NEWS
Wallowa.com
AUTHOR PEARL ALICE MARSH SPEAKS ABOUT MAXVILLE
But not Jim Crow
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Eastern Oregon University writing
program is reborn — with Fishtrap’s help
The Josephy Center
Joseph, Oregon
By April Baer
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
In a special Brown Bag lunch meeting at
the Center at noon on Thursday, July 18, Pearl
Marsh will speak and sign copies of her new
book, But Not Jim Crow: Family Memories
of African American Loggers in Maxville,
Oregon. Pearl grew up and went to the fi rst
six grades in Wallowa, Oregon, later moved
with her family to California, and then earned
a Ph.D. in political science from the Univer-
sity of California. She retired in 2013 as a
Policy Advisor on African Affairs with the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
International Relations.
Since retirement, Pearl has worked to trace
the families and tell the stories of Maxville, the
Bowman-Hicks logging town outside of Wal-
lowa that brought African-American work-
ers to the country in the 1920s. Two years ago
she held a riveted crowd of Joseph junior and
senior high students in their chairs with sto-
ries of friendships--and hardships of growing
up black in Wallowa in the 1940s and ‘50s.
As tough as things sometimes were, Pearl told
them, their lives were much better than those
of relatives and friends they left behind in the
true South.
It’s hard to not mention Amos Marsh, Jr,
when talking about Pearl and her book. Amos
was a stellar athlete at Wallowa, and then at
LA GRANDE — Ore-
gon’s rural university and
a storied Wallowa County
writers’ retreat are teaming
up to revive a degree pro-
gram and cross-pollinate
each other’s programs.
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, based in La Grande,
has reestablished its writ-
ing track, after a one-year
hiatus. It signed a memo-
randum of understanding
Wednesday at the Summer
Fishtrap gathering, so that
its Master of Fine Arts stu-
dents can benefi t from the
wealth of talent that con-
venes at Wallowa Lake
each summer and winter.
Fishtrap
executive
director Shannon McNer-
ney says her organiza-
tion had wanted to reboot
an academic program that
provided college credit for
high schoolers attending
its gathering. She got to
talking to an EOU English
101 Legal Notices
Marsh’s book details black lives that mattered,
and life in general, in Maxville.
Oregon State University, where he starred in
football and track. Amos went on to play for
the Dallas Cowboys, probably the only pro-
fessional football player to come out of Wal-
lowa County.
But the book--and the family--is much
more, with young sister Pearl going on to her
own fi ne professional career. Contributors to
the book are many, and members of both white
and black families who grew up, played, and
worked together in a special time and place.
101 Legal Notices
PUBLIC NOTICE
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Draft Environmental Assessment
Soil Stabilization and Forest Rehabilitation Project in Wallowa
County
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (FEMA) is proposing to fund Wal-
lowa County for a soil stabilization and forest rehabilitation
project (Project). Funding would be provided by the Hazard
Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) as authorized by Section
404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Assistance and Emer-
gency Relief Act. FEMA has prepared a Draft Environmental
Assessment (EA) for the proposed project pursuant to the Na-
tional Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and FEMA’s imple-
menting Instruction. The Draft EA evaluates alternatives for
compliance with applicable environmental laws, including Ex-
ecutive Orders 11990 (Protection of Wetlands), 11988 (Flood-
plain Management), and 12898 (Environmental Justice). The
alternatives that are evaluated in the Draft EA are (1) no ac-
tion and (2) soil stabilization and forest rehabilitation projects
on private and state-owned parcels in Wallowa County (pro-
posed action).
The Draft EA is available to the public for review on FEMA’s
Website at: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/doc-
uments/181091 and also on Wallowa County’s website at:
https://co.wallowa.or.us/. Hard copies of the draft EA will be
made available at the Wallowa County Courthouse at 101
South River Street Enterprise, Oregon and at the Enterprise
Public Library at 101 NE 1st Street, Enterprise, Oregon.
