Ione Fourth of July celebra-
tion schedule PAGE 7
50¢
VOL. 145
NO.27 8 Pages
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
From horses to city hall: Longtime Ione
resident honored as grand marshal
Linda LaRue on the porch of the family home in Ione. -Pho-
to by Andrea Di Salvo
By Andrea Di Salvo
“I’m still surprised and
puzzled as to why I got
this honor,” admits Linda
LaRue, Ione’s 2025 Fourth
of July Grand Marshal.
However, those who se-
lected her aren’t puzzled.
LaRue has been a fixture
in Ione and its celebrations
for decades.
LaRue was born in En-
terprise and raised in the
small town of Lostine in
Wallowa County, Oregon.
She was the youngest of
eight children. Her parents
ran a small dairy, milking
around 26 cows and selling
the cream to a Wallowa
creamery. The family kept
busy on the farm, but there
was still time for horses.
“Horses were my life,”
says LaRue. “It was a great
way to grow up.”
She attended school in
Lostine, graduating as vale-
dictorian in a class of about
five. They were among the
last who graduated from
that school. The high school
shut down and merged with
Wallowa and Enterprise
high schools two years after
her graduation.
Rather than going
straight to college, LaRue
married her high school
sweetheart, Del LaRue, and
started a family.
“I tell people I shopped
around a long time to get
this name,” she quips.
They were soon joined
by children Robin, Shawn
and Michelle.
Del was a teacher, so
when the Lostine school
shut down, the young
family moved to Wal-
lowa, where he taught and
coached. They then moved
to Fossil. They spent four
years there before settling
in the Ione area when their
children were in the second,
third and fourth grades.
They spent the next
54 years in their adopted
home. All three of their
children graduated from
Ione High School, and Del
built a successful career as
a teacher and coach, espe-
cially for track.
“He used to tell the
kids, ‘I’ll work with you,
and you’ll be successful if
you work hard,’” LaRue
remembers. Her husband
is still remembered and
honored through the Coach
Del LaRue Scholarship.
Meanwhile, LaRue
found her own career path.
She started out driving
a school van to pick up
students where the regular
bus routes didn’t go. She
then drove larger activity
buses for a while. Finally,
she took on a part-time job
at Bank of Eastern Oregon’s
Ione branch, processing
monthly statements.
When someone retired
and left an opening in the
bank, LaRue transitioned
to full time and worked out
of BEO’s Heppner location.
“I always liked to tell
George Koffler I was sec-
ond in charge and hot on his
trail,” she remembers.
She ended up retiring
from the bank after 35
years.
“It was a great career,”
she says. “I had a hard time
retiring, but I’m glad I did.”
After retirement, she
and Del moved to Arizo-
na, where they spent four
or five years. When her
husband passed away, she
says some people asked her
where she was going to go.
“Home,” she replied.
“Here. Ione is home to me.”
She still lives in the
house she shared with her
husband and children. She
says it’s not exactly the
same house they moved
into—David Allstott had
to do extensive rebuilding
when they discovered the
walls were made of old
ammunition boxes, which
were starting to warp and
rot. She recalls that, in the
process, he had to remove
a window he had just in-
stalled.
As a joke, Alstott told
her people had asked why
he removed the window, to
which he’d replied, “Well,
you know, when they don’t
pay their bills, you have to
take it back out.”
Always on point,
LaRue told his she’d been
asked the same question
and replied, “Well, you
know, bad workmanship,
you’ve got to make them
take it back out.”
She doesn’t live there
alone, though. She says that
when her husband passed
away, her daughter decid-
ed she needed a dog. She
now shares her long-time
home with her eight-year-
old West Highland Terrier,
Sophie.
LaRue has also been
involved in various aspects
of the community since first
moving to Ione. She helped
organize the Fourth of July
event early on, but backed
off her involvement as it
grew and new generations
rose to take over respon-
sibility, or as she puts it,
“moved up the chain from
being the kids.”
In fact, she has been
an integral part of the plan-
ning for so long, she and
Del were grand marshals
at one point. She says she
pointed that out, but one of
the current organizers said
that was before they had
been born.
Now, she says she at-
tends the Fourth of July as
a “regular person.”
“I can still answer ques-
tions, but I’m not techni-
cally on the committee,”
-Contributed photo
Blue Mountain Junior Girls’
Softball are District Champions
L-R – Rachel Allen, Kamryn Dickenson, Isa Payne, Gracie
Putman, Braelyn Perry, Tymber Longgood, Emily Spike,
Harper Coiner, Tim Dickenson, Brynley Allen, Sydnee Wade,
Matison Hendrix, Sylver Longgood, Emily Bonner, and Josh
Coiner. -Photo by Melissa Coiner
The Blue Mountain ju-
nior girls’ team beat Union
County 11-10 on Monday,
June 30, to earn a spot in
the state tournament. The
state tournament is in Ma-
dras Oregon July 12-14.
