Sports Spotlight September 30, 2016 – La Grande v.s. The Dalles Football
In this sports spotlight, Steve talks to La Grande High School football coach Harold Shannon about the team’s health and strategy for the upcoming game.
Be sure to tune in to LaGrandeAlive’s live stream of the La Grande Tigers v.s. the Dalles Riverhawks Friday at 7:00 pm in La Grande. We stream it live from http://lagrandealive.tv!
The Dalles, La Grande, Tigers Football, Harold Shannon, Local Sports
Coffee With Will and Saajan Chauhan – Saajan Chauhan talks About ‘Exhibit E”, His New Play
Saajan Chauhan and I studied together at Eastern Oregon University. Now, after graduation, he is a fully-functioning member of society and also, what’s more, he’s trying his hand at local theater directing. This weekend Saajan’s debut play “Exhibit E” is showing at the Liberty Theater. Exhibit E is a series of shorts featuring ridiculous antics in the courtroom. The play is not family friendly, but if you like ridiculous and shocking humor that ramps up and up, this is the show for you. Showings are 7 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday at both 7:00 and 9:00 pm respectively.
Saajan Chauhan, La Grande Theater, Exhibit E, Liberty Theater,
In this episode of Travel Tramps, Samantha and Robin Maxon talk to me about their recent hike of the Inca Trail in Peru with a group of local travelers! We talk about the long hike, the beautiful sites, plus Robin shares with us some of the philosophic takeaways from the trip.
Visit our sponsor Alegre Travel at http://alegretravel.com/ to sign up for their next trips! And check out more local content at http://lagrandealive.tv.
Alegre Travel – Travel Tramps, Group Travel, Vacation, Peru, Machu Picchu, Alegre Travel, Travel Agency, The Inca Trail
Coffee With Will and JD Stanley – JD Stanley Talks About Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevell’s Silent Auction
Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevel both have had injuries that have made living and working difficult. J.d. Standley III called me several weeks ago about this event he and Shaun Daggett were coordinating for their injured friends and co-workers to raise money to help them and their families. And after meeting up with him impromptu at Benchwarmers Pub & Grill, this Coffee With Will was born. The event is this Sunday from 2 to 8 pm at Riverside Park in La Grande, OR. They will be having a silent auction, food, and beer provided by Benchwarmers. Be sure to head down and bid on some items. It’s for a good cause, and JD has worked his butt off to put this together.
JD Stanley, Silent Auction, Tyson Johnson, Cory Bevell, Cancer
Weekly Newsish Roundup, September 29, 2016 – 5 News Stories in 5 Minutes and 46 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for September 29 to October 5, 2016! In the news this week,
Back to School!
Climb for Charity
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Back to School! School is back in-session at EOU, and instead of you listening to me ramble on about what could be exciting for the students, we decided to ask them instead.
As such, we’re going to do some back-to-school features next week. Check out LaGrandeAlive for an exclusive interview with Tom Insko, the EOU president, plus more on our local small-town University.
Climb For Charity Also, do you know what climbing 40 flights of stairs in 70 lbs of gear feels like? Well, five of our local firefighters do. So here’s the scoop. Five firefighters from the La Grande department participated in the Portland “Stair Climb” just recently. Essentially they fundraise money ahead of time, head to the US Bank Tower in Portland, get all loaded up in full fire-gear, and climb. I scored an interview and this is why they do it.
All proceeds of the event go to treatment for Cystic Fibrosis. The firefighters fundraise for months before the event. This year they had a bake sale and various other little fundraisers. So next time you come to a flight of stairs, don’t complain: you’re not doing it in 70 lbs of fire fighting gear breathing oxygen through a ventilator mask.
Upcoming Events Alright, what’s going on in La Grande? Well, a few things. Do you like quilting? Because the annual Quilting on the Dry “Shop Hop” is starting tomorrow the 29th . Essentially it’s a bunch of quilting stores in Northeast Oregon and Southeast washington that you can drop in, collect a free block for a quilt, get stamped and enter to win a brand new, bonafide Pfaff Passport 3.0 sewing machine. For more info, go to their website. Also, there’s a wine and cheese train on October 1st in Elgin. It goes from 2 to 7pm will run through the area around Elgin while serving you wine and cheese from local vendors. It’s 70 bucks, which means that everyone but broke college students and the homeless can buy tickets online or through Alegre Travel. Also on October 1st the haunted house starts at the Maridell Center! Tune in next week for an in-depth look at the haunted experience themed “The Curse of the Mayan Tomb” running through all October.
Local Sports In sports, it was another mixed-at-best weekend in the football world for the valley. Ontario trounced La Grande last Friday 34-20, stealing back the game after La Grande started off strong with a touchdown. But as the clock went down, Ontario’s score kept going up finishing with a 27-point streak to polish off their same-species rivals in their home stadium. And the rest of the valley wasn’t much better. Cove lost to Powder valley by a whopping 74 to 12. The Eastern Oregon University Mounties lost to Montana Tech 37-24, putting the Mounties now 2-2 after a strong season start. The sole bright spots in the otherwise cloudy weekend was Elgin winning against Riddle 72-48 and Union sneaking by Weston McEwen by a few small points 8-6. I would have liked to have been at that game right near the end.
That all being said, in volleyball the Mountaineers’ game has continued to spike. EOU is now 5 and 0 after bouncing past Multnomah on Saturday at home. The scores? 25-7 and then a pair of 25-14s. Prep volleyball was less encouraging: Cove lst to Echo and Powder valley both 3-0, Elgin lost to Grant Union and Griswold 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. But Union had the single success of the prep-football world, trumpeting Enterprise 3-0.
Eastern Oregon University, Students, Portland Stair Climb, La Grande Fire Department, EOU Mountaineers, La Grande Sports
“Coffee With Will” and Bud Pierce, Candidate for Oregon Governor
Bud Pierce Talks Politics, Prosperity, and Leadership
It’s a shocking moment when you realize that the next person you’re going to be interviewing for your small-town talk show is a big-town politician. Bud Pierce came in last week to the studio, after giving a presentation to La Grande at Riverside park, and we talked politics. Bud runs on a platform of prosperity and unity through work, and we talked about everything from his views on economic development, balancing progress with environmental awareness, and social services. Not going to lie–I was a bit scared at first. But as always, once I got into the conversation, I lost myself in the exchange of words and communication and had a blast. Thank you Bud Pierce for Governor? for coming in to chat with this little-town conversationalist!
Bud Pierce, Oregon Governor, William Bud Pierce, Republican, Conservative, GOP
LGA sports director Steve Hendrix caught up with LHS Tigers football head coach Harold Shannon this week. They talked about the upcoming LHS game against Ontario, Friday at 7:00 pm, as well as general team strategy.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, September 22, 2016 – 8 News Stories in 6 Minutes and 56 Seconds!
In the news this week,
Bid For Life
Vote For (Insert Candidate)
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods and Direct Music Source.
You know, you may not like a lot of elements of small-town life, but there are a few positives. Like when you jaywalk, instead of calling the police people will actually wave at you. Like not playing the gunshot or firework game every night at the home. Or like if you get cancer or have a brain aneurysm, your friends and loved ones just may step in and host an event to raise money to help you out and cover the medical costs of your recovery. And that’s exactly what’s happening this weekend at not one but two silent auction events going on both Saturday and Sunday. Both both are being held as fund raisers for people who are having a hard, hard time with health, and we scored interviews with people helping coordinate both of the events.
This Weekend Two Fund Raising Events
Essentially, there are two events going on this weekend fund raising to help local people in their health crisis. At both events, there will be food, beer, and a silent auction. A Lori Mack’s event, they’re auctioning off a puppy. A real live greyhound puppy, plus hundreds of other items. Lori Mack’s event is Saturday at Benchwarmers bar and grill from 6 to ten pm, and the Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevell event is from 2 to 8PM on Sunday at riverside park. Both events are family-friendly. So if you want a puppy or a hot dog, you should go down and support these events this weekend. They’re for a good cause and the people who organized them put a lot of hard work into them. Plus I will personally interview the person who buys the puppy at Lori’s event on LaGrandeAlive.tv. LaGrandeAlive–we love puppies.
The season of really bad suits, haircuts and lesser-of-two-evils dichotomies is upon us–politics is in full swing, both local and national. And at LaGrandeAlive, we’ve scored a couple recent interviews with some political candidates including Bud Pierce, the GOP gubernatorial candidate for the state of Oregon, and Steve Clemens, one of the candidates for the La Grande mayoral race.
Both of these Coffee With Wills can be viewed in-full on lagrandealive.tv’s Facebook page or our website. We’re hoping to have John Bozarth on the show as well, as soon as he gets back to us. Elections are coming up and so I ask you, La Grande, who are you voting for and why? Your comments in the section below.
Alright La Grande, what’s happening this week? Well, the fat lady is singing yet again: little mermaid is returning to the Elgin Opera House for yet another weekend. Showings Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also Friday, there’s another ragtime piano concert at the Carnegie Art Center in Baker City Oregon. And across two whole valleys, Alpine Fest is happening at Wallowa Lake this weekend. What is Alpine Fest? Well, it’s a celebration of Swiss-Bavarian culture every year at Wallowa Lake. My girlfriend and I went last year and, well, we weren’t that impressed. We ended up just going out to dinner at some local restaurant. But then again, that’s probably we were late and, well, missed pretty much all of alpine fest including the parade, the hand-crafted bratwursts, Terminal Gravity micro-brews and live music. We also missed the Swiss yodeling, folk dancing, alphorn singing, accordionists and all the food, jewelry, goat-soap and quilt vendors. That probably would have made us have a better experience. So, what’s the moral of this story? Don’t be like Will and be late for Alpine Fest. It’s September 22-25, this weekend, and if you don’t show up fashionably late you should have a good time.
