• S eaSon ’ S G reetinGS •
Letters
to Santa
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C1
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
Issue No. 36
December 20, 2017
$1
BUSINESS BOOM
New investors are buying up Enterprise’s Main Street
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
he fuse that was lighted five
years ago has reached the
payload. Business invest-
ment is booming on Enterprise
Main Street.
Michael and Jody Berry brought
the match that caused the explo-
sion. They began the investment
T
trend with the purchase of three
storefronts on West Main in 2012.
They developed “Wild Carrot
Herbals” at 114 W. Main, experi-
mented with the popular “Dande-
lion Wine” shop next door 2015-
17, and are remodeling the 110
W. Main storefront that was “Jay’s
Place” computer and music supply
store. Jay moved around the corner
to 103 SW First Street last summer.
The Brann boost
Further west down the block
Darrell Brann fanned the flame
when he purchased both the OK
Theatre and the former Weaver
Building (214 and 216 W Main)
in 2014. The Weaver Building had
multiple retail spaces.
The renovation and dramatic
See BOOM, Page A9
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
The enormous Bowlby Stone Litch Building is the latest undergoing
renovation to create 7 to 13 retail spaces on the main floor and ap-
proximately a dozen apartments upstairs. All but one of the current
businesses displaced in the upgrade have already found new digs.
LET IT GLOW
Man’s billion
dollar claim
on county,
state denied
Photos by Paul Wahl
Bob and Cheryl Zacharias
in Joseph have one of the
largest and brightest light
displays in Wallowa County.
Complainant includes
birth certificate, parents
marriage license
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
One man’s hope of becoming a
billionaire at the expense of Wallowa
County and the state of Oregon tax-
payers was quashed at a dismissal
hearing at Wallowa County Circuit
Court on Nov. 29.
Ricky Tippett filed a rambling and
somewhat incoherent tort against the
state for $973 million and Wallowa
County for $250 million for perpe-
trating a number of alleged crimes
against him, including intentionally
causing him emotional distress, con-
spiracy, fraud, constructive fraud,
identity theft, arrest and “conversion.”
Judge Thomas Powers presided
over the case while attorney Bruno
J. Jagelski of Ontario represented the
county and filed the motion for dis-
missal. Seth Karpinski, senior assis-
tant attorney general, appeared for
the state in the matter and joined the
county in its motion. Tippett rep-
resented himself. All the parties,
with the exception of Judge Powers,
appeared by phone.
According to the complaint filed
Aug. 24, the charges resulted from the
county having the audacity to issue
his parents a marriage license and to
list him as a citizen of both the state
and county on his birth certificate.
Tippett contended he was only
a child of God and a resident of the
Kingdom of Heaven, and the state
and county had caused him harm by
their description of his parentage and
citizenship status.
Jagelski, speaking first, told the
judge that the motion to dismiss was
based on what he called “an unintelli-
gible complaint that is packed full of
conclusions of law with no ultimate
See BILLION, Page A9
Move afoot to relocate footbridge
Wheeler Memorial would span BC Creek
By Paul Wahl
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Wheeler Memorial Footbridge
became a bridge to nowhere when a flash
flood moved the Wallowa River out from
under it in 2002.
A plan has been hatched to move the
bridge in its entirety to where it will once
again serve the purpose for which it was
built.
Rick Bombaci, working with the
Wallowa Mountain Hells Canyon Trails
Association, outlined the proposal before
the Rotary Club of Wallowa County on
Dec. 13. Wallowa, along with clubs in
Baker and LaGrande, built the original
bridge in 1996.
The structure was dedicated to the
memory of David Jack Wheeler, a U.S.
Forest Service employee who was killed
in the line of duty in Idaho in 1995.
Bombaci, who participated in the
original building of what is often known
as the Boy Scout Bridge, said the pro-
posal has several facets.
The new location would span BC
Creek, which can reach levels where
crossing on foot is dangerous. It would
also create a loop in the trail system at
Wallowa Lake State Park, a plus for
hikers.
And it would restore a memorial to an
individual who touched countless lives
through his job and in his personal life.
Ralph Swinehart, who designed the
original bridge, said he and Bombaci
have examined the structure along with
See BRIDGE, Page A9
Submitted photo/Ralph Swinehart
The Wheeler Memorial Footbridge on the Boy Scout property near Wal-
lowa Lake was constructed under the auspices of several Rotary Clubs
in 1996.