The Blue Mountain team
consists of players from
Heppner, Echo, and Stan-
field. The team is coached
by Rachel Allen, Tim Dick-
enson, and Josh Coiner.
Little League takes
district championships
Blue Mountain Little League 12U All-Stars baseball team.
-Contributed photo
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
CDA in ‘wait and see’ mode over fire annexation
Public records policy gets an overhaul
By Andrea Di Salvo
Columbia Develop-
ment Authority Executive
Director Greg Smith report-
ed last week that the CDA is
in “wait and see” mode as
far as annexing the devel-
opment authority’s Morrow
County property into any
fire district.
With Boardman Fire
Rescue District and Irrigon
Rural Fire Protection Dis-
trict in dispute over rights
to the annexation, the CDA
and Morrow County have
both pulled back from any
action on annexation. The
Boardman and Irrigon fire
departments have agreed to
let the courts settle the case.
Smith said he expects
it to be mid-July before an
update is available. The
best-case scenario, he said,
puts any fire district annex-
ation after Labor Day.
The current restraining
order Irrigon has filed does
allow for the “status quo”
for emergency services, so
there will continue to be
fire coverage for the entire
property. Boardman will
serve the industrial lands on
the Morrow County portion
of the CDA property, while
Irrigon will cover the 640
acres to the north, Smith
said.
When one of the board
members raised the ques-
tion of Irrigon Fire’s plans
to build and staff a fire sta-
tion near the property, Nic
Kotz of the Oregon Mil-
itary Department (OMD)
responded that they plan to
use an existing OMD build-
ing, equip it with an engine
and staff it during the day
shift, but that staffing had
not yet happened.
“We’re still in the
working-out phase on that,”
he said.
Another topic on the
board’s mind was the issue
of formalizing a policy for
public records requests.
“I want the public re-
cords request at a level that
provides simplicity and
ease for the public to submit
their requests,” said Smith.
“In addition, I want a policy
that is open and transparent
and is uniform.”
Previously, the CDA
had not charged any fees for
records requests. In recent
months, however, a rise in
requests apparently strained
the CDA’s staff resources,
prompting the formaliza-
tion of a policy.
Smith had previously
presented a draft document
to the board. June 24, he
presented a new draft that
had been reviewed by news
outlets and the CDA’s legal
counsel.
The draft listed infor-
mation that the person re-
questing documents needed
to provide. It also provided
a general timeline of five
business days to acknowl-
edge the request and 10
additional days for staff to
respond with the informa-
tion or an update on their
progress. Records requests
will be filled on a first-
come, first-served basis.
In addition, the new
policy outlined a fee sched-
ule with a base rate of $25.
Anything that takes longer
than an hour or that re-
quires legal review will cost
more—as much as $670 an
hour for the CDA’s lawyers
to review a request.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner John Shafer said
the legal charge seemed
steep and asked how many
requests would actually
need it. Smith responded
that, until two years ago,
none had been needed.
“Zero. Then, for about
a 24-month period of time,
the Malheur Enterprise
had multiple, multiple re-
quests,” said Smith. “They
became complex, they be-
came what some people
may perceive as needing
legal review.
“At the end of the day,”
he added, “Our legal coun-
sel suggested, based upon
the volume, the complexity,
and quite often the vague-
ness of the request, that they
do review.”
Over that 24-month pe-
riod, he said, the CDA spent
more than $90,000 handling
one person’s public records
requests.
He also mentioned that,
with the Malheur Enterprise
closing, requests seemed to
have declined.
“That doesn’t mean it’s
not going to occur again,”
he added.
Smith said it was im-
portant to news agencies
that the fees be up-front,
consistent across the board
and as affordable as pos-
sible.
“The CDA will make
every effort to keep its fees
reasonable,” said Smith.
“However, excessive, du-
plicative or vague requests
cost the taxpayers money.”
That said, the draft pol-
Blue Mountain Little League 10U All-Stars baseball team.
-Contributed photo
A community of sheep
ranchers and wheat
farmers emerges
Ione, Oregon, became a bustling community and re-
mains an active town
Steve Lent, a Crook
Ione is located along
County historian, authored Willow Creek about 30
this story published on June miles south of the Columbia
20, 2025, for Southwest River in Morrow County.
Connection (www.swcom- The lush rangeland grasses
-Continued to PAGE FIVE mconnection.com)
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
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