OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
A5
City mulls Airbnbs, water wells, skate park
Enterprise
council urged
to ban B&Bs in
residential areas
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
future of bed and breakfast
establishments, residential
water wells and the previ-
ously discussed skate park
came up as issues the Enter-
prise City Council plans to
deal with in coming months,
after discussions Monday,
April 12, during the coun-
cil’s regular meeting.
Local resident Stacy
Green said she was con-
cerned that more Airbnbs
are moving into residen-
tial neighborhoods and with
them come unknown users
of the establishments.
Stacy Green, a 25-year
Enterprise resident of Grant
Street, submitted a letter to
the council expressing con-
cerns over Airbnbs in resi-
dential neighborhoods.
“I have become con-
cerned that there are four
Airbnbs on my street,” she
told the council, adding that
there are many more in other
parts of town.
“My concern is what has
happened and what is hap-
pening all over the country
in communities where Airb-
nbs are becoming more and
more popular,” Green said.
“I’m not criticizing people
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
The Enterprise City Council met Monday, April 12, 2021, for the first time with its new Police
Chief Kevin McQuead, far left, at the table.
who have an Airbnb on their
property when they’re living
there full time. I don’t think
that’s an issue. It’s people
who are purchasing homes
and turning them into full-
time Airbnbs and having a
revolving door of strangers.
There is a host of problems
that are well-documented.”
Among those are sky-
rocketing housing prices.
“This week, in Joseph,
there was a perfectly average
house listed for $357,000.
They had nine showings on
Saturday, four offers and it
went for $50,000 above the
asking price,” Green said.
“We’re starting to see that
come here. … When you’ve
got families or young cou-
ples, average people can-
not afford these. They’re
becoming out of reach for
virtually everyone. If we do
not have housing, what hap-
pens to our employers?”
She emphasized that she
does not represent the Wal-
lowa Valley Health Care
Foundation or Wallowa
Memorial Hospital, both of
which she has ties too. She
just represents herself and
her husband, Mark.
There’s also the issue of
safety.
“You feel less safe when
there’s a house across the
street with a revolving door
of strangers,” she said. “It
changes my sense of safety.”
“This is not the first
complaint I’ve received,”
agreed Lacey McQuead,
city administrator. “There
are a lot of people in dif-
ferent neighborhoods who
are upset about the Airbnb
issue. … People who live
near Airbnbs don’t want
their children to play outside
because they don’t feel like
their kids are safe.”
“We don’t have the
answers,” Green said, but
asked that the city look into
the matter.
However, McQuead said
a solution would best come
through the Planning Com-
mission, which meets in
May, and she’ll invite city
attorney Wyatt Baum to be
present to advise the com-
mission. Councilor Jeff
Yanke recommended reach-
ing out to current owners of
Airbnbs and asking them to
attend the May meeting.
“I will recommend to the
Planning Commission that
Airbnbs not be allowed in
residential neighborhoods;
we have enough commer-
cial property downtown,”
she said. “We are defi-
nitely seeing more and more
concerns.”
During the work ses-
sion preceding the coun-
cil meeting, city Public
Works Supervisor Ronnie
Neil asked the council to
consider an ordinance that
would forbit the drilling of
any future wells to deliver
potable water to residences
that have the ability to con-
nect to city water.
“One thing I’ve discussed
with my previous committee
is making an ordinance not
allowing any potable water
inside the city for wells
because if they drill a well,
they can go off the city sys-
tem,” he said. “We’re still
maintaining the system, but
they’re on a well.”
He said that the primary
motive in such an ordi-
nance would be to continue
the flow of revenue into the
city’s water fund.
“We can’t take away peo-
ple who are already on it,
but would be something new
that they’d not be allowed to
drill a well for potable water
inside the city limits,” he
said. “That’s not saying you
can’t drill a well and put an
irrigation system in.”
Neil had other sugges-
tions to boost water revenue,
such as boosting the $1,400
connection fee and charging
partial-year residents who
have their accounts turned
off for part of the year.
“We’re trying to come up
with ways to help out with
the budget,” he said.
Also
during
Mon-
day’s meeting, Ron Pick-
ens, the alternative high
school teacher at Build-
ing Healthy Families who
has been spearheading pro-
posed changes to the skate
park, brought new informa-
tion and a new plan to the
council.
He said that after a Chief-
tain story on the park, a com-
munity member stepped up
with a donation of $51,500.
Now, they’re looking at a
$60,000 project to totally
revamp the skate park that
would involve replacing
everything there.
With the recent dona-
tion, another $5,000 already
pledge by BHF, the proj-
ect is just $3,500 short of its
goal.
“So you’re asking the city
for that $3,500?” McQuead
asked.
Pickens said that was his
hope.
The council agreed to
provide the needed money
from the city’s Opportunity
Fund.
