Oregon legislature lays out hurdles, priorities/ 12A
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 39
January 11, 2017
$1
W ORKING
EAGLE CAP EXTREME SLED DOG RACES TO BEGIN JAN. 19
One job
isn’t
always
enough
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Editor’s note: This is the
fi rst in a series how people
fi nd work and pay the bills in
Wallowa County.
Wallowa County’s depen-
dence on seasonal employ-
ment doesn’t always bode
well for the full-time, year-
round job seeker.
The lack of more main-
stream, career-track jobs
leads to the area having one
of the wildest-swinging em-
ployment rates in Oregon. It
also affects the county’s high
median age — older than the
state average — and dissuades
young people from moving
into the area because of a per-
ceived lack of full-time work.
However, the draw of the
county’s beauty and lifestyle
is irresistible to some, who
will work a variety of jobs just
to keep a toehold here in the
Wallowa Valley. The Chief-
tain talked to people who
work unconventional jobs (or
lots of conventional ones) in
order to live in the place they
love. Here are two:
Rebekah Nash
At the age of four, Rebekah
Nash moved with her mother,
now Angela Nash, to Wallowa
County and grew up on a ranch
while attending Joseph Charter
School. After
graduation,
she moved
around the
U.S. for the
next decade
or so.
“It’s kind
Nash
of like a vor-
tex,” Nash
said. “Every two years or so
I’d always come back to work
for the summer. It was like a
landing place/launch pad be-
cause I could come back and
get a job without an applica-
tion pretty much anywhere,
work for the summer and go
on my next adventure.”
Her vast work experience,
as well as the work ethic she
acquired growing up on a
ranch, suited her for a number
of different jobs.
“I pretty much had the
keys to every business for
three blocks on the west side
of Joseph,” she said with a
laugh.
See JOBS, Page A9
Rich Rautenstrauch/Chieftain
Susan Parraga and her dogs practice with the sled at
Salt Creek Summit in this Chieftain file photo. The team
will compete in this year’s Eagle Cap Extreme, which
begins Jan. 19 at the Ferguson Ridge Ski Area.
Mushers, huskies about
to descend on county for
Iditarod-qualifying race
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
he best part of the Eagle Cap Ex-
treme sled dog race, according to
organizer Troy Nave, comes half an hour
before race start, when more than 200 Alas-
kan huskies fi ll the parking lot at Ferguson
Ridge Ski Area with a cacophony of joyous
howling.
“You have to succumb to it,” said Nave,
who serves on the event board of directors.
“The excitement is so contagious.”
Mushers from across the Northwest and
Canada will head deep into the Wallowa
Mountains for the 13th running of the Ea-
gle Cap Extreme, beginning Thursday, Jan.
19. Kickoff is at noon for the 200-mile and
100-mile races, as well as the fi rst stage of the
two-day pot race, which runs 31 miles both
days. The 22-mile juniors race and second leg
of the pot race will begin at noon on Friday,
Jan. 20. All races leave from Ferguson Ridge,
about nine miles outside of Joseph. A shuttle
Chieftain file photo
It’s almost time for sled dog teams to once
more come out of the starting gate at
Ferguson Ridge Ski Area near Joseph for
the 10th running of the Eagle Cap Extreme
sled dog race. The race begins Jan. 19.
bus will be available at 9:45 a.m. on race days.
The public can also meet and greet mush-
ers during a potluck at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Jan. 18 at the Joseph Community Center.
See RACE, Page A5
MEET THE MUSHERS
Twenty-four mushers will compete
in four races during the 13th running of
the Eagle Cap Extreme, from across the
Northwest and Canada.
2 00-mile
• John Kunzler, Vernal, Utah
• Bryce Mumford, Preston, Idaho
• Neal Bowlen, Park City, Utah
• Laurie Warren, Council, Idaho
• Brett Bruggeman, Great Falls, Mont.
• Scott White, Snohomish, Wash.
• Mark Stamm, Riverside, Wash.
• Clayton Perry, Power, Mont.
100-mile
• Steve Madsen, Cougar, Wash.
• Adam Buch, Cranbrook, British
Columbia, Canada
• David Bush, Bend, Ore.
• Gabe Dunham, Bend, Ore.
• Dina Ludd, Okanogan, Wash.
• Hugo Antonucci, Adin, Calif.
• Karen Ramstead, Perryvale, Alberta,
Canada
• Bino Fowler, Bend, Ore.
Pot race
• Morgan Anderson, Enterprise, Ore.
• Scott Barber, Ramona, Calif.
• David Hassilev, Priest River, Idaho
• Linda Pierce, Okanogan, Wash.
• Connie Star, Cle Elum, Wash.
• Susan Parraga, Joseph, Ore.
• Jane Devlin, Bend, Ore.
Juniors
• Christina Gibson, Riverside, Wash.
New legislature, same governor
belief,” Brown said to applause. “We
must not allow the rights of any one
person or class of people to be degrad-
ed in any way. We must stand for our
veterans. We must defend the rights of
LGBTQ Oregonians.”
Brown also released her priorities
for the 79th legislative assembly, which
convenes Feb. 1.
Top priorities are the state’s high
school graduation rate, a transportation
funding package, measures to keep fi re-
arms out of the hands of high-risk in-
dividuals and expansion of health care
subsidies to all children.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown was
sworn in for the fi rst time as elected
governor Monday, after serving in the
position for nearly two years.
The governor used her inaugural
address to unveil her legislative agenda
for the year.
“Under my leadership, we will con-
tinue to move Oregon forward,” Brown
told an audience in the Oregon House
of Representatives chamber.
Brown, as secretary of state, as-
cended to the governorship in February
2015 when then-Gov. John Kitzhaber
stepped down amid a scandal over con-
sulting contracts awarded to his fi ancée,
Cylvia Hayes. In Oregon, where there
is no lieutenant governor, the secretary
of state is next in line.
She became the fi rst openly bisexual
governor in national history.
Brown was elected in November
with an overwhelming majority to com-
plete that last two years of Kitzhaber’s
four-year term, defeating Republican
challenger, Dr. Bud Pierce of Salem.
During her speech Monday, Brown
Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group
Gov. Kate Brown takes the oath of office Monday from Oregon Supreme
Court Justice Thomas Balmer. Brown was elected in November to finish the
remaining two years of former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s term. She succeeded
him to the post when he resigned in February 2015.
called on Oregon lawmakers to set
aside their differences to work togeth-
er this session to tackle Oregon’s $1.7
billion revenue shortfall. “We have to
come together and know that we are all
on the same side,” Brown said.
She also said Oregonians should
resist any attacks on civil rights in the
wake of New York billionaire Donald J.
Trump’s election as president.
“We must guard against prejudice
based on race, ethnicity, religion or
Revenue
Her agenda omitted specifi c pro-
posals to raise taxes to address the
state’s $1.7 billion revenue shortfall,
an issue expected to be at the center
of lawmaker debate during the 2017
session.
However, she continued her call
for better management of state pen-
sion investments, and she called on
lawmakers to work together to fi nd
solutions to revenue problems.
See BROWN, Page A9