INSIDE TODAY: Oregon’s Alpenfest schedule
Enterprise, Oregon
Protest
delays
OK of
water
releases
Issue No. 23
www.wallowa.com
September 23, 2015
$1
SOUTH FORK GRANGE GETS
NEW DIGS
By Rob Ruth
Wallowa County Chieftain
Never mind about that re-
port earlier this summer that
Wallowa Lake Dam owners
may soon ¿ nalize funding ar-
rangements for the dam’s re-
habilitation.
The central component of
dam owners’ funding strate-
gy — sale or long-term lease
of stored water to a third party,
an entity which would ¿ rst pay
to rehabilitate the dam — has
been placed on hold while state
regulators digest an 11-page
protest ¿ led by Wallowa’s
Future Foundation (WFF), a
group based in Joseph.
WFF ¿ led its protest with-
in the allotted 45-day window
following the Oregon Water
Resources Department’s July
7 publication of its notice con-
cerning a proposed ¿ nal order
and draft permit.
See DAM, Page A8
Salzburger
Echo to
headline
Alpenfest
WALLOWA LAKE —
Salzburger Echo, a lively,
internationally known band
from Utah with the unusual
specialty of Swiss alphorn
playing, will be the headline
act at the 2015 edition of Ore-
gon’s Alpenfest.
The annual Swiss-Bavari-
an festival takes place Thurs-
day through Sunday, Sept. 24-
27, with four performances at
Wallowa Lake and additional
activities in Joseph and En-
terprise. In addition to live
music, Oregon’s Alpenfest
will feature Swiss yodeling,
Alpine folk dancing, solo Al-
phorn music, accordionists,
the Alpine Art, Antique and
Craft Fair and traditional
bratwurst and beer.
For the second year in a
row, there will be free polka
lessons.
Details and ticket informa-
tion are available at oregonal-
penfest.com.
See EVENT, Page A8
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Left to right: June Colony, grange secretary; Vicki Crane, head of the grange building committee, and Rhee Lathrop, the grange member with the longest
continuous membership. The women are inside the framing that will come down to create a hall space in the new South Fork Grange location.
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Chieftain file photo
The old grange burned to the ground in
February 2014.
LOSTINE — The South Fork Grange is
rising from the ashes and planning a Founders
Day to beat all.
When their grange hall burned to the ground
in February 2014, the 22 grangers of South Fork
Grange vowed to be back — and now they’ll be
hosting the “The Sheepherder’s Ball” on Found-
ers Day, Oct. 10, in the new digs.
The new hall is on Rosewell Street in Lostine
and is a house expansion gone wrong for the
original builders, but just right for the grangers.
“We did a lot of looking at other places and
then working on this one to see if it was usable,”
said grange secretary June Colony.
The “house” began life in the ’50s as a tiny
dwelling with nothing much to recommend it.
It was expanded upon in the ’80s and at
that time an excellent foundation was put
in and the inside of the large expansion was
framed, but not ¿ nished. Then, it sat for 30
years.
The property was a good bargain for the
grange. It started as eight lots (1.5 acres) and
a number of buildings, but after a very long
negotiation, the seller agreed to split off the
house/expansion and two lots for the grang-
ers. Two usable outbuildings came in the deal.
See GRANGE, Page A8
State’s pot-ential
for pro¿ t unclear
OLCC estimates
$18.4 million in
pot tax revenue
for 2015-2017
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
How much money might
Wallowa County expect to re-
ceive in tax revenue from the
sale of pot statewide and coun-
ty-wide?
Well, that’s the $64,000
question.
As Wallowa County Com-
missioner Mike Hayward said
last week, it may be thousands
or it may be six bucks.
Nobody knows.
The reason the number can-
not be nailed down is because
Oregon’s marijuana tax plan and
Oregon’s relationship to illegal
marijuana is very different from
the tax structures and marijua-
na relationships of Colorado or
Washington.
Colorado
raked
in
$11,608,684 in taxes for the
month of July 2015 alone.
Washington reported tax earn-
ings of $11,484,814 the same
month. Neither number includes
licensing fees.
Back in July 2014, ECONor-
thwest released an independent
study that projected Oregon
would collect a (relatively)
modest $78.7 million in mar-
ijuana tax in the ¿ rst biennium
— an average of $3,279,000
per month. The study was com-
missioned by New Approach
Oregon, the organization that
helped write Measure 91. The
ECONorthwest study did not
consider the impact on courts,
police, and jail operating costs
that might accrue.
By April of 2015 the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission,
which will oversee implementa-
tion of Measure 91, had scaled
that estimate back considerably.
In a press released dated
April 11, OLCC reported it had
requested that the Legislature
establish a 2015-2017 budget of
$10.5 million to handle the rec-
reational marijuana program.
See MARIJUANA, Page A5
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