of July Parade are Montana and
Lilee Post with The Hot Hulas on Horses.
Doubling down on aid
to Wallowa County
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Grand Marshal Georgia Wilson of Wallowa at the Wallowa
City 4th of July Parade. Wilson is a well-known booster
and, among many other good deeds, purchased the library
building for the city.
Wallowa County natives are familiar with the Secure
Rural Schools Act (also called the Safety Net) and the
payment counties receive to make up for lowered
timber harvest. Sen. Ron Wyden is adamant that those
funds continue no matter what improvements we see in
timber harvest. “There is no harvest level high enough
to not need a safety net,” Wyden told Wallowa County
citizens at the July 3 meeting at Wallowa Lake Lodge.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund provides
matching grants to states and local governments for the
acquisition and development of public outdoor
recreation areas and facilities (as well as funding for
shared federal land acquisition and conservation strate-
gies). The program is intended to create and maintain a
nationwide legacy of high-quality recreation areas and
facilities and to stimulate non-federal investments in
the protection and maintenance of recreation resources
across the United States.
“Payments in Lieu of Taxes” (PILT) are federal
payments to local governments that help offset losses
in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands
within their boundaries. The law recognizes the inabil-
ity of local governments to collect property taxes on
federally owned land can create a financial impact.
PILT payments help local governments carry out such
vital services as firefighting and police protection,
construction of public schools and roads, and
search-and-rescue operations.
Wallowa County has received $387,703 as payment
on 1,169,368 acres in 2015.