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

ELGIN — The Union County commissioners have awarded $5,000 to the city of Elgin for the Elgin Family Clinic.

Combining this grant with recent community donations, the city only needs $6,850 more to meet its goal and secure previously awarded grants.

Half of the grant money from the county commissioners will be donated from the Union County Discretionary Tax Fund and the other half from the Video Lottery Fund. Recent community donations were received from Valley Realty, Howard and Trudy Estes and Pat and Vicki Brogoitti.

After months of careful planning and weeks of steadily building excitement, the first Crossing the Blues festival is ready to roll.

The event, featuring food, music, art, theater and plenty more, opens Friday in downtown La Grande and continues through Saturday evening. Organizers believe they’ve put together a happening that shows Eastern Oregon in its very best light.

Karen Gordon, wife of the late Arlie Gordon, takes the first drink out of the water fountain that was dedicated in Arlie’s memory. - Photo/AMBER GLAZE

Gordon, who died March 17 at age 76, was the cemetery caretaker from 1996 to 2008.

A new stone water fountain at the cemetery was dedicated in Gordon’s memory.

Gordon, along with Donna Patterson, Union Cemetery Board chairwoman, for the past four years taught Union fourth-graders about the cemetery’s history.

MUSIC CITY: A teen-aged Linda Anderson sings in the now-defunct Tropidara night club on Adams Avenue around 1981 or 1982. Anderson, who now lives outside Nashville, Tenn., became interested in pursuing a singing career in La Grande, where she partly grew up. She recounts her journey in a recent memoir called “Dreams: A Singer’s Journey from Oregon to Nashville.” - Submitted photo

Robert Altman made a film about the music industry there. Hank Williams raised hell on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle honed their craft at the legendary Bluebird Cafe. Bob Dylan recorded a number of his seminal albums there, including 1969’s “Nashville Skyline.”

Well, if Linda Anderson continues on the path of her musical ambitions, perhaps she’ll soon be releasing “La Grande Skyline” — that’s got a good ring to it.

ENTERPRISE — An Oregon Public Broadcasting film crew will be in Enterprise to film an event Thursday evening.

Videographer Gwen Trice of Enterprise will describe her project researching the history of the African American logging camp known as Maxville, north of Wallowa. Trice’s father and grandfather lived and worked at Maxville.

The presentation will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at Stage One in the EM&M Building north of the county courthouse.

NORTH POWDER —  The City of North Powder’s drinking water tested positive for coliform bacteria recently, but the problem has since been resolved and the water is safe to drink.

That was the word this morning from Bill Goss, an engineer with the Oregon Department of Human Services.

“If you said there is no threat to public health, you’d be right on,” Goss said.

Jesse Zimmerer looks pretty much like a shoo-in for the La Grande City Council.

Zimmerer, who works as an advocate for the domestic violence crisis service Shelter From The Storm, will run unopposed this November for a seat on the all-volunteer La Grande City Council.

Todd Richmond resigned from the council this summer to move to another city. He was ending his first term and had filed for re-election. He was unopposed.

Clinic Visit: During his visit to Elgin Monday, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith talks with Carol Grubbe, officer manager of the Elgin Family Health Center. - The Observer/BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH

As part of a campaign swing through Northeast Oregon, Smith, R-Ore., stopped briefly at the Elgin Family Health Center, the tiny, endangered clinic on Division Street.

FIRE IN EAGLE CAP: A 200-acre wildfire is burning below Minam Peak in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of the Wallowas, about 12 miles southwest of Joseph. The blaze, creeping in steep and rocky terrain and torching in scattered subalpine fir near Long Lake, is being allowed to burn as a Wildland Fire Use event. - Photo/USFS

According to the Northeast Oregon Interagency Fire Information Center, 1,597 lightning strikes were recorded between 4 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. this morning. Of these, though, only 117 hit the ground.

ENTERPRISE — An Enterprise teenager has died from injuries suffered in a car crash Friday.

Casey O’Leary, 15, died Monday at Oregon Health and Science University. O’Leary was one of four Enterprise teens involved in the wreck of a 1988 Suzuki Samurai on a rural road.

O’Leary was ejected from the vehicle. Preliminary information indicates that he was not wearing a seat belt, police said.