Local Sports
In sports, the valley had its first wins of the season. Imbler beat Riverside 34-23 this weekend. Union beat pilot rock 34-6, and Elgin beat Pine Eagle 21-7. Cove and La Grande, however, couldn’t match the other members both losing their respective games against the Sunnyside Christian Leopards and the Sunnyside Washington Grizzlies. Sunnyside had its way with the valley, Cove losing 58-14 and the La Grande Game wasn’t much better. La Grande lost 61-20, falling behind early in the game and, we’ll, never recovering. Our sports director, Steve Hendrix, snagged a quick interview with the coach for the Tigers about their upcoming game and strategy this weekend.
That full interview is available on LaGrandeAlive’s website and facebook. La Grande’s next game is this weekend in La Grande against Ontario, 7pm on Friday. Imbler plays Portland at Heppner at Heppner same time same place. Elgin will play Riddle also same time same date at home. Union plays Weston McEwen at Weston McEwen and Cove will play Powder Valley at home, all 7:00 pm this Friday in hopes for continued wins for the valley.
The EOU football team didn’t have a great weekend either. They lost 20-7 to their out-of-state rival University of Idaho, falling behind after a early-game touchdown. The rest of the game, according to the EOU sports website, was a rainy downhill slope as the Vandals scored three more touchdowns after the first quarter to polish off the ailing EOU team. EOU now 2-1 overall and frontier conference. Next game, they’re gonna play Montana Tech at home Saturday at 1PM.
The EOU volleyball team, on the other hand, is smashing it, quite literally. On Sunday they trashed Evergreen state three to none 25-16, 25-15, 25-13 notching up the margin incrementally as the night went on and on. They are still 6th in the NAIA coaches top 25 poll, and will play Warner Pacific and Multnomah university this weekend Friday at 7PM and Saturday at 5PM respectively.
And that’s your weekly roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods, and Direct Music Source. Tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Coffee With Will, Darcy Dolge and Kimberly Brainard – Coffee With Will Episode 14
At Arts Center East, they really like art, and they like art so much they’re hosting an Autumn Equinox Fundraiser to raise money so that they can keep giving it to La Grande! The event is this Thursday, September 22nd, at the Art Center at the old library in La Grande, Oregon. It goes from 7:00 to 10:00 pm, and I, Will Bowman, will be there drinking cocktails and otherwise schmoozing with the art community live on LaGrandeAlive! In this Coffee With Will, Darcy Dolge, Executive Director of Art Center East, and Kimberly Brainard, the representative from Modern Woodmen, talk about the event and also about how, exactly, someone who isn’t that into art can dip their toes into enjoying it in some way, shape, or form.
Darcy Dolge, Kimberly Brainard, Modern Woodmen, Art Center East, La Grande Art
Weekly Newsish Roundup, September 15, 2016 — 8 News Stories in 10 Minutes and 58 Seconds!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for September 15 to 21, 2016!
In the news this week:
GOP Meet and Greet
Pill-Free Pain Clinic
Scam Watch!
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Hey La Grande Alive! This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Direct Music Source.
For all you Republican fan-boys out there eager to meet-and-greet your local Oregon elephants, Bud Pierce, the republican candidate for Oregon governor, is coming to La Grande along with three of his fellow GOP cronies. Think big lights, camera flashes, big smiles and stilted little waves by the politicians at the podium as hundreds of La Grandians cheer as their favorite candidates take the stage! Now remember you’re in La Grande. Drop that and imagine a barbecue. Because that’s what’s happening this Sunday from 1pm to 4pm at Riverside Park. Bud Pierce will be there, as well as Mark Callahan, Judy Goodman, and Daniel Crowe, all republicans, all running for separate offices, all coming here to meet and greet the politically active in La Grande. I chatted with Jennifer Boyd, the advertising manager for the event, and she said this event is a great way to get to know the candidates on a personal level. She said at this event they will talk about how they can help our area and what their plans are. But barbecue is expensive and politicians need to buy those fancy suits somehow: the cost for the event is 10 bucks for adults and 5 bucks for children. There event is hosted by the Union County Republican Central Committee and, yes, La Grande, aren’t pasty white or straight are invited too.
Okay, here’s a little dose of Will’s philosophical musings: all you pill-poppers and med-pot tokers, let’s talk about pain. What is pain? Why do we have it? Well, pain, contrary to popular belief, is actually a good thing. Pain is our body’s messages to us, us the mind and consciousness, that something is wrong with our bodies! Something is out of place, something’s not right, something is going on very conducive to our continued survival and healthy functioning ability as a biological organism. Pain is not the enemy, contrary to what some of you who pop pills or keep yourselves in a constant state of marijuana-induced unfeelingness may believe. Now, hold your horses, I’m not totally insensitive: pain can be at times debilitating. When pain is constant and we feel like we can’t do anything about the cause of the pain, this is what we call chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined by Medline.gov as pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks, and if pain is lasting longer than 12 weeks, then something is really, really wrong. Sometimes, there’s not a lot we can do about it. And chronic pain is the reason many people day after day pop pills, suck smoke, and otherwise try to dull their pain signals. Did you know that, according to the Observer, Oregon has the highest level of pain-killer abuse in the nation? Alright, so where am I going with all this bumbling and philosophizing? Well, what I’m trying to say is that there’s a better way than pills to deal with chronic pain, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. A new clinic is coming to the Grande Ronde Valley. It’s going to be an “opioid-free” clinic and it’s goal, said Dwight Dill, head of the mental health department at the local CDC who I talked to this morning, is to teach people alternative methods of pain-management than just popping pills. He said that some of these methods include yoga, physical motion, cognitive therapy, and all of these methods are much more effective at dealing with pain than popping pills and, in the long run, much less expensive to the individual and the nation. The whole goal, he said, is to break the cycle of addiction to opioids both locally and nationally. This clinic is going to open in October and will be available through referral by your doctor. So if you have chronic pain, don’t pop a pill, listen to Mr. Dill and ask your doctor about the new clinic coming to La Grande right next to the EOU campus and it’s alternative pain-management techniques.
Scam Watch Alright, it’s time for LaGrandeAlive’s complimentary scam-watch. According to Elkhorn Media Group, people are getting phone calls by somebody wanting them to buy a La Grande High School calendar over the phone. So first fact, yes, LHS does have a calendar. Second fact, no, perverts, it doesn’t involve scantily clad high-schoolers. That would be illegal. And third fact: the LHS calendar, while real, is only sold in-person and not over the phone. So don’t believe these people, whatever you do. Also–here’s the second scam to be wary of. If you get a text titled a “Debit Card Alert” it seems like most people would know not to text back, right? Wrong. Apparently not everyone is as skeptical and jaded to the wiley foils of the world and its denizens as I am. Apparently some customers of banks have been getting just such texts and have been sending back their cards. So, here’s the principle: for you people all-too-eager to believe that you’re the millionth visitor to a website and texts that ask you politely for your debit card number, don’t pay for anything over the phone or on the Internet unless you know exactly who it is or you’ve talked to them before. If someone unfamiliar calls you, give them nothing. Nothing, I tell you. Except maybe a few snarky comments about their mothers and a hefty dose of hangup beeps. Hang up the phone, delete the text, and navigate to another page: you’re not that special, you’re not the millionth visitor, and your bank is not texting you to get your debit card number over the phone. Email phishing scam.
Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts
So, what else is happening in the valley? Well, All this weekend and early next week the Wallowa Valley Festival of the Arts is going to be getting jiggy and spreading the good-news of Art in Joseph, Oregon. Now this festival began as just a single art show. But this year it has a film-festival, a 20 artist En-Plein-Air painting contest, a reception, a quick draw, and so much more. There are various costs and times for the events and I’m not going to go into all those here. But they can can be found either in Go Magazine–where most of the information about this story came from–or on the Wallowa Arts Commission’s website at www.wallowavalleyarts.org. Also, across two valleys in Baker City the Great Salt Lick contest.
The Great Salt Lick Contest
The Great Salt Lick Contest is essentially a show and auction of salt-block sculptures. Salt block sculptors licked by livestock. Yes, you heard right, this art is touched by the tongues of livestock. Here’s the logic: all livestock licks salt. All the salt they lick takes on weird and eclectic shapes as a result of the licking. So let’s get all those weird salt block sculptures together, sell them at a quirky art show, and give all the proceeds to benefit Parkinson’s disease. The event starts at 5:00 pm on Sunday, September 17th at the Carnegie Art Center in Baker. Also, The Little Mermaid is still going on at the Elgin Opera House. Showings are Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm, and, I can tell you from experience, the show is well-worth the 8 to 17 bucks you pay for seat. Also, Friday at 4:30 pm there’s live ragtime piano at the Carnegie Art center in Baker. The Happy Canyon pageant and Wild West show is happening at 7:00 pm in pendleton. The EOU ladies basketball team is hosting a “Kids Night Out” sports night at Quinn Coliseum in La Grande WHAT DAY–essentially a bunch of kiddos kindergarten to 8th grade together and play sports and have fun. Tickets are 10 bucks per child. Also, last, there’s going to be a fiddler show and dinner in Elgin at the Rockwall Grange. The Rockwall Grange is 3 and a half miles north of Elgin on Middle road, and proceeds of the dinner and show will help with upkeep.
EOU Sports The EOU Mountie football team is now 2 and 0, beating Montana Western on Saturday 35-23. And with that win, duh-duh-duh-daaah!–Time Cam is officially the winningest coach in EOU history, according to the EOU Sports website. He’s won 49 games–that’s more than any other coach at EOU. And on a more corporate level, the EOU boys are now NAIA ranked 10 in the top 25 coaches poll. You’ve got to wonder–how exactly do they get a top 25 coaches poll? Don’t all the coaches just vote for their own team? Shows how much I know about football. Anyways, the next EOU game is here in La Grande against College of Idaho at 6pm. We can all hope the boys make it 3 and 0 and Mr. Camp gets his 50th career win at home where we all can see him.
