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137th Year, No. 45
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
WALLOWA.COM
Woman found guilty of mistreatment
Betsy Lathrop
convicted of
taking father’s
resources
Landon
Greenshields
Enterprise
He hopes to
return to make
county his home
ENTERPRISE — Landon Green-
shields has lived all of his 19 years
in Wallowa County and hopes to
continue making it his home after
college.
After he graduates from Enter-
prise High School this spring, he
plans to attend Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity to study biology and work in
mammalogy to study wild animals.
This is a bit of a departure
from the veterinary practice
his father, Randy Greenshields,
co-owns in Enterprise and where
his sister, Brooke, works. Both are
veterinarians.
“I’m planning to study wild
mammals and such,” he said. “Hope-
fully to inform the public on how
they work. It’d be fun to do my own
studies around here.”
He hopes to be able to return to
Wallowa County once he graduates.
Greenshields has been active in
FFA and 4-H since he was a child,
mostly raising swine. As a kid, he
often worked at his dad’s clinic
cleaning up and doing some of the
other minor chores.
He recently shared his thoughts
about living in Wallowa County.
What’s your favorite thing
about Wallowa County?
How small it is and being able
to have a little bit more room, com-
pared to the cities. There are other
things to do here compared to what
the city off ers. I’ve never lived in a
big city, but I’ve visited and it doesn’t
give off the same vibe as Wallowa
County and a small town does.
Are you getting cabin fever
yet?
No. I don’t ever really. I don’t
mind the winters. I just try to stay
warm and have a little fun with
it — snowball fi ghts, building a
snowman.
What are you looking
forward to as the weather
warms?
Defi nitely swimming in the lake.
That and being able to travel more
with the better weather.
What’s your advice for
people who are thinking
about moving here?
If you don’t like long winters,
don’t move to Wallowa County.
— Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A Los-
tine woman accused of multiple
charges of criminal mistreatment
and identity theft involving her
father was convicted Wednesday,
Feb. 9, in Wallowa County Cir-
cuit Court in Enterprise on four
of the 28 counts in the original
indictment.
Betsy Jo Ann Lathrop, 55, was
accused of 20 counts of fi rst-de-
gree criminal mistreatment, a
Class C felony, alleged to have
taken place between Nov. 21,
2014, and July 8, 2016, in viola-
tion of her legal duty to provide
care for an elderly person, her
father, Robert “Wayne” Lathrop,
according to court records. The
elder Lathrop died in December
2018. Betsy Lathrop was not his
legal guardian, but did she have
power of attorney for him, her
attorney said.
The jury trial was before
Senior Judge John Collins out of
Yamhill County. He will preside
over sentencing at 2 p.m. Feb. 22
in Enterprise.
La Grande attorney Jim
Schaeff er, who was appointed
by the court as Lathrop’s pub-
lic defender, said on Feb. 14 he
expects she will appeal the con-
victions and any sentence as well.
“That would be on the basis of
the suffi ciency of the evidence,”
Schaeff er said, though that would
be for her appellate attorney to
determine.
According to court records,
the specifi cs of the 20 counts
include payment of Wayne Lath-
rop’s bar tab, the purchase and
installation of new fl ooring in
Betsy Lathrop’s home in Lostine,
the purchase of a Lexus, the pur-
chase of a pickup for Betsy Lath-
rop’s daughter and cash with-
drawn and/or checks to Betsy
Lathrop.
Lathrop also was accused of
eight counts of identity theft —
also a Class C felony — on var-
ious dates between October
and December 2016 when she
allegedly wrote checks using her
father’s identifi cation, according
to court records. She was acquit-
ted on the identity theft charges.
Lathrop was convicted of the
counts that accused her of pur-
chasing and having installed
new fl ooring and a washer and
dryer at her Lostine home. She
also was convicted of using her
See Convicted, Page A7
Enterprise
schools
get ready
to build
Money’s in place,
bid accepted,
others going out
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Skip Pepers, of the Verdin Co., solders a connection while installing a new control system for the carillon bell
system at the Enterprise Community Congregational Church on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The old system, which
was installed in the 1990s, has been out of commission for a couple of years.
