OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Hunger:
Continued from Page A1
Community Connection
has generous income guide-
lines each household must
meet to qualify for a turkey
box, Odegaard said. For a
household of one, the limit is
$3,222 a month or $38,640 a
year. For larger households,
the income guidelines are
listed online at https://ccno.
org/food-bank/.
“That is very generous,”
she said.
Odegaard said the food
bank usually assists about
100 singles and families each
year.
Bryce Leggett, the head
cook at the senior meals site
in Wallowa, said the same
income guidelines apply in
Wallowa.
Community Connection
manager Connie Guentert
said that on Saturday, a “Fill
the Fire Truck” food drive
put on Saturday by the Joseph
Fire Department raised more
than $4,000 for the food
bank. Also donated was 220
pounds of food and cash to
purchase $365 in food from
Market Fresh Foods.
She said the Rooted Youth
Group in Enterprise volun-
teered to sort and load the food
at Community Connection.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Connie Guentert, manager of Community Connection of Wallowa County, shows where turkeys
will go once they’re donated for the “turkey boxes” Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, that will be
distributed ahead of Thanksgiving.
She also said the Safeway
store is helping out.
“Our local Safeway raised
over $10,000 for Turkey
Bucks-Thanksgiving meals
this year,” Guentert said.
“That is a feat.”
For more information on
Community
Connection,
call 541-426-3840 or email
Guentert at connie@ccno.
org.
Churches help, too
Churches around the
county also are helping make
sure no one goes hungry.
Some, like Enterprise
Christian Church, have actual
food banks.
ECC Pastor David Bruce
said it’s open Monday,
Wednesday and Friday morn-
ings. But as to what’s avail-
able, that can be hit or miss.
“It all depends on who
brings what,” he said. “It’s
just a general-purpose food
bank.”
He called it a supplemen-
tary food bank.
“We encourage people
to use the community food
bank, but it runs short, as
well,” he said.
As for income restrictions,
his church doesn’t really have
any.
“We just ask that people
remember that other people
use this as well,” he said, call-
ing it self-regulating.
Bruce couldn’t say how
many people or families his
church’s food bank helps,
but it’s not been as many as it
could have.
“I have been stunned
because it’s had very little use
in recent months,” he said.
In Joseph, the Joseph
United Methodist Church has
a “blessing box” at the corner
of Main and 3rd streets.
“It’s available 24/7,” Pas-
tor Cherie Dearth said. “We
ask people to just take three
items a day. … We fi ll it as
we can. Sometimes people
from the community fi ll it.”
Before the COVID-19
pandemic, the church was a
distribution site for the Fresh
Alliance program of Com-
munity Connection. That
program gathered fresh pro-
Trail:
TRAIL-WITH-RAILS
What: Trail-with-rails
Continued from Page A1
Where: Elgin to Joseph
Phone: 541-740-9654
will terminate 63 miles later
in Joseph.
City offi cials at each end
of the proposed trail are
eager to see it accomplished,
anticipating both economic
and health benefi ts. Elgin, at
1,700 population, currently
has no accessible trails
from downtown, according
to a press release announc-
ing the grants. Joseph, with
roughly 1,000 people, also
will benefi t from the trail, as
will Wallowa, Lostine and
Enterprise.
Email: gregg@joseph-
branchtrail.org
Websites: joseph-
branchtrail.org https://
www.josephbranchtrail.
org/membership
Interest at each end
As it turns out, Brock
Eckstein has an offi cial inter-
est at each end. He’s Elgin’s
city administrator and also
is interim city administrator
for Joseph.
“Our city staff , collab-
orating closely with the
Joseph Branch Trail Consor-
tium and WURA, are pre-
pared to lead and assist as
needed to ensure the proj-
ect is a success, because
the potential economic and
health impacts from this trail
for our city, community, and
region will be momentous,”
said Eckstein of the benefi ts
to Elgin.
“In the future, it’ll be
really great for Joseph,” he
added, lamenting the delays
in the project over acquiring
funding.
A board member of the
Wallowa Union Railroad
Authority, which owns the
right-of-way alongside the
tracks, Eckstein sees the
grants as a step forward in
solving the fi nancial woes of
the project.
“I’m really excited get-
ting two grants,” he said.
One grant, from Oregon
State Parks’ Recreational
Trails Program, will fund
construction of the trailhead,
which will also serve as a
pocket park for the city of
Elgin. The trailhead/pocket
park will be located on a
Joseph Branch Trail Consortium/Contributed Photo
Rails are seen near the site of the old Joseph mill. The Joseph Branch Trail Consortium is
working to establish a 63-mile trail-with-rails section between Elgin and Joseph. On Tuesday,
Nov. 9, 2021, the nonprofi t announced it has received two grants totaling more than $272,000
that will fund construction of the fi rst trailhead and inaugural trail segment, as well as fi nal
planning and design for another 13-mile segment.
parcel of city-owned land
directly across from the train
depot in downtown Elgin.
Eckstein said there is a
“time cap” of December
2024 to get the Elgin trail-
head/pocket park and the
fi rst short section of trail out
of town constructed, as well
as the planning for the next
fi rst 13 miles refi ned.