In other EOU news, the women’s soccer team just couldn’t score this weekend against UC-Merced. But then again, neither could the other team, ultimately tying the game 0-0 in a scoreless overtime draw against the Bobcats on Sunday afternoon. The women’s soccer team is now 2-1-3 and will travel to Olympia Washington on Friday to play Evergreen at 3:00 pm. The boys, however, didn’t have such an anticlimactic weekend. They beat Sierra Nevada 6-2 on Friday and Menlo College 2-1 Saturday to take their 4th and 5th straight wins of the season. It was their first overtime win in the program history. The team will return to the field in Olympia Washington against Evergreen at 1:00 pm.
The Volleyball Girls also trumped their games this weekend, smashing the Northwest Christian “Beacons” 3-0 this last Saturday here in town. The games were 25-16, 25-10, and 25-19, leaving the Beacons just a little less bright on their drive back home to Eugene. The Mounties’ next game is this Friday at Northwest in Kirkland, Washington at 7:00 pm.
La Grande Tigers Football
Now, taking a quick hop-skip off the EOU campus, the La Grande Tigers lost 20-18 for their second loss of the season last Friday. The game was in Baker, Oregon, and the game came down to the final 3 minutes, the Tigers missing the 2-point conversion opportunity on their final touchdown by several feet, leaving them 2 down with just not enough time to rally the ball and return for a final field goal. This is their second loss of the season, and the Tigers will travel this weekend to play in Sunnyside Washington at 7:00 pm. Don’t forget to tune in to LaGrandeAlive to watch the game live.
Union Bobcats Football
The Union Bobcats also lost last Friday against Riverside in Board Oregon, 30 to 27. They will play Pilot rock this coming Friday also at 7:00 pm. Imbler also lost this last weekend against Weston-McEwen with a sad-score of 33-6 far away from home in Athena. This weekend, they will get a shot at Riverside at 7:00 on Friday at which game, we hope, they can redeem themselves. Three losses, and no silver lining for the 4th either. Elgin also lost this weekend, leaving the Grande Ronde valley dazed in a winless-stupor for the upcoming weekend. Elgin lost against Arlington at Arlington, the final score 30-14. Elgin plays Pine Eagle this weekend, Friday at 7:00 pm. We can only hope that with these next games the valley can shake itself out of this early-season slump and gather some momentum for the latter half of the season.
And that’s your weekly Newsish roundup.
This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Marketplace Family Foods, and Direct Music Source.
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for September 8 to 14, 2016!
6 News Stories in 8 Minutes and 40 Seconds!
In the news this week:
La Grande Race For Mayor
Weekend Theater
Mule Days
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Hey La Grande Alive, this is your weekly newsish roundup brought to you by Direct Music Source, Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Valley Realty, and Marketplace Family Foods.
La Grande could have a new mayor. Or it could have the same one–only you can decide. In the left corner we have Steve Clemens, EOU business professor and La Grande politician extraordinaire. And in the right corner, John Bozarth, long-time La Grande resident and city-council member plus an occasional Koinonia house volunteer that has cooked my girlfriend and I eggs on several occasions. Next week we’re going to have them both in for separate Coffee With Wills. But here’s the skinny for now. Clemens is running on the platform of some projects he’s interested in developing: one, a quiet zone for the railroad. Two, more accountability for the Urban Renewal District: he wants to see documented results about how many jobs are created, how many dollars are brought in, and he wants a “strategic plan” for urban renewal spending. And three, he wants what he calls a “full-service community”, a community that provides good-quality social services like the library, police, and the pool, he said. Now, in the other corner, John Bozarth also said he likes the Urban Renewal District, and he thinks it’s working. He’s lived here 40 years and he said he’s seen more growth in the last 4 years than he’d seen in the previous 36 because of Urban Renewal. His platform, as such, is primarily focused on economic growth. He wants to continue to use the Urban renewal district to stimulate the economy and pay for many of the services that Clemens wants to see, except, and here’s the difference, he’d rather see them arise organically from the private sector rather than as state-funded services. “You can’t tax people to death,” he said. So here’s my question for you, LaGrandeAlive, as we head into election season. Everyone agrees that things like pools, libraries, and police departments are good things to have. But what’s the best way to go about funding them? Should they be state-funded, no matter what? Or is it better if they are private? If they simply arise on their own as bi-products of healthy economic growth in the private sector? Where does the government fit into providing services to citizens? How does the Urban Renewal program fit into this? Your comments in the section below.
This weekend is a weekend of broken legs. There’s several plays going on for you to attend. First of all, Little Mermaid is still going on at the Elgin Opera House. Showings this weekend are Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also, there’s a September 11th remembrance play being held at the Stage Door Theater in La Grande called “The Guys”. The play is a series of conversations about the September 11th attacks 15 years ago. The co-directors picked this play because they thought that La Grande just might be interested.
The Guys is showing this weekend Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. The cost is 5 bucks and all proceeds they’re donating to the La Grande Fire Department. And the last play that’s showing this week is “The Time Machine” at the Iron Gate Theater in Baker City. Now, you may remember the story of The Time Machine from the 2002 Hollywood movie with Guy Pierce. Or, if you’re more well-read than the average panda bear, you may remember it from the original book written by HG Wells. In The Time Machine, a scientist time-traveler gets himself stuck a couple hundred thousand years in the future where different species of people have evolved. And one’s eating the other. Ultimately, he descends into the abyss where the Morlocks live and must escape and return to his own time, now a little wiser about the dangers of unhindered scientific and industrial progress. This play, on the other hand, is a children’s play, actually the first of the Eastern Oregon Regional Youth Theater plays ever, and it’s happening at 7 pm on Friday and Saturday and 3 pm on Sunday. Now, the children’s story is a little different: according to GO! Magazine, in the play, the time traveler save the Eloi (the race being eaten) and returns home, good-deed accomplished, still a fun-filled story about time travel with lots of technological flashes and small-town children’s fun.
Also, this weekend is Mule Days in Enterprise. What’s mule days? Well, let me tell you, it’s exactly what it sounds like: not a concert, a play, or a festival. It’s a mule show. Imagine a car show except for what’s driving down main-street isn’t cars, but mules and donkeys. There’s competitions, shows, and even, like I said, a parade of mules and donkeys. But there’s more going on than just a mule show. On Friday, there’s going to be a cowboy poetry gathering at 6pm. Saturday, there’s more shows, another cowboy poetry gathering at 2pm, plus a Joni Harms concert at 7. Sunday, there’s a cowboy church, a Dutch oven cook off at 9 am, and the weekend gets finished off at 6:00 pm with the Jackass awards. That’s not really their name, I’m just being snarky. So if you’re into livestock shows head over to Wallowa county for Mule Days this weekend.
Alright, what ELSE is going on other than shows this weekend? Tonight there’s live music at Ten Depot Street plus Celebrate la grande is happening on Main Street. Celebrate La Grande is a block party with all the vendors on the street, a beer garden in Max Square, plus live music and birds flying down a chimney, according to Matt Scarfo, owner of Benchwarmers. Also tomorrow, there’s live music at the Carnegie Art Center in Pendleton: pianist Keith Taylor, for all of you with a taste for classical faire. This Saturday, Adams Avenue will be closed. Businesses and games will be open for all to enjoy. There’s going to be a kids corner, a disk golf course, Zumba and Piyo lessons for those of you who, like me, like to shake their butts to Zumba tunes. Also on Saturday in Halfway there’s the Pine-Fest Music Festival. Also Saturday, there’s a game night at the Hobby Habit and a Community Dance at the Union County Senior Center in La Grande, OR. Also I should mention: there’s roller skating lessons to be had at the Maridell Center. If you’ve ever wanted to Roller Skate, the La Grande Parks and Recreation district is hosting lessons every Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. You can sign up on their website at www.lagrandeparks.org or in person at the Parks and Recreation office here in town. Lessons are forty bucks a month from September to November.
In sports, the LHS Tigers football team lost last week, big time, a whopping drop 48-28 in their first game of the season against Pendleton. It wasn’t a bad game, per say, but the tigers just couldn’t get enough momentum after dropping behind in the first half to rally and come back from the game. The Tigers soccer team, however, swapped the football positions, winning, according to the Observer sports section, against Pendleton 4-0 on Tuesday to bring them to 2-1-0 overall for the season. The Tigers football team will play Baker this weekend in Baker and, remember, you can watch it live on LaGrandeAlive.tv. The Tigers soccer team will play Tillamook in The Dalles on Saturday.
In other prep football news, The Elgin Huskies beat Cove 36-8 in an end-of–the-game blowout. Elgin will play Arlington on Friday, and Cove will blay Harper/Huntington also on Friday. Also, Imbler beat Milton Freewater 32-12 and Umatilla beat Union 21-13, finishing up the first weekend of prep football in the valley.
As for Eastern Oregon University athletics, their football team had a much better weekend, beating the Southern Oregon Raiders Saturday in a crazy comeback from 17 points behind to win 45-40 in a thrilling first game of the season. The EOU volleyball girls also had a good weekend, beating Walla Walla for three games 25-11, 25-16. And 25-17 to bump their NAIA ranking to Number 6. According to EOU’s website, that’s their highest ranking in history. The Mountie girls volleyball is now 9-1 overall and will play Corban University Friday. And last, the Mountie Soccer team lost against Hermiston by a threadbare score 0-1.
Harold Shannon and Kirk Travis on the LHS Tigers Football Season, 2016
Check out our newest show, the LaGrandeAlive.tv Sports Spotlight! In this episode, sports director Steve Hendrix talks to Harold Shannon and Kirk Travis about the upcoming season, some strategies about how the team plays and how, exactly, the team becomes unified for the rest of the season. The conversation concludes with the coaches talking about Friday’s game against the Pendleton Buckaroos.
Hey La Grande Alive, this is your weekly newsish roundup brought to you by Direct Music Source, Grande Ronde Hospital, Family Foods, Valley Realty, and Northwest Furniture and Mattress.
