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News
wallowa.com
March 8, 2017
Wallowa County Chieftain
Law enforcement seizes
truck with possible meth
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
On March 1, Wallowa
County law enforcement of-
fi cials seized a Freightliner
box truck with alleged sto-
len items and possible meth-
amphetamine in connection
with the multiple arrests that
occurred on Feb.26-27 in
Wallowa on charges ranging
from meth possession to child
neglect.
Offi cers from both the
Wallowa County Sheriff’s
Department and Enterprise
Police Department searched
the truck on the morning of
March 2 in the parking lot of
the Justice Center, located at
104 W. Greenwood St. in En-
terprise. At 10 a.m., with po-
lice tape around the truck and
a good portion of the parking
lot, WCSO deputy Kevin
McQuade and EPD offi cer
George Koehlhepp began
offl oading material from the
truck under the direction of
Sheriff Steve Rogers and EPD
Chief Joel Fish.
The process took most of
the rest of the day as the truck
was fi rmly packed from front
to back with an impossible va-
riety of goods from household
items to construction tools
and children’s toys — think
secondhand store. As hours
passed more law enforce-
ment personnel stopped in to
help and numerous passers by
stopped to ogle or pass wide-
eyed.
As it happened, not every-
thing unloaded was quite so
benign. A number of unloaded
wares matched the descrip-
tion of stolen items reported
by burglary victims, including
a two-wheeled weed eater re-
ported stolen from the Lostine
Cemetery. One more item in
the load raised the eyebrows
of everyone involved.
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Mt. Joseph showing the effects of this year’s long, cold
winter. Animals feel the effects too.
Winter takes
its toll on the
animals, too
By Steve Tool
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa County law enforcement officials going through the contents of a box truck on
March 2. Police seized the truck the day before. By the time the search ended numerous
allegedly stolen items were found as well as possible methamphetamine. L to R: Enterprise
police officer George Koehlhepp, Wallowa County sheriff’s deputy Kevin McQuade and
Sheriff Steve Rogers.
While going through a
safe, Koehlhepp and Mc-
Quade found a metal contain-
er containing an amount of
grainy white powder.
“What do you think?”
Koehlhepp asked McQuade.
“Only one way to fi nd
out,” McQuade replied. The
two men took out a prelim-
inary drug testing kit. The
testing process included tak-
ing a minuscule amount of the
substance and mixing it with
other chemicals.
As the concoction color
indicated a positive for possi-
ble methamphetamine the two
offi cers cautioned that the test
was only an indication that the
substance was meth. Further
testing would provide more
precise results.
By the end of the day the
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Steve Tool/Chieftain
Enterprise police chief Joel Fish helps unload goods from
the box truck seized by police on March 1 because of alleged
contraband inside.
offi cers had a pickup bed full
of items that directly matched
reported stolen goods while
the rest was restacked back
into the confi scated truck.
Before driving off in the
vehicles Koehlhepp expressed
concerns about other possible
burglaries.
“We’d like to let anyone
know who is coming back
from a long vacation to check
their storage buildings and
their homes for possible rob-
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beries. We have a lot of stuff
here that could have been sto-
len while people were away,”
he said.
McQuade issued a warning
before driving off.
“If you’re a criminal and
you’re thinking of break-
ing into someone’s property,
don’t do it. We take this type
of crime very seriously and
we will fi nd you,” he said.
The case remains under in-
vestigation.
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County citizens
are aware of the devastating
impact of the winter on power
bills, buildings and roof col-
lapses from excess snow, frozen
pipes, buckling and unplowed
roads and other cold weather
problems. One thing that may
not immediately spring to mind
is the fate of wildlife.
While farm animals may
have a tough time during the
winter, wild animals don’t
have the luxury of regular
meals. Pat Matthews of the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife said that some
wildlife is suffering, while
others will prosper.
“It’s certainly going to
benefi t fi sh, and depending on
the spring, it could be benefi -
cial for forage growth and that
sort of thing,” Matthews said.
The deer population is
already severely affected
by the weather according to
Matthews. “We’re certainly
losing deer; and we’re going
to continue losing deer. Both
white tail and mule deer popu-
lations will be dropping some
this winter, but for those who
survive it might be positive
anyway,” he said.
The ODFW has radio col-
lared mule deer populations.
“We’re doing movement stud-
ies on them, and we’ve lost
some of those deer as well.
It’s one of those things, but it
also gives us good informa-
tion about the rate of mortality
and that sort of thing. It’s all
a part of population manage-
ment.”
It’s too early to tell to make
any generalizations about wa-
ter supply for the upcoming
spring and summer, Matthews
‘T
his is
reality
– it’s what I
grew up with.’
Goat rancher
Wendy McCullough
added. But he suspects that
some deer will be in such poor
shape by the end of winter
that they will never recover
from its effects.
The winter has led to an
increase of calls about deer
in county towns as well as
ranchers’ calls about deer in
their haystacks.
Out on the farm
“It’s affected my attitude,”
local goat rancher Wendy Mc-
Cullough said of the winter.
McCullough ranches in the
shelter of Mt. Joseph, which
protects her livestock and
home from the worst of in-
clement weather.
She normally feeds her
goats about 20 tons of hay per
year and doesn’t expect to ex-
ceed that amount by an appre-
ciable margin. She also went
through the birthing season in
the mildest part of the month
of January. “I was lucky. I
won’t say it was planned par-
enthood,” McCullough said
with a laugh.
McCullough, who grew up
in Wallowa County, said this
reminded her of winters from
the 1960s. “We were like this
every winter. I remember one
December it was below zero
for the whole month. This is
a little extreme compared to
what we’ve been spoiled with,
but it’s just like it used to be.
This is reality – it’s what I
grew up with,” she said.
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