THE WEEK
IN PHOTOS
The Back Page, A12
136th Year, No. 50
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BUSINESS, A6
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
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Leisa
Stewart
Joseph
Seeking lower
student-teacher
ratio for son
ENTERPRISE — Leisa Stewart and
her family moved to a home outside of
Joseph about a year-and-a-half ago seek-
ing a low student-teacher ratio for the
school their 6-year-old son would attend.
“We came from a rural community
but it had a really high student-teacher
ratio,” she said of their former home in
Kimberly, Idaho. “It was like 30-to-one.”
Her husband, John, worked at the
University of Idaho Kimberly Research
and Extension Center.
“It was supposed to be for three years
but it turned out to be fi ve,” she said.
Currently, John Stewart works from
home as an irrigation engineer and an
ecologist.
Leisa is a landscape designer. While
qualifi ed as a landscape architect, that
title requires a license in Oregon she has
yet to obtain.
She recently shared her thoughts
about living in Wallowa County.
What’s your favorite thing about
Wallowa County?
I like the low population numbers
here. I don’t like driving, period, and I
don’t have to drive that far to the store
here.
How has the COVID-19
pandemic aff ected you?
We’re in the middle of building a
house. We would’ve been done by now,
but there have been problems getting
materials because of the pandemic. Also,
I’ve learned about refrigerators, freezers
and dishwashers and how it’s hard to get
parts.
Do you plan to get the vaccine
against COVID-19?
I did get the vaccine.
Which vaccine did you get?
Moderna. It went good. The fi rst shot
I didn’t feel at all. The second one, I had
fl u-like symptoms for a day or a day-and-
a-half, which was expected, and other
than that, it went good.
What have you learned from
living in Wallowa County?
I learned from COVID and living in
the county. Because of COVID, I haven’t
met too many people yet. I’m a bit of an
introvert and I never thought I would be
the one to say I’m lonely, but I am. I guess
I’ve learned about myself with COVID
and the lower population.
What’s your advice for people
who are thinking about moving
here?
The pace of life is slower, so the last
house we built only took about three
months. Even if COVID had not come, we
still would’ve been a lot slower. Also, you
have to be patient about things.
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
Ellen Morris Bishop/For the Wallowa County Chieftain
A $7 million bond measure on the May 18, 2021, ballot in Wallowa would provide funding for a much needed new heating system, electrical system
upgrades and other improvements to school facilities. It would be matched by another $4 million of state funds.
Going to the ballot
Voters will decide
on $7M bond with
$4M ODE match
By ELLEN MORRIS BISHOP
For the Wallowa County Chieftain
W
ALLOWA — It’s
been in the plan-
ning stage for two
years. On May 18,
voters in the Wallowa School Dis-
trict will decide whether to fund
critically needed new heating, elec-
trical and other updates to its high
school, elementary school and
gym.
If passed, the $7 million bond
measure would be matched by $4
million from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education.
“The bond is very important to
the school,” school board Chair-
man Woody Wolfe said. “Our
intent was to make (the school ren-
ovations) as aff ordable as possible.
But with the matching grant and the
bond, that puts us at what we esti-
mate updating the main systems,
especially the heating and cooling
Ellen Morris Bishop/For the Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa School maintenance head Jake MacDonald looks at pipes that
carry hot water through the school buildings for heating. The pipes are
corroding and rusting out internally, and are increasingly unreliable.
Most of the heating system pipes are between 77 and 99 years old.
systems that are really essential,
will cost. The money really doesn’t
go very far at the cost of prevail-
ing wages.”
The school district is planning to
provide tours of the school and the
proposed work beginning soon, and
will also be posting information on
the district’s Facebook page.
The school’s heating system
relies on a boiler that is close to
failure, according to the school’s
head of maintenance Jake McDon-
ald, and the technical report pre-
pared by Pivot, the consultants that
assisted the school board in evalu-
ating needed repairs. This winter,
the elementary school went two
days without heat, Wallowa Super-
intendent Tammy Jones said.
Replacement costs for a new
school would be $54 million,
Wolfe said.
The board got estimates for
everything from a totally new
school to a number of smaller proj-
ects that included installing an ele-
vator to ease accessibility in the
high school, remodeling some
classrooms into more learning
friendly spaces and upgrading sci-
ence labs.
“We really felt that the $7 mil-
lion bond plus $4 million matching
number was trimming out as much
as we could and still address the
major concerns relative to the age
of the infrastructure,” Wolfe said.
To keep expenses as low as pos-
sible, Wolfe said, the board lim-
ited the proposed work to things
it considered absolutely necessary.
Those were the accessibility issues,
heating and cooling, and electrical.
The $11 million total of the $7 mil-
lion bond and $4 million match-
See Bond, Page A11
Commissioners give $10K to four groups
Scholarship
organizations hurt
by pandemic
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — In an eff ort
to help local organizations make
up for losses experienced during
the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wal-
lowa County Board of Commis-
sioners voted Wednesday, March
17, to give $10,000 each to four
groups known for their charitable
eff orts.
The commissioners agreed to
give funds from video lottery pro-
ceeds to the Ag Resource Founda-
tion, the Enterprise Elks, the Enter-
prise Veterans of Foreign Wars and
Broncs & Bulls.
Commissioner Todd Nash, him-
self a rancher, explained the rea-
son the Ag Resource Founda-
tion was included. He said the
foundation came out of the Wal-
lowa County Stockgrowers as a
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise Elks Secretary Randy Morgan stands in the lodge’s main hall on
Thursday, March 18, 2021. The previous day, the Wallowa County Board of
Commissioners voted to award $10,000 each to four groups — the Elks,
the Ag Resource Foundation, the Enterprise Veterans of Foreign Wars
and Broncs & Bulls — in light of the hardship their scholarship programs
suff ered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
501(c)(3) so it could provide
ag-related scholarships.
“They tried to put that empha-
sis on sophomore-plus ag stu-
dents, but they have given scholar-
ships to non-ag students, they have
given scholarships to freshmen,”
Nash said. “They have given out
$7,000-$10,000 in scholarships a
year for some time. The fundraiser
they have in the winter has raised
upwards of $10,000, but they were
unable to have that (this winter).”
Commissioner Susan Roberts
discussed the other three groups.
The others weren’t 501©(3) and
couldn’t apply for the money as
such, though she did ask groups
to put in applications. She said
the county just received another
$30,000 payment for its video lot-
tery fund and if they gave each
group $10,000, the county would
still have $100,000 in that fund.
“When you look at it, the Ag
Resources Foundation from the
Stockgrowers gives out a lot of
scholarships, the Elks do that, the
VFW does that and the Broncs &
Bulls works with the other two
entities to provide more fund-
ing for that,” Roberts said. “These
four entities would, for Wallowa
County, probably bring in under
tourism that we use to … fi ll our
transient room tax, so it helps our
bottom line. I think we have the
funding and I really would like to
See Commissioners, Page A11