Did you know that, in the original short story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, the princess not only sells her voice but her tongue too? And in exchange for this oral bartering, not only does she not get it back, but the dude she sold it for ends up marrying another woman. In the end, Ariel commits suicide and finds herself as a disembodied spirit performing 300 years of penance before she can actually have her soul–her ultimate goal the entire time–and get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Pretty brutal, huh? But that’s okay, because that’s not the story that you’ll be seeing at the Elgin Opera House Starting this weekend. That story is based on the good-old-fashioned Disney story we all know and love, a story of love, a story of really catchy broadway tunes sung by lobsters, of women giving up essential parts of their bodily functions to try their hand at a man. That’s the story that you’ll get to see, good old-fashioned family laughter and fun. In fact, last week I got a chance to sit down with the director of the play Terry Hale and talk to him about the play, and how (unlike Hans Christian Andersen short story) the Little Mermaid fits in with the more overall mission of the Elgin Opera House: to provide fun, family-safe plays for the Grande Ronde Valley.
The play premieres this Friday, September 2nd. It runs until September 24th, every weekend, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm. The cost is 8 bucks for balcony, 17 bucks for orchestra seating center stage, expensive, I know, but, please, whatever you do, don’t sell any essential bodily functions to pay for the show. Lobsters, fat seagulls and ruby red hair just aren’t worth it, man.
Alright, what else is going on this weekend other than Mermaids?
Well, There’s live music tonight at Ten Depot Street. There is also another concert by Anna Tivel tomorrow at the Stage Door Theater. Hank Cramer the “Wandrin’ Minstrel” will play also play tomorrow in Baker city 6pm at the Wagon Encampment. Also this Friday, ”The Outsiders” art show at Art Center East will show pieces of a bunch of teenagers from Union County. Also, Saturday, the Farmers Market is in La Grande from 9 am to noon ish and in Enterprise the Juniper Jam music festival will feature multiple bands including Some People, Mise, Wild West and Groovy Wallpaper, plus Laney Lou and the bird Dogs and more, running from 1 to 10 pm. Lastly, Community Merchants is pretty much the cool-squeeze of all local businesses: everything in their store is locally made, bought, and sold, and they’re having a Business After Hours for business representatives to get together, chat, eat and otherwise network with other like-minded-local individuals. The after hours will be September 6 from 5 to 6:30 pm.
Sports
In sports, high School football starts this weekend! Friday is the big day: the La Grande Tigers will play Pendleton at La Grande, Baker will play Nyssa, Imbler v.s Pilot Rock, Elgin v.s Cove at Cove, and Union v.s. Umatilla at Umatilla. There’s so much football going Friday the pigs are running for the hills to keep their skins. But only one of those games will be covered by the LaGrandeAlive.tv online stream: La Grande v.s Pendleton, 6:00 pm on Friday at the EOU Community Stadium. And actually EOU’s new sports director Steve Hendrix got to sit down with the coaches of the LHS tigers and talk to them about their strategy for the coming game.
So here’s my question for you, sports lovers: who do you predict for this year? Who’s going to take the gold and who’s gonna fold? What kind of matches do you foresee being good, bad, fun to watch? Also, if you’re into local football, be sure to pick up a Wednesday edition of the Observer. They have a fantastic spread on each of the local teams, their schedules, and features of some of the key players from each respective crew. And be sure to tune into LaGrandeAlive this Friday for the first LHS live football stream.
Now, everyone, please stick around a little longer. Football isn’t life and other sports do, in fact, exist in Eastern Oregon and are just as important to keeping the world spinning.
Like soccer, for example. The EOU soccer girls trickled through Lewis and Clark Sunday afternoon 3 to 1.
And volleyball! EOU volleyball girls smashed Vanguard 3 games to none winning 25-16, 25-21, and 25-17.
And like running! The Drug Free Run was this last Saturday (which, unfortunately, I didn’t run in). This run is an annual run put on here in the Grande Ronde Valley by the Union County Safe Communities Coalition. Every year, while all the pot growers are safely and comfortably down in the valley tending their home-grown plants, all the running-nuts take to the hills at Mount Emily Recreation Area to actively protest these lazy toker types by doing what they do best: actively hurting themselves. Ah, the life of a health nut, pain today for pleasure tomorrow. Anyways, the winners this year were Jacob Huntsman with a 5k time of 26:38 and Timothy Vanderlugt with a 10k time of 42:44. And just so you know, Timothy is like 50 years old and can still beat me and most others I know in La Grande at races. So what this means is that none of you people under 70 have any excuse for complaining about getting old while Timothy Vanderlugt still exists. Period. Unless you’re Timothy Vanderlugt complaining about other people complaining. Fair enough.
And, lastly, polo! This weekend 8 polo teams, 70 horses, 30 out-of-towners, and a bunch more home-growns gathered and smacked the ball around on horses in this otherwise unheard of equine sport right here in La Grande. Did you know that La Grande Had a polo club? I didn’t, but we do, apparently. In fact, La Grande polo is actually bigger than you’d guess. It’s part of a Northwestern league that travels to places including Spokane, Portland, Yakima, and even as far south as Salt Lake City to mount their horses and play. Melissa Joseph, one of the founders of the La Grande polo club, said it’s just fun to play as a family here, and what the polo club really is is a group of really good friends they get together with and play polo. If you’re interested in joining the polo club, call Melissa and Steve Joseph right here in La Grande. They have two tournaments a year, and you could be involved with the next one.
Alright! That’s it! This weekly roundup was brought to you by Direct Music Source, Grande Ronde Hospital, Valley Realty, Marketplace Family Foods and Northwest Furniture and Mattress. Tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Hey LaGrandeAlive! This is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source!
Some ticked off parents are taking the high school to the field over sports. Several families are openly speaking out against a decision made by La Grande High School administrators to not let their kids play sports for the high school teams. So here’s the scoop: these kids are attending what’s called the “Baker Web Academy”, a private online school over in Baker, and because of this La Grande High is not letting the kids play on the Tigers teams. But this isn’t how it’s always been. In the past, the school has allowed the kids to play. But not any more. So why, exactly, was the change made? Is it legitimate? These are some of the questions that the parents have been asking. Well, LaGrandeAlive got the scoop with Don McLean, one of the agitated parents, plus Brett Baxter the LHS principal.
So what do you think La Grande? If a student attends another private school not the public school of their town, should they be allowed to compete? Should the school allow the students to play despite not receiving government subsidies for their attendance? Should the school make an exception for these particular students? Your thoughts and comments below.
Have you been feeling a little sick recently?
Have a fever? A bad headache? Stiff neck? A little confused and weak? Paralyzed? Well, if so, you should go to the doctor. Or get someone to drive you there if you’re paralyzed. Recently mosquitos have been tested positive in the Grande ROnde valley with the West Nile Virus. If you’re over 50, have diabetes or high blood pressure, or are overall just a person that gets sick a lot, you are at risk. Now, hold on. Don’t panic. Leave your pitchforks inside and I promise you Jesus isn’t on the horizon. I had a chat with Chris Law at the Union County Vector Control and he said currently it’s not a big concern. West Nile is transmitted primarily through birds: robins, magpies, jays, crows, ravens, the works. Wherever the birds go, the West Nile Virus goes, he said. And he hasn’t seen the west nile in any animals yet around here, including the birds. When he starts seeing it in animals, then we have a bigger problem. So what’s the moral of the story? If you feel sick, go to the doctor. If you know you’re going to be hiking by a stagnant pond, put on long-sleeve shirts and pants. Minimize standing water near your house. And just don’t lick dead birds. They may look appetizing, but they’re full of bacteria and disease and it’s just a place your tongue shouldn’t go.
So what’s going on this next week? Well, a whole heck of a lot of live music. Tonight at 5 there’s music at Max Square and at 8 at Ten Depot street in La Grande. Tomorrow, Friday, Barley Brown’s in Baker is having Jeremiah craig at 8. And this weekend as part of the Wallowa County Thunder Run Ashes 2 Ashes and Blue Tattoo will play Friday night in Enterprise at the fairgrounds. And speaking of the Thunder Run, what happens when a bunch of bikers get together and coordinate an event? Well, lots of exhaust and noise, first of all. But also food, games, and, as I mentioned, live music, apparnetly. That’s going on in Enterprise both Thursday and Friday. But the car-junkies aren’t letting the bikers one-up them. Saturday they’re getting out their chrome polish and starting up the classic cars for the Baker City Memory Cruise. Also this weekend in La Grande, there’s a drug-free run going on up at Mount Emily Recreation Area. There will be no drugs at this run, I promise, and the run is put on so that there won’t be any drugs anywhere else as well. And after you’re done getting all sweaty raising awareness for drugs, you can head down to the Memorial Pool and swim around in the outdoor tub with your dogs. That starts at 11:00 am. Overall a fun-packed weekend with a ton of crap to do which means none of you should be inside at all this weekend. Unless you’re reading a classic or watching an Ingmar Bergman film. Then I forgive you.
In sports, speaking of the LHS Tigers, the football team is kicking off this weekend with a jamboree. As part of this jamboree, they’re going to play Enterprise and Imbler for about a quarter’s length. It starts at 6 pm at Eastern Oregon university.
Also, if you can’t make the jamboree (and I mean really can’t not just I’m too lazy to get off my sofa and leave my big-jug pepsi drink) we’re going to be live-streaming the jamboree plus all the rest of the football games this whole season on LaGrandeAlive. It’s a pretty cool service. We have instant replays, a caller, and a bunch of fancy-smanchy stuff to make the games really cool and accessible. You can even bring it up at the real game to watch the replays if you’re at the stadium. So bottom line: go to the game, tune in to LaGrandeAlive, support your Tigers, and don’t lick dead birds.
