OFF PAGE ONE Wallowa.com Auction: Tyler Schaff eld, DMD. • Autumn Diggins’ 4-H grand champion market goat that sold for $750 to Barreto Manufacturing. • Jaeden Cudmore’s high- est-selling 4-H goat went for $1,350 to the Idaho Forest Group. • Gabriel Neveau’s grand champion 4-H market tur- key that sold for $700 by to Joe and Shari Warnock. • Carter Schnetzky’s pen of three 4-H champion mar- ket chickens that sold for $550 to Wallowa County Employees. Continued from Page A1 save (the money) for col- lege and they can use the experience.” Katie Hoff man, of the Joseph Charter School FFA, had the grand champion FFA market steer, and sold it for $3,100 to Chris Cunning- ham of Rock ‘n’ J Ranch. But although this is by far from her fi rst year, she, too, was choked up at the sale of her yellow Angus cross steer. Katie declined to comment. Plenty of thanks to go around Auction — sheep Kane Johnson’s grand champion FFA market lamb sold for $1,300 to Marvin Gibbs, a buyer for Chris- man Development. He was pleased with the price he got for his eff orts with the lamb. “I think it’s really gener- ous,” Kane said. Now in his third year of FFA, Kane did 4-H before it. He’ll be a sophomore at Joseph Charter School in the fall, where he also plays football, basketball and runs track. The son of Eric and Sarah Johnson, he said that after he pays off the debts that he owes raising the lamb, he’s going to put the rest in the bank as he saves up for a pickup. He hopes to go to college for agricul- tural engineering. Tripp Stewart, of Hep- pner, sold his 4-H grand champion market lamb for $1,250 to Knapp Law Offi ce. While he goes to school in Heppner, he spends summers — and the bulk of his 4-H time — on the Wallowa County ranch of his grandparents, Skye and Penny Krebs. His par- ents are Jason Stewart and Sybil Krebs. Tripp, who will be in the seventh grade, has been in 4-H for four years. He was pleased with the price he got. Masks: Continued from Page A1 actions,” Nash said. He touted Wallowa County as being successful in protecting its most sus- ceptible population during the pandemic, and noted it has one of the highest vac- cination rates among the “frontier counties.” “In our community we did a good job of mak- ing sure our most vulner- able were protected. Our businesses went out of the way” to help, he said, not- ing, for example, that a number went to measures such as curbside pickup to protect them. On Monday, Aug. 16, the OHA reported 11 new cases in Wallowa County among the 4,396 in the state over the weekend. The county total now stands at 297, and has added nearly 100 cases in the last month. The 200th case of COVID- 19 was reported on July 19. OHA and OHSU offi - Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Gabriel Neveau holds his grand champion 4-H market turkey Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, that he’s just sold to a representative of Rock ‘n’ J Ranch, left, at the Wallowa County Fair. “I really like it. It was a pretty good price,” he said. “I’ll put most of it in col- lege, but I’ll keep a couple hundred in my pocket for my dirt bike. … I’ve got to have some fun out of it.” He hopes to one day work on his grandparents’ ranch. The highest-selling mar- ket lamb was Aubrina Mel- ville’s FFA project that sold for $1,350 to Les Schwab. Auction — swine Wade Williams, the son of Jared and Mishelle Wil- liams, of Joseph, sold his grand champion 4-H mar- ket hog to Viridian Man- agement for $3,300. Wade, just in his second year of 4-H, was another youngster who had devel- oped an emotional tie to his market animal, saying he’d become friends with “Spot” and would miss her. He said he doesn’t think it’ll be so emotionally tough the next time. He also hasn’t yet cials have pointed to sev- eral counties where no action was taking place despite having infection rates double the state aver- age of 9.5%. The state per- centage is already twice the OHA target of no more than 5% that epidemiol- ogists say is the highest rates at which growth of the virus can be kept under control. Statistics show the high- est rates concentrated in two areas: Umatilla, Baker, Union, Malheur and Wal- lowa counties in eastern Oregon, and Jackson, Jose- phine, Douglas and Curry counties in southwestern Oregon. Crook