But that leaves the ques-
tion of what to do with the
current ramps at the park.
They’re 20 years old, but
still have much life left in
them, Pickens said.
“I’d love to see them
moved to Wallowa,” he said.
“I live in Wallowa and I see
a lack of opportunity for the
kids there and it breaks my
heart that we’re not actu-
ally doing this project for
those kids in Wallowa. I feel
like they’re so underserved
there.”
Pickens agreed to take
the idea to the city of Wal-
lowa to see if and where the
ramps could be set up there.
Funding:
rupt this,” he said, adding
in a motion that he wants
the commissioners to “con-
sult with our subcontractor
on what we’re doing.”
The
commissioners
voted to reject the contract,
authorize Sully to write to
the state explaining why it
was rejected and to con-
sult with the Center for
Wellness.
In another matters, the
commissioners heard two
complaints from Grouse
Flats resident Jon Mal-
lory, who said county
Road Department crews
caused or allowed dam-
age to occur to his gates
across cattle guards on his
land when they graded or
plowed snow from roads in
the area.
The
commissioners
said they would discuss
the damage with the Road
Department to see that the
problems ceased.
Mallory also asked if
the county could straighten
an “ess” curve in a road in
the area. However, Roberts
said to do so would require
using Bureau of Land Man-
agement land. She said that
in the past, the BLM has
been reluctant to allow such
changes. Mallory offered to
help with equipment, labor
and materials, but Roberts
didn’t give much hope with
the BLM.
In other matters, the
commissioners:
• Approved a request
from Rick Bombaci, with
Wallowa Mountains Hells
Canyon Trails Associa-
tion, for $3,500 to be used
to maintain trails since U.S.
Forest Service has ceased
such work.
“We rely more heavily
on volunteerism,” Com-
missioner Todd Nash said.
Hillock made the motion
to approve the request.
“I think this is a valu-
able service they’re offer-
ing since the Forest Service
isn’t doing it anymore,” he
said.
In seconding, Roberts
asked from what fund the
money would come. Nash
said it would come from
the Video Lottery Fund.
• Approved employee
actions of hiring Sharon
Newell as reserve deputy
with the Wallowa County
Sheriff’s Office and the
retirement of Rebecka
Friend as a 911 dispatcher.
• Approved permit
applications for easements
by Dustin Larison, Ches-
ter Freeman and Jeffrey
Wecks. Two more were
approved for the Flora and
Wallowa Prairie areas that
were added to the agenda
later.
Continued from Page A1
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Kim Hutchison, president of the local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, presents new national and Marine Corps flags to
World War II and Korean War veteran Lee Cutler on the front porch of Cutler’s hom in Joseph on his 96th birthday Thursday,
April 8, 2021. The U.S. flag is one that flew over the U.S. Capitol. The presentations were to honor his service and his birthday.
WWII: ‘I would go through the Marine Corps again’
Continued from Page A1
day and said, ‘Did you shave
this morning?’ I said, ‘No.’
Big mistake,” he said. “I was
told to shave and I didn’t
do it. I didn’t need to. So he
made me get a razor and sat
down for a whole hour shav-
ing both sides of my face —
a dry shave. My face was so
damned sore. I learned the
hard way to take orders. … I
remembered that when I was
told to do something, to do
it.”
He believes the military
has lightened up in recent
years.
“These guys nowadays
never went through what I
went through. When we went
through boot camp, we went
through boot camp,” he said.
While the MCRD was
tough, he quickly learned to
appreciate it.
“Those first two weeks,
I’d have given anything to
get out of there. If I wasn’t
so scared to, I’d have proba-
bly walked out,” Cutler said.
“It took about two weeks of
training, then I thought it was
the greatest place.”
After boot camp and rifle
training, he was assigned to
the Marine Air Wing.
“I was just lucky,” he said.
The first plane he was in
was a Curtiss SBC Helldiver,
two-seat scout bomber. Con-
sidered obsolete before the
outbreak of the war, it was
kept well away from enemy
fighters. The pilot took the
front cockpit, with the gun-
ner/radioman in the rear.
That’s where Cutler got his
first ride.
“The guy just stuck me
in there and said, ‘We’re
going to see if you can make
it or not. Here’s a bag.’ He
strapped me in and said ...
‘If you get sick, throw up in
this bag.’ So I got in the plane
and we got up there and he
started to roll the plane, and
I was just thrilled to death,”
Cutler said. “I enjoyed it.
Then he went right, straight
down and I started calling
out (the altitude.) But look-
ing back, that was all fun.”
After it was determined
he could handle flying, he
was sent to aerial gunner
school and qualified among
the top of his class. But radio
school in Hawaii tripped him
up.
“I flunked, so I didn’t get
my wings,” he said. “So I
went over as a spare aerial
gunner and went to Midway.”
