LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
A3
Race Central brings course home to public Commissioners
OK amended lease
for solar project
Progress tracked
via GPS to the
race website
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
centuries-old practice of
using dog sleds for trans-
port in snow-covered ter-
rain has met the 21st cen-
tury at Race Central for the
Eagle Cap Extreme Sled
Dog Race at Cloverleaf Hall
in Enterprise.
Starting Thursday, Jan.
20, as the race kicked off
at Ferguson Ridge Ski
Area east of Joseph, rac-
ers equipped with Global
Positioning System trackers
relayed their progress back
to Race Central and from
there to the race website at
https://www.eaglecapex-
treme.com.
“We’ll be able to watch
them — it’s updated every
10 minutes — and we’ll be
able to see where the mush-
ers (are) on the course,”
said volunteer Sherry Mur-
phy, pointing out the com-
puter screens set up at the
Cloverleaf.
She was one of six who
were there to greet anyone
interested.
“We’re here to provide
information for mushers’
families, the public, our vol-
unteers and for anybody
who’s interested in getting
some information on the
race,” she said.
In the back room — the
communications room —
was a more technical setup
where volunteers kept in
radio contact with other
volunteers and tracked the
mushers’ GPS signals. Com-
munications
volunteers
Dave Sanford and Michael
Abernathy were so busy
with their jobs they didn’t
have time to speak.
Murphy said some of the
information the public can
see at Race Central includes
live videos of the Ollokot
Campsite, including a rest
tent.
“The 100s and 200s are
required to spend a 6-hour
time resting themselves and
their dogs before they con-
IN BRIEF
Groundhog Day
Dinner to fund
scholarships
ENTERPRISE — A
Groundhog Day Dinner
will be hosted by the Wal-
lowa County Fair Board
on Wednesday, Feb. 2, fol-
lowed by Bingo, according
to a press release.
The combined event,
which will be held at the
Cloverleaf Hall in Enter-
prise, is a fundraiser for
scholarships the fair board
awards.
Dinner of pancakes
and sausage will begin at
5:30 p.m. Bingo starts at
6:30 p.m.
The dinner is $10 for
adults and $5 for children 10
years old and younger.
To learn more, contact
Annett Conner, fair offi ce
manager, at 541-426-4097
or by email at wallowacoun-
tyfair@gmail.com.
Trice to give
virtual Maxville
presentation
JOSEPH — Gwendoline
Trice, founder and execu-
tive director of the Maxville
Heritage Interpretive Center
in Joseph, will give a virtual
presentation on Maxville
from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday,
Feb. 3.
According to a press
release, Trice will discuss
the history of
the Maxville
— a former
logging town
north of Wal-
lowa — the
current work
of the inter-
pretive cen-
Trice
ter in Joseph
and the future expansion and
planned purchase of the 240
acres that includes the origi-
nal Maxville city township.
Register for the free event
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Dave Sanford, left, and Michael Abernathy keep track of the mushers’ progress at Race Central
at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, just after the start of the Eagle
Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
A televised view of Camp Ollokot where mushers and their teams rest is seen on a computer
screen at Race Central at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022.
tinue on their journey or start
back,” she said. “People can
get an idea of what it actu-
ally looks like up there. We
have a crew who stays up
there to provide meals and
checks on the dogs to make
sure that everything is going
perfectly OK and check
their feet and their breathing
and all of that kind of stuff .”
The progress that the
communications
crew
tracked was displayed on
the race website, volunteer
Paige Sully said.
Murphy said this year’s
race — after having to can-
cel last year because of the
COVID-19 pandemic —
was short on volunteers.
In addition to the six in the
front room selling souve-
nirs and showing the view
screens of live action on the
course, four were at work in
the communications room.
Of course, they would rotate
with others during the course
of the race, which was to
conclude Saturday.
“We’re short out in the
fi eld, at the safety checks
and the checkpoints and on
the snowmobiles,” Murphy
said. “All of those things are
needed to keep the race safe.
We’re just very short (on
volunteers.)”
at https://us06web.zoom.us/
webinar/register/.
The event will be hosted
by the Josephy Center
for Arts and Culture and
Beyond Toxics.
events are still free for all
participants, and include the
opportunity to question and
talk with the presenters.
For more information go
to the josephy.org web page,
or call Rich Wandschneider
at the center, 541-432-0505.
increase was 0.43%, or 32
people, to a total of 7,433. Its
growth rate was fi fth among
the eight counties, and over-
all was 22nd in the state.
Neighboring
Union
County had the lowest
growth rate in the state, as
it actually saw a popula-
tion drop of 1.62%, or 434
people.
Broken down by city,
Enterprise has a population
of 2,080. Joseph’s popula-
tion has moved to 1,158, and
Wallowa is at 799. Lostine,
the only other city named in
the study, has a population
of 242.
The breakdown by age
shows the county with 1,406
youths under the age of 18,
who make up 18.9% of the
population. Adults 18-64
account for just more than
half (50.2%) of the popula-
tion, or 3,730 people. And
adults 65 and older make up
30.9% of the population, or
2,297 people.
