LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
A3
Local groups win Oregon Arts Commission grants
Chieftain staff
SALEM — Two Wal-
lowa County organizations
are among the 55 projects
awarded a total of $221,535
through the Oregon Arts
Commission’s FY2022 Arts
Build Communities grant
program, the commission
announced Friday, Feb. 11.
The program targets
underserved audiences in
Oregon, the announcement
stated.
“This program provides
fi nancial support to arts and
other
community-based
organizations for projects
that address a local commu-
nity problem, issue or need
through an arts-based solu-
tion,” said Arts Commis-
sion Vice Chairman Harlen
Springer, who led one of two
review panels. “Local citi-
zens employ creative think-
ing and collective response to
identify a local need and pro-
vide an arts-based solution.”
The grants also spark and
leverage many other invest-
ments and resources, serv-
ing as a catalyst for greater
economic and civic impact,
Springer said.
In recent years, ABC
projects attracted more
than $600,000 in additional
investment, much of it repre-
senting salaries paid to artists
and others as well as prod-
ucts and services purchased
in the funded communities.
The grants are made possible
through a funding partnership
with the National Endow-
ment for the Arts.
This year’s projects
include:
• Fishtrap Inc. of Enter-
prise, which will receive
$3,000 to support the 14th
year of Fishtrap’s NEA Big
Read. Requested funds will
be used for presenter hono-
rariums, purchasing books
and supplies and promotional
eff orts. Just last month, Fish-
trap received another $10,000
Arts Learning Funding grant
to support young writers.
• The Josephy Center for
Arts and Culture in Joseph
will receive $3,000 to sup-
port “Rez Ball and More,” an
exhibit featuring Nez Perce
Indian athletes and contests
through art; and a three-on-
three basketball weekend
with high school boys and
girls from the Colville, Lap-
wai and Umatilla reservations
and local Joseph, Enterprise
and Wallowa schools. Some
Bike playground fundraising reaches halfway mark
IN BRIEF
Another $100,000
needed for
Wallowa project
Ceramics classes
scheduled
JOSEPH — Two ceram-
ics classes will begin Feb.
24 at the Josephy Center for
Arts and Culture in Joseph,
according to a press release.
Foundations of Ceram-
ics for Beginners will be
held from 10 a.m. to noon
and Ceramics: Intermediate
will run from 6-8 p.m. The
classes run through April 21
and cost $195.
The beginners’ class
focuses on the fundamen-
tals of handbuilding in this
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — The sup-
porters of the Wallowa Bicy-
cle Playground project have
about half of their funding
committed and are working
on a variety of fundraisers
to acquire the rest, said chief
proponent Ron Pickens.
“We’ve got a lot of great
forward momentum,” he
said Thursday, Feb. 3.
Pickens, a prevention
coordinator and alterna-
tive school teacher with
Building Healthy Families
in Enterprise, spearheaded
last year’s project to refur-
bish the Enterprise Skate
Park. Since then, he became
interested in seeing a simi-
lar project built in Wallowa,
where he lives.
The project is expected to
accommodate bikes, scoot-
ers, roller blades and skate-
boards in a colorful space
that kids can play in, Pick-
ens said.
He approached the Wal-
lowa City Council and
received its support — and a
donation of $1,000 — Nov.
16.
The
playground
is
planned for a site owned by
the Wallowa School District
and he has received approval
from the district and support
from the city.
The project is budgeted
for about $200,000, Pick-
ens said. He is now work-
50 students and coaches will
play ball and socialize with
students and coaches from
other schools.
Requested funds will be
used to off set Tamástslikt
expenses in copying mate-
rial for exhibit, paying art-
ists and writers to prepare
materials for exhibit, curat-
ing the exhibit, travel and
other expenses for athletes
and other costs associated
with ball games and related
activities.
eight-week session. It is for
beginning students ages 18
and older.
The intermediate course
is for students with clay
making experience in the
past few years, ages 18 and
older.
They will be taught by
Pamela Beach.
Three Saturday open stu-
dio sessions also will be held
March 5, April 2 and 23
from 1-4 p.m. There is no
class March 24.
Proof of COVID vacci-
nation is required.
To
register,
visit
https://josephy.org/event/
ceramics-intermedi-
ate-2/2022-02-24.
