NEW DIRECTOR OSAA MOVES START
EXCITED TO BE BACK DATE TO FEBRUARY
BUSINESS, A6
$1.50
SPORTS, A13
THE WEEK
IN
PHOTOS
THE BACK PAGE, A14
136th Year, No. 35
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Getting needed help
Nancy
Macke
Enterprise
She loves
real trees her
husband cuts
ENTERPRISE — Nancy Macke has
lived off of Fish Hatchery Lane since
2016 on property she and husband,
Bruce, have owned since 2007.
She grew up in Baker and the
Mackes moved here after they retired
— Bruce from 38 years as a high school
science teacher in Cove and Nancy from
13 years working for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Human Services as a child wel-
fare case worker.
The Mackes have six kids between
them, though none live around here.
Nancy said they moved here
because they were familiar with the
county, having spent their lives in East-
ern Oregon, and loved so many things
about it.
Recently, she shared her thoughts
on living in Wallowa County.
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
The mountains and the hiking and
being out. The feeling here. The folks are
wonderful.
Real or fake Christmas tree and
why?
Real. The experience of going out
and getting it — Bruce does that.
What do you want for
Christmas?
That’s a big order. A sense of peace
and people having good feelings toward
a common good.
How was your Thanksgiving?
Small. Just the two of us.
Did the governor’s two-week
freeze on business activity and
gatherings aff ect you?
Things really haven’t changed. We’re
certainly more conscious of when we go
inside, to put on a mask if nothing else
to be respectful. Being retired, we don’t
have to go to a job every day, but I’ve
been a working mom and I understand
how it is for those who do. It’s quite a
load you’re carrying when you’re dealing
with all the kid stuff and the challenges
people face with their fi nances.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
Be prepared for housing challenges
perhaps. Rentals aren’t easy to fi nd and
prices to buy are high.
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
Local businesses
to get a boost
from CARES Act
grant, which they
can apply for
through Dec. 21
By RONALD BOND
and BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
E
NTERPRISE — Wal-
lowa County businesses
that have been severely
hampered by the
COVID-19 pandemic
— whether they have been forced to
close or seen a large portion of their
income axed by virus-related exec-
utive orders — now have an oppor-
tunity to obtain funding, an opportu-
nity that expires at 5 p.m. Dec. 21.
The state has allocated to Wal-
lowa County $563,232 of the funds
it obtained from the federal govern-
ment in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief
and Economic Security Act. The
county commissioners then devel-
oped a criteria for businesses to
apply for a grant. The state approved
the grant application process Tues-
day, Dec. 1 and the commissioners
formally acknowledged receipt of
the funds at their regular meeting
Wednesday, Dec. 2.
The amount of effort a business
needs to make to show its eligibility
is minimal, as Commissioner Susan
Roberts said the commissioners
wanted to make it as simple as pos-
sible for hurting businesses to apply.
“It’s a one-page form,” Roberts
told the Chieftain on Wednesday,
Dec. 2. “Basically, we just followed
the state’s rule on how we went
about extending that money. All I
asked for is a bare minimum of what
the state required them to provide.”
“Just to be clear, we were given
parameters by the state,” Commis-
sioner Todd Nash said Wednesday.
“We didn’t just make our own.”
To be eligible, a business that
has its main business operations
in Wallowa County, is registered
with the Secretary of State’s Offi ce
(if required) and is a for-profi t or a
501©(3) only has to show one of
two facts: either that it was forced to
close due to executive orders 20-12
or 20-65 — which were signed by
Gov. Kate Brown early in the pan-
demic — or that, between March 1
and Nov. 30, pandemic-related reg-
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Noelle Horvath, owner of the Vault Health and Fitness Center in Enterprise, stands by the vault door of the former
bank building. She said she is fi nalizing paperwork for the COVID-19 relief funds the county is distributing.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Randy Mammenga, owner of Motivations Fitness Center, LLC, in Enterprise, stands among some of the workout
equipment that hasn’t gotten much use during Gov. Kate Brown’s two-week freeze on business activity.
ulations led to a one-month decline
in sales of 25% or more when com-
pared to the same time period in
2019.
Fitness centers have been among
some of the hardest-hit businesses
during the pandemic, with Motiva-
tions Fitness Center LLC, and Vault
Health and Fitness, both in Enter-
prise, forced to close for multiple
weeks at the beginning due to the
executive order, and recently just
reopening Thursday morning after
the two-week freeze.
Motivations Owner and Man-
ager Randy Mammenga, who is
in the process of applying, said his
gym was closed for at least 50 days
early on.
“I guess I had faith that I’d be
able to open eventually once all the
panic and stuff was over with. I just
kind of rode it out,” he said of the
initial shutdown.
While health concerns have kept
some clients away during the pan-
demic, Mammenga said others have
continued to support the business,
and even done so in an unconven-
tional way.
“I had a few clients, like three or
four, they wanted to know if they
could borrow weights and things
like that from the facility,” Mam-
menga said, noting that those clients
wanted to continue their workouts
from home, but still pay their mem-
See Help, Page A11
ECX sled dog race canceled for 2021
January race
postponed
until 2022
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
2021 Eagle Cap Extreme
sled dog race, originally
scheduled for January, has
been canceled because of
the COVID-19 pandemic,
according to the ECX
website.
“After considerable dis-
cussion with medical pro-
fessionals,
community
leaders, and several key
volunteers in the Eagle
Cap Extreme family, we
made the diffi cult deci-
sion to postpone our 2021
races,” the website states.
“We apologize for any
inconvenience this may
cause and look forward to
resuming with the 2022
race.”
Dr. Randy Green-
shields, president of the
ECX board of directors and
co-owner of the Double
Arrow Veterinary Clinic,
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Miriam Osredkar grins behind her happy, young “puppy team” of huskies as she nears
Salt Creek Summit in the 2019 Eagle Cap Extreme 100-mile race. Osredkar won the 2018
200-mile race, but used the 2019 race to train her young dogs for a future Iditarod. The
2021 race has been canceled because of COVID-19 pandemic concerns.
said the board decided to
cancel next month’s event
Monday, Nov. 23 because
of concerns over keeping
people socially distanced.
He said organizers have
been busy getting the word
out to all the mushers and
volunteers.
“We had a lot of vol-
unteers who were pretty
uncomfortable with (hold-
ing the ECX),” he said
Wednesday, Dec. 2. “We’d
already planned to cancel
events where people were
in close proximity.”
He said that although
distancing wasn’t a prob-
lem for the mushers, it
would’ve been for specta-
tors and anyone attending
the awards banquet and
people gathered in warm-
ing tents and eating and
sleeping areas.
“It was just real diffi cult
to keep people spread out,”
he said.
Communications were
another problem. Given
the terrain involved in the
race, cellphones aren’t
usable and ham radios are
used, again crowding peo-
ple together.
“There would be too
many people in close prox-
imity to do it very safely,”
Greenshields said.
Information on the
website has already been
changed to refl ect plans
for the 2022 race. Green-
shields said some of the
mushers who planned to
compete next month said
that rather than refund their
entry fees, the ECX orga-
nization should just hold
onto the fees until 2022.
“We had a ton of peo-
ple wanting to race this
year but it’s not to be,”
he said. “It’s a really cool
event. Just not this year,
unfortunately.”
According to the web-
site, the 200-mile, 12-dog
team race is an offi cial
qualifi er for both the Idi-
tarod and the Yukon Quest
races. Races of shorter
lengths also were held last
See Race, Page A11