A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
December 28, 2016
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise
must
consider
pedestrian
safety
C
lose readers of the Chieftain may have noticed
that Kathleen Ellyn’s byline has been missing
from the last few editions.
Some many know that Kathleen was hurt while
walking down First Street in downtown Enterprise,
when a car pulled out of the Chevron station and ran
her over. She survived and, miraculously, was spared
serious injury. She may
be back to work soon.
Kathleen may have
been the victim of a
crime — we will report if Voice of the Chieftain
charges are indeed filed
against the driver of the car. But some pedestrian
accidents in Enterprise are simply accidents, and the
city should think about how to reduce them.
Enterprise is a dangerous place for a pedestrian,
especially in winter when roads and sidewalks are
slick and snow, visibility is often low and mounds of
snow line streets. Crosswalks disappear under layers
of packed snow. Trying to quickly cross over the
slick roads is dangerous for those on foot and those
behind the wheel.
But there are other year-round concerns.
There is a major highway running through town,
and its l-shaped turn means downtown pedestrians
may have to cross it more than once in the process
of finishing their errands. That same highway runs
through Joseph, but it funnels down in size and the
busy corners and cars parking and leaving help force
drivers to slow down.
It’s often not so in Enterprise. And the kind of
shoppers and explorers that the city is trying to
convince to stop and wander on their way to the
lake can be inconvenienced by the trucks and other
vehicles traveling through town.
Major fixes would be prohibitively expensive but
little fixes could make the city safer, more attractive,
and help local business.
Perhaps a lighted crosswalk across Highway 82,
connecting East and West Main, is an answer. Flags
for crossing the street near there, already in place,
are a good step.
Perhaps city planners could look for ways to
further reduce speeds in the downtown core and
funnel drivers farther away from Main Street when
they drive through town.
Perhaps more signage would be useful. Stronger
enforcement of the speed limit, and for vehicles not
stopping for people in the sidewalk, could make a
difference too.
Making pedestrians as safe as possible is
something the city should strive toward. And it could
have other benefits, too: It will help keep visitors and
locals downtown for more than just a fillup, and it
can help those same people feel free to traverse all
that Enterprise has to offer.
EDITORIAL
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Contents copyright © 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Volume 134
For about two years now, I have
devoted all my leisure literary reading
to the consumption of the works of
Charles Dickens, my favorite novelist.
I have been proceeding steadily and
contentedly through a 30-volume set
that includes all of Dickens’ novels and
many of his short stories, as well as a
few non-fictional pieces.
In Volume 27, in a travel journal
called “American Notes,” Dickens
recounted events during a six-month
long excursion that he made to the
United States and Canada in 1842.
Toward the end of the journal, he
made some general observations about
Americans that might still give us
reason to pause for consideration 175
years later.
Speaking broadly of the American
people, Dickens wrote: “They are, by
nature, frank, brave, hospitable, and
affectionate. Cultivation and refinement
seem to enhance their warmth of heart
and ardent enthusiasm; and it is the
possession of these latter qualities in a
most remarkable degree which renders
an educated American one of the
most endearing and most generous of
POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
John McColgan
friends…These qualities are natural, I
implicitly believe, to the whole people.
That they are, however, sadly sapped
and blighted in their growth among the
mass; and that there are influences at
work which endanger them still more,
and give but little present promise of
their healthy restoration, is a truth that
ought to be told…”
Addressing his American readers
directly, Dickens admonished: “One
great blemish in the popular mind
of America, and the prolific parent
of an innumerable brood of evils, is
Universal Distrust ... By repelling
worthy men from your legislative
assemblies, it has bred up a class
of candidates for the suffrage, who,
in their every act, disgrace your
Institutions and your people’s choice.
It has rendered you so fickle, and so
given to change, that your inconstancy
has passed into a proverb; for you
no sooner set up an idol firmly than
you are sure to pull it down and dash
it into fragments … Any man who
attains a high place among you, from
the President downward, may date his
downfall from that moment; for any
printed lie that any notorious villain
pens, although it militate directly
against the character and conduct of a
life, appeals at once to your distrust,
and is believed…”
“Another prominent feature,”
Dickens cautioned us, “is the love
of ‘smart’ dealing; which gilds over
many a swindle and gross breach of
trust; many a defalcation, public and
private; and enables many a knave to
hold his head up with the best, who
well deserves a halter; though it has not
been without its retributive operation,
for this smartness has done more in a
few years to impair the public credit,
and to cripple the public resources,
than dull honesty, however rash, could
have effected in a century.
