Wallowa County Chieftain
Year in Review/From A1
wallowa.com
January 3, 2018
A5
Wolf
2 controversy continued
1
Chieftain file photo
The historic J. Herbert Bates Lumber planing mill in Wallowa fell due to heavy snow in 2017.
NATURE
Continued from Page A1
The summer that followed
brought near-record heat and
wild fires across Oregon and
the Northwest. The county did
not suffer a reprise of the fire-
fear of 2015 when the Griz-
zly Bear Complex Fire came
within a few hundred feet of
burning down the town of
Troy and had ranchers scram-
bling to save cattle in the area.
However smoke from
surrounding fires darkened
the skies across the county,
impacting the health of some
and derailing adventures for
some tourists.
Views from the Wallowa
Lake Tramway were obstructed
for several days.
3 district makes it to the ballot
Library
Wallowa County will have
to wait until the May 2018
ballot to know the rest of the
story, but a vigorous group of
library lovers has been leap-
ing tall hurdles in a single
bound ever since the county
announced the closure of the
County Library in early June.
A $1.1 million budget
shortfall was cited as the rea-
son for the closure, and county
residents are still discover-
ing the impact for library ser-
vices county-wide. There were
plenty of other losers in the
budget cuts: the county ceased
operating garbage transfer sta-
tions and the Wallowa County
Sheriff’s office lost $122,466.
The garbage issue was
cleaned up in record time as
cities with transfer stations
signed contracts with Rahn
Chieftain file photo
Enterprise City Librarian
Denine Rautenstrauch, left,
chair of the Wallowa County
Library board Genene Kings-
ford and Wallowa County Li-
brarian Susan Polumsky.
Sanitary of Enterprise and
Sheriff Steve Rogers made
tough decisions.
The library issue remained
in the news throughout the
year.
A group of citizens created
the Wallowa Valley Library
Foundation and determined a
taxpayer-funded library dis-
trict was the best bet to retain
and grow library services. The
group snagged a grant for a
feasibility study and hired a
consultant. Joseph, Enterprise
and Wallowa opted to sign on
to let their citizens vote. Los-
tine opted out.
Commissioners
eventu-
ally agreed to keep the county
library open with reduced
hours until May.
Once the district made
it to the ballot, the founda-
tion formed a Political Action
Committee to educate the pop-
ulace and drum up votes. The
PAC committee was in full
swing as the year ended with a
variety of committees headed
by volunteers preparing to take
the message to voters.
5
Enterprise City Hall, fire station burns
It was as dramatic as it was
surprising. On July 10, in the
midst of a work session before
Enterprise City Council was
to convene, council member
Dave Elliott left the chambers
to retrieve papers and discov-
ered thick smoke in the offices
of city hall.
Enterprise Volunteer Fire
Department firefighters, 19 in
all, were on the scene within
minutes and began to clear
the adjacent fire hall and com-
mence battling the blaze.
Smoke was pouring out win-
dows and doors. Soon Joseph
Fire Department and another
five vehicles and 11 more fire-
fighters joined the fight.
After an investigation, it
was determined the fire was
caused by a faulty fluorescent
light fixture in the city admin-
istrator’s office. The hot ballast
fell on a seat and the nearby air
7
conditioner fanned the embers
into a full-blown blaze.
When the last smoke cleared,
the crumbling 1957 building, its
ceilings riddled with asbestos,
was still standing. It was even-
tually deemed a total loss: the
cost of repair would be more
than it was worth.
What seemed like cata-
strophic news began trans-
forming into something alive
and vital over the ensuing
weeks.
An insurance replace-
ment limit of $1.3 million will
allow the city to build a new
fire hall to replace the danger-
ously decrepit old fire hall and
chances of getting a low-inter-
est loan or grant to build a new
city hall looked good in light
of the disaster that had dis-
placed city government.
In the meantime, Enter-
prise City Hall moved from
Chieftain file photo
Enterprise firefighters Jake
Schaefer, Trenton Neil and
Tyler Micka gear up to go
back into Enterprise City
Hall in search of hot spots.
around the corner to 117 Main
Street — the recently vacated
offices of a retired physician.