If no significant issues are identified during the comment pe-
riod on the Draft EA, FEMA will finalize the Draft EA, issue a
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), and fund the proj-
ect. The FONSI will be posted to the same website above.
Unless substantive comments on the Draft EA are received,
FEMA will not publish another public notice for this project.
The deadline for submitting written comments on the Draft EA
is August 16, 2019. Comments should be mailed to: Region-
al Environmental Officer, FEMA Region X, 130 228th Street
SW, Bothell, WA 98021. Comments may also be submitted
via e-mail to fema-r10-ehp-comments@fema.dhs.gov; please
remember to include “Wallowa County” in your subject line.
101 Legal Notices
101 Legal Notices
Oregon Public Broadcasting Photo
Fishtrap, the annual gathering of writers in Wallowa County,
draws writers and writing teachers from around the West.
professor, Nancy Knowles,
over beers at Enterprise’s
popular brewery Terminal
Gravity — as McNerney
calls it, “the offi cial meet-
ing spot for all partner-
ship initiations in Wallowa
County.” Their conver-
sation ultimately resulted
in the Memorandum of
Understanding.
Like several Oregon
writing programs, EOU’s
MFA is a low-residency
course. It only requires stu-
dents to be on campus in
Eastern Oregon for a few
weeks per year, as they
work on fi ction, non-fi c-
tion, or poetry. The revived
curriculum focuses on
wilderness, ecology and
issues specifi c to Western
communities.
Fishtrap, founded in
1988, has a long his-
tory of concentrating on
those same issues. McNer-
ney says it was a natu-
ral to explore how the two
groups could complement
each other.
Unbroken: Marino doesn’t consider himself disabled
Continued from Page A1
with his handshake fi rm. He
shakes with his right hand
and one hardly notices a dif-
ference. He is relentlessly
positive (in a good way), and
it’s easy to tell after a few
minutes that nothing gets
him down for long.
You can’t call him recov-
ered, because he didn’t ven-
ture very far down the path of
self-pity or self-recrimination.
He doesn’t consider him-
self handicapped or disabled.
Marino said he stayed in
the children’s cancer ward
while at the hospital, which
helped give him perspective
on his injury.
“I said, ‘I’m just missing a
few fi ngers; I’ll be out of here
eventually’,” he said.
After he returned from
the hospital, Marino went
through a certain amount of
physical therapy.
According to Marino, one
of the toughest day-to-day
obstacles he faced after the
accident was learning to tie
his shoes.
“It wasn’t a diffi cult thing
or hard to do,” he said. “It
was really time consuming. I
still can, but I prefer my slip-
ons.” He added that learn-
ing to write with his left hand
took about six months of
intensive practice.
“Now it’s better than it
was prior,” he said with a
laugh.
Wightman noted that the
community helped in a huge
way after the accident.
“Thank God we live
in Wallowa County,” she
said. “Everyone in Wallowa
County says that they help
their own, and they truly do.”
A trumpet player at the
time, the Wallowa Valley
Music Alliance paid to con-
vert his trumpet to a left-
handed instrument. He sub-
sequently learned to play
tuba, drums, guitar and bass.
He also plays “Taps” on the
bugle for VFW occasions
when asked.
Not long after his return,
Marino started working with
irrigation hand lines.
Branch Pharmacy and fell
in love with being a phar-
macy technician. He went
back to school in Tacoma
and obtained qualifi cations
to become as close to being a
pharmacist as possible with-
out the additional agonizing
six years of school.
He still records all the
Olive Branch Pharmacy
commercials for KWVR.
Marino isn’t uncomfort-
able talking about the acci-
dent or even showing his
hand. He has a prosthetic
that he seldom wears because
he’s gotten so adept at grab-
bing things. He also goes
‘IF I LET IT GET TO ME, THE
ACCIDENT WINS.’
Casy Marino
The rest of his school
career seemed relatively
uneventful, and upon gradu-
ation, Marino entered Bates
Technical College in Tacoma,
Wash., where he studied
broadcasting. He had hosted
a radio show while in high
school.
