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WALLO
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C HIEFTA
Enterprise, Oregon
www.wallowa.com
Issue No. 14
July 22, 2015
$1
City cuts public from police chief hiring
‘You’ll have to do a public records request,’ city administrator says
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise City Council has
backed off of plans to keep the
public informed as they move
toward hiring a new police
chief.
The council originally in-
CJD
in full
swing
JOSEPH — Chief Joseph
Days got off to its tradition-
al free-spirited start Tuesday
with a stampede of
horses down Main
Street, ushering
in CJD’s 70th
anniversary cele-
bration spanning
nearly the entire
week.
At the heart of it all is a
PRCA rodeo starting with a
Wednesday family night perfor-
mance and continuing nightly
through Saturday. (See today’s
Wallowa County Life section
for stories on the rodeo stock
and on cowboy standings in
the Harley Tucker Series). Fol-
lowing the rodeo each night is
a dance in the Thunder Room,
located on the rodeo grounds.
dicated that a public meeting
would be held to allow Pend-
leton Police Chief Stuart Rob-
erts, who led a team to study
the effi cacy of the current
force and identify the needs to
the city, to present his fi ndings
before the public.
That promised meeting was
scheduled with very short no-
tice and then quickly canceled
and City Administrator Mi-
chele Young said that she no
longer knew if Roberts would
make that presentation.
“I don’t know if we’ll have
Police Chief Stuart Roberts
come to speak to the public,”
Young said.
In addition, the document
produced by Roberts’ team
will not be readily available.
“Right now the document
(Roberts’ fi nal report) is in
the hands of the attorney and
will be available,” Young said.
“You’ll have to do a public
records re-
quest.”
Roberts
led a team
of small city
chiefs
of
police in a
Roberts
close inves-
tigation of
policies and procedures of the
police force in Enterprise after
Princess
to
GRAND MARSHAL
Courtesy Photo
2015 Chief Joseph Days Parade
Grand Marshall, Judy Bothum, in
her CJD court days astride her
famous horse, Blackie.
‘‘
I was very sur-
prised when they
County’s
budgeting
came to my house
and told me. I just
tightens
want to do a good
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
See BUDGET, Page A9
See HIRING, Page A7
from
See EVENT, Page A9
With stagnant or falling
county revenue and increasing
county expenses, the Wallowa
County Board of Commission-
ers fi nds it increasingly diffi cult
to make ends meet with the
county’s budget.
Commission
Chairman
Mike Hayward isn’t complain-
ing about the budget, although
it adds to the board’s stress
levels. “What we’ve seen over
time is that the amount of new
or additional money has strug-
gled to keep up with the costs
of wages and benefi ts. We’ve
gotten additional new money
in the way of grants, but they’re
for specifi c things, but don’t
help with the overall operation
of the county,” Hayward said.
the resignation of former po-
lice Chief Wes Kilgore.
The service was provided
by Oregon Association Chiefs
of Police to help the city de-
cide whether or not to hire a
new chief or consider a contract
with the Wallowa County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce.
job for Chief Joseph
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Days and its people.
Judy Bothum poses with a photograph of her saddle bronc riding husband, J. Shirly Bothum, who later became
a rancher and famed western artist.
Judy Bothum’s CJD ties span years
GRAND
PARADE
Saturday, July 25
10 A.M.
Main Street
Enterprise
By Stephen Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
T
he road from American Junior
Rodeo competitor to 1958
Chief Joseph Days princess
to 2015 Chief Joseph Days
Rodeo parade grand marshal may be a
long one, but it’s been pleasant for life-
long rodeo afi cionado Judy Bothum.
Whether it’s competing on the court,
in the arena or serving as fashion de-
signer for the Chief Joseph Days court,
Bothum has nothing but good things to
say about her rodeo experiences.
“Our 1958 court was a great team,
we really were. The chaperon was
Roseanne O’Brien, the queen was Ja-
nis Dougherty and the other princess
was Judy Begley. It was a fun year,”
Bothum said.
According to Bothum, O’Brien
had exquisite taste and she took the
court to Portland to shop at a store
called “The New York Store,” a high-
end western store at the time. “We had
the fi rst outfi ts with any embroidery,
rose-colored, with white embroidery,
both the shirt and the pants, and we
had white belts, hats and boots,” Bo-
thum said.
A COLORFUL FEAST OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANCE
See BOTHUM, Page A7
Library gets
surprise gift
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Dominque
Ellenwood of
Lapwai, Idaho,
swirls in the
Fancy Shawl
Dance, the only
women’s dance
event that has the
spirit and action
of the male war-
dance. Ellenwood
took third in the
competition at
Tamkaliks last
weekend. For
coverage of
Tamkaliks, see
page A12.
JOSEPH — No one goes
to work expecting to get no-
tifi ed of a $19,000 gift from
someone they don’t know, but
that’s exactly what happened
to Genene Kingsford, librari-
an of the Joseph City Library.
The library learned that some-
one named Hubert “Al” Al-
bee, from Milton-Freewater,
had left the library more than
$19,000 in his will.
Neither Kingsford or any-
one on the library’s board
could remember who the per-
son was.
Kathleen Ellyn/Wallowa County Chieftain
See LIBRARY, Page A9