His arrival there months
after the crucial June 1942
Allied victory was as one
of the replacements sent
to the island where much
of the Japanese Navy had
been destroyed. He handled
bombs at the airfield there
and machine guns he was
familiar with.
After a quick return to
Hawaii, he was shipped to
Green Island near Bougain-
ville in the Solomon Islands,
the site of another import-
ant Allied victory. But again,
it was after the island had
been retaken from the Jap-
anese. There, he flew again,
but spent most of his time
disrupting Japanese supplies
and equipment.
“We kept their food line
and their ammunition line
down,” he said. “We’d just
go out there and put gasoline
on their rice fields and shoot
up all their boats.”
Cutler believes his failure
to get his wings may have
saved his life, since about
half of the radiomen/gunners
he was aware of didn’t sur-
vive the war.
“I just lucked out,” he
said. “I was in the right place
at the right time.”
Cutler also recalled amus-
ing — or not — incidents
from his time in the Pacific.
He said fellow Marines
wanted more than their
rationed one beer a day.
“They made this ‘torpedo
juice’ from berries or I don’t
know what,” he said of the
fermented and highly intox-
icating rotgut.
“A guy said, ‘Here, try
a sip.’ I didn’t want to, but
eventually I did. The guy
got me to take another and
another and that’s the last I
remember until I woke up
after having passed out in the
middle of a runway on my
way back to my tent. … I’ll
swear to this day that the tent
flipped over. Every time I’d
get in my bunk, I’d end up
falling on the floor.”
After that, he swore off
hard liquor. He has a beer
now and then, but no hard
stuff.
Just before the war ended,
he was shipped stateside. It
was at a Marine base in Cal-
ifornia he married his first
wife, Betty. After getting
mustered out as a corporal,
the couple moved to Ohio
where she was from. They
had two sons and a daughter
and were married for about
40 years before Betty died of
cancer in the 1980s.
The family had moved to
the Portland area in the early
1950s, where Cutler got a
job with the Army National
Guard, first as a civilian and
later enlisted in the Guard.
He worked with the Army
Corps of Engineers and was
a technical sergeant in charge
of building airfields and
equipment procurement.
When his National Guard
unit was mobilized for the
Korean War, at first Cutler
wanted to go. But he didn’t
want to be separated from his
family.
“They said, ‘They can’t
go with you … they’re going
to Japan. … We’ll just get
them there and they’ll live
on the base. You’ll get to go
over there once in a while.’
So I decided I didn’t want to
go,” Cutler said.
He met his current wife,
Kate, in Sandy, where she
used to swim in a pool he
cleaned.
“It was the bathing suit
that caught his eye,” she said.
In retrospect, Cutler
highly values his time in the
service and thinks it would
be valuable to all young
people.
“I think it was fantas-
tic. I would go through the
Marine Corps again. They
don’t teach them now like
we got taught. They taught
us to follow orders and help
one another,” he said. “Every
young man — who can —
should serve his four years
— to learn something, to
learn to be a man.”
should tell the state, ‘We
can’t process this; we don’t
want to be responsible for
this.’ These are certainly
necessary services … but
we don’t have the resources
to monitor this contract.”
Commissioner Susan
Roberts noted that such a
contract wouldn’t be the
first that had put the county
in an untenable situation.
“Some years ago, this
very thing happened with
another agency and the
county was in contact with
the state, who said, ‘You
will return this money; you
have to pay it back.’” Rob-
erts said. “At that time, we
spent a lot of time travel-
ing to Salem to make sure
that the county did not have
to do that. It came from the
funds that were dispersed to
the entity that had not done
its reporting. It took a lot of
time and a lot of work …
to get that done. The money
was then reduced from the
payments received that the
county was still on for hav-
ing to monitor all of that
going forward and make
sure that reduction was
done. … That’s when we
started insisting that we
have the reporting docu-
mentation prior to make
the payments. There was
no way then, either. And
now they’re slipping back
into that and not giving any
money unless we do the
work.”
Commissioner
John
Hillock agreed that the cur-
rent system of requiring
documentation prior to the
release of funds works best.
“I’ve worked with
Chrystal on these and she
will not release funds until
she has the proper docu-
mentation,” Hillock said.
Roberts noted that under
the proposed new contract,
the state wouldn’t have
to follow procedures the
county has in place.
The commissioners ini-
tially considered tabling
the matter until state offi-
cials and those from the
Center for Wellness could
be consulted, but Sully said
the state wants an answer
quickly so it can open nego-
tiations with a contractor if
the county rejected the pro-
posed contract.
Hillock said he wanted
to discuss the matter with
representatives from the
Center for Wellness to
assure them the county is
not rejecting what they do
or their funding.
“We don’t want to dis-