OCTOBER IS BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
Enterprise, Oregon
Issue No. 25
www.wallowa.com
October 7, 2015
$1
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Reynolds family rebuilds aft er devastating fi re
”
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Police
chief
candidate
James Episcopo, all the way
from Illinois, at the meet-
and-greet at Community
Connection on Oct 1.
By Kathleen Ellyn
Tammy and Darrell Reynolds
never expected the Grizzly Bear
Complex Fire to come all the way to
Grouse Flats, eight miles above the
tiny town of Troy — a 90-minute
drive from Enterprise on primitive to
near primitive roads.
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Troy and spread across the high
benches Aug. 20, the Reynolds found
themselves sitting with other neigh-
bors near the town of Flora, west of
Troy, after having been evacuated
from the family farmstead under a
level three evacuation order.
They sat with their four dogs and
pot-bellied pig, Sissy, and watched
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derness adjacent to Troy. Then Dar-
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ry’s place.
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quialism in this remote area that can
mean anything from a quarter mile to
six miles.
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was nobody to put it out and the wind
was blowing right up the canyon be-
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He was right.
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out and came back and it was dev-
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See FIRE, Page A8
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
See POSITION, Page A5
Darrell Reynolds
Wallowa County Chieftain
Police
chief
offer
made
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gets its wish, a big city boy
(who, nevertheless, can ride a
horse) will be the new chief of
police.
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day, the council decided to
make a conditional offer to
James Episcopo, a police lieu-
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Chicago suburb.
Episcopo has 27 years in
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commander overseeing 21 of-
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He impressed both Enter-
prise law enforcement and the
selection committee not only
with his background, which
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National Academy, but with
his sincerity and interest in re-
building the Enterprise force.
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or Steve Lear after the vote.
Lear had nothing but praise
for the interview committee,
which included representatives
from business, mental health
professionals and schools in
addition to Sheriff Steve Rog-
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K. Williams.
“Having a really great
cross-section able to ask about
things this city needs from
their own areas really made a
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Chief Brian Harvey of La
Grande, moderator for the in-
terview, was “a master of the
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this really took the intuition
right out of (our decision) and
gave us the information we
needed to say, ‘this guy is the
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THIS IS NOT THE
TIME OF LIFE THAT
YOU WANT TO SEE
THIS HAPPEN.
DONATE
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
It may look like his luck has all run out, as Darrell Reynolds shifts though his burned out tack shed, but the
ever-plucky Reynolds figures he just got “downsized” for retirement real quick.
A bank account for the Reyn-
olds has been set up at Bank
of Eastern Oregon. You can
donate at any branch by speci-
fying the account in their name.
Options presented for youth health issues
Collaborative group
established to move
forward on proposal
By Stephen Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
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people attended the second meeting
pertaining to the possible creation of
a school-based health center at Enter-
prise School.
The proposal has been met with
stiff opposition from some community
members.
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the organization that proposed the
health center, hosted the meeting Oct.
1 at Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise.
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ity, Dr. Elizabeth Powers, of Winding
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children live at or below 200 percent
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percent of Enterprise school students
receive free or reduced lunches.
To illustrate the possibility of un-
derserved children, Powers said that
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100 had not been seen by a care pro-
vider in the last year.
Powers said the Local Area Com-
munity Council, an entity charged
with forming a Community Health
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youth health problems the community
needs to address, including physical
clinic was to help children.
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have a need and their parents are not
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“These are our kids, and whether it’s
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ry about those kids because they’re the
ones who’ll be sticking around here and
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that he thought everyone wanted to
help underserved children, but he
didn’t like the idea of a business on
campus and preferred an off-campus
site.
Shannon Vernam asked how the
program would fare if the parents of
underserved children signed the opt-
out form that prevents treatment from
the center.
Enterprise School counselor Julie
Garland replied she could not recall
Steve Tool/Chieftain
a parent ever refusing her request to
Maria Weer, executive director of Building Healthy Families, explains her counsel a child.
views on the proposed School Based Health Center at an Oct. 1 meeting
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held at Cloverleaf Hall to address the issue.
with the medical care – that if it’s
right there, we can connect some of
activity/obesity, dental health, mental idea to meet student needs, not neces- those kids, not all, and meet needs
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health and alcohol consumption.
sarily the only or best way.
Powers raised the possibility of
One audience member asked Pow-
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ers why the community was asked to to anything except that we need to other options available to provide
approve a school-based clinic with no FRPH WRJHWKHU WR ¿QG D VROXWLRQ WR care for underserved students, includ-
ing providing a shuttle to and from
hard data to prove the clinic would WKHVHWKLQJV´3RZHUVVDLG
help alleviate any of those problems.
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“How can you quantify having Healthy Families, said she supported nurse. The school nurse idea in par-
this health care center in the school the clinic, although she understood ticular seemed to gain some traction
and asking the public to agree to it the opposition. She also said she with the audience.
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didn’t care if a clinic was off-campus
See OPTIONS, Page A3
Powers said the clinic is just one or not, but the primary reason for the