— Chieftain staff
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.Wallowa.com
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain, File
The Big Read book,
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.
ing on several projects to
raise money for the bike
playground, most of which
include raffl es.
• Two bicycles have been
donated by a local individual
who purchased them in La
Grande — a Trek 820 and a
Precaliber 20. Raffl e tickets
for the bikes cost $3 for one,
$5 for two or $10 for four.
The drawing for the bicycles
will be held in April.
• A raffl e for a plane ride
to the Minam River Lodge
for a breakfast for two goes
for $25 per ticket. That
drawing will be May 4.
• A Traeger barbecue that
was donated by Ace Hard-
ware in Enterprise also is
up for a raffl e. Those raffl e
tickets cost $3 for one, $5
for two or $10 for four. The
drawing will be March 17.
• Sales of caps with “Wal-
lowa Bicycle Playground
Project” and the project’s
logo emblazoned on it go for
$20. The logo was designed
by students at Wallowa and
at the Alternative School and
also will appear on sweat-
shirts and a sign at the park.
Pickens said the plan is to
have students do the actual
drawing in the raffl es.
Donations to support the
project or to purchase raf-
fl e tickets can be made by
contacting Pickens at Build-
ing Healthy Families at 541-
426-9411 or via email at
rpickens@oregonbhf.org.
Pickens said that begin-
ning in early March, he
plans to start working with
youths in Wallowa on more
fundraisers.
He said he hopes to see
the playground opened by
the end of August.
“Our game plan is to con-
tinue to receive donations up
until the park opens, but we
hope to have all of it secured
by mid-May,” he said.
“We’ve got great traction,
but still we’ve got to make
some headway.”
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Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
107 E. Main St. Enterprise OR
541-426-3351
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Joseph-to-Elgin trail gets another $18,000 in grants
Chieftain staff
ENTERPRISE
—
Another $18,000 grant to
go toward the 63-mile trail-
with-rails between Elgin and
Joseph has been received
from Cycle Oregon by the
Joseph Branch Trail Consor-
tium to help fund construc-
tion of a covered gazebo, as
well as landscaping, at the
trail’s soon-to-be-built west-
ern trailhead in downtown
Elgin, according to a press
release Tuesday, Feb. 8.
The grant follows two
other grants to the nonprofi t
group that total more than
$272,000: an Oregon State
Parks grant to fund construc-
tion of the fi rst Americans
with Disabilities Act-com-
pliant trail section and the
trailhead (that will also serve
as a pocket park in Elgin)
and a grant from the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation that will fund devel-
opment of a detailed plan
for the next 15-mile seg-
ment between Elgin and
Lookingglass.
The trail has been in the
planning stages for about 10
years, the Chieftain reported
in November, and will even-
tually off er a nonmotor-
ized alternative transporta-
tion route to Highway 82
in the form of a trail that
will run beside existing rail-
road tracks in the railroad
right-of-way owned by the
Wallowa Union Railroad
Authority. With one end in
Elgin, the other will termi-
nate 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,
with a population around
1,700 population, currently
has no accessible trails from
downtown, according to a
press release announcing the
grants. Joseph, with roughly
1,000 people, also will bene-
fi t from the trail, as will Wal-
lowa, Lostine and Enterprise.
Brock Eckstein, who is
city administrator of Elgin
and interim city adminis-
trator for Joseph, said in
November there is a “time
cap” of December 2024
to get the Elgin trailhead/
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.
“We are seeing some
impressive
momentum
building for this exciting
project, and this new grant
from Cycle Oregon is defi -
nitely part of that,” Gregg
Kleiner, the project coor-
dinator for the consortium,
said in the Feb. 8 release.
“The trail will be open to
bicycles, and the trailhead
will feature a bike mainte-
nance station and an e-bike
charging station, so it’s a per-
fect fi t for Cycle Oregon, and
we’re very grateful for their
enthusiastic support.”
The Cycle Oregon grant
and previous small grants
from the Schwemm Family
Foundation and the Round-
house Foundation also are
supporting development of
the trailhead/pocket park.
More information about
the consortium and mem-
bership can be found online
at
https://www.joseph-
branchtrail.org/membership.
503.936.3535
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