“We’re just taking it
piece by piece until we get
the whole thing done,” he
said.
In addition to trail infor-
mation, the trailhead/pocket
park will include an electric
vehicle and e-bike charging
station (the only one between
La Grande and Enterprise),
an Americans with Disabil-
ities Act-compliant parking
place, ADA-compliant pic-
nic tables, interpretive sig-
nage about the area’s earliest
inhabitants and more-recent
history, a bicycle mainte-
nance stand, a water foun-
tain and more, the press
release stated.
The Oregon State Parks
grant also will fund con-
struction of the inaugural 0.6
mile of the trail that will be
an ADA-compliant path run-
ning out of Elgin along the
railroad tracks.
A second grant, from
the Oregon Department of
Transportation’s Transpor-
tation Growth Management
program, will fund devel-
opment of a detailed refi ne-
ment plan for the 13-mile
segment of the trail between
Elgin and Lookingglass in
rural Union County on the
Grande Ronde River beyond
Palmer Junction. This fund-
ing will also support local
outreach and education
about the trail.
Parts of the trail, near
proposed trailheads located
in towns, will mostly be
ADA-compliant and made
of hard-packed gravel, said
Gregg Kleiner, project coor-
dinator for the consortium.
“The
ADA-compliant
sections will accommo-
date electric wheelchairs,
and E-bikes potentially be
allowed on some other parts
of the trail,” Kleiner said in
an email. “Most parts sec-
tions of the trail will be
a more basic gravel trail
that can be used by hik-
ers, bicyclists and equestri-
ans. … We we also hope it
the trail might be used by
local school athletes, like
cross-country teams.”
community asset for resi-
dents of Elgin to enjoy while
also generating an economic
boost for the city from visi-
tors stopping in town to hike
or bike out of town along the
Grande Ronde River on the
initial trail segment … or to
charge their electric vehi-
cles. And eventually, other
towns along the trail will see
the benefi ts, too.”
He said students enrolled
in Eastern Oregon Universi-
ty’s Sustainable Rural Sys-
tems Program are helping
research and develop con-
A5
duce that was about to expire
at local grocery stores to dis-
tribute. The distribution has
not resumed, she said.
Other churches col-
lect donations and contrib-
ute directly to Community
Connection.
Pastor Tim Barton, of the
Wallowa Assembly of God
Church, said that’s what his
church does, as well as giving
to the Wallowa Senior Center.
“We sponsor senior meals
once a quarter,” he said. “We
have, in the past, given out
food certifi cates at the gro-
cery store here in Wallowa.”
However, his church
decided to shift its giving to
the food bank in Wallowa,
fi guring that was a more
eff ective way to help than
directly to individuals.
The Community Congre-
gational Church — the “Big
Brown Church” — in Enter-
prise, also gives directly to
the food bank, member Larry
Wagner said. Once a month,
he said, the church collects
donations and takes them to
the Enterprise Community
Connection outlet.
But it’s a community wide
eff ort that ensures no one
goes hungry.
“No one in this county
wants anyone to go hungry,”
Guentert said. “The generos-
ity of this community is just
staggering.”
tent for the interpretive sig-
nage and other components
of the project.
The project also will help
draw people to the Eagle
Cap Excursion Train, which
runs from the train depot in
Elgin up to Minam and back
about twice a week from late
spring through fall.
Previous small grants
from the Schwemm Family
Foundation and the Round-
house Foundation also will
support development of the
trailhead/pocket park.
Kleiner was enthusiastic
to get state support for the
trail project.
“It’s wonderful to see the
state of Oregon so support-
ive of this trail, which will
off er users of all abilities
and ages a safe way to get
out and experience nature,”
he said. “And the interpre-
tive signage will help hikers,
bikers and horseback riders
learn about the local history
and the indigenous people
who lived — and still live
— in this area.”
Conatact Elaine at 541-263-1189
Grants a perfect fi t
Kleiner, who joined the
consortium as its fi rst proj-
ect coordinator in March,
fi nds the grants a perfect fi t
for the project.
“These two grants dove-
tail perfectly and will be a
catalyst for the larger proj-
ect, which has been in the
planning stages for many
years now,” Kleiner said.
“This funding will establish
a wonderful, fully accessible
Kittens,
Kittens,
Kittens!
Wallowa County humane society
is bursting at the seams with a
fresh new batch of some of the cut-
est, softest, sweetest, fluffiest kitties
ever!! If you’ve been dreaming of adopting
a kitty, we’ve got kittens ranging from 6 weeks
up. All kittens are vaccinated, dewormed and litter
box trained. These babies are all scheduled to be
spayed and neutered when they are of age.
Brought to you by,
Stop by the center, check
out our website or Facebook page.
http://www.wallowacountyhumanesociety.org/
Than up k p y o o rt u ing
s
r
e
p
a
p
News ucation
for s
In Ed
NIE
Dr. Jason Follett,
Wallowa Valley Dental Care
Log House RV Park
Mountain Crest Apartment
Ponderosa Motel
Viridian Management
Community Bank
Heavenly’s
Umpqua Bank
Valley Bronze of Oregon
WC Grain Growers
Winding Waters
800-781-3214
Bronze Antler B & B
Minam River Lodge