New council member, Micah
Agnew, offered space at the
church he pastors at 207 E
Main, a block away from city
hall, as a council chambers.
City hall was open for busi-
ness within seven days of the
blaze.
Memories in ashes: Boggan’s Oasis burns
Say it isn’t so! The nearly
80-year-old landmark busi-
ness, Boggan’s Oasis, burned
to the ground Nov. 18.
Because of its remote loca-
tion, along the rugged stretch
of Highway 126 three miles
north of the Wallowa County
border into Washington, no fire
service was available.
Boggan’s was famous
— a storied stop along the
famous and infamous Rat-
tlesnake Grade that stretches
from Enterprise to Clarkston,
Wash. The American Motor-
cycle Association calls that
80-mile drive one of the top 15
motorcycle rides in America.
Boggan’s sat right next to the
Grande Ronde River.
It was a favorite stop
for tourists and locals alike.
Inside, milk shakes to inspire
epic poems and unforgetta-
ble memories were served
along with hamburgers, fries
and more. Walls were deco-
rated with historic photos —
many recording the achieve-
ments of steelhead anglers
from the pages of both recent
and ancient history.
Across the road, rafting
companies picked up their cli-
ents after once-in-a-lifetime
floats through wilderness on
the Wenaha and Grande Ronde
Rivers. Motorcycles and bicy-
cles (thousands of Cycle Ore-
gon bicyclist went this way in
2010) lined up in the parking
lot. In fair weather, folks lolled
outside at the little café tables
and marveled at their good
fortune.
An electrical short in a sec-
tion of old wiring in the sev-
eral-times-updated building
most likely caused the fire.
Owners Bill and Farrel Vail
live next door to the restau-
rant and also manage camp-
sites, RV parking and cab-
ins. They are in their mid-80s
and were planning on a retire-
ment at some point. Whether
they will rebuild is still unde-
cided. What doesn’t need to
be decided is whether fans of
the business want it rebuilt or
whether or not. Bill and Farrel
said they would rebuild if they
were a few years younger.
“We’re more worried about
our customers than anyone
else; we’re working on our
third generation of customers,”
Farrel said.
Wolves played a large part
on the Wallowa County stage
in 2017. Continued calls from
ranchers to get rid of addi-
tional wolves were heard.
Environmentalists
pushed
to protect wolves and railed
against ranchers and their
plans.
The year of controversy
began when USDA Wildlife
Services accidentally killed a
Wallowa County wolf with an
M-44 cyanide trap in Febru-
ary. That resulted in the agen-
cy’s removal of all such traps
in Wallowa County.
In March, the state moved
into Phase 3 of its Wolf Man-
agement Plan as at least eight
breeding pairs of wolves were
found in the state for three
consecutive years.
In April, the yearly wolf
count by the ODFW showed
4
Chieftain file photo
Wolves and their impact on
Wallowa County dominat-
ed the news in 2017 with
ranchers calling for their
control and environmental-
ists pushing to keep them
wild and free.
an increase of two wolves.
less large gains than in previ-
ous years. The agency said it
did not believe the growth to
be a trend and noted the loss
of seven wolves from lethal
take or other causes. It also
noted that inclement winter
weather hindered sightings
and that the 112 wolves were
confirmed and other wolves
were probably present but not
counted.
Wallowa County ranch-
ers suffered nine confirmed
depredations by wolves. The
Harl Butte Pack was respon-
sible for most of them, result-
ing in the harvesting of four
wolves from the pack by the
ODFW. As depredations con-
tinued into the fall, the agency
authorized more lethal takes
of the pack but did not carry
any out.
A long-awaited Oregon
Wolf Management Plan was
introduced late in the year.
Dissatisfaction expressed by
nearly all stakeholders in the
document resulted in a tem-
porary delay in its implemen-
tation until 2018.
Challenge to find a place
to live in Wallowa County
Wallowa County began
tackling a long-standing hous-
ing crisis stifling economic
growth with a series of Brown
Bag Luncheons at the Jose-
phy Center in Joseph in July.