Up at EOU, the Mountie volleyball girls trashed Rocky Mountain this last weekend for not one, not two, but three games in a row. The scores were 13-25, 11-25, and 15-25, pretty big margins if you ask me. But then again I know about as much about volleyball as I know about dead birds. Okay, I’ll stop beating that dead bird. Anyways, the next EOU game will be at the Big Sky Invitational on August 26. They’re playing Carrol at 12 pm.
And that’s it! This Newsish Roundup is brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source. Tune in next week for more local content. I’m Will Bowman
Weekly Newsish Roundup, August 18, 2016
– 6 News Stories in 5 Minutes 35 Seconds!
Check out our weekly news roundup for August 18 to 24, 2016!
In the news today:
Pot Is Hot
Lost Youths Found It’s A Trap!
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
For more local content, be sure to visit http://lagrandealive.tv! Marijuana, Search and Rescue, Pavement Scam, Cove Cherry Festival, Jace Billingsley, Elkhorn Relay
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Direct Music Source and Grande Ronde Hospital.
Pot is hot in the valley, these days, and everybody’s talking about it except the hillbillies, and that’s honestly because they’re probably the ones growing it. The question of how exactly to handle the new federal deregulation of the drug is popping up all over the valley. Several weeks ago, Union residents proposed a ban on the growth and sale of non-medical weed in their city. It will probably be on the voting ballot here coming soon. This weekend, the DEA in Salem refused to take the drug off the “dangerous drug” list and reinforced their resolution that all hemp (another cannabinoid) products are still illegal despite pretty much every state and it’s brother saying they’re not. And now North Powder is trying to get it figured out too. They will also be voting on it here soon, two ballots on the November 8th election that, if passed, would legalize the sale of recreational and medical pot. So here’s ultimate the question for you, La Grande Alive. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollipop? Just kidding. What should we do about the pot? How should small towns deal with this? They have legitimate concerns for the health and well-being of their towns. But at the same time, the pot train is rolling, and how long can they really hold out before the growers and smokers get it legalized. So how should they deal with the quickly rising rate of legalization? What kind of taxes should be imposed? Answer with your thoughts in the box below.
Alright, here’s the moral of this next story: kids, don’t get drunk, wander off into the woods, break somebody else’s stuff, then get lost and have to have search and rescue come and find you. Four youths age 20 and younger were found this weekend by search and rescue about 20 miles out of la grande, a little Northeast of Interstate 84. They were dehydrated and tired, the rescuers said. And now three of them are being charged with criminal mischief, the crime involving the damage of another person’s property. Now, as of now none of these youths have been indicted or found guilty, so don’t go around telling people that they’re just a bunch of bad kids with worse directional skills. But the moral still stands: kids, don’t drink and hike. And if you do, make sure you bring a park ranger or, I don’t know, a compass with you so that you don’t have to call search and rescue come rescue your thirsty ass with your tail between your legs and some famer on your butt for drunkenly crashing his tractor into a cliff. Disclaimer: creative license was taken with this story for emotional effect.
And speaking of criminal activities, here’s another moral: if someone calls you and wants to pave your driveway here sometime soon, don’t believe them! Well, believe them but don’t do it! It’s a trap! Apparently there’s a new scam going around Union County: a group of pavers will call at random a household and offer to repave their driveway at a reduced rate with leftover materials. The deal is so good to be true the residents agree and, several weeks and a crappily-done driveway later, they’re slammed with an inflated bill that’s much higher than the original quote and a heavy obligation to pay-up on the job they wouldn’t otherwise have needed. And the worst part of it: the scammers aren’t really doing anything illegal. Apparently everything they’re doing falls within the letter of the law, and though the residents aren’t required to pay them, most feel guilted or intimidated into actually paying the bill. Fortunately awareness is growing about the issue and these people are backing off. But it never hurts to share this video along and warn a few other poor souls about the infamous asphalt bandits! Not that we’re shamelessly plugging ourselves or anything.
Anyways, there’s a lot going here in the Grande Ronde Valley that’s not criminal too! Tonight there’s music at Max Square on Adams Avenue in La Grande. Things do actually happen there outside of electronic Pokemon duels. Also, all this weekend the Week Like ‘Em Short film festival is in Baker City. The films are short, but the fun is long, apparently, and the screenings start tonight and run until Saturday. Also this weekend in Baker, Dr. Balthazar wants to sell you special medicine! There’s a play going on at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and you should go on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday at 7pm, 7pm, and 11am respectively. There’s also live music at Barley Brown’s in Baker at 8 pm friday. And cherries! There’s cherries out the wazoo this weekend in Cove, Oregon. Their annual cherry festival will including live music, a run, hot air balloons, contests, a pancake breakfast, and presentations, just as a start. For more information on the festival, read Go Magazine this week. They have a full spread on all the events and start times. Also this weekend, the Eagle Cap excursion train is having an early bird ride on Saturday at 9 am. Lunch is included. And last, all you Pink Floyd fans, head to McKenzie Theater at EOU on Saturday for Pigs on the Wing, a tribute band that’s coming to Eastern Oregon.
In Sports, Billingsley has gone big-time and he’s already scoring. Jace Billingsley is an ex-EOU football star and he’s gone on to train with the Detroit Lions and had a touchdown last Friday. The game was against the Pittsburgh Steelers and they won 30-17. Billingsley had three receptions including a 27-yard catch-and-run touchdown for the game. Man, with our runners going to Olympic trials and our football players getting touchdowns football the Detroit Lions, La Grande is like one 7 millionth of the way toward becoming a bon-e-fied sports-center of the Northwest United States!
And in less impressive news, I finished the Elkhorn Relay. And so did everyone else. I did it slowly, but I rescued an elk from barbed wire in the process. Only in Eastern Oregon, baby. The winning team was the OSUsuals, a track-and-field-turgid team from OSU that traveled over to win the race with about a 27.5 hour finish time. Great job guys. Overall the race was extremely well put together. There was food and outhouses at every pit stop for all the nervous pre-race eaters and poopers (which is pretty much every runner ever). The volunteers were pleasant and eager to keep the waiting team-mates entertained with talk. And despite the race officials cutting my 9-mile up-and-down to a 6 mile mostly-drop, the runs were challenging but not excruciatingly so. Overall, if you’re a runner, the Elkhorn Relay is a pleasant 30-plus hour experience of running in backwoods Grande Ronde Valley and enjoying the company of five other sleep-deprived, sore, and coffee-crazed casual runners and doing something that will make most people’s eyes get wide when you tell them about it.
Anyways, that’s your weekly news roundup! This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source. Today, I’m going to leave you with a little taste of Pendulum Swing, a local swing and jazz group that came in, did a Coffee with Will, and sung us a song. For the full interview and song, check out our website at www.lagrandealive.tv or our Facebook page. I’m Will Bowman.
What should we do with the wolves? That’s a question that’s up for debate–again. And you’re the people, LaGrandeAlive, that the state wants to give input on this question. And on October 7th, you’re going to get to. The Department Fish and wildlife is holding a meeting for public input on this question At the Blue Mountain Conference Center in La Grande, Oregon. The wolf management plan is up for its second review since 2005. And the ultimate question is this: what is the state’s place in managing wolves that threaten livestock? Is it their responsibility? Is it the rancher’s responsibility? Should lethal force be invoked? Who gets to pull the trigger, ultimately? Currently, there’s different phases in the wolf-management system: phase 1 means that no wolves can be killed except with a permit. Population needs to be boosted and so lethal means are off-limits Phase 2 is less restrictive, and phase 3 is even less restrictive than phase 2. It’s the least restrictive phase and allows for lethal methods to be used by multiple parties. Now, I have my own opinions, but those aren’t really important. The people’s opinions I really want, like the Department of Fish and Wildlife, are yours LaGrandeAlive. What should be done about this wolves? What authority should the state have in managing them? Should they be allowed to kill them or relocate them to a safer, less rancher-heavy locale? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
But let’s talk about furries of the less-dangerous sort,; namely, goats, cows, and horses, piggies covered in little fur snorting on the ground, bunnies that bite your fingers, chickens clucking and cock a doodle dooing at the most random of times all right there for you to pet. If you don’t mind the smell, that is. All these were at the Union County Fair last weekend. Here’s some pictures of the event. It was a blast. Lydia and I went and pet the animals, got a free pancake and sausages at the breakfast on Thursday, perused the booths and watched some tunes Thursday night. We didn’t ride any rides, though. Seriously, 3.75 for a single ticket? I love paying almost five bucks to feel nauseous and pick gum off my shoes after the ride. Apparently this year’s turnout was bigger than recent years, largely as a result of the evening entertainment. So now that we’re done with our pictures, how about yours? Post your favorite fair picture in the comments section below.
But the Union County Fair isn’t the only pony show out there. In fact, there’s a lot more. And there’s another big shindig coming up this weekend in Joseph. Bronze, Blues, and Brews is a local beer and music festival happening this weekend, August 12th and 13th, from at the city park. Beer and blues just makes so much sense, doesn’t it? Now, we don’t normally cover Wallowa county events but this sounded too fun to pass up. There’s going to be multiple blues bands: Sugaray Rayford, Chris Cain, Brandon Santini, Franco Paletta, Mitch kashmar, THe Danielle Nicole Band, and Devon Allman. There’s also going to be about 20 micro-brews on tap, northwest wines, and a bunch of food. Tickets are 30 bucks in advance or 35 bucks at the door. So if you want to (lightly) drink then sing the blues until the night is dark, head to Wallowa county this weekend. Should be a blast.
And what else is going on this week? Well, If you head the other direction from Wallowa county, there’s also a fair going on in Baker City until Saturday night. Also this weekend, the Shakespeare troupe is back again, this time on a lonely island with Prospero as their muse. The Tempest is showing two times for free this weekend at Riverside Park, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm. Also on Friday, the swim club will meet up at Pioneer Park for their annual meeting. And two more things for Saturday, first a Craft Supply Swap at the Cook Memorial library. If you have craft supplies in “good condition” they can be bought and traded for other supplies, bring them in. I just I wonder what constitutes “good condition” for craft supplies: at least half the glue hasn’t been eaten by a child? Also, Union is hosting their Grassroots Festival this weekend which will include over 20 yard sales, a car show, live music, a children’s fair, duck and lawnmower races, dancing, and Pioneer Days in the museum. The festival will go all day long Saturday and is generally free for the public. Bottom line, there’s a lot going on this weekend. None of you have any excuse to be anywhere but out and about.