See DICKENS, Page A5
Wildlife nuisance bill will go forward
I thought it might be helpful if
I explained the background to the
“deer proposal bill” that was recently
discussed at the Joseph City Council
Meeting and reported in the Wallowa
County Chieftain.
It all began when my office asked
citizens in the district for potential
legislation for the 2017 session. Joseph
Mayor Dennis Sands contacted my
office indicating there was a deer
problem within the Joseph city limits,
and that the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife was unable to help. Was
there anything we might be able to do
through legislation?
We began to work on the issue to
determine if there was a need and if so,
how to fix it. It was quickly determined
that Joseph was not alone. Several cities
came to our attention experiencing deer
problems, Union and Ashland to name
a couple. The League of Oregon Cities,
when we met with their staff, were
supportive of a bill.
ODFW staff helped us craft the
language of the bill concept, and seemed
to be pleased that something might be
done to help with this problem. The
Oregon Food Bank met with us in my
Salem office and indicated they would
love to take the deer meat for their
feeding programs.
Having determined there was a
GUEST
COLUMN
Sen. Bill Hansell
need and working with a coalition of
interested parties, we began to craft a
bill. It included the following:
· Local Control. I insisted on this.
The process begins if and only if the
city council determines there is a public
nuisance and chooses to use this bill to
fix it. No city is mandated to do it.
· ODFW has to concur that a problem
exists. If they don’t then nothing will
happen.
· ODFW will be tasked with putting
the statewide program together and will
supervise it.
· Humane euthanasia will be used to
take the problem deer. No hunters will
be marching through neighborhoods
shooting deer. Most likely the state’s
wildlife services, i.e. government
trappers, will perform those duties.
· Oregon Food Bank will take the
meat to feed the homeless in their food
programs.
· Antlers and hides can be sold by the
city to help pay for any costs they incur.
I have been told there is a market for
such items.
Because Mayor Sands had been the
first to bring this issue to our attention, I
wanted to extend the courtesy to him to
look at the wording and make sure, if the
city of Joseph chose to use it, it would
be what the city needed. Unfortunately,
as I understand, it took on a life of its
own when people posted the bill concept
on Facebook.
Representative Greg Barreto and
I are moving ahead sponsoring a bill
that will add tools for cities to use if
they determine they have a problem. I
believe, with the strong support that has
thus far been generated, the bill has a
good likelihood to pass.
Should anyone want more
information on this or any other issue,
please contact my office (503) 986-
1729 or by email sen.billhansell@
oregonlegislature.gov.
Wishing all of you a very Merry
Christmas and prosperous 2017.
■
Senator Bill Hansell was recently
elected for a second term to the Oregon
Senate. He represents Wallowa, Union,
Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam, Sherman,
and half of Wasco counties. He was
Umatilla County Commissioner for 30
years before being elected to Salem in
2012. He and his wife Margaret live in
Athena.
Private ownership of public land not the answer
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Wallowa County
Out-of-County
Dickens, wisdom and the
American character
Historians say that knowing the past
prevents us from making the same mis-
takes made by our forebearers.
When Oregon became a state, the
United States government ceded two
sections of every township to the state
to use for schools. Unfortunately, the
legislature in 1887 decided to sell the
school lands.
Had they kept those lands and used
the timber harvest and grazing fees
wisely, charging the going rate, the
schools would be financed in perpetuity.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous officials
sold the lands at minimum prices to pri-
vate entities, therefore taking them out
of the public domain.
Now we have groups of people who
want all federal land managed by the
state. Their argument is that the state
LETTERS to the EDITOR
would take better care of the lands than
the Forest Service or the BLM present-
ly take care of them. According to Tim
Smith (Dec. 21 Chieftain), the state
would manage the lands efficiently and
fires would not be a problem.
Where would the state get the money
to manage the BLM and Forest Service
lands? Would the state sell off those
lands in order to finance the land man-
agement program? Would the entities
that buy the lands allow grazing? Would
the supposedly private enterprise new
land owners charge less than the federal
government now charges to lease graz-
ing lands? Would they care more about
stewardship of the land than about their
immediate private financial gain?
Smith apparently believes that the
public lands should be under the pur-
view of their “users.” I am hereby claim-
ing as a citizen of Oregon and the United
States of America and a member of the
public that the public lands belong to me
just as much as they belong to him or
any “user.” The public lands ought to be
for the benefit of the public, not solely
for the benefit of the “users.”
If the state should become the man-
ager of the forest and BLM lands, they
should not be sold to private entities and
the fees for their use should be adjusted
to the going rate. All of the income from
the lands should go to finance education.
Evelyn Swart
Enterprise