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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 2019)
A6 NEWS Wallowa County Chieftain Enterprise City Council considers ATVs By Bill Bradshaw Wallowa County Chieftain A town hall-type forum will be held in the near future to discuss an ordinance gov- erning the use of all-terrain vehicles within the city lim- its, the Enterprise City Coun- cil agreed Monday evening. The law now requires ATV operators on city streets to be licensed driv- ers and for the ATVs to be street legal, but Councilman David Elliot noted that law enforcement has been some- what turning a blind eye to violators who drive on other than main thoroughfares for work purposes such as plow- ing snow or for lawnmow- ing, often done by youths not old enough to be licensed. He said he didn’t want to discourage youths from con- structive, job-related activi- ties and wanted that encoded into an ordinance. Details of the ordinance and when the town hall will take place have yet to be worked out and will be announced in the future. The council also dis- cussed a request from the local Rotary Club, which wants funds to complete repairs to the courthouse clock. The Rotary is still short $3,165 of the $6,165 needed for the work. No action was taken. The council also heard requests for support for the Greater Enterprise Main Street (GEMS) Winterfest, Fishtrap Fireside and the local ice rink through Com- munity Economic Tourism Related Activities (CETRA) grants. No action was taken. MidValley Theatre Company auditions announced By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain The MidValley Theatre Company, based in Lostine, is holding auditions for its upcoming production of the unique and heartwarming play, “Common Threads” at the Lostine Presbyte- rian Church on September 15-17, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. each evening. The play, written and “sewn together” by Jennifer Hobbs and oth- ers in the theatre company, includes short excerpts from many plays, melded together into a coherent story. Parts are available for all ages, and in a variety of lengths. The play is sched- uled for presentation at the O.K. Theatre in Enterprise the week before Thanksgiv- ing. The auditions are infor- mal. Everyone is welcome to audition, and to fi nd a part in this community-based play that will suit them and be fun to act. For more information, contact Jenni- fer Hobbs at jhobbs@eoni. com or (541) 398-1055. Wednesday, September 11, 2019 Sumpter Valley dredge tailings proposed for mining By Samantha O’Conner and Ellen Morris Bishop EO Media Group BAKER CITY — An offi cial from a Cana- dian company gave Baker County commissioners an update Wednesday on a proposal to do exploratory mining on a county-owned section of the dredge tail- ings in Sumpter Valley. The county owns about 900 acres of tailings left by the dredges that oper- ated from 1915 to 1954. Dredging converted sev- eral thousand acres a rich agricultural valley into a gavel-piled wasteland, and converted the former mean- dering course of the Powder River into a nearly straight channel. In the new project to re-mine the tailings, Erik Tofsrud of Shukrain Invest- ment Inc. in Vancouver was joined by Mark Ferns, a retired state geologist from Baker City. Both are part of Rainier Skyline Excava- tors Inc. Special Projects. (Neither Ferns nor Tofsrud could be reached for this article.) In its proposal Wednes- day, Rainier Skyline Exca- vators wrote that it has researched the dredge’s operation and found that only an estimated 40% of the gold in the gravels that were dredged was recov- ered. The remainder is still there in the gravels and sed- iments left behind by the dredge. The group wants to con- T HE B OOKLOFT Oregon Parks Foundation The Sumpter Valley gold dredge operated from 1915 until 1954. It transformed more than 2,000 acres of the fertile Sumpter Valley into piles of gravel, channelized the Powder River, introduced mercury into the soil, and extracted about $180 million in gold, at present prices, in return. Baker County is presently evaluating a proposal to re-mine the 900 acres of county property that is in dredge tailings. This image was shot prior to complete restoration of the dredge as part of Sumpter Dredge State park. duct a “bulk test,” which would involve digging a trench about 900 feet long, 300 feet wide and 80 to 100 feet deep, accord- ing to the proposal submit- ted to the county. Rainier Skyline Excavators would be ready to start the test in March 2020. The process would determine whether it’s fi nancially feasible to do larger-scale gold mining in the tailings. At the recent value of $1,400 per ounce, all the previous mined gold would be worth about $180 million. The value of the remaining gold, if all the dredged area--which is well beyond the Coun- ty’s 900 acres — were to be extracted, would be around $72 million. Commissioners will have to put out a request for proposals in case other companies are also inter- ested in doing testing on county property. “In one year’s time, we can know whether or not we’re going to move for- ward,” Harvey said. “And then we would need to do public hearings saying we’ve proven that it’s viable and we’re looking at this as a total project and then this will be the end result.” AND Skylight Gallery Finding books is our specialty 541.426.3351 • 107 E. Main • Enterprise • www.bookloftoregon.com Church Directory Church of Christ 502 W. 2nd Street • Wallowa 541-398-2509 Worship at 11 a.m. Mid-week Bible Study 7 p.m. St. Katherine’s Catholic Church Fr. Thomas Puduppulliparamban 301 E. Garfield Enterprise Mass Schedule Sundays: St. Pius X, Wallowa - 8:00 am St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 10:30am Saturdays: St Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 5:30pm Weekday: St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise – 8:00am (Monday – Thursday and First Friday) Grace Lutheran Church 409 West Main -Enterprise SUNDAY WORSHIP at 9am Guest Pastor, Jack Richards - September 8th Mission Project Harvest Food Drive phone (message): 541-426-4633 web: gracelutheranenterprise.com St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church 100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise NE 3rd & Main St 541-426-3439 Worship Service Sunday 9:30am All are welcome CLUES ACROSS 1. Smart kid 5. Addition to a house 8. Little rascals 12. Vehicle 13. Beam of light 14. Phone part 15. Barren 17. Bit of land 18. Volcano’s output 19. Modeled 20. Cartoon cat 24. Spew out 26. Yoke of ____ 27. Given by mouth 28. King’s better 31. Restrained 33. Came closer 35. Letter before tee 36. Ballot 38. Vocalize 39. ____ goes nothing! 40. Roller or in-line 41. Enjoy thoroughly 44. Naval agreement 46. Fibber 47. Angry 52. Upper limbs 53. That woman 54. Likewise 55. Class 56. Peculiar 57. Trio minus one CLUES DOWN 1. Small lump 2. Tint 3. Part of TGIF 4. Animal park 5. Important ages 6. Shaving foam 7. Drain-opener chemical 8. Foolish person 9. “Little ____ Marker” 10. “____ Rider” 11. Winter transport 16. Negligent 19. Carpet feature 20. Aft’s opposite 21. Former spouses 22. Floral necklaces 23. Lodging 25. Lion’s neck hair 27. Bloodhound’s trail 28. Opera show-stopper 29. Lincoln’s coin 30. Border 32. At all 34. Solicit 37. Watered, as eyes 39. ____ of a different color 40. Determine 41. Thin strip of wood 42. Breezy 43. Flirt 45. Football distance 47. Owl’s question 48. Owned 49. Cold-weather ailment 50. Consume 51. Building site Joseph United Methodist Church Summit Church 3rd & Lake St. • Joseph Pastor Cherie Dearth Phone: 541-432-3102 Sunday Worship Service 10:00 am Gospel Centered Community Service time: 10:30 am Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise 541-426-2150 Pastor: David Pendleton Because the large gold dredge that devastated Sumpter Valley used a pro- cess of amalgamating gold to mercury to remove fi ne gold from the dredged material, mercury contam- ination, and remnant mer- cury in the tailings pre- sented a concern in the 2007 report prepared for DEQ by GeoEngineers of Portland.“Mercury has been detected in tissue from fi sh caught in Phillips Reservoir (Newell, Drake, and Steifel, 1994) and in the Cracker Creek drainage basin (Hope, 2002). Bioac- cumulative metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mer- cury) have been detected in surface water and sedi- ment at concentrations that appear to exceed basin- wide background concen- trations in tributaries to the Powder River (upstream of the site).” The report concluded that “A number of metals were detected in soil/sedi- ment samples at concentra- tions that exceed ecologi- cal risk screening criteria. Arsenic was present in 28 locations at the site at con- centrations exceeding one or more ecological risk screening criteria. Mercury (total and monomethyl mer- cury) were present in seven locations at concentrations that exceed one or more ecological risk screening criteria.” Proposals to re-mine the tailings and restore the former river channel and fl ood-plain began in the mid-1980’s including a pro- posal by Noranda Corpora- tion, another Canadian gold mining company. Over the past several years county offi cials have had multi- ple discussions with min- ers who expressed an inter- est in plying the tailings for gold. JosephUMC.org www.summitchurchoregon.org Time for a Computer Tuneup? Enterprise Christian Church Christ Covenant Church Spyware Removal • 541-426-0108 113 E. Main St., Enterprise 85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449 Pastor Terry Tollefson Church Office: 541-263-0505 Worship at 9 a.m. Sunday School at 10:30 a.m. Evening Worship at 6 p.m. (nursery at A.M. services) Family Prayer: 9:30 am Worship Service: 10:00 am “Loving God & One Another” David Bruce, Sr. - Minister 723 College Street Lostine Lostine Presbyterian Church Enterprise Community Congregational Church Discussion Group 9:30 AM Worship Service 11:00 AM The Big Brown Church Childrens program during service Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com 541.398.0597 Hwy 82, Lostine Stephen Kliewer, Minister Wallowa Assembly of God 702 West Hwy 82 Wallowa, Oregon 541-886-8445 Sunday School • 9:am Worship Service • 10:am Pastor Tim Barton Visit Us on with an open door Pastor Archie Hook Sunday Worship 11am Bible Study 9:30am Ark Angels Children’s Program Ages 4-6th grade, 11am Nursery for children 3 & under 301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR New FALL Arrivals! Wanakome Hoodies Montanaco Jackets Liberty Black Boots Find us on Facebook! 541.426.3044 Seventh-Day Adventist Church & School Stop by today 305 Wagner (near the Cemetery) P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828 541-426-3751 Church 541-426-8339 School Worship Services Sabbath School 9:30 - 10:45 a.m. Worship Hour 11:00 a.m. - Noon Pastor Jonathan DeWeber Uptown Clothing & Accessories in Downtown Joseph 12 S. Main St. • 541-432-9653
