BROWN ANNOUNCES NEXT STEP ONCE MORE PREMIUM COFFEE ARRIVES
70% VACCINATION IS REACHED IN WALLOWA COUNTY
STATE, A5
$1.50
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GRADUATION
CELEBRATIONS
The Back Page,
Page , A18
137th Year, No. 9
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Umatilla Co. deputy drowns on Minam River
Chieftain staff
Andy
Singer
MINAM — A Umatilla
County sheriff’s deputy drowned
Saturday, June 5, in the Minam
River.
The Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Office released the name
of the deputy Sunday afternoon,
saying in a Facebook post that
Senior Deputy Jason Post died
during a rafting accident near
Minam State Park.
According to the sheriff’s where he was honored by law
office, Post and three friends enforcement officers and first
were rafting when they
responders.
were thrown from the
Wallowa County Sher-
watercraft. The 34-year-
iff Joel Fish said Tuesday
old did not reach shore,
that Post was wearing a
and his body was found
life vest when he and the
soon after.
three others were ejected
A procession of multi-
from the inflatable raft in
ple regional law enforce-
the midst of some rapids.
Post
ment agencies escorted
Fish said it took about an
Post from La Grande
hour and a half to recover
to Pendleton later Saturday, Post’s body, which was found
about 300 yards from the site of
the accident.
According to the UCSO, Post
began service as a reserve offi-
cer in 2010 and was hired as a
full-time patrol deputy in 2013.
He was a field training officer
and mentor, and in April was
hired as a probation officer with
Umatilla County Parole and
Probation.
Post leaves behind a wife and
infant daughter.
Wallowa
Commutes
to Elgin from
Wallowa
Joseph Canyon
FIRE SEASON ARRIVES
ENTERPRISE — Andy Singer has
lived in Wallowa for six years, hav-
ing moved here from Payette, Idaho,
to be with his fi ancée, Christina. She
moved to Wallowa to be with her
dad until he died.
Andy works driving forklift at the
Boise Cascade plywood mill in Elgin.
He doesn’t mind the 28-mile drive
from Wallowa.
“I’m not the only one in town
who makes the drive,” he said.
Andy recently shared his
thoughts about living in Wallowa
County.
What’s your favorite thing
about Wallowa County?
It’s pretty quiet. You can get out
of town and it’s really quiet. You can
get away from everybody anytime
you want.
What fun plans do you
have in the county for this
summer?
Probably do some swimming
and fi shing. I play golf. I usually fi sh
in the rivers or the ponds. Every
once in a great while at the lake. But
there’s usually too many people.
How has the COVID-19
pandemic aff ected you?
It’s kind of a pain at work. I’ve
got to wear a mask. If you have any
kind of sickness, you have to call in. If
you have to have any fl u-like symp-
toms, I think you have to be gone
three days to make sure you don’t
get a fever and the like. If you go
get tested, and you have direct con-
tact (with someone with coronavi-
rus) you have to quarantine for two
weeks or depending on what the
doctor says.
What have you learned from
living in Wallowa County?
I like the peacefulness. I can go
outside on a Sunday and it’s dead
quiet. I live a block off of Highway 82
and it’s quiet. It makes you enjoy life.
What’s your advice for
people who are thinking
about moving here?
It’s a pretty good place to live,
but it’s kind of hard to make a living
in a lot of ways. The price of hous-
ing is getting pretty wild right now,
but it is everywhere. If you’re going
to buy a house, you better be on it.
A house goes on the market and it
sells the next day.
— Bill Bradshaw,
Wallowa County Chieftain
and Dry Creek fi res
have burned more
than 9,000 acres
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
No written
complaints
issued
against
council
City administrator says
all is hearsay so far
W
ALLOWA COUNTY
— The declared start
of the fi re season is
Wednesday, June 9.
But it got under-
way in earnest last week, as the
fi rst major fi res of 2021 started in
Wallowa County.
The Joseph Canyon Fire and
Dry Creek Fire, which between
them have burned more than
9,000 acres, are burning in the
northeastern corner of Wallowa
County, with the Joseph Canyon
Fire spreading into Washington.
The Northwest 7 Type 2 Inci-
dent Management Team took
command of fi ghting the fi res
Monday. The Blue Mountain Type
3 Incident Management Team was
the initial fi refi ghting lead.
According to the Oregon Mil-
itary Department fi re dashboard,
as of Tuesday morning, the Joseph
Canyon Fire had burned 7,575
acres and was 20% contained.
The larger of the two fi res has
largely been burning between Rye
Ridge to its west and Cottonwood
Creek to the east.
