ENTERPRISE STUDENTS PRESENT
CHRISTMAS PROGRAM – PAGE 6
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 35
December 13, 2017
$1
Enterprise City
Council balking
on library district
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Isaiah Brooks was one of
several elves who rode on
the Main Street Motors pa-
rade Saturday evening. The
event was the culmination of
a two-day celebration of En-
terprise Winterfest.
Winterfest
wonderland
Enterprise lights
up for holiday
celebration
Photos by Paul Wahl, Chieftain editor
More photos on page 5
and at wallowa.com
Delaney Hayes of Enterprise spent a few minutes telling San-
ta what she wanted for Christmas on Saturday at the En-
terprise Winterfest celebration. Events included chestnuts
roasting on an open fire, a chili feed and food and wine,
among others.
Adult rape charges dismissed
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
The case against a 16-year-old boy
charged as an adult with the Measure 11
offense of first-degree rape was dismissed
by Judge Russell B. West in Wallowa
County Circuit Court on Dec. 6.
The dismissal came at the request of
Wallowa County Deputy District Attorney
Rebecca Frolander after “missing” evidence
affecting the case was found in the sheriff’s
office.
The defendant, whom the Chieftain has
not named, is still being charged with sex
abuse in the second degree as a juvenile.
Bail money in the case was returned
to the defendant’s parents, and his release
agreement was renegotiated.
The Chieftain will continue to update
this story.
Just how a library district
would impact operations at
Enterprise City Library is
still a question for city coun-
cil members. The discussion
created some heat on a cold
winter night when the coun-
cil met Monday.
The Enterprise library
committee, composed of
Librarian Denine Rauten-
strauch, Micah Agnew and
Mayor Stacy Karvoski, pre-
sented thoughts on the mat-
ter Dec. 11 and the discus-
sion that followed revealed
some strong resistance to the
district.
Mayor Karvoski said
the library committee was
attempting to “get all our
ducks in a row” with regard
to what the city was willing
to provide if the district pro-
posal were approved.
“What we’re looking for
is for the city to vote on some
type of proposal like this so
... Enterprise will already
have a handle on what our
proposal is for our building,”
Karvoski said.
The city intends to main-
tain control and ownership
of the building.
The city library commit-
tee proposed allowing the
district free rent in addition
to a donation of $7,500 to
put toward the cost of heat
and lights.
The idea of allowing
free rent was a way to show
“where we put our money is
what we value,” said coun-
cil member Agnew. “If the
district passes, we go down
to paying less than 10 per-
cent of our current $130,000
expenditure.”
Councilors Larry Christ-
man and Chris Pritchard
are opposed to the idea. The
other tenant of the build-
ing, North East Oregon Eco-
nomic Development Dis-
trict pays rent, and Pritchard
See LIBRARY, Page A9
thinkstockphotos.com
Library PAC pledges
to be myth-busters
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County resi-
dents don’t fully understand
everything the county will
lose if the county library
closes and a library district is
not formed.
“One of the things that
you hear is that if you vote
‘no.’ you will still have all
your services at the Enter-
prise Library — well, no,
that’s not true, because
all of the children’s pro-
graming that up until now
has been provided by the
county library will not
be there,” said Enterprise
City Librarian Denine
Rautenstrauch.
Rautenstrauch spoke at
a meeting of library sup-
porters Tuesday part of a
Political Action Committee
that will educate Wallowa
County in advance of the
May vote to create a library
district.
“There’s only me and
I’m there 32 hours a week,”
Rautenstrauch added. “With-
out (county librarian) Susan
Polumsky’s assistance, it’s
not possible for me to pro-
vide all that programming.”
Among the strategies is
handouts to answer com-
mon questions, which will
be improved continually as
the campaign moves forward
and more feedback from citi-
zens is received.
Right now the default
vote for a library district is
“no” for folks who are unin-
formed, according to vol-
unteer coordinator Angela
Bombaci.
“As long as people have
this misunderstanding that
nothing will change, not
changing always seems
safer than change,” she
said.
“The unknown is really
scary,” agreed temporary
co-chair Kim Weatherrite.
“At the onset ... there was so
much unknown that it was
really scary. As we’ve devel-
oped more of a plan, (the
library district) has become
a more feasible option that is
easier to embrace.”
See PAC, Page A9
Disaster averted in Wallowa fire
Quick thinking
leads to limited
damage at
Back-Achers
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
It was a community effort
that saved Back-Achers early
Monday morning.
Wallowa Fire Chief John
Campbell received a phone call
from school bus driver Tonya
Starmer of Wallowa at approxi-
mately 7:40 a.m. Dec. 11.
Smoke was billowing out
of the Back-Achers busi-
ness on the Truck Route
Road in Wallowa.
Campbell leapt into his fire
gear and gathered the troops.
When both of the Wallowa
Volunteer Fire Department
trucks arrived on the scene,
the view was alarming. Black
smoke was pouring from under
the eaves of the 9,000-square-
foot building, which houses a
resale and discount business
owned by Ben and JoAnn Deal.
A large area of the building
contains lumber.
“We put in a call for assis-
tance from Lostine and Enter-
prise right away,” said Camp-
bell. “We didn’t know what we
had and given the size of that
building — we had mutual aid
from Lostine and Enterprise.”
Bus driver Starmer had
called Mason Hafer and Travis
Goebel after calling Campbell,
so several volunteers beat the
fire trucks to the scene. Hafer
and Goebel discovered the
cause of the smoke — a burn-
ing forklift in the lumberyard
portion of the building.
Next door across the rail-
road track at the Tanzey Forest
Improvement wood lot, Butch
Tanzey and his employee B.J.
Arborgast were warming up the
equipment to start woodcutting
and “B.J. looked across and
said ‘Holy Cow, look at that!’”
Tanzey recalled. “Black smoke
was boiling out. We grabbed
our fire extinguishers and ran
over there and gave them to the
See FIRE, Page A10
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Wallowa City Fire Chief John Campbell examines the fork lift
that caused all the drama at Back-Achers in Wallowa early
Monday morning.