In sports,
Running. I love it so, so much. I do it almost every day. For all you people who say you hate running, I used to be like you. I too believed I could never enjoy the long hours on pavement with the wind at my back. Or in my face. Well, I guess I still don’t enjoy the wind in my face, but the point still stands!
Anyways, I’m not alone. About 120 other running fanatics hit the ground running at the The Catherine Creek Classic. The Classic is an annual race held to support the Union Track and Field Team, and it happened last weekend. There were three events: a 5k, a half-marathon, and a one-mile run. I wasn’t able to attend because I was in the Wallowas backpacking. But I knew many of the people who participated. But I will be able to participate in the run this weekend, The Elkhorn Relay. The Elkhorn Relay is 200 miles of back-road running over the course of over 24 hours from Friday to Saturday morning. Participating teams run on a trail that stretches from Hilgard to Anthony Lakes, down into North Powder and around through Union back to La Grande. This is their second annual race. Each team member runs a fraction of the relay, and the final time of the teams determines the winner. My segment is 22 miles, 9 of which is uphill. It’s going to be pain, a lot of pain, but I think it will still be fun. But this isn’t all about me. If you are interested in the relay for next year, visit Doomsday Racing’s website to sign up.
In lesser sports, the 14u La Grande are done, finally, after a loss Monday against Nogales, Arizona. Last Saturday they won two against Cedar City. But then, Monday at 10 am, Nogales beat La Grande 12-10 to continue on in the Junior Baseball Regional Tournament.
And that’s your weekly newsish roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source.. Stay tuned for more local content and an all-new continuous stream of LGA content on our facebook from 6-8 pm every night. For LaGrandeAlive.tv, I’m Will Bowman.
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Category: Newsish
Coffee With Will and Julie Coreson – Julie Coreson Talks About the Island City Block Party
Julie Coreson Talks About Apple Eye Care’s 11th Annual Island City Block Party
Julie Coreson has fixed my glasses on multiple occasions. What generally happens is that I break them, again. I walk into Apple Eye Care, they direct me over to her small table, I recite some typical SOB story about how my glasses somehow fell apart, and she, chipper as a wine glass clink, jogs into the back and replaces the part I broke, completely free of charge. I’m completely indebted to her. So naturally that means I should invite her to talk to me on camera! In this Coffee With Will, Julie talks about Apple Eye Care’s 11th Annual Block Party that is happening next Wednesday from 10 am to 2 pm. There’s a bunch of free stuff for kids, and a lot of fun stuff for everyone to boot. Thanks for coming in and chatting with me, Julie. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon for another repair session of my horribly abused eye-ware…
Fires, Power Outage, Union County Fair, Island City Block Party
Hey LaGrande Alive, this is your weekly Newsish roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source.
It has been a fire-filled weekend. Sunday night, after a restful day of reading and relaxing, my girlfriend Lydia and I were looking out from my window on Depot St when, suddenly, we smelled smoke and noticed the air was a greyish tint. We were curious. So we went outside, walked down the alleyway behind some of the restaurants on Adams Avenue and, sure enough, there it was, a plume of smoke billowing from an air vent behind GC Asian fusion, a local Oriental restaurant in La Grande. We walked by casually, not really wanting to disturb the fire-fighters who were pulling up or the somewhat-frantic waiters milling around in the alleyway outside. Apparently the fire was the result of a small appliance downstairs at the restaurant. But what amazed Lydia and I was that there were still customers in the restaurant! Being served! That’s good customer service: they still serve your food, even when the floor is burning out from underneath them. Just kidding: the fire apparently wasn’t that big of a deal.
But other fires this weekend were. About 1:45 pm on Saturday, fire broke out near I84 around Meacham and closed down the highway until Sunday night. At its peak, the fire was 500 acres. The team fighting it included two helicopters, two bulldozers, seven single engine air tankers, and almost 285 firefighters. A level III evacuation notice for people living around Emigrant Springs was issued. But that’s in the past. Thankfully, as of last night, many of the firefighters have been demobilized, according to Larry Wooldridge, fire chief of La Grande Rural Fire District. The fire has gone from a 35 to 55% containment. Things are dying down, it seems. Firefighters still don’t know the cause of the fire was, but one has to wonder… If more people had watched my weekly round up last week and known about the new ODF fire rules, would this blaze still have happened? Spread the word people! LaGrandeAlive fights fires!
There’s also a fire burning about 10 miles southwest of Unity, OR too. This fire is even bigger than the one between LaGrande and Pendleton, 700 acres in fact, but none of it currently threatening homes, private properties, or people, thank God. There’s a level one evacuation notice for several homes and police have closed South Fork Burnt River Road to all traffic except for vehicles and residents.
And and more weekend weirdness. There was an almost 13,000 person power black-out this weekend. You probably experienced it, like I did. I was in the office here, actually, editing a new LeGrandealive.tv short when, suddenly, all the power went out. I freaked out. Premiere closed, my project died, I yelled and screamed but, ultimately, nothing could be done. Everything was gone, my project, my edits, my last four hours of work. Frustrated, I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing until, about two hours later at around 5:45 PM, the power came back on and, fortunately, all of my work was there–auto save saved my ass once again. However other businesses that were actually didn’t have such an easy time of it. Businesses like Safeway and Granada theater and many small restaurants had to close during the time and many businesses with with a refrigerated section had to take special measures to save their produce. Ultimately, the blackout was caused by problem with a substation on Gekeler Lane. So what’s the moral of this story? Save your work. You never know when the power could go out or aliens could shoot an EMP and knock it out the electricity in their cataclysmic attack on Earth.
So enough of all this death and distraction and darkness! We need some fun things to cheer us up! And good news! There’s a lot of fun stuff going on, actually, so rejoice! First, the fair is going on in La Grande. Stock owners from hundreds of miles have gathered to show their pigs, cows, horses, goats, and more, to struct in stride and pose their little critters in all sorts of interesting ways and, ultimately, to have fun time getting together and petting furry creatures, just having a rooten-tooten-gooden small town time. It’s happening at the fairgrounds all week weekend long. It opened yesterday with with cream and egg pies for show, exotic small animals judging, amusement carnivals, a talent show, a parade downtown, and the Wasteland Kings capping off the evening. Today it continued with booths and more carnival rides. Tonight at 6pm Becky’s Studio of Dance will perform, and at 8pm the Wheat landers will perform music. Tomorrow, Friday, the fair opens back up at 8am, booths at 10pm, the carnival at 2pm, and at 7:30pm Mary Kate will visit the event. Saturday at 4 PM the junior market auction will take place all the way until 5:30 when Blue Tattoo will perform. Ashes to Ashes will also perform at 8:30 that night. Sunday is the last day for the fair, and at 3pm all exhibits are released. Ultimately, admission is six bucks for adults, four dollars for kids 7 to 17 years old, and there’s also season passes available for $12 and $18 respectively. Veterans are five dollars, and on Thursday night seniors over 60 get in for free. For more information check out their website at unioncountyfair.org.
But that’s not the only thing happening this next week. Island city also has its own celebration happening next Wednesday: the 11th annual kids day block party. Essentially it’s a big day of fun fantastic events and free stuff all oriented around the kids. Apple Eye Care, the business that hosts the event, will be giving out free eye exams for kids. There will also be games, free hot dogs and soda, trains rides, balloons, flags, water tables, crafts, cards, soda, water, and all sorts of other fun stuff oriented around, as Julie here says, loving on the kids.
Coffee With Will and Julie Coreson – Julie Coreson Talks About the Island City Block Party
Julie Coreson has fixed my glasses on multiple occasions. What generally happens is that I break them, again. I walk into Apple Eye Care, they direct me over to her small table, I recite some typical SOB story about how my glasses somehow fell apart, and she, chipper as a wine glass clink, jogs into the back and replaces the part I broke, completely free of charge. I’m completely indebted to her. So naturally that means I should invite her to talk to me on camera! In this Coffee With Will, Julie talks about Apple Eye Care’s 11th Annual Block Party that is happening next Wednesday from 10 am to 2 pm. There’s a bunch of free stuff for kids, and a lot of fun stuff for everyone to boot. Thanks for coming in and chatting with me, Julie. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon for another repair session of my horribly abused eye-ware…
So don’t get hung up on fires and blackouts, get out of your house, go down to the fair our out to Island city–animals don’t require power, and neither do hot dogs, water tables, and arts and crafts and other small-town funness!
A couple other things happening here this weekend and early next. There’s a teen movie night on Friday at 6pm, with free popcorn and soda at the Cook Memorial Library in La Grande. Also, Jesus washed feet so modern Christians must wash cars Union County Young Life will be having a free car wash from 10 AM to noon on Saturday out at grocery outlet in island city. Next Tuesday the Community Connection of Northeast Oregon is hosting an evening to let people know the Senior Needs Assessment results. This event is on Tuesday night at the Union County Senior Center. And do you have kids? Well you should feed them well, and eat well yourself while you’re at it! Nature’s pantry can help you with that,. They’re now accepting applications for a class on August 29 that will teach people about how to do proper nutrition for kids and yourselves, the parents. Also next Wednesday, beer and books must go well together, because the Cook Memorial Library is teaching a class about book at Tap That Growlers in La Grande. Also Wednesday, there’s some funky experimental music happening at the Stage Door Theater at 8 PM. Two alternative musicians will share their experimental music for our country and classic rock saturated musical tastes. Probably good for us. And lastly, Anthony Lakes is hosting a solar eclipse viewing next year. Essentially you ride the run up to the top of Anthony Lakes and watch the viewing from the top. It’s 50 bucks, and you have to register in advance. The eclipse will begin at 10:24 AM on August 21, 2017. So sign up and don’t miss your opportunity to watch the solar eclipse from probably the best seats in all the Grande Ronde Valley except maybe my hot tub with me shirtless. Just kidding. I can’t afford a hot tub!