Let the bells ring
‘Big Brown
Church’ in
Enterprise gets
new carillon
Top priorities
recalled Swart’s longstand-
ing commitment to music at the
church.
“She started playing here when
she was 12 years old,” he said.
The highest-priority project is
a new roof for the primary school,
middle school and the second-
ary school buildings, said interim
Superintendent Tom Crane during
an interview Thursday, Feb. 3.
“The roof is the No. 1 project,”
Crane said. “We’re going to get the
roof done and we’re going to get
the HVAC done this summer.”
The heating, ventilation and
air conditioning will be funded
largely by the bond funds, while
the ESSER grant covers ventila-
tion, the fl yer stated.
But it’s the roof that’s the most
urgent priority, as it’s been experi-
encing leaks.
“They did a temporary fi x on the
roof and it’s pretty-much holding,”
Crane said, adding — in jest — that
if new leaks occur, “We’ll tell the
kids to bring their buckets, their
rain coats, their rain hats, whatever.
… The point is the roof has always
been the No. 1 priority and we’re
going to get it done and done right.”
All the school’s buildings are in
need of work, Crane said. The mid-
dle school was built in 1918, the
secondary school in 1960 and the
smaller primary building was built
in 1950.
Cassie Hibbert, the project man-
ager with Wenaha Group, which
handles the construction projects
for the school district, said it’s time
to replace the roofs, as the last time
they were replaced was after the
district’s last bond project in 2004.
She also took part in the Feb. 3
interview.
“The roofs have passed their
See Church, Page A7
See Schools, Page A8
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
E
NTERPRISE — After
a couple of years of
silence, the bells at the
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church are ring-
ing again, since a new carillon
was installed Thursday, Feb. 10.
Church member Stacy Green
said the old carillon ceased to
work a couple years ago. A car-
illon is a set of bells in a tower,
played using a keyboard or by an
automatic mechanism similar to a
piano roll. According to the Guild
of Carillonneurs of North Amer-
ica there are 166 traditional car-
illons in the USA and Enterprise
has one of those.
The carillon, installed by Skip
Pepers of the Verdin Co., who
drove up from Boise, Idaho, on
Thursday morning, is largely the
legacy left by longtime musical
director and pianist at the “Big
Brown Church,” Gail Swart.
“We have had a carillon,
according to Verdin’s records,
since 1964,” Green said. “Verdin
replaced the 1964 model in the
1990s and that lasted until a cou-
ple of years ago. We were trying
to repair it and we couldn’t repair
it and we just decided we needed
a new one, but that was $12,000,
so it was a big expense.”
Swart was instrumental in get-
ting the new sound system in
place.
ENTERPRISE — Despite a one-
year delay because of the COVID-
19 pandemic, the Enterprise School
District is gearing up for construc-
tion projects to be done this year —
and next — at Enterprise School.
District voters in 2020 approved
a $4 million bond measure that was
matched with a $4 million Ore-
gon School Capital Improvement
grant. The district also received a
$540,454 federal Elementary and
Secondary School Emergency
Relief grant and $111,682 in state
energy grants, for a total of more
than $8.85 million to complete
urgent construction needs, accord-
ing to a fl yer circulated to district
voters last month.
Work is scheduled to begin in
May.
Alys Shetler/Contributed Photo
Gail Swart plays piano at the Enterprise Community Congregational
Church during it’s Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, Dec. 24, 2021. It
was her last public performance before she died Jan. 28. She was behind
raising the money needed to replace the church’s carillon.
“It was something that was
important to Gail Swart, who was
our longtime music director. Gail
passed away Jan. 28,” Green said.
and she was thrilled to know that
it would go forward.”
Ken Holt, chairman of the
church’s board of trustees,
“WE HOPE EVERY TIME PEOPLE
HEAR THE BELLS, IT’LL BRING
JOY TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.”
— Stacy Green, church member
“She helped raise the money. She
sent out letters and put the word
out that we were trying to raise
the money. That was last fall.
Shortly after that, she was diag-
nosed with cancer. This was a
project that was important to her