Wallowa County chieftain., May 03, 2017, Image 1

Inside: SCHOOL BOARD
CANDIDATES SOUND OFF
Enterprise, Oregon
County
rethinks
library
funding
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 3
May 3, 2017
PLAYGROUND IN
JOSEPH OPENS
At least two public
hearings will have
to be scheduled
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Never underestimate the pow-
er of dedicated library users. The
recently announced demise of the
county’s library due to shrinking
revenues spurred the community
into action.
Petitions with hundreds of
signatures are circulating to
show citizen support, something
gratifying for the library’s direc-
tor Susan Polumsky, who was
informed about the cuts from the
county’s board of commissioners
offi ce while she was on vacation.
The library was voted into
existence by the county’s vot-
ers in 1964 and has run without
interruption into the present.
Polumsky is the only full-time
employee of the staff of six.
The library runs on a budget of
around $104,000 annually.
See LIBRARY, Page A16
Enterprise
High makes
‘Best Schools
of 2017’ list
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise High School has
won a silver medal for excel-
lence as a result of making the
US. News & World Report “Best
Schools in 2017” list.
Enterprise High was 1,617th
nationwide out of 22,000 public
high schools studied. It was also
11th in the list of top 32 schools
in the state. Seventy-eight Ore-
gon schools made the U.S. News
& World Report “Best Schools”
list.
School Supt. Erica Pinkerton
was quick to praise the entire
community for the honor.
“It’s a huge compliment to
all teachers K-12 for their ded-
ication and commitment to our
educational system and to our
students for being engaged and
taking pride in their education
and a compliment to our parents
and community for their guid-
ance and support,” Pinkerton
said.
See LIST, Page A16
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it only took about three weeks for local volunteers like
these to start from ground prep work to finish on the new Joseph City Park Playground
Project. The playground is now open for business
Years of work by community
members come to fruition
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
T
he naysayers said it couldn’t be done.
No way could the Joseph commu-
nity come together, raise more than
$200,000 and convince the community
to volunteer thousands of hours to build the park
playground.
The naysayers were wrong.
“We were talking about ways to help the com-
munity when Tyler Homan mentioned refurbish-
ing the city park, painting it, sanding some of the
boards,” said Kade Kilgore, a JCS sophomore. “It
was pretty bad. That’s what got us started.”
Kilgore and four friends –– TJ Grote, Steven
Beckman, Tyler Homan and Trey Wandschneider
–– began the effort in 2015.
They were students in former JCS teacher
Laurie Altringer’s community service class.
Altringer liked the idea, but the boys had to
convince the Joseph City Council.
The boys and Altringer attended Joseph’s
Feb. 5, 2015 city council meeting
Armed with a PowerPoint presentation, the
boys came before the city council in Feb-
ruary 2015. The council was supportive,
and the city eventually contributed $2,500
to the cause.
The group selected Play By Design, a
renowned playground design and building
company from Ithaca, N.Y., to facilitate
the project. FCCLA teacher Marla Dot-
son and project leader Penny Arentsen
formed a community steering commit-
tee in October 2015.
The community became involved,
a design was chosen and fundraising
for the $210,000 project began in
earnest. The company provided most
of the materials and a qualifi ed
playground crew of supervisors.
The community provided the
money and manpower.
Nearly every grade in the
school had a fundraising project,
including bake sales, selling
donuts, raffl es and others.
See JOSEPH, Page A16
Steve Tool/Chieftain
This little boy is enjoying his first
ride on the new slide at the Joseph
City Park playground after its April
30 grand opening.
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