County in central Oregon also has twice the state rate. State employees must be vaccinated Brown on Tuesday ordered all state executive branch employees will be required to get the COVID- 19 vaccine by Oct. 18. “Delta is a diff erent virus — it has changed everything,” Brown said. decided he’ll do with the proceeds of the sale other than paying debts incurred from cost of raising Spot. Landon Greenshields, son of Randy and Jeni Greenshields, sold his grand champion market swine for $2,900 to Valley Meat Service. But he said the price could’ve been better. “I liked the price; it’s not quite what I was expecting, but it’ll do,” he said. “I was thinking to get at least three grand.” He said he’ll save the bulk of it for college after he pays his debts for pig feed. The top-selling market swine was James Royes’ 4-H hog that sold for $3,800 to Pam Royes. Auction — others Other top sellers at the auction included: • Elijah Parker’s FFA Grand champion market goat that sold for $650 by to But the order does not have a target end date as the delta variant’s impact is still being gauged by state offi cials. Wallowa County on Monday, Aug. 16, was reported by OHA as having reached a 50% vaccination rate among all its residents, and 59.9% among those 18 and older. “I think each individ- ual makes that decision (whether or not to get vac- cinated) on their own with their physician,” Nash said. “It’s worthy of hav- ing that conversation. I would encourage people to go and talk to their phy- sician on what is the best option for them.” He added that conversa- tions need to be had about negative eff ects from the vaccine, even if they are statistically low. “It is worth talking about,” he said. “People can assess the risk on both sides.” Ronald Bond of the Wal- lowa County Chieftain con- tributed to this report. WE WILL BE CLOSED SEPT 6TH TO OBSERVE LABOR DAY! EARLY DEADLINES The deadline for classified ads is 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 2nd Noon Wednesday, Sept. 1st is the space reservation deadline. 10 am Thursday, Sept. 2nd is when ad copy is due. All ads must be approved by noon on Tuesday, Sept. 7th. Call Jennifer TODAY! 541-805-9630 209 NW First St., Enterprise, OR 97828 541-426-4567 In opening the auction, Nash had a long list of peo- ple and businesses to thank for making the fair pos- sible. Among those were Community Bank; which fl oated a zero-interest loan to facilitate paying the live- stock sellers quickly; Craig and Candi Willis from Farm Supply, who donate ship- ping the livestock to Pasco, Washington, and their truck Wednesday, August 18, 2021 driver Tony Yost; Inter- mountain Livestock and Dennis Arnzen fl oor the livestock; Anderson Land and Livestock who gives $50 for each steer; Oregon State University Extension, which oversees the 4-H program; the FFA advisers in each Wallowa County school; Wallowa Memorial Hospital, which donated up to $200,000 to help get a new furnace and genera- tor at the Cloverleaf Hall, which the hospital used for an overfl ow space during the coronavirus pandemic; the city of Enterprise, which donated $5,000 from its transient lodging tax; an anonymous donor who gave $14,000 for a new sound system; and others. There also were the indi- viduals Nash mentioned, such as Fair Board Secre- tary Tera Elliott, who will leave the post after fi ve years for another job with the county, and the Fair Board, headed by Chair- woman Stanley. “You guys go above and A15 beyond,” Nash said. “The community has no idea how much eff ort you put into this and it’s very much appreciated.” The commissioner also noted the fair is on the receiving end of $270,000 in video lottery funds from the state and $500,000 in federal American Res- cue Plan funds state Rep. Bobby Levy channeled to the fair. “That will be a big shot in the arm,” Nash said. All in all, he said, the fair is a great demonstra- tion of how the Wallowa County community comes together. “I thought it was fantas- tic. I love our fair. I love the fact that it’s commu- nity based and that it sup- ports our young people,” he said. “I love the fact that it shows the resiliency of our ag community, that urban kids can house livestock other places and still par- ticipate. It’s the very best of our community and what it can be.”