LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
A3
Smoke management plan
goes before commissioners
Solar in Wallowa
County topic of Zoom
Energy Brown Bag
Aim is to get the
word out of a
‘smoke event’
Virtual event is
noon March 17
Chieftain staff
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A plan
for communities in Wal-
lowa County to be able to
most effectively respond
to a “smoke event” is tak-
ing shape and only needs
the approval of govern-
ment agencies before it can
be implemented, the county
commissioners
learned
Wednesday, March 3.
“Basically, this is a plan
to notify people that there is
a smoke event … and here
are the things to do to take
care of yourself,” Commis-
sioner Susan Roberts said.
“We have to have this plan in
order to do some of the other
stuff we’re trying to do.”
Lisa Mahon, who with
Sarah Silbernagel and the
Wallowa County Smoke
Management
Commu-
nity Response Plan design
team, produced the plan that
Mahon presented to the com-
missioners via Zoom. She
went through a recap of the
plan designed to assist res-
idents of the county in the
event of a smoke event like
last summer when much of
Oregon was ablaze. No sig-
nifi cant wildfi res occurred in
the county, but much smoke
did come over the mountains.
“There’s not much we
can do to stop the smoke
(like last year), but we can be
ready for it,” Commissioner
Todd Nash said.
After reviewing the plan,
Mahon said the next steps are
to present it to the Enterprise
City Council on Monday,
March 8, have it ready for the
commissioners to approve at
their March 17 meeting and
then get the approval of the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality. After that
approval, “We can begin
implementing the action
plan,” she said.
Partners in the plan
include:
• The city of Enterprise.
• The Wallowa County
Board of Commissioners.
• The U.S. Forest Service.
• The Oregon Department
of Forestry.
• County emergency
services
• The Oregon DEQ.
• The Oregon Health
Authority.
• Wallowa Memorial
Hospital.
• The Northern Blue
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Lisa Mahon gave a presentation via Zoom to the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners on
the county’s Smoke Management Community Response Plan during the board’s Wednesday,
March 3, 2021, meeting.
Mountains
Cohesive
Strategy.
Mahon said the new plan
is to better understand and
address the vulnerable pop-
ulations in case of a smoke
event. It also allows oppor-
tunities to better manage the
forests in case of fi re.
The fi nal plan includes:
• A description of Wal-
lowa County’s smoke-vul-
nerable population.
• A notifi cation plan to
inform those vulnerable
populations and the general
public.
• Action items to protect
the vulnerable populations
from smoke exposure.
• A communication plan
to connect the prescribed fi re
entities for public health and
the general public.
Mahon said six commu-
nity input sessions were held
during fall 2020, reaching all
but Imnaha. Of the 327 resi-
dents represented from Wal-
lowa, Lostine, Enterprise,
Wallowa Lake, Flora and
Troy, about 80% prefer social
media or a website to be used
for emergency contact.
“We weren’t really sur-
prised at that, since with
those without cellphone cov-
erage, the internet is one of
their best tools,” she said.
What they learned from
the input sessions included
a need to prepare for smoke
events with advance notice,
education on home air purifi -
cation, assistance in purchas-
ing air purifi ers and educa-
tion on the appropriate masks
to have.
Among the overall bene-
fi ts to the county in the plan,
Mahon said, is an increased
ability to implement pro-
scribed burns, which are
used for community wildfi re
protection and to help with
forest health.
“It’s better to deal with
the forest with proscribed
burns than let wildfi res man-
age them for us because with
the state our forests are in,
we can do better good for our
forests and our community
by having better control of
that,” she said.
The “action items” in the
plan include education and
essential assistance they’ll
put out for the public; addi-
tional notifi cation protocols;
working with county emer-
gency services to develop a
notifi cation system working
with Paul Karvoski, emer-
gency services director, to
allow individuals to sign up
for notifi cations in addition
to emergencies; additional
education with partners year
around about smoke intru-
sions and what one can do
during an event; and more
about proscribed fi res and
forest management.
Nash — a rancher who
often deals with agricultural
issues on the commission —
asked Mahon about agricul-
tural burning, although, he
added, not much goes on in
Wallowa County.
“One complaint we got
last year had to do with
fi eld burning on agricul-
tural land,” he asked. “Is that
addressed here?”
Mahon said it is not, but
because of differing regu-
lations the state Agriculture
Department and Department
of Forestry handle that issue.
Roberts said fi eld burn-
ing can be regulated through
Karvoski and emergency
services.
She said that one concern
the plan addresses is how
to get the word of a smoke
event to outlying areas, such
as Imnaha and Troy. She said
notices can be put up at local
post offi ces or other central
gathering places that will say
who to contact.
“At Troy, they singled out
several people and said to get
the word to them and the rest
of us will get it,” she said.
In another matter, the
commissioners
offi cially
received from the state a
$13,101 Election Security
Grant and already have plans
on how they intend to use.
“One of the things we
need to do is build a fence
with a gate around our boxes
out here on the side of the
building so we have all our
electronics enclosed,” Rob-
erts said. “We can ask Stan-
gel (Industries & Machine
Shop) to build an attrac-
tive enclosure and gate with
keys so we can get in when
needed.”
Commissioner John Hill-
ock added that others, such
as the fi re department, can
be given keys for when they
require access.