After two terms he trans-
ferred to Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity in La Grande to study
broadcasting and music but
later decided it wasn’t what
he wanted to do and traveled
to Washington to look for
work without much success.
Marino returned and
went to work for Olive
to local school classes to
address students. In one case,
on inventions, he brought the
prosthetic.
Although Marino loves
his Olive Branch job, he still
has other avenues he’d like
to explore, including fi nish-
ing up pharmacy school, take
more music classes and pos-
sibly making a foray back
into music. Not as a musi-
cian, though.
“I enjoy performing and
playing music, but that’s not
where the money is,” he said.
Despite the accident,
Marino doesn’t let the injury
defi ne who he is. He can even
fi nd positive aspects about
the accident.
“There’s a lot of people
talk about things they can’t
do,” he said. “Can’t is used a
lot in a lot of places where it
should be “won’t.”
He also said he sees a lot
of people exhibiting a lack of
civility because they won’t
make the effort to be polite,
while he sees people far
worse off than himself acting
nicer than he can imagine.
The biggest lesson he’s
learned in the aftermath of
the accident is simple:
“There’s no greater joy
than in doing what others
say you cannot.” Marino said
that the only things he hasn’t
learned to do is shuffl e cards
and use chopsticks.
Wightman said she’s
never seen her son display a
negative attitude and that his
sense humor, including his
ability to laugh at himself,
keeps him in a good frame of
mind.
“It’s hard to be mean or
nasty or vindictive toward
somebody when I know that
people have had the chance
to do that with me — and
haven’t.”
Marino shared some
advice he’s learned along
the way for others facing
adversity.
“If I let it get to me, the
accident wins,” Marino said.
“Then I’m just another acci-
dent prone ‘woe-is-me’ per-
son, and that’s not who I want
to be.”
Public Notice
Notice is hereby given of a public hearing to be held by the
Wallowa County Planning Commission on Tuesday, July 30,
2019 at 7:00pm in the Thornton Conference Room, 1st floor of
the Wallowa County Courthouse. The agenda for this meeting
will include the following items:
Clay CUP#19-06 Findings- The Conditional Use Permit ap-
plication to permit a Home Based Occupation in the form of
a Bed and Breakfast in the Timber Grazing (T/G) zone. The
property is described as Township 3 South, Range 45, Section
0800, and Tax Lot 200, which is commonly known as 61442
Ski Run Road Joseph, Oregon 97846 and consists of approx-
imately 60.23 acres. The review criteria will be Article(s) 5, 9,
16, 25, 35 and other applicable zoning ordinances or goals of
Wallowa County and/or laws of the State of Oregon.
Eagle Cap Real Estate LLC & Associates CUP#19-04- *With-
drawn*
Rawls CUP#16-04 Review- Review of Conditional Use Per-
mit for a Home- Based Occupation in the form of a Bed and
Breakfast in an Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) zone. The property
is described as Township 2 South, Range 45, Section 1900,
and Tax Lot 800, which is commonly known as 83581 East
Dorrance Lane Joseph, Oregon 97836.
Other Business:
The August Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for
August 27, 2019.
These matters will be reviewed for conformance to the WC-
CLUP and WCLDO Article 1, Article 5, Article 7, Article 15, and
any other applicable goal, regulation or ordinance of Wallowa
County or the State of Oregon. All applications and draft staff
reports may be reviewed in the Planning Department Mon-
day – Thursday from 7:00am to 5:00pm and Friday 7:00am-
12:00pm. Written comments must be received by the Wallowa
County Planning Department – 101 S River St. Room #105,
Enterprise OR 97828 – by 5pm on Tuesday July 30, 2019.
Oral comments may be given at the time of the hearing, which
is open to the public. For persons with disabilities that wish
to attend, please call at least 24 hours before the meeting so
accommodations may be made.
Ramona Phillips, Chairman
Wallowa County Planning Commission
A15
Live Music
at the
Imnaha
Store and
Tavern!
Country
Moonshine
Saturd
JULY 2 ay,
0th
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no c
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event!