LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
A7
Bicycle playground hoped for in Wallowa
ens originally planned to
upgrade the existing park,
keeping the costs low.
But his eff orts got a
surprise $51,500 anony-
mous gift so he was able to
expand his plans, and with
donations from Building
Healthy Families — where
the Alternative School is
— the city of Enterprise,
community groups, private
individuals and businesses,
they brought in about
$77,000 and were able to
add to their original plans.
Plans would
allow ‘anything
with wheels’
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — Enter-
prise got one this year, and
Wallowa hopes it will next
year — a park that local kids
on wheels can call their own.
Ron Pickens, who spear-
headed getting Enterprise’s
skateboard park not only
revamped but totally rebuilt,
is behind a similar eff ort
in his home community of
Wallowa for “anything with
wheels,” he said Wednesday,
Sept. 29.
“My hope with it is that
when a kiddo pulls up and
sees it that it’s friendly, fun
and inviting, very much
like a playground,” he said.
“(Kids can) utilize bikes,
scooters, roller blades and
skateboards. It’s this color-
ful space that kids can play
in.”
The town of about 800
people has virtually no place
for kids who want to get
out on their bicycles, skate-
boards, roller blades or
scooters to go — except the
streets.
“I think it’d be awe-
some,” said Mali Wilson of
Lostine, who is one of Pick-
ens’ alternative education
students. “Instead of going
straight home, we’d have
somewhere to ride and prac-
tice some skills.”
In fact, the ninth-grader
is so keen on bicycling, he
rides his bike from Lostine
every day.
“This kid’s an avid bicy-
clist. He’s got it. We’ve got
another one converted to
the ‘dark side’ of cycling,
or the ‘light side,’ I guess
we should say,” Pickens
laughed. “The bike pro-
vides an opportunity to stay
healthy and active versus the
alternative of being indoors
playing video games and
being sedentary.”
Pickens has contacted the
American Ramp Co. from
Joplin, Missouri, the com-
pany that provided the new
ramps and other obstacles at
the Enterprise park.
Local support
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Ron Pickens and a group of enthusiastic Wallowa youths stand atop a hill in the middle of what could become the town’s bicycle
playground next year. From left are Mali Wilson, Noah Wenke, Tony Owings, Pickens, Maddex Kendall, Hunter Reeves, Cayden
Ence, Josia Surber and Aleigh Weaver.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Ron Pickens, left, discusses with a group of Wallowa youths
what could become a new bicycle playground behind the
schools Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, in Wallowa.
“It’s going to be for ‘all
of the above.’ This track
is what you call a modu-
lar-style pump track,” he
said, going over a diagram of
a sample park. “They manu-
facture these pieces of con-
crete in Missouri. They put
it on an 18-wheeler and ship
it out here and they piece it
together like a puzzle and
build this series of rollers
with these banked corners.”
The park would include
various obstacles, such as a
sloped track, ramps, hoops,
pillars and others.
Youth support
As Pickens talked, about
a dozen enthusiastic youths
gathered around to listen and
off er their input.
“We haven’t had any-
thing like that around here in
a long time,” said Maddex
Kendall, a Wallowa High
School ninth-grader.
Sophomore
Hunter
Reeves agreed.
“We all skateboard, and
there’s no place around to
skateboard,” he said.
Josia Surber, an eighth-
grader, said youths fi nd
ways to make do.
“The best we’ve got is
either the concrete on the
main road or when they lay
new pavement on a street,”
he said.
Even adults were there
off ering their input.
WHS counselor Kathryn
Kemp said she took a cou-
ple local youths to the Enter-
prise park in August and
even learned a bit about her
own ability on wheels.
“I tried my hand at it
and immediately stum-
bled and fell off , so I don’t
think I’ll be skateboard-
ing,” she laughed. “But I’ve
heard from a lot of kids that
they just want a place that’s
theirs, somewhere to go
after school.”
She asked the group what
they usually do after school.
“We just go to our houses
and hang out inside because
there’s nothing to do out-
side,” Surber said.
Pickens asked the kids
there if they’d been to the
Enterprise park since it
opened. Most said they
had not, citing the close
to 20-mile distance as an
obstacle.
“Having something like
this in their community is
crucial,” he said.
Paying the bill
But such a plan won’t
come cheaply. At present,
Pickens has no idea what it
would cost.
