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

Kramer, Addison, Loomis, Hays

This year’s Union County Fair was blessed with good weather, attracting large crowds all four days of the fair. As part of our efforts to engage citizens in discussion on public policy issues, the Union County Democrats hosted an informal “vote your issues” poll at our fair booth using colorful glass stones.

Each voter could use six stones, singly or in multiples, to drop into six glass jars labeled: Economy, Education, End War, Energy, Health Care and Veterans. We told the fairgoers that we would report on the results following the fair.

In the Aug. 20 edition of The Observer is a story of the latest attempt by the Forest Service to hold one of its famous “controlled” burns in weather judged to be extremely high for fire danger and held in an area that had large amounts of private property.

In typical arrogant fashion, the regional spokesman for the Forest Service said, and I quote, “This happens all the time. You burn up someone’s fence post or pasture and they file a claim.”

The start of any school year brings with it a fair amount of emotion. Believe me, it’s not just the students who wake up on that first day of school to a mixture of excitement and apprehension. 

For me, the honor of beginning the new school year as superintendent of La Grande Public Schools is especially rewarding. This community has been my home for a long time and the challenges and opportunities in our school system are well known to me. That’s where the excitement and challenge come together.

One of the true gems in the La Grande downtown is the F. Maxine and Thomas W. Cook Memorial Library. I would encourage everyone to take time to stop in and see what we have to offer.

We have fresh, up-to-date collections of books, audio books, video/DVD formats for children and adults, and 125 subscriptions to magazines and newspapers. The Colleen F. Johnson Community Room is available for a variety of uses and is an ideal location for meetings and activities at no cost.

Wondering how to close out a summer season of record high gas prices? How about a last “staycation”?  Why not stay home, enjoy the beauty of the Grande Ronde Valley and all of the delights of the brand new Crossing the Blues Festival in downtown La Grande.

 The first Crossing the Blues Festival, set for Friday and Saturday, promises to keep everyone entertained, fed and watered. The festival kicks off Friday evening with a repeat of the Third Thursday Art Walk beginning at 5:30 p.m. featuring many local galleries and artists including The Potter’s House, Back to Nature Gallery and the Mitre’s Touch. Satellite Gallery will premiere the Visual Arts Invitational featuring 24 regional artists.

While we endure the “dog days” of August in our air conditioned homes and vehicles, I sometimes think back to our Continental Congress who endured the hot, humid stuffiness of five months to hammer out our Constitution and Bill of Rights at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It brings a literal meaning to the term “heated arguments” when you consider how uncomfortable they must have been long before the days of air conditioning.

We tend to think that our freedoms were secured by the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July in 1776. Not so. The newly founded colonies had to fight a long, bloody war before they finally met and adopted our form of government 11 years later on Sept. 17, 1787.

The Observer’s thinking about parks needs some updating. It’s about as old as I am!

Most of the issues confronting our city need some fresh ideas on how to address them. It is good to hear that a Street Advisory Committee will make recommendations on sidewalks and streets; this suggests the possibility for varied ideas on new funding mechanisms.

We are voting yes on the proposed 3,669-acre Mount Emily Recreation Area, which is a yes vote for local control, for sustainable and managed natural resource production, for economic development and for keeping land open for the public for recreation.

Without a viable wood products industry in Union County, every economic and aesthetic aspect of our community suffers — housing prices, goods and services, recreation, quality of life, etc. Today more than ever, the viability of the wood products industry in Union County depends on sustainable production from private timberlands. By far the largest percentage of logs purchased by Boise Cascade comes from private timberlands — less than 10 percent comes from public lands.

There has been so much newspaper coverage of the proposed purchase of the Mount Emily property being considered by the Union County commissioners that it would seem no opposition prevails. Wrong! There are a great number of citizens of our county who do not favor such an endeavor on the part of Union County officials.

In simple and direct language, there are a number of reasons why there is opposition to involving the county in this supposedly beneficial endeavor: