A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
May 9, 2018
Wallowa County Chieftain
If you can read
this column,
thank a teacher
T
his time of year, many educators begin wondering if
the year will ever be over. Spring fever can impact
teachers as well as students.
Maybe that’s why the powers that be chose this week to
celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week. Yesterday was
National Teacher Day.
Having been married to an educator the past 29 years, I
am aware of the challenges the classroom brings. I also have
a sister, brother and brother-in-law who are retired from
teaching careers, as well as several dozen cousin, aunts,
uncles and others involved in the field.
My original aspiration was to be a high school English
teacher. When I realized a life of sitting in a classroom all day
might not fit my personality, journalism became a more suit-
able option.
In their own
way, journalists
are teachers, too.
I grew up
Paul Wahl
in a small rural
school in the
middle of North
Dakota. Several of my teachers had my brothers and sisters
before me.
I heard “you’re not much like your sisters” most of my 12
years of school. I thought that was a goal to be achieved; my
teachers thought otherwise.
While our small district didn’t always attract the creme de
la creme, we were fortunate to have had educators who taught
us how to learn. That has served me well to this day.
Teaching has changed over the years, but at the heart of
the endeavor is the quest to instill a love for learning in stu-
dents. I see that in many classrooms I have visited in Wallowa
County.
Technology has changed education as it has every other
industry out there. High-tech when I was in elementary
school was yellow chalk instead of white.
Today the sky’s the limit. The number of elementary-age
students producing their own videos is impressive. I have
received email communications from nine-year-olds that
were created in Word documents.
I don’t believe the job has ever been what anyone would
consider easy. Herding a group of youngsters or teens through
a day of learning comes with its own set of unique challenges.
Almost every teacher has that one student they secretly
hope comes down with a particularly bad bug and misses a
week. That was me for a number of my teachers, I am sure.
And all of us have teachers who influenced our lives. My
love for reading and writing came from an English teacher
who could make the most boring works of literature come
alive.
She also made us memorize huge passages of Shakespeare
and others, most of which I can quote accurately today.
So we take this opportunity to say “thank you” to every
classroom instructor in Wallowa County who labors stead-
fastly to ensure our students are educated and challenged.
Some of you I have had the privilege to get to know per-
sonally over the past year, and I am thankful for your support
of what we do here at the Chieftain.
Hang in there, the school year will be over before you
know it! Have a terrific National Teacher Appreciation Week.
WAHL TO WALL
Saving Arlington from the wild calf
I
have noticed over the years things
like the last 10 percent of a job takes
90 percent of the time and 10 percent
of the people cause 90 percent of the
problems.
It especially applies to dealing with
cattle. This has been proven to me on
many occasions. When moving cattle,
there is always a couple of bunch-quitters
that require constant monitoring or they
will leave with no forwarding address.
Last week I was helping Krebs Live-
stock with their spring work on their
ranch in Cecil, Ore. Everyone knows
where that is.
Things went well until we got a call
from Bobby Christiansen, an Arlington
City Council member. Krebs leases some
ground from the city and runs some pairs
on the grass there.
One of the Krebs calves was on the
wrong side of the fence and was walk-
ing the fence and bawling. The city was
receiving several calls from concerned
citizens since the field the calf was in was
in full view just above the city.
I was dispatched to capture said calf
and return it to its home range. Bobby
met me in urban Arlington to show me
where the calf was.
Arlington is in a fairly deep canyon
and when Bobby waved me down, he
pointed to the calf half a mile away on a
steep side hill covered with deep arroyos,
five-foot high sagebrush and lots of rocks
OPEN RANGE
Barrie Qualle
and other hazards.
I pulled the cinch into my trusty
caballo and found a gate into the field.
The calf was in good health and fairly
athletic. Stealth failing, I had no choice
except high speed pursuit.
Trying to get a throw was futile and
dangerous. I finally got the calf headed for
a corner and planned on roping him when
he came back out of the corner. The calf
didn’t like that plan and escaped through
the fence and headed for downtown.
I went back to the gate on my now
sweaty and panting horse and was soon on
the trail of the stray. Almost got a throw
in a couple of startled peoples yards but
Pendejo Negrito as I now called him hit the
road and headed for the business district.
I had thoughts of hazing him to the
golf course but had trouble catching up
on the paved road. I finally Mark Daw-
soned after him when he got on the high-
way that goes to Condon. Lots of fun
going flat out on the yellow line hoping
your horse doesn’t make a quick move.
Got him off the road and across the
railroad tracks. Once again pure thoughts
and clean living paid off. There was a
fenced equipment lot with an open gate. I
managed to convince the calf to enter and
asked the five or six guys there to please
close the gate.
The Krebs worker that had hauled me
there arrived with the trailer, and I pro-
ceeded to put the capture on the calf. The
calf hadn’t given up. I chased him around
cranes and trucks till I got a throw and
thankfully caught.
It was a simple deal to load him in the
trailer and rest my worn out horse. We
trailered the calf back to his home range
and tearfully watched as he reunited with
his mom.
I discovered Bobby Christensen was
part of the old Christensen Bros. rodeo
stock contracting outfit. Back in the day,
they had some of the best bucking stock.
Horses like Warpaint and Miss Klamath
were two that were seldom ridden.
Former Joseph saddle bronc rider and
sculptor J. Shirley Botham was famil-
iar with them. A few days later I visited
with my friend Bill McCullough about
the ordeal. Bill lived with Bobby when
Bobby was attending Oregon State. A
few days later Bill called and said he had
talked to Bobby and mentioned he knew
the guy that captured the calf that was
terrorizing Arlington.
Bobby discussed the capture and com-
mented that guy was pretty damn cow-
boy. To which my former friend replied,
it must have been a different guy.
Be an informed voter on proposed library district
LETTERS to the EDITOR
L
et me start by saying I love
libraries and have been active
as a volunteer with the Wallowa
Public Library for almost 20 years. I
have read the 33 page document “Eco-
nomic Feasibility Report for a Wal-
lowa County Library District.”
I am voting “no” on the proposed
library district. If the proposal were
for an amount equal to current spend-
ing plus a modest increase, I could have
supported it, but the ballot measure is
for more than double the current spend-
ing of all the county libraries (in addi-
tion to any money received from grants
).
It won’t reduce any property taxes
collected by the cities of Joseph, Enter-
prise or Wallowa, and those cities (and
the county) will be required to continue
to spend an estimated 20 percent of cur-
rent library budgets each year to main-
tain the library buildings owned by the
cities and county including mainte-
nance, repair, utility bills and liability
and property insurance.
I have seen inaccuracies in the
claims from both sides (in the news-
paper and in fliers left on my car).
The pro district side claims more than
5,555 hours of annual programing for
the libraries would be lost. That equals
more than 15.2 hours of programing
every day of the year claiming to be
provided by the county library.
The pro side claims that summer
reading programs will be lost. The
grant money for the summer reading
programs at each of the city libraries is
from state library grants written by the
city librarians and will not be affected
by the district vote either way.
The proposed staffing plan almost
doubles the paid staff hours from 3.44
full-time equivalents) to 6.4. This is to
cover the proposed increase of open
hours from 88 to 166 per week and
to pay for a district administrator and
administrative assistant.
The “vote no” flier that is circulat-
ing claims the new library district board
wouldn’t report to any government
entity. The new district would be a gov-
ernment entity governed by an elected
board the same as the school districts
and health care district and require an
annual audit the same as the cities and
county.
The local city library boards would
cease to exist and all decisions would
be made by the new district board. I am
retired and on a fixed income, and I pay
property taxes.
It would be cheaper for me to pay
for a library card (and the cities have
not indicated they would impose this
fee). Just because you “like” librar-
ies, is not a good reason to vote “yes.”
The city libraries will still be here after
July 1. I’m only asking that you be an
informed voter and to think about what
Wallowa County can afford.
Sally Goebel
Wallowa
Sick of editorial bias
I hope and pray that the new pub-
lisher of the Chieftain, Chris Rush,
will tone down the editorial bias
that we get from the Chieftain on a
weekly basis.
Last November, the “editorial”
told us who we should vote for to
serve us on the Enterprise City Coun-
cil and in the mayoral slot. Recently,
in the past two weekly editions, the
Library District supporters have man-
aged to receive four times as much
coverage as the nonsupporters.
Last week’s edition ran a half-
page ad funded by yesforwclibaries.
com with “A Yes Vote” proclaiming
“No Library Closures” and “A No
Vote” lamenting that “Libraries Will
Close!”
These lead-in comments are totally
misleading. Additionally, to quote the
editorial endorsement, which heav-
ily supported the library district: “ ...
a “yes” vote sends a strong signal that
we prioritize literacy and education
for children from all walks of life.”
I’m a firm believer; however, our
libraries are not responsible for this,
our parenting and our school sys-
tems are responsible for both literacy
and education for children. Granted
our libraries play a role, but let’s not
believe that they alone are providing
this support.
Don’t get me wrong, I check
out on average a half-dozen books
monthly from the Enterprise City
Library through the Sage Library
System. But, it’s not going to close
if this library district is not approved;
it’s a funded line item in the Enter-
prise City Budget.
I plan on continuing to use the
Enterprise library in the future, but
I don’t believe that we need another
level of bureaucracy. The budget for
the proposed library district grows
from $490,313 to $535,896 in three
years.
It will continue to grow by that
same average of three percent for-
ever, and so will your taxes for it.
Please note what is missing from this
budget: rent, power, sewer and water,
maintenance and repair and property
and liability insurance for the existing
library buildings.
All of these expenses will still
come out of your taxes. Although
the library district budget is huge, the
library district will pay none of these
costs. But you will.
Maury Bunn
Enterprise, OR
He would vote for scaled-
down library proposal
I have been reading in the Chieftain
the opinions of the supporters of the
library measure on the merits of librar-
ies; but little to nothing about what level
of fiscal support is necessary to main-
tain our current library.
The library district would raise
$490,313 in the first year, and continued
forever, appears to be extremely ambi-
tious for this county and our economic
situation. Could the current library
be continued at half of the requested
assessment ($245,136.50)?
One could vote for a third option for
Measure 32-41 creating the Wallowa
County Library Service District and
authorizing a permanent assessment of
65 cents per $1,000 assessed value.
Vote “no” but be willing to entertain
a future yes vote if the sponsors of this
measure are willing to be more realistic
in their requested levy.
If a second attempt is required, I
would like to see the sponsors pro-
vide more specific economic informa-
tion. For example, explain the current
expenses at existing library level, cre-
ate a detailed budget and justify any
increased services.
Glenn Kline
Imnaha
Kudos to library
district boosters
Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group
VOLUME 134
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Contents copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
Publisher
Editor
Reporter
Reporter
Newsroom assistant
Ad sales consultant
Office manager
Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com
Paul Wahl, editor@wallowa.com
Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com
Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com
editor@wallowa.com
Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com
Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com
We need Dunn
Bruce Dunn moved here to buy
logs and manage the timberland
owned by Ron Yanke (RY Timber).
I met him when he walked into my
office and suggested we trade logs.
His mill was designed to cut
smaller logs, and Boise Cascade’s
mill was designed to cut large logs.
From this encounter, I learned Bruce
was an honest upfront guy.
He also wanted to maintain family
See LETTERS, Page A5
I was born and years later had my
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn
first teaching job in Enterprise. Often
I’ve traveled across the state to revisit
my birthplace, and I’ve recommended
Wallowa County to many for its beauty,
its welcoming environment and its
friendly and engaged citizenry.
This is “God’s country” for sure.
When people say Eastern Oregon is
filled with uninformed backward peo-
ple, I’m the first to shout “nay!”
The proposed library district is
a great move. I now live in Jackson
County, where after the county said
they couldn’t afford the services and
all public libraries were closed for six
months, voters approved a library dis-
trict that brought its distant branches
together with permanent funding and a
locally elected board.
To learn that Wallowa County’s
proposed district would cost the aver-
age taxpayer the value of two hard-
back books seems like a no-brainer
when I see how many services would
be offered.
I commend those who’ve worked
hard on this campaign, and I hope their
efforts and the evidence proves con-
vincing for Wallowa County voters.
Ann Marie (Larive) Magill
Ashland, Ore.
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