“We’re going to be hit-
ting the grant process
pretty heavily,” he said.
“By mid-October, we’ll
have a number of grant
applications out there.
With the four that we’re
submitting, it’s not going
to be enough to cover the
cost of this. It seems like
December’s the next time
to start submitting more
grant (applications.)”
Although he’s not sure,
he hopes the park can break
ground in June or July and
should only take a couple
or three weeks to complete.
In Enterprise, Pick-
VOLUNTEERS
NEEDED!
Railroad authority mulls derailment mishap
No one hurt,
no serious
damage during
Sept. 4 incident
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ELGIN — A minor mis-
hap on the Wallowa Union
Railroad topped the discus-
sion when the track’s gov-
erning body met Tuesday,
Sept. 28, at the Elgin Depot.
Wallowa County Com-
missioner Susan Roberts,
who co-chairs the Wallowa
Union Railroad Authority
with a Union County com-
missioner, said that on Sat-
urday, Sept. 4, a brake on
the trailing engine of the
train had not been released,
causing it to heat up, which
caused a portion of the track
to lay down fl at. That led to
a minor derailment of that
locomotive between Minam
and Elgin.
She said none of the pas-
sengers was injured and all
were safely evacuated from
the train.
“That was a minor derail-
ment,” Roberts said Mon-
day. “They just jacked it up,
put her back up and replaced
the brake pad.”
The authority also dis-
cussed maintenance issues,
which included repairing the
area where the train derailed.
Also discussed were work to
keep the rails in good shape,
brush-cutting during the
coming winter and keep-
ing the railroad right-of-way
open for the future.
“That’s what we started
it for in the fi rst place was
to keep that right-of-way
open, not to run an excur-
sion train,” Roberts said.
The commissioner said
that during the fi nancial
report, she noted that the
authority was running a bit
short because it had to close
down the excursion train last
year because of the corona-
virus pandemic. Although
the train has been operating
this year, fi nances are still a
bit short.
Without any income to do
that, in becomes a bit unten-
able,” she said.
Roberts did say an Ore-
gon Short Line tax credit
had been applied for and
received.
The authority replaced
the Howard Creek Bridge
in Minam Canyon early this
year. The commissioner said
the authority will be reim-
bursed $23,000 through the
tax credit.
In other business, the
authority:
• Heard a report from the
Joseph Branch Community
Trail that the city of Elgin
applied for a state grant to do
a feasibility study on the fi rst
mile of track out of Elgin.
• Considered a pro-
posal by the Eastern Ore-
gon River Outfi tters, which
in the past, had asked about
doing fi shing trips in the
area and returning rafts and
equipment on fl atcars pulled
by the train. Roberts said
no one from the outfi tters
attended the meeting, so the
matter was tabled.
• Set its next meeting for
5 p.m. Nov. 9. Roberts said
it is hoped the meeting will
be held in Wallowa, but the
location has yet to be decided
and will be announced prior
to the meeting date.
Pickens is, as yet, unsure
how the Wallowa project
will be received, but he’s
optimistic and has been get-
ting positive feedback from
people other than the stu-
dents who will use it.
“I’m excited about it,” he
said. “I’m super stoked that
the school’s on board with
it.”
He also has surveyed
parents.
“Last year, we sent a sur-
vey out in the school to get
the word from parents, if
they wanted to say any-
thing, if they thought there
was adequate recreation in
the community,” he said.
“The results were interest-
ing. Defi nitely, the commu-
nity recognized that they’d
like to see something.”
He also plans to approach
the Wallowa City Coun-
cil. He said he’s discussed
it unoffi cially with Mayor
Gary Hulse, but any city
decision would have to
come from the council.
“I will be chatting with
the City Council at their
next meeting Oct. 19,”
Pickens said, before tell-
ing the group gathered, “I’d
love to have any of you
guys come with me to the
City Council meeting in the
evening. … All I’m going
to ask from them is a letter
of support.”
He said such a let-
ter would be to include
with grant applications he
writes. But he’s also hoping
the city could provide tan-
gible support, as well.
Wallowa County
Humane Society is in
search of foster homes
for the recent increase
of new feline mothers,
new kittens and feral cats
in the County. If you are
interested in cat/kitten
foster care...
Brought to you by,
please contact
Carol Vencill
at 541-263-0336.
http://www.wallowacountyhumanesociety.org/
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