In sports, the La Grande “A” Legions went to extra innings this weekend and lost, just uy a little bit against North Medford 4 to 3. The game was Saturday, and it finished their run for state 2016. La Grande started in the lead, but they just couldn’t hold it. This was their second loss against Medford in the tournament, their first coming Wednesday 9 to 8, a foreboding for what was to be their last game of the season.
The 14-U La Grande All Stars are just are not done, however. They start their drive-through region champions on Thursday in Vancouver Washington against 13 other teams. And they will play their opening game against Wyoming Friday then play their second game against Utah the following Saturday. If they continue, they will play either Sunday or Monday depending on their seed in bracket play.
Have you ever played softball at night? Well, you have an opportunity to what is here in La Grande for it: the Moonlight Tourney. The Moonlight Tourney is a tradition in La Grande. For the last 20 years, teams have gathered from all over the Valley to play two days literally straight softball, two days AND two nights, until the final game on Sunday morning. And this year, the turnout is great so far. 34 teams are signed up for the event currently. The tournament begins this Friday and it runs to Sunday morning. The concession stand is open all night long. It’s held at Pioneer Park, and participants can camp while they play, provided they actually get any time to sleep if they do well in the tournament. I guess this tournament brings a whole new meaning to sleeping at second.
And that’s your weekly newsish roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source. Be sure to stay tuned to LaGrandeAlive.tv for another weekly newsish roundup and more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Tom Hanson Talks About Moving to La Grande and Doing Web Design
Tom Hanson is a builder: for years he worked with his hands, with saws and hammers, nails and screws, wiping the sawdust off his brow and sweating it out in the hot sun. Now he’s retired his hammer and chisels and has settled into digital construction: website design.
And he recently moved to the Valley. In this Coffee With Will, we talk about what brought him to the Grande Ronde Valley and what he’s trying to bring to the valley with his services.
Hey LaGrandeAlive! This is your weekly news roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Anything2Digital.com.
I met Fred Hill in 2011. I was contacted by Eric Valentine about doing a video about Fred, or I guess, rather, about a pre-death memorial that he and George Venn were holding for Fred. I agreed. I went. I met Fred, and, in perfect Fred style, the first thing he did was tell me a joke. I can’t really remember what the joke was, probably something about my camera equipment or me being a tall drink of water. But what I do remember is chuckling a little bit, not quite knowing what to do with this small, smiling old man who everybody thought was so darn cool and apparently was a really great photographer. Fred died this weekend. I’ve heard about it from multiple places from multiple people: from Stacey at US Bank where Frank where Fred would help get out cookies every Friday. From Brent Clapp who had conversations with him about photography and video and wanted desperately to do an interview with him, but now will never get a chance From Margaret down at direct music who went to church with him, who smiled when she talked about him. From the feature in the Observer. Fred was well loved in this community. So we here at LaGrandeAlive thought it might be nice to do a little memorial interview Eric Valentine, one of his closest friends and a fellow photographer, to mourn the loss and celebrate his life.
To see the rest of the memorial interview complete with pictures of Fred’s, check out LaGrandeAlive tomorrow for the full interview.
They found a pipe bomb in Wallawa lake! Apparently, last Friday morning some divers were swimming around in the lake and found what looked like a pipe bomb. And, in fact it was! A real life pipe bomb! The bomb was taken off site and detonated. But the most interesting thing about this whole situation for me is that this isn’t really abnormal. Apparently, people find these kinds of explosives in random locations all the time! Generally, they come from past mining operations. Go figure. So, if you’re randomly walking around your property one day, looking at the flowers, smelling the fresh-cut grass, and you casually step on anything that’s looks like a pipe bomb, it very well might be. So, don’t pick it up and shake it or give it to your dog as a chew toy. And certainly don’t throw it in a public lake.
And speaking of pipes, Union is trying to get rid of all its pot. (dear lord, first the deer, now the pot) Over 200 members of the community have signed a petition (Union certainly likes their petitions) and apparently there were actually almost 40 more signatures than were necessary to actually make it a ballot. They just went door-to-door and got people to sign the petition. If passed, the petition would ban the sale production and processing of all marijuana in union for rec relational purposes. The next step for the petition is to be processed by City of Union then to be sent to the county clerk’s office where it will become a ballot measure. Now I’m not a pothead myself, but I do feel bad for the people growing it. On one hand they have the deer eating all their crops. Then the city comes after them and tries to take their pot gardens away! It’s a hard life as a recreational grower. I wonder what a stoned deer acts like? Anyways, what do you think you think LaGrandeAlive? Do you think the pot should be banned in Union or elsewhere? What level should individual cities and towns have to be able to deny a larger ordinance? Is it really solving the problem if there’s still medical growers in the city-limits? Is there a better way of dealing with pot then banning it outright? Or is this the right way to go?
But Union County isn’t the only one that are worried about people blazin’. As of tomorrow, Friday, August 28, at 12:01 AM, new fire restrictions will be in effect. As everyone knows, it’s getting hot outside. And with the comes more fires not of cannabinoid origins. Think thousand-acre fires that burn down houses and forests. And the Oregon Department of Forestry is instituting tight strictures, including prohibitions on campfires, circle fires, cooking fires, warming fires, debris burning, smoking while traveling (except in vehicles on paved roads) nonindustrial chainsaw use during certain times of the day, cutting, grinding, and welding metal outside during those same times a day, fireworks, exploding targets, tracer ammunition, and anything else that could cause a big, big burn. If it can start a fire, don’t use it, or at least make sure that when you use it you’re falling under the new ODF guidelines. As the Union potheads always say, don’t toke unless you’re on a concrete road. If the Union pitchforks don’t getcha, the Oregon Department of Forestry certainly will.
All right what’s going on this week? Well, the LHS class of 1947 and 1946 are getting lunch at the flying J Thursday at noon. Also, what is holistic grazing? Well if you don’t know, The Blue mountain Conservancy will explain it to you tonight, Thursday, at 7 PM at Cook Memorial Library. This Saturday, Art Center East is offering a new class called “the art of gold panning” 3 PM to 7 PM for anyone seven or older. It’s 70 bucks for general admission, they have to buy the gold somehow. Also this weekend, the city of Cove is having a barbecue Sunday at 1 PM. All you residents are invited bring your family and friends to eat food and have fun. Also at Art Center East, every Wednesday there’s an art class for kids age 3 to 5 at 11 AM that explores various art mediums and gives kids and their parents a chance to connect. And last, the organ senior health insurance benefit assistance program is providing free classes about Medicare. People are gonna find out exactly how to get involved with Medicare, and how to get it in their particular community.
In LaGrande Sports
The 10-u La Grande All-Stars softball team won one of two this weekend, losing first 12-5 to Clackamas on Saturday, but rallying Sunday against Beaumont to win 6–1. Then, Monday, they beat West Salem 11–5, putting them tied with Clackamas and Beaumont to continue on in the tournament. But that was it for the All-Stars. Because they tied with those other two teams, they were disqualified from continuing on. I remember one time in high school my hockey team beat one of our rival teams we’d been losing to for years. I was the goalie. I had like 90 saves to the other goalies maybe 10. The game was intense and we were ecstatic after beating them. However, despite our win, we still tied in the tournament win-loss numbers with that team, leaving us down and out because of our regular-season scoring record and out for the rest of the tournament. They continued on. We went home. It was a super sad day for all of us, and I remember sitting in the locker room with my hand in my big, sweaty goalie mitt. All stars, I feel your pain. But it’s OK, life isn’t over. Someday you might still end up a washed up small-town news star exactly like me!
The LaGrande “A” Legacy Ford Legends, however, did not have a disappointing weekend, beating Pendleton twice last Friday and taking district championships. They beat them first 16–2 then finished them off 7–1 right afterwards. On Wednesday they moved to state championships, but state wasn’t nearly as genial for them, they lost two games in a row against Walla Walla Washington 10–6 in the first game and in the second game 9–3. However, what the A team lost, the 16-U legends picked up, beating Walla Walla twice on Wednesday, 8–3 and 15–11. THe next game for the A’s is all the way next Thursday at the Walla Walla tournament, but the 16-U’s will play again Friday at the Baker Tournament.
And last and probably least, we here at LaGrandeAlive are gearing up for our streaming of the La Grande High School football live streaming season. Essentially, we are streaming all of the high school football games, both home and away, so that relatives and family members can watch their little tykes play from far, far way. We’re looking for businesses and individuals to help us sponsor it. So if you’re interested, call us here at Brent Clapp Media Services and we’ll get you all set up to be a bonefied LGA sponsorer for the LHS football season.
Essentially, there are two events going on this weekend fund raising to help local people in their health crisis. At both events, there will be food, beer, and a silent auction. A Lori Mack’s event, they’re auctioning off a puppy. A real live greyhound puppy, plus hundreds of other items. Lori Mack’s event is Saturday at Benchwarmers bar and grill from 6 to ten pm, and the Tyson Johnson and Cory Bevell event is from 2 to 8PM on Sunday at riverside park. Both events are family-friendly. So if you want a puppy or a hot dog, you should go down and support these events this weekend. They’re for a good cause and the people who organized them put a lot of hard work into them. Plus I will personally interview the person who buys the puppy at Lori’s event on LaGrandeAlive.tv. LaGrandeAlive–we love puppies.
