OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
A7
Coach: ‘There’s a lot of frustrated people in this community’
Continued from Page A1
High School.”
The concerns about Idaho
basketball games are cou-
pled with controversy over
Wallowa High School’s fail-
ure to schedule a replace-
ment game for the canceled
Elgin contest, which had
been scheduled for March 6.
“I was instructed to tell
my football team, which has
worked hard preparing for a
month outside in the snow,
that WHS would not sched-
ule them another home game
with another team,” Brock-
amp said at the March 8
meeting.
Howe’s
resignation
included an apology.
“I am deeply sorry for any
hurt I have caused my stu-
dents, coaches and commu-
Ellen Morris Bishop/For the Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa High School Principal and girls basketball coach
David Howe reads his letter of resignation from his coaching
post to the Wallowa School Board on Monday, March 15, 2021.
nity members, staff members
or board members,” Howe
said in his prepared remarks
on March 15. “That was not
my intent. It was never my
intent to undermine other
sports programs or coaches.
If that occurred, I apologize
for that.”
Six parents and Wallowa
School District staff at the
meeting spoke during the
public comment period. Most
expressed support for the
school, and for Jones, who
came under fi re at the March
8 meeting, as a competent
and caring administrator.
Wallowa
fi rst-grade
teacher Kelsey Lathrop
praised Jones for “inspir-
ing encouraging and work-
ing alongside of us to build
relations ships with (teach-
ers) and families during this
unprecedented year.”
“Students are the No.
1 concern,” said Melissa
Lowe, who teaches Title 1
classes. “We need to remem-
ber in our community
that education safety and
well-being of our students,
your children and education
should be fi rst and foremost,
not sports.”
But parent Joe Miles crit-
icized the school board for a
lack of community and edu-
cational leadership.
“I support you guys, but
at the same time I do have
a higher expectation of any-
body in a leadership posi-
tion,” he said. “There’s a lot
of frustrated people in this
community.”
Those thoughts echoed
some of the comments
made to the school board at
the March 8 meeting. They
included concerns about lack
of respect for students, stu-
dent-athletes and for Wal-
lowa’s rural culture.
At the well-attended
March 8 meeting, the entire
WHS senior class presented
a letter protesting parts of
the schools mask policy as
well concerns that this year’s
senior trip might be canceled
due to the seniors’ lack of
enforcement of mask-wear-
ing by all students in the high
school.
But the trip is still on,
Jones said. It is tentatively
planned as a three-day jaunt
either to the Oregon Coast or
Triple Play Family Fun Park
in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
The fi nal decision on desti-
nation and COVID protocols
will be made as the date gets
nearer, Jones said.
“I think COVID defi nitely
has placed a lot of stress on
families and the commu-
nity,” Jones said. “The more
we can have kids have more
normality, the better off the
kids are.”
Made in
Oregon
Lifetime
Warranty
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Police and other emergency personnel line the driveway of the Joseph home of David and
Dolores Bridges after they followed Wallowa County Sheriff Joel Fish and Deputy Jeff Baty who
escorted the ashes of David Bridges home from Portland to his parents’ house Friday, March
12, 2021.
Honored: ‘It was a huge blow and a
disappointment. It’s truly a terrible disease’
Continued from Page A1
in the county for the escort
to the home of David and
Dolores Bridges.
“He was awesome,” Fish
told the Bridges as he and
Baty handed over the ashes.
“Bret has been a dis-
patcher and reserve dep-
uty for about three years,”
Fish said later. “He was a
very devoted third-shift dis-
patcher. He never missed a
day until this past episode.
He didn’t want to take off .
He didn’t want to be gone.
He was very devoted to his
position.”
Bridges lived in Wal-
lowa County since Septem-
ber 2017.
“We invited him,” his
father said. “He was living in
Colorado at the time and had
no family close to him and
he accepted our invitation.
It brought our family closer
together.”
Having
previously
worked a “help desk” assist-
ing people with computer
problems in Colorado, he fi t
right into the 911 job.
“He came here and
trained for the position after
he arrived,” David Bridges
said.
A regular graveyard shift
dispatcher, it seemed he was
“always trying to catch up on
his sleep,” Bridges said.
His knowledge of the
county came largely from his
work with the 911 system.
“He didn’t get out into the
community much,” Bridges
said.
Bret was, however, a reg-
ular with a group of guys who
played basketball at Joseph
Charter School, Bridges said.
He was also an online
gamer.
“We got quite an outpour-
ing of sympathy from the
online community,” David
said.
In addition to his parents,
Bret is survived by a brother
in Michigan and a sister in
California, as well as several
nieces and nephews.
“He was an uncle to four
nieces and nephews and by
reports, a very good one,”
David Bridges said.
He said he expects
that when their daugh-
ter and other son are able
to join the parents, together
they’ll spread Bret’s ashes
somewhere.
“I presume there’ll be a
celebration of life, but that’ll
be decided in the future,”
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.Wallowa.com
David Bridges said.
He said he has no idea
how his son contracted the
virus. He used to regularly
do shopping for his parents,
but was always careful.
“He was conscientious
about wearing a mask when
out,” his father said.
He said Bret was fi rst hos-
pitalized at Wallowa Memo-
rial Hospital for a week
before being transferred to
Tri-Cities for a week and
then to Portland. He said it
both was and was not a sur-
prise that his son fell ill.
Bridges said he never was
told by a medical profes-
sional what the “underlying
conditions” that contributed
to his son’s death were. To
his knowledge, Bridges said,
his son was healthy other
than being overweight.
“Nothing surprises me
in this pandemic,” David
Bridges said. “It was a huge
blow and a disappointment.
It’s truly a terrible disease.”
WE’VE GOT
Come see our beautiful selection today!
ENTERPRISE
800 S. River St.,
Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-9228
Mon-Fri: 9-5:30 • Sat 9-12
Come visit our showroom to see the
Oregon made STANTON FURNITURE and
our other products and furnishings, such as
hardwood flooring, luxury vinyl
and fine carpeting
Supporting
Wallowa
County Ag
Wallowa County
FREE
Chess Club
No meeting until further notice
but look forward to seeing you soon!
541-426-0320
Black mates in two.
“Play golf for your body. Play chess for your mind.”
JOSEPHY CENTER FOR
THE ARTS AND CULTURE
403 Main Street Joseph, Oregon
3/10 Solution
Nc6
Ed Staub & Sons
Energy Community Service.
201 East Hwy 82
Enterprise, OR 97828