Dodgeball event raises money for cancer survivor, Page A3
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 23
$1
Who
should
pay to
protect
land?
New additions help spark
another successful
Festival of
Arts
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
somewhat rainy weekend didn’t stop the steady
stream of art afi cionados that poured into the 34th annual
Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts last weekend in Joseph.
Artists from as far away as San Diego had work on display in the art
show that included more than a half-dozen mediums of art.
First-year festival director Jeff Costello said he was pleased with the show’s
success. He said he received many positive comments about the event’s new additions, in-
cluding the En Plein Air competition, which pulled in 15 artists. En plein air refers to “open-air” painting
in the outdoors with the artist’s subject in plain sight. All of the fi nished en plein air pieces were on display
at the Josephy Center during the festival, and a handful of them sold.
“We were so encouraged by the participation
Steve Tool/Chieftain
and interest level that we are considering ways
to expand that component of the Festival of Arts This bas-relief “Harvest,”
by local artist Tim
for next year,” Costello said. “The autumn colors
Norman, won the “Best
beginning to change just reinforced that this is
in Show” award at the
the ideal timing and location for such an event.”
See ARTS, Page A6
34th annual Wallowa
Valley Festival of Arts.
Fire-protection fee
could be added to
152,000 Wallowa
County acres
previously untaxed
By Scot Heisel
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County’s so-called fi re
protection “donut hole” — interior
land vulnerable to fi re but not cur-
rently assessed a fi re protection fee
— may be a thing of the past starting
in 2017.
State forest offi cials, county rep-
resentatives and local fi re chiefs
held meetings last week in Flora and
Enterprise to announce a proposal to
offi cially place all non-federal land
in the county that isn’t within city
limits or currently being farmed
under the protection of the Oregon
Department of Forestry.
A recent survey identifi ed about
152,000 acres of grassland with-
in the county that is not being as-
sessed a tax for state fi re protection
but nonetheless requires state and
municipal resources when fi res oc-
cur. State and local fi re offi cials
argue that because of the risk of a
catastrophic event, such fi res can’t
simply be left to burn — they will
be suppressed regardless of wheth-
er the landowner is paying for fi re
protection.
See FIRES, Page A6
Plan to
rebrand
Wallowa
emerges
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa Lake Village artist Sam Collette works diligently on his en plein air painting Thursday during the Wallowa Valley Festival of
Arts in Joseph.
Moving train station
from Lostine to
Wallowa among
first steps in major
revitalization effort
By Kathleen Ellyn
5 good reasons to love Alpenfest
Dancing, beer and
clothes just a few of
the ways to have fun
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Gemütlichkeit! God bless you.
Okay, that’s a pun that been used to
death. Wallowa County residents pretty
much know that Gemütlichkeit trans-
lates as an atmosphere of warmth, fel-
lowship and good cheer.
And it is one of the reasons so many
people enjoy the upcoming Alpen-
fest, which begins Thursday and runs
through Sunday at the Edelweiss Inn at
the foot of the Tram at Wallowa Lake.
A complete Alpenfest schedule is avail-
able at oregonalpenfest.blogspot.com.
Wallowa County Chieftain
The city of Wallowa is tired of
being known as “the armpit of the
county.”
“We’re actually the gateway to the
county,” said Wal-
lowa businessman
and City Councilor
Garrett Lowe. “But
we’ve got to revi-
talize this city or it
will die.”
With that end in
view, Lowe asked
Lowe
Wallowa residents
if they would be
willing to begin a “visioning pro-
cess” about revitalizing the city —
the response was overwhelmingly
positive.
Last Thursday a core group of citi-
zens met at Wallowa City Hall to learn
that their group had a name and an In-
ternet address — the Wallowa Home-
town Project at Wallowahometown.org.
Chieftain Archives
See EVENT, Page A7
A group of ladies in traditional dress for Oregon’s Alpenfest.
See PLAN, Page A7