The season of really bad suits, haircuts and lesser-of-two-evils dichotomies is upon us–politics is in full swing, both local and national. And at LaGrandeAlive, we’ve scored a couple recent interviews with some political candidates including Bud Pierce, the GOP gubernatorial candidate for the state of Oregon, and Steve Clemens, one of the candidates for the La Grande mayoral race.
Alright La Grande, what’s happening this week? Well, the fat lady is singing yet again: little mermaid is returning to the Elgin Opera House for yet another weekend. Showings Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also Friday, there’s another ragtime piano concert at the Carnegie Art Center in Baker City Oregon. And across two whole valleys, Alpine Fest is happening at Wallowa Lake this weekend. What is Alpine Fest? Well, it’s a celebration of Swiss-Bavarian culture every year at Wallowa Lake. My girlfriend and I went last year and, well, we weren’t that impressed. We ended up just going out to dinner at some local restaurant. But then again, that’s probably we were late and, well, missed pretty much all of alpine fest including the parade, the hand-crafted bratwursts, Terminal Gravity micro-brews and live music. We also missed the Swiss yodeling, folk dancing, alphorn singing, accordionists and all the food, jewelry, goat-soap and quilt vendors. That probably would have made us have a better experience. So, what’s the moral of this story? Don’t be like Will and be late for Alpine Fest. It’s September 22-25, this weekend, and if you don’t show up fashionably late you should have a good time. 
In sports, the valley had its first wins of the season. Imbler beat Riverside 34-23 this weekend. Union beat pilot rock 34-6, and Elgin beat Pine Eagle 21-7. Cove and La Grande, however, couldn’t match the other members both losing their respective games against the Sunnyside Christian Leopards and the Sunnyside Washington Grizzlies. Sunnyside had its way with the valley, Cove losing 58-14 and the La Grande Game wasn’t much better. La Grande lost 61-20, falling behind early in the game and, we’ll, never recovering. Our sports director, Steve Hendrix, snagged a quick interview with the coach for the Tigers about their upcoming game and strategy this weekend.
Alright, it’s time for LaGrandeAlive’s complimentary scam-watch. According to Elkhorn Media Group, people are getting phone calls by somebody wanting them to buy a La Grande High School calendar over the phone. So first fact, yes, LHS does have a calendar. Second fact, no, perverts, it doesn’t involve scantily clad high-schoolers. That would be illegal. And third fact: the LHS calendar, while real, is only sold in-person and not over the phone. So don’t believe these people, whatever you do. Also–here’s the second scam to be wary of. If you get a text titled a “Debit Card Alert” it seems like most people would know not to text back, right? Wrong. Apparently not everyone is as skeptical and jaded to the wiley foils of the world and its denizens as I am. Apparently some customers of banks have been getting just such texts and have been sending back their cards. So, here’s the principle: for you people all-too-eager to believe that you’re the millionth visitor to a website and texts that ask you politely for your debit card number, don’t pay for anything over the phone or on the Internet unless you know exactly who it is or you’ve talked to them before. If someone unfamiliar calls you, give them nothing. Nothing, I tell you. Except maybe a few snarky comments about their mothers and a hefty dose of hangup beeps. Hang up the phone, delete the text, and navigate to another page: you’re not that special, you’re not the millionth visitor, and your bank is not texting you to get your debit card number over the phone. Email phishing scam.
La Grande could have a new mayor. Or it could have the same one–only you can decide. In the left corner we have Steve Clemens, EOU business professor and La Grande politician extraordinaire. And in the right corner, John Bozarth, long-time La Grande resident and city-council member plus an occasional Koinonia house volunteer that has cooked my girlfriend and I eggs on several occasions. Next week we’re going to have them both in for separate Coffee With Wills. But here’s the skinny for now. Clemens is running on the platform of some projects he’s interested in developing: one, a quiet zone for the railroad. Two, more accountability for the Urban Renewal District: he wants to see documented results about how many jobs are created, how many dollars are brought in, and he wants a “strategic plan” for urban renewal spending. And three, he wants what he calls a “full-service community”, a community that provides good-quality social services like the library, police, and the pool, he said. Now, in the other corner, John Bozarth also said he likes the Urban Renewal District, and he thinks it’s working. He’s lived here 40 years and he said he’s seen more growth in the last 4 years than he’d seen in the previous 36 because of Urban Renewal. His platform, as such, is primarily focused on economic growth. He wants to continue to use the Urban renewal district to stimulate the economy and pay for many of the services that Clemens wants to see, except, and here’s the difference, he’d rather see them arise organically from the private sector rather than as state-funded services. “You can’t tax people to death,” he said. So here’s my question for you, LaGrandeAlive, as we head into election season. Everyone agrees that things like pools, libraries, and police departments are good things to have. But what’s the best way to go about funding them? Should they be state-funded, no matter what? Or is it better if they are private? If they simply arise on their own as bi-products of healthy economic growth in the private sector? Where does the government fit into providing services to citizens? How does the Urban Renewal program fit into this? Your comments in the section below. 
This weekend is a weekend of broken legs. There’s several plays going on for you to attend. First of all, Little Mermaid is still going on at the Elgin Opera House. Showings this weekend are Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Also, there’s a September 11th remembrance play being held at the Stage Door Theater in La Grande called “The Guys”. The play is a series of conversations about the September 11th attacks 15 years ago. The co-directors picked this play because they thought that La Grande just might be interested.
Also, this weekend is Mule Days in Enterprise. What’s mule days? Well, let me tell you, it’s exactly what it sounds like: not a concert, a play, or a festival. It’s a mule show. Imagine a car show except for what’s driving down main-street isn’t cars, but mules and donkeys. There’s competitions, shows, and even, like I said, a parade of mules and donkeys. But there’s more going on than just a mule show. On Friday, there’s going to be a cowboy poetry gathering at 6pm. Saturday, there’s more shows, another cowboy poetry gathering at 2pm, plus a Joni Harms concert at 7. Sunday, there’s a cowboy church, a Dutch oven cook off at 9 am, and the weekend gets finished off at 6:00 pm with the Jackass awards. That’s not really their name, I’m just being snarky. So if you’re into livestock shows head over to Wallowa county for Mule Days this weekend. 
Did you know that, in the original short story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, the princess not only sells her voice but her tongue too? And in exchange for this oral bartering, not only does she not get it back, but the dude she sold it for ends up marrying another woman. In the end, Ariel commits suicide and finds herself as a disembodied spirit performing 300 years of penance before she can actually have her soul–her ultimate goal the entire time–and get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Pretty brutal, huh? But that’s okay, because that’s not the story that you’ll be seeing at the Elgin Opera House Starting this weekend. That story is based on the good-old-fashioned Disney story we all know and love, a story of love, a story of really catchy broadway tunes sung by lobsters, of women giving up essential parts of their bodily functions to try their hand at a man. That’s the story that you’ll get to see, good old-fashioned family laughter and fun. In fact, last week I got a chance to sit down with the director of the play Terry Hale and talk to him about the play, and how (unlike Hans Christian Andersen short story) the Little Mermaid fits in with the more overall mission of the Elgin Opera House: to provide fun, family-safe plays for the Grande Ronde Valley.
In sports, high School football starts this weekend! Friday is the big day: the La Grande Tigers will play Pendleton at La Grande, Baker will play Nyssa, Imbler v.s Pilot Rock, Elgin v.s Cove at Cove, and Union v.s. Umatilla at Umatilla. There’s so much football going Friday the pigs are running for the hills to keep their skins. But only one of those games will be covered by the LaGrandeAlive.tv online stream: La Grande v.s Pendleton, 6:00 pm on Friday at the EOU Community Stadium. And actually EOU’s new sports director Steve Hendrix got to sit down with the coaches of the LHS tigers and talk to them about their strategy for the coming game.
Some ticked off parents are taking the high school to the field over sports. Several families are openly speaking out against a decision made by La Grande High School administrators to not let their kids play sports for the high school teams. So here’s the scoop: these kids are attending what’s called the “Baker Web Academy”, a private online school over in Baker, and because of this La Grande High is not letting the kids play on the Tigers teams. But this isn’t how it’s always been. In the past, the school has allowed the kids to play. But not any more. So why, exactly, was the change made? Is it legitimate? These are some of the questions that the parents have been asking. Well, 
Have you been feeling a little sick recently?
Pot is hot in the valley, these days, and everybody’s talking about it except the hillbillies, and that’s honestly because they’re probably the ones growing it. The question of how exactly to handle the new federal deregulation of the drug is popping up all over the valley. Several weeks ago, Union residents proposed a ban on the growth and sale of non-medical weed in their city. It will probably be on the voting ballot here coming soon. This weekend, the DEA in Salem refused to take the drug off the “dangerous drug” list and reinforced their resolution that all hemp (another cannabinoid) products are still illegal despite pretty much every state and it’s brother saying they’re not. And now North Powder is trying to get it figured out too. They will also be voting on it here soon, two ballots on the November 8th election that, if passed, would legalize the sale of recreational and medical pot. So here’s ultimate the question for you, La Grande Alive. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollipop? Just kidding. What should we do about the pot? How should small towns deal with this? They have legitimate concerns for the health and well-being of their towns. But at the same time, the pot train is rolling, and how long can they really hold out before the growers and smokers get it legalized. So how should they deal with the quickly rising rate of legalization? What kind of taxes should be imposed? Answer with your thoughts in the box below.
Alright, here’s the moral of this next story: kids, don’t get drunk, wander off into the woods, break somebody else’s stuff, then get lost and have to have search and rescue come and find you. Four youths age 20 and younger were found this weekend by search and rescue about 20 miles out of la grande, a little Northeast of Interstate 84. They were dehydrated and tired, the rescuers said. And now three of them are being charged with criminal mischief, the crime involving the damage of another person’s property. Now, as of now none of these youths have been indicted or found guilty, so don’t go around telling people that they’re just a bunch of bad kids with worse directional skills. But the moral still stands: kids, don’t drink and hike. And if you do, make sure you bring a park ranger or, I don’t know, a compass