GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
154th Year • No. 47 • 14 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Weigum recall heads to ballot
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A recall eff ort
against John Day/Canyon City Parks
and Recreation District board mem-
ber Lisa Weigum will be left for vot-
ers to decide after organizers collected
just enough valid signatures to bring the
motion to the ballot.
Recall organizers collected 295 sig-
natures for the recall eff ort, just topping
the 289 needed to qualify.
Charlene Morris fi led the recall peti-
tion in early August
and turned in sig-
nature sheets to the
Grant County Clerk’s
Offi ce on Nov. 1 for
verifi cation.
County
Clerk
Brenda Percy has set
Weigum
the election for Dec.
13. Percy said ballots will go out in the
mail on Nov. 23, and she expects the
special election to cost between $2,000
and $3,000.
Morris claims that Weigum broke
multiple state laws
governing
pub-
lic meetings, elec-
tion publications and
budgeting.
Weigum’s sup-
porters point out that
she isn’t the parks
Morris
and recreation district
board chair and that no single individ-
ual has the authority to make decisions
independent of the rest of the board.
Weigum declined to be interviewed
for this story. However, in a “state-
ment of justifi cation” fi led in response
to the recall petition, she called the alle-
gations against her “unfounded” and
“deceptive.”
The recall eff ort comes on the heels
of the contentious pool bond initiative
that aimed to raise $4 million toward
the construction of a community pool
at the Seventh Street Complex to
replace the 64-year-old Gleason Pool,
which was torn down to make way for
an expanded Kam Wah Chung State
Heritage Site.
The bond measure failed in the May
election after ending in an 802-802 tie.
Supporters put the initiative back onto
the Nov. 8 ballot but it went down in
defeat once again, this time by a count
of 1,108 votes against to 1,030 in favor.
In March, Morris and Shaun Rob-
ertson fi led a petition raising objec-
tions to the bond measure’s ballot title,
and late last year Morris’ husband,
John, appealed a conditional use permit
granted for the pool’s construction.
See Weigum, Page A14
Chris Collins/Baker City Herald, File
If you decide to head into the snowbound forest
to cut your own Christmas tree, make sure your
vehicle is prepared for the conditions, and bring
along extra clothing, food and water.
Bringing home the holidays
The search for the perfect Christmas tree
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
he Blue Mountains started to look
like Christmas even before Hal-
loween this year.
But the season of the jack-o’-
lantern, of the overnight stomach-
ache induced by too many fun-size bars, is too
early to commence the search for the all-im-
portant item of holiday decor.
The Christmas tree.
The problem, of course, is preservation.
Cut your tree too early and you’ll struggle
to keep it healthy enough that, come Christ-
mas, the presents stacked beneath the branches
aren’t buried in drifts of desiccated needles.
But with Thanksgiving looming, families
across the region will be preparing for their
annual trip to the mountains and the search
for the tree that catches the eye from across
T
“IN MOST PARTS OF THE FOREST, REMOVING
SMALL TREES REDUCES THE RISK OF WILDFIRE,
HELPS OTHER TREES TO GROW LARGER AND
MORE FIRE-RESISTANT, AND CREATES OPEN
AREAS THAT PROVIDE FORAGE FOR WILDLIFE.”
U.S. Forest Service
a grove, its shape seemingly perfect in that
instant, its limbs ideal to hold the ornaments
that have become heirlooms.
Each of the three national forests in the
Blue Mountains — Wallowa-Whitman, Uma-
tilla and Malheur — sells Christmas tree per-
mits for $5. There is a household limit of fi ve
permits.
Permits are also available from many busi-
nesses, or online at recreation.gov (which
charges an additional $2.50 processing fee).
If you have a fourth grader in the house the
permit is free. All fourth graders are eligible
to receive a free permit by presenting a paper
voucher printed from the Every Kid Outdoors
website, https://everykidoutdoors.gov/.
National forest permits are valid only for
public land managed by the Forest Service.
Where to search, what to look for
Trees, of course, tend to grow in groves.
And this is a typical trait for the grand and white
fi rs that are a favorite Christmas tree in North-
eastern Oregon forests.
When you come across a cluster of fi rs —
especially if they’re slathered in snow — it
can be diffi cult to distinguish between a speci-
men with gaping gaps in its limbs or a crooked
trunk, and one that would be the crowning
holiday adornment for your living room.
Lest anyone worry about contributing to
deforestation by cutting a Christmas tree,
quite the opposite is true, Forest Service offi -
cials say.
Removing a small-diameter tree can
improve forest health by reducing the compe-
tition for sunlight, water and nutrients, allow-
ing remaining trees to grow faster.
“In most parts of the forest, removing small
trees reduces the risk of wildfi re, helps other
trees to grow larger and more fi re-resistant, and
See Holiday, Page A9
Home rehab loans available
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
LA GRANDE — Help
is available for low-income
homeowners who’ve been put-
ting off making repairs around
the house because the cost was
too high.
Community Connection of
Northeast Oregon, a nonprofi t
social service agency cover-
ing Grant, Union, Baker and
Wallowa counties, is accept-
ing applications for its Housing
Rehabilitation Loan Program,
which provides zero-interest
loans of up to $24,999 to quali-
fying applicants.
The money can be used
for a wide range of projects,
including plumbing and elec-
trical work, structural repairs,
roof replacement, siding instal-
lation, painting, heating sys-
tem upgrades, or new doors,
windows or fl ooring. The loans
don’t have to be paid back until
the owner moves out, sells the
Contributed Photo
These photos show a home before and after repairs made with funding from the Community Connection Home Rehabilitation Loan Program.
home or dies.
While there is no age
requirement to apply for a loan,
the program can be especially
helpful for seniors living on
fi xed incomes and facing sig-
nifi cant home repairs.
“Those loans can keep peo-
ple in their homes,” said Grant
County Judge Scott Myers,
who serves on the program’s
loan policy committee.
To be eligible, applicants
must meet certain requirements,
including the following:
• Real market value of the
home must be $250,000 or less.
• Borrower must have
annual income no greater than
$40,250 for an individual or
See Loans, Page A14
HOME REHABILITATION LOAN PROGRAM
County
Active loans
Balance
Grant
11
$194,118
Baker
28
$520,638
Union
77
$1,319,889
Wallowa
21
$302,816
137
$2,337,461
Total
Source: Community Connection of Northeast Oregon