>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

An interactive videoconference program for local residents from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will be held at Cook Memorial Library at 11 a.m. Thursday.

The hour-long program is open to people of all ages. Those attending are welcome to bring their own bag lunch.

Cook Memorial Library will host an Oregon Chautauqua program, “Food for Thought,” from the Oregon Council for the Humanities.

Free to the public, the program begins at 7 p.m. Friday in the community room at Cook Memorial Library. Diana Coogle will discuss the many ways people view sustenance and the various meanings of food.

Coogle will show how food —our most basic biological need — is also a source of infinite pleasure. It sustains cultural longings, defines rules of etiquette, is central to religious ceremonies, divides the haves from the have-nots and reminds people of their connection to the earth.

Orbis Group, a community and economic consulting company, is working with the Grande Ronde Hospital to help the hospital identify the needs of the community.

“The hospital desires to be part of a healthy and growing community,” said Brian Cole, president of Orbis Group. “In order to fulfill their mission, we will be holding a public meeting to ask people about the current and emerging trends and problems that are affecting their lives.”

The meeting is open to the public, and will begin at 7 tonight at the Island City City Hall.

Gwen Trice displays historical photos of Maxville during a presentation Thursday night at Stage One in Enterprise. OPB was on hand to film Trice’s presentation for an upcoming “Oregon Experience’’ program. About 100 people attended. Photo/GARY FLETCHER

The OPB  piece is expected to air probably in December as a program of  “The Oregon Experience.’’ OPB has also done such pieces in Wallowa County as the one about rural physicians and another about timber management.

“This is unique. It’s not a story told far and wide,” said OPB producer Eric Cane about Maxville — a logging town north of Wallowa where 49 to 60 African American loggers lived in the 1920s and ’30s.

With a base camp at Mirror Lake, a day hike to Moccasin Lake (pictured here) and Glacier Lake gave the group about a 7-mile round trip. The more adventurous teenagers climbed Eagle Cap on the way to Glacier and logged 11 miles on their path. Photo RON OSTERLOH

Photos featured here were taken on an annual gathering of friends that began in 1976 and has brought the group together in the Wallowa Mountains every year since.

That’s 32 years of photo albums, slides, super-eight silent movies and video with recorded sound. Viewing the archives of our high-lakes trips requires a trip through the history of photo and cinematic technology.

The sign project organized by the Ford Leadership group gets the thumbs-up from Jean Grandi, Chris Geyer, Kathy Drake, Pam Frolander and Walter Smith. Submitted photo

A brand new readerboard and Wallowa County Fairgrounds sign rises on hefty steel posts near the entrance to Cloverleaf Hall.

After a year of diligent effort, a group of volunteers have succeeded in completing four new signs at the fairgrounds.

Sisters Maria Onaindia and Juana Malaxia will be the grand marshals of this year’s Hells Canyon Mule Days parade. Submitted photo

The story about the sisters starts in 1949 when Gus Malaxia was returning from the United States to the Basque area of Spain where he was raised.

While waiting at the airport, Malaxia met Joe Onaindia, who was also going to Spain.

A task force is in the works to investigate the possibility of a new courthouse for Union County.

The county board of commissioners passed a resolution to form the task force at its regular meeting on Wednesday.

By the terms of the resolution, the group will be comprised of a member of the Union County Bar Association; a county commissioner; the county district attorney; representatives of the Union County Circuit Court, the City of La Grande and a local government other than the City of La Grande; and three to five at-large representatives.

U.S. Congressman Greg Walden plans a stop in La Grande Monday as part of a swing through Eastern Oregon.

At 2:30 p.m in the Union County Board of Commissioners conference room, 1106 K Ave., Walden, R-Ore., will meet with the board to discuss a number of key local issues, including the priorities coming out of the Oregon Rural Congress in Cascade Locks.

Walden and the commissioners also will talk forest health, county payments and payments in lieu of taxes, and the high cost of energy.

UNION — Dixie Hild, national president of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, will visit Union Friday.

Hild, along with 30 dignitaries, will attend a noon luncheon at the Union Hotel. Following lunch, the group will spend an hour at the VFW 4060 Post Hall having coffee and visiting.

This is the second time a national president has visited the Union VFW Ladies Auxiliary. JoAnne Ott included Union in her tour of the United States is 2005.