NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
A7
Wallowa County Fair features new events and old favorites
Wallowa County would be
complete without roping.
But of course the most
visible portion of this fair—
or any county or state fair,
is about 4-H and FFA live-
stock. This is where you’ll
fi nd the bunnies. The chick-
ens. The pigs and sheep and
goats. And of course the
market steers. For the more
ambulatory of the animals,
there are classes in the arena,
and also an auction for pigs,
lambs and steers, which pro-
vides fair-goers and busi-
nesses with the opportu-
nity to support not only
the youngsters who have
worked very hard to raise
their livestock, but also sup-
port the fair and both 4-H
and FFA.
For fair-goers, there are
also concessions that pro-
vide the kinds of foods
and goodies found only at
fairs and other summertime
events. The fair also has its
own food booth that sup-
ports the operations of the
fair. It opens early in the
morning and remains open
into the evening. Hours for
the offi cial fair food booth
vary with the day.
Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
The Wallowa County
Fair—an event that cele-
brates everyone and every-
thing in Wallowa County
from antelope to zucchini —
opens on Saturday August
3. In it’s week-long run, the
fair will feature dog shows,
horse shows, and if you are
not tired of rodeo yet, roping
contests. There are parcels
of kids and goats. 4-Her’s
herding sheep and goats. A
dog show with obedience
trials. A photo exhibit. An
art exhibit. Games for kids
including an August 10th
Saturday at 11 a.m. Games
on the Grass and a bal-
loon scramble. In addition,
Benny the Beaver—the Ore-
gon State University mascot,
will be visiting the fair on
Saturday, Aug. 10, as well.
New events include the
Team Roping Drawpot,
Wednesday, August 7, start-
ing at 5:30 p.m. and the Tal-
ent Show, Friday August 9,
4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
You can peruse a host of
delectables, including jams,
jellies, conserves, preserves,
Ellen Morris Bishop
The 2018-2019 4-H Court of Quincee Zacharias, Destiny Wecks
and Dakota DeLyria preside over many events at the Wallow
County Fair.
Ellen Morris Bishop
Rosie Movich-Fields gets coaching from Leslie LeViner on the
fi ne points of jumping in preparation for the hunter-jumper
competitions at the Wallowa County Fair.
and fruit butters. For the
fabrically inclined there’s
quilts, stitchery rugs, a cat-
egory of clothing made from
re-purposed materials, and
something called Swed-
ish Weaving. In the baking
department, you can peruse
pies (one-crust AND two
crust), butter cakes, dec-
Trail: Joseph Branch
Rails with Trails project
seeks to ‘regroup’
Continued from Page A1
working a lot to make this
happen.”
According to Millar,
it’s hard to disprove nega-
tive possibilities that ranch-
ers threw up as roadblocks
against the trail.
One particular instance
that helped move the group’s
decision along was the
results of a special county
commissioners
meeting
on June 17 to discuss the
JBRWT appeal of the ruling
of the planning commission.
According to Millar, at that
meeting commissioner John
Hillock recused himself from
having to vote due to a fi nan-
cial confl ict of interest, even
though the county’s land-
use attorney, Dominic Car-
ollo, and the JBRWT attor-
ney present, Charles Gillis,
didn’t think Hillock’s inter-
ests would meet the bar for
recusal. Hillock’s decision
caused the group to think the
two other votes would result
in a tie and negate the appeal.
Another decision affect-
ing the withdrawal was the
decision of the commission-
ers to essentially keep the
record open until July 1 for
the submission of only new
or clarifying evidence to be
entered into the record. The
commissioners would have
held an additional meeting
on July 9 to weigh the new
evidence and possibly render
a decision.
The group’s attorney
advised that those decisions
would entail much more time
and work. Creating more of a
political stir was also a con-
sideration for the group.
“We wanted to see if there
was an easier way to make
this a possibility without it
being a political uphill battle
kind of thing,” she said. Mil-
lar added that the group is
working on balancing indi-
vidual duties so no one suffers
from job burnout.
In the immediate future,
the group plans to re-estab-
lish its leadership while main-
taining a cordial working rela-
tionship with WURA.
“We’re working on possi-
bly getting some grants to get
an employee to help manage
this project and get it where
we want to go,” she said.
Despite the recent set-
back, Millar remains optimis-
tic that the group will fulfi ll its
mission.
“We need to take a breather
because we’re all kind of
exhausted,” she said. “We’re
still optimistic because I think
there’s a lot of community
support for it. That’s what we
got from this process — that
a lot of people want this to
happen.”