The smaller Dry Creek Fire,
burning southeast of the Joseph
Canyon Fire, has burned 1,500
acres and was 50% contained,
according to the ODM dashboard.
The fi re had been reported
as having burned 1,600 acres by
the Bureau of Land Management
Vale District on Monday. That
fi re is burning in the Hells Can-
yon National Recreation Area.
“It’s really gnarly country,” Lar-
isa Bogardus, public aff airs offi cer
for the BLM Vale District, said.
“It’s bad. Getting resources into it
safely was a challenge.”
Both fi res were fi rst reported
Friday morning, and were caused
by lightning storms that rolled
JOSEPH
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Andy Hayes/Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
The Joseph Canyon Fire is shown from Rye Ridge on Sunday, June 6,
2021. The fi re, as of Tuesday morning, has burned about 7,575 acres.
TRIBE CLOSES WILDLIFE AREA WITH FIRES
BURNING NEARBY
JOSEPH CANYON — The Nez Perce
Tribe is closing its Precious Lands
Wildlife Area in Lower Joseph
Creek to the public to allow fi re-
fi ghters to battle the blaze without
worrying about members of the
public.
Angela Sondenaa, Precious Lands
Project leader with the tribe based
in Lapwai, Idaho, said the tem-
porary closure is being done for
safety concerns. The closure was
eff ective Monday, June 7.
“We are asking the public to stay
out of the wildlife area,” Sondenaa
said. “We want the fi refi ghters
to be able to concentrate on the
fi re and not be concerned about
members of the public being
down in the canyon.”
Part of the 1,583-acre parcel has
been caught up in the 7,575-acre
Joseph Canyon Fire that was fi rst
reported Friday. It was both exac-
erbated and aided with the high
winds in the canyon.
“Fire has already burned parts of
it,” Sondenaa said. “I assume more
of it will burn before we get this
thing out.”
She said of particular concern are
the many bear hunters that fre-
quent the area this time of year.
The closure will remain in eff ect
until further notice, Sondenaa said.
For more information, call the
tribe’s Wildlife Division at 208-
843-7372 or email communica-
tions@nezperce.org or angelas@
nezperce.org.
JOSEPH — The can got kicked
down the road again but not with
as much force as might have been
expected, Thursday, June 3, as the
Joseph City Council heard Pro-
Tem Administrator/Recorder Brock
Eckstein say he has no documented
claims of harassment by council
members.
This came in open session after
an executive ses-
sion which he
explained to the
Council
approximately
gets
40 residents in
down to
the audience on
business
behalf of the
Local, A5
council.
“I know a lot
of you are frus-
trated over potential allegations of
harassment from council members
to city staff ,” Eckstein said. “I can
assure you these are being handled
in the proper way.”
He explained that the “proper
way” means that people given due
process when accused. He said
when a written complaint — not
just hearsay — is fi led against any-
body, the defendant is allowed two
weeks to respond.
“The council receives the same
correspondence. They’ll get two
weeks to think about it,” Eckstein
said. “Once that two weeks has
passed, both parties will get 15 min-
utes in executive session with the
council to pitch their side, whether
they’re the accuser or the defen-
dant. Once both of those 15-min-
ute sessions expire, they’ll each get
5 minutes rebuttal and then they’ll
both be excused and the council
will come to a consensus and their
—Chieftain staff
See Joseph, Page A16
See Fire, Page A16
A windfall of cash likely for the fairgrounds
Fair board may receive
a half-million dollars
for needed repairs
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The Wal-
lowa County Fairgrounds in Enter-
prise have been in need of repairs for
years, possibly even decades.
A huge windfall of cash that
would serve as a major boon to get-
ting many of those fi xes completed
could be just around the corner.
The fair board should receive
later this year $500,000 from the
American Rescue Plan Act signed in
March through new District 58 Rep.
Bobby Levy, R-Echo.
“It will be used for capital proj-
ects around the fairgrounds,” Fair
Board Chairwoman Brinda Stan-
ley said. “We developed a list early
this year. We have not prioritized
that list, so we’ll just work our way
down through them and see how
much each project is going to take.
A new roof with moisture barrier on
the roof is a high priority for us.”
The money comes from $240
million in ARPA funding for the
state that was divided between Ore-
gon’s 90 state senators and repre-
sentatives to hand out for projects in
their districts. Each senator received
$4 million and each representative
received $2 million that they then
requested to send to those projects.
See Cash, Page A16
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Fair Offi ce Manager Tera Elliott and grounds Manager Greg
Seufer survey the work on the grandstands at the fairgrounds Monday,
June 7, 2021. The county is expecting to receive about a half-million dollars
that can be used to revitalize the fairgrounds.