The commissioners also
are prepared to appoint three
more people to the Northeast
Oregon Economic Devel-
opment District Board. Jen-
nifer Piper, the new execu-
tive director of the Wallowa
County Chamber of Com-
merce, and Ashley Sulli-
van, the new mayor of Enter-
prise, have confi rmed that
they are interested in such
appointments. Roberts said
one other representative has
yet to confi rm a desire for
appointment.
Nash said the board can
approve the appointments by
resolution at its next meeting,
March 17.
ENTERPRISE
—
These days, solar pan-
els are visible on roofs
of homes, businesses
and farm buildings as
well as in large commer-
cial arrays all over Wal-
lowa County. That solar
energy will be the focus
of a Brown Bag lun-
cheon on Zoom at noon
Wednesday, March 17.
Solar panels now qui-
etly, cleanly crank out
“roughly 6% of the total
energy demand in the
county” according to
Matt King, energy pro-
gram manager, for Wal-
lowa Resources Com-
munity Solutions Inc..
That amounts to 1 mil-
lion watts of installed
solar capacity or about
1,200mw
hours
of
energy use. And the
value of that energy
stays local.
How this came about
and what additional
solar can mean to energy
resilience of the county
will be the topic of the
hour long Brown Bag.
The zoom link to the free
program can be found on
the Community Events
section of the Wallowa
Resources website at
wallowaresources.org.
The program will
touch on the nature of
solar to date and a look
at the future, including
solar combined with bat-
tery storage, community
scale solar and special
solar opportunities for
low- and moderate-in-
come households, rent-
ers and others. The pro-
gram also will include
time for Q&A.
“Solar is part of a
diverse local energy
mix now emerging that
keeps more energy dol-
lars working here and
contributes to making this
county much more energy
resilient in times of natural
disaster,” King said.
Micro-hydro and bio-
mass are other local
energy-generation
opportunities.
Upcoming
programs
in the Brown Bag series
include,
Micro-Hydro-
power, Thursday, April 15,
and Community Energy
Opportunities, May 20.
More information on those
can be found on the calen-
dar at wallowaresources.
org.
For more information
on this program content,
contact King at 605-387-
7194 or matt@walloware-
sources.org.
Births
A son, Harlan Mark
VanderZanden, was
born Feb. 19, 2021 in
Enterprise to Jonathan and
Jamie VanderZanden of
Enterprise. Grandparents
are Melanee Micka, Jesse
Micka, Peg VanderZanden
and Mark VanderZanden.
A son, Ryder James
Quinby, was born Feb.
26, 2021 in Enterprise to
Austin and Kimberly
McQuown of Joseph.
Grandparents are Holly
McQuown, John
McQuown, Wendy Quinby
and James Quinby.
A son, Ira Wilson Schott,
was born Feb. 26, 2021
in Enterprise to Mark and
Adele Schott of Joseph.
Grandparents are Liza
Jane McAlister, Todd Nash,
Diane Schott and Kevin
Schott.
301 W. Main, Enterprise • 541.426.3177
This week’s featured book
The Doctors
Blackwell
by Janice P. Nimura
107 E. Main St.
Enterprise OR 541-426-3351
bookloftoregon.com • manager@bookloft.org
Fishtrap workshop series begins this weekend
Chieftain staff
ENTERPRISE — Fish-
trap is offering the fi rst of
three spring online work-
shops for writers this week-
end, according to a press
release, with Finding and
Using Joy as a Source —
A Virtual Weekend Writing
Workshop with Perrin Kerns.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, March 13, and
Saturday, March 20, Kerns
will follow in the tradition
of Ross Gay by focusing
on writing about joy in the
midst of pandemic, protest,
climate change and solitude.
The generative writing class
will mostly spend time writ-
ing to prompts. At the end of
the class, participants will
share pieces pulled together
from shorter writings and
thus explore the lyric essay
as a celebration of the frag-
ment and the collage.
Kerns has been teaching
creative writing for over 30
years. She currently teaches
literature and creative writ-
ing at Prescott College, Port-
land State University, Clark
College, Sitka Center for Art
and Ecology and Portland’s
Literary Arts Program. Her
own creative work has taken
her from lyric essay to dig-
ital storytelling to personal
narrative
documentaries
DINE I K N E
OR TA T
OU Taking
Now
s
Reservation
based on her lyric essays.
She won the Director’s
Choice award for her docu-
mentary Between Sasquatch
and Superman: Living with
Down’s Syndrome and Best
Short Animation for her fi lm
about her miscarriage from
the Oregon Independent
Film Festival.
Registration costs $270 or
$240 for Fishtrappers. Reg-
ister at fi shtrap.org.
WINTER
HOURS
Wed. & Thur. 10
Fri. & Sat. 10 am am - 7 pm
- 8 pm
Sun. 10 am - 7 pm
Daylight
Saving
Time
+1
To advertise in the
Wallowa County
Chieftain contact
Jennifer Cooney at
jcooney@wallowa.com
541-805-9630
TAKE OUT ORDERS • CALL 541-569-2285
209 NW First St., Enterprise OR • 541-426-4567 • wallowa.com
2021
Home & Garden
Section publishes March 17
209 NW First St., Enterprise • 541-426-4567 • wallowa.com
Keep an eye out for it!