The county has the
fourth-highest rate of indi-
viduals 65 and older, and is
tied for 25th in terms of its
youth population.
— Chieftain staff
Brown Bag hosts
John Frohnmayer
on philosophy, sport Wallowa County
population still
JOSEPH — John Frohn-
mayer, one of Wallowa increasing
County’s newest residents,
will discuss his passions —
philosophy and sport — at
noon Tuesday, Feb. 1.
The retired attorney and
former chair-
man of Ore-
gon Human-
ities and a
director of
the National
Endowment
for the Arts, Frohnmayer
has written a
book about skiing, rowing
and golf and some aspect of
philosophy.
In COVID times, the
Josephy Center for Arts and
Culture has produced its
always-popular Brown Bag
programs on art, culture and
community via Zoom. The
WALLOWA COUNTY
— Wallowa County’s pop-
ulation had a growth rate
during the last year that put
it in the middle third of the
state’s counties, according
to a Portland State Univer-
sity report.
The state’s popula-
tion increased by 0.54%
to 4,266,560, PSU’s Pop-
ulation Research Cen-
ter showed. Eastern Ore-
gon counties, including
Wallowa, had a combined
increase of 0.45%. The eight
counties — Baker, Grant,
Harney, Malheur, Morrow,
Umatilla, Union and Wal-
lowa — had a combined
population as of July 1,
2021, of 190,444.
In Wallowa County, the
Building Healthy Families would like
to recognize all of the groups and
organizations that make the Holidays in
Wallowa County special. The Cities for the
holiday decorations and celebrations, the
Elks for their Giving Tree and Christmas
Baskets, and anyone else who supported
families and helped them
make their holidays
memorable. We are thankful
for all of you!
HOLIDAY
VOLUNTEERS
Building Healthy Families
541-426-9411
oregonbhf.org
ENTERPRISE
—
Another step forward
was taken for a new solar
energy project just outside
of Enterprise on Wednes-
day, Jan. 19, as the Wal-
lowa County Board of
Commissioners approved
an amended lease agree-
ment for the project.
The agreement is for
a lease for Ryan Shee-
hy’s Fleet Development to
transform an unused 2.5-
acre corner of the county’s
former asphalt plant site at
Fish Hatchery Lane and
Homan Lane into a solar
power farm that would
provide energy to local
customers through Pacifi c
Power’s grid. Sheehy’s
Wallowa County Com-
munity Solar has been
working for more than
three years on planning a
360-kilowatt community
solar project on the indus-
trial-zoned county land.
The original lease was
approved in late 2020.
Sheehy recently asked
county counsel Paige
Sully to request of the
commissioners that the
county sign an agreement
with Community Bank to
make the project collateral
so he can obtain necessary
funding for the project.
“This is a situation
where we would assign
the lease to Commu-
nity Bank, but it would
only take eff ect upon
defaulting the loan agree-
ment between Commu-
nity Bank and Wallowa
County
(Community)
Solar,” Sully told the com-
missioners. “By virtue of
the lease being assigned
to them, Community Bank
would accept all obliga-
tions of the lease agree-
ment, they would assume
all of the Wallowa County
Community Solar’s obli-
gations to the county in
the event that they were
to take possession of the
lease agreement.”
Sully said she does not
believe such a foreclosure
is likely.
“I see very little risk in
that occurring,” she said.
“This is necessary for
Wallowa County Com-
munity Solar to move for-
ward. … I recommend that
you approve it.”
Commissioner
Todd
Nash asked for some clar-
ifi cation on just what
would be foreclosed upon
in such an event.
Sully said that should
such a foreclosure occur, it
would be for the lease and
the bank would likely sell
the project to a new con-
tractor who would want
the lease and be subject to
its provisions.
As the commission-
ers considered a vote on
the matter, Commissioner
John Hillock abstained, as
his business, Enterprise
Electric, has done some
work on the project and he
wouldn’t want it to appear
as a confl ict of interest.
The other two commis-
sioners voted to approve
the
amended
lease
agreement.
In other business, the
commissioners:
• Tabled consideration
of a Coronavirus State Fis-
cal Recovery Fund Grant
that they were supposed to
review and approve. The
agreement on the grant —
which is for $500,000 —
had some concerns Sully
recommended resolving
before the commissioners
sign it. Since the agree-
ment had not yet been
returned by the state, the
commissioners tabled the
agreement until the next
meeting.
• Rehired Wesley Garth
as a reserve deputy with
the Wallowa County Sher-
iff ’s Offi ce.
• Hired Darla (Dee)
Peterson as a mobile recy-
cler in the Solid Waste
Department.
• Acknowledged the
retirement of Marjorie
Rogers as a 911 dispatcher.
• Accepted the resig-
nation of Hailee McClure
from the county Depart-
ment of Youth Services.
A novel that takes place in Wallowa County.
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