Millar said that the Joseph
Branch Rails with Trails is a
volunteer board always look-
ing for new members. Contact
the organization at: https://
www.josephbranchtrail.org/
contact.
orated cakes, and cook-
ies galore. If you hang out
around the show for awhile,
you might meet the bakers
and even get a recipe or two.
The photo exhibit is a
favorite, with lots of entries
from talented amateurs,
photo club members, and
pro photographers. The Kids
4-H photography always
offers some surprising and
unusual perspectives on
the world. There’s also 4-H
geology, forestry, and fi sh-
ing exhibits, along with a
category of “outdoors” that
may include such practi-
cal things as how to build a
birdhouse.
The 4-H horse shows
are a major part of the fair.
Participants devote weeks,
in fact months and years,
to preparing for the shows
with the hope of continu-
Enterprise: Upgrades
go beyond roof repairs
Continued from Page A1
aha Group, specialists in
school facilities assess-
ments, long-range facili-
ties planning, and assist-
ing school districts in
improving their physi-
cal plants. “The Wenaha
Group is based in Pendle-
ton, had worked with the
Baker School District in
their TAP planning pro-
cess, and got excellent
reviews there,” Pinkertion
said. “They’ve been doing
a great job for us.”
The assessment of Enter-
prise’s needs in physical
plant repairs and upgrades
will go far beyond roof
repairs, said Scott Rogers,
a project manager for The
Wenaha Group.
“We’ve looked at over-
all site condition, including
storm water run-off, heating
and cooling, energy use, and
other factors that will affect
the future operation and
effectiveness of the school.”
That evaluation may include
the need to update equip-
ment and furnishings in the
science labs and computer
labs, plus other improve-
ments to bring the Enter-
prise schools into the 21st
century. “The teachers and
maintenance staff have done
a phenomenal job with facil-
ities mostly designed in the
1960’s”, Rogers said. “But
education has changed a lot
since then.”
The August 5th Mon-
day evening meeting will
address the key needs of the
school facilities, along with
costs. It’s part of a program
of long-range facilities plan-
ning. “We’ll give the school
board a snapshot of what
the facilities need in terms
of dollar amounts. That will
begin a conversation among
the board members and
stakeholders in the commu-
nity,” Rogers said.
The next steps follow-
ing the August 5th meeting
will be to appoint a com-
munity advisory committee
to make recommendation
to the Board of Education
for which components of
the Wenaha Group’s report
should be addressed. Pinker-
ton’s emphasis right now is
on a new roof.
The costs of a new roof
and other upgrades will
almost certainly require the
community to pass a bond,
Pinkerton said. The tentative
timing on the project would
include patching the school
roof for the 2019-2020
school year, while placing
a bond initiative on the bal-
lot for the November 2020
election.
There is a lot of bad and
incorrect information out there –
GET THE FACTS!
before signing up for Medicare supplements
ing on to compete in the
Oregon State Fair in Sep-
tember. There’s something
for everyone in the horse
department: Equitation—
both English and western.
Western pleasure, jumping,
and very serious dressage.
There’s also reining, trail
horse competition, a driv-
ing class, classes for work-
ing ranch horses, green
horses, and gaming—which
includes pole bending and
fl ag racing. And of course,
no horse competition in
Wallowa: Plan not done
Continued from Page A1
something
catastrophic
like losing heat in the
building happens,” he said.
Wallowa is not as far
along in their assessments
as Enterprise. They con-
tracted with Pivot, another
highly recommended and
vetted consultant out of
Eugene that, like The Wen-
aha Group, has a proven
track record of working
with small school districts.
Pivot’s team of engineers,
architects, and other pro-
fessionals will have their
fi rst on-site visit August 4,
5, and 6. That will kick off
the evaluations.
Hummel expects that
their studies will be com-
pleted in about a month.
Then he wants the school
board and the community
to review the recommen-
dations, determine what
should be done, and also
consider what Wallowa can
afford. Hummel anticipates
a meeting near the end of
September for the school
board and Pivot to present
their fi ndings to the com-
munity, and begin develop-
ing an affordable, workable
plan to repair and upgrade
the school’s physical plant,
classrooms, and athletic
facilities to meet the pres-
ent and future needs of stu-
dents and the community.
Like Enterprise, upgrad-
ing Wallowa’s schools will
require passage of a bond
that will be matched by
Oregon’s OSCIM fund.
“This is a pressing issue
for our school board and
our community,” Hummel
said. “The school board
needs to understand what
is needed, help the com-
munity understand and
prioritize the needs, and
drive the process of getting
things done.”
You Never Know What You’ll Find At
A Collectors West Gun & Knife Show!
August 3 rd & 4 th
Pendleton
Convention Center
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Kathleen
Bennett
616 W. North Street, Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-4208