Over the coming weeks
and months, citizens learned
that, contrary to economic
development studies done
years earlier, there was an
across-the-board shortage of
housing for all income ranges.
Medical professionals were
living in trailers at RV centers
for more than a year, two-in-
come families were moving
from one substandard home
to another, elderly and dis-
abled sat on waiting lists for
months for an apartment and
families with three children
stacked up in two bedroom
apartments — all for the same
reason, lack of affordable
rentals.
Issues included a misun-
derstanding of what low-in-
come housing was in compar-
ison to subsidized or voucher
housing; a belief that there
was a “glut” of low-income
housing available; a belief
that trailer parks attracted
the “wrong sort of people;”
fears that changes in zoning
to allow cottage-sized homes
Chieftain file photo
RV resorts such as this one in La Grande may be in Wal-
lowa County’s future. The resorts accommodate disabled
and retired people on fixed incomes, workforce families,
two-income professionals and retired people with money
to invest who can’t find permanent housing.
(less than 1,000 square feet)
or tiny homes would lower
property values for neighbors;
zoning laws and square foot-
age construction that no lon-
ger addressed modern buyers
needs or desires; and a short-
age of rentals for workforce.
Horror stories emerged
about substandard rentals
and landlords unprepared
for their responsibilities, and
double-income families aban-
doning Wallowa County in
frustration.
The conversation con-
6
tinues, not just in Wallowa
County, but nationwide.
In the meantime, local
builder Andy McKee of
McKee Brother’s Invest-
ments is leading a one-man
campaign to create affordable
housing, working on approxi-
mately 20 improved or newly
created apartments in Joseph
and Enterprise.
Rotary Club of Wallowa
County made housing its
highest priority for the 2017
and pledged to keep working
on the issue for years to come.
Community effort builds new Joseph playground
Volunteers from Joseph
and across Wallowa County
converged on Joseph City
Park to complete a major
upgrade to its playground.
More than 200 volunteers took
part in everything from serv-
ing lunch to pounding stakes
into the ground.
Armed with little more
than an idea, four eighth-grade
boys from Joseph Charter
School –– Tyler Homan, Trey
Wandschneider, Steven Beck-
man and TJ Grote –– appeared
before the Joseph City Coun-
cil in late 2015 with a proposal
to upgrade the playground
facilities.
The council heard the boys’
proposal and offered help in
the way eventually contribut-
ing $2,500.
The idea later became part
of a Family Career and Com-
munity Leaders of America
Chieftain file photo
An army of volunteers like
these did everything from
ground prep work to finish-
ing on the new Joseph City
Park Playground Project.
project. FCCLA leader Marla
Dotson and community mem-
ber Penny Arentsen combined
forces to form a steering com-
mittee in October 2015.
One large grant and
several smaller donations
pushed the fundraising to a
point where major construc-
tion could be planned. A pre-
sentation to the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department
netted the group $130,000.
With Play By Design, a
renowned playground design
and building company from
Ithaca, N.Y., selected to facil-
itate the $210,000 project,
everyone from school stu-
dents to the steering commit-
tee to the city’s mayor went
to work. Thanks in large part
to a $130,000 grant from the
state and immeasurable pri-
vate donations and a mul-
titude of fundraisers spon-
sored by nearly every class
in the school, enough money
was raised to see it mostly
completed.
Public Meeting:Thursday,Jan.11, 7-9pm
The Future of Hayes Century Farm
WALLOWA COUNTY
Health Line
Keycode Entry
Weight Room • Cardio
Women’s Circuit • Tanning
202 W. Main, Enterprise
541-426-0313
519 W. North Street, Enterprise
541.426.3413
Mon-Thurs 9 to Noon/1-5pm; Fri. 9-1
Join us for an informational meeting
with neighbors & local farmers
Light Refreshments
Wallowology !
Natural History Discovery Center
508 N. Mam • Joseph • 541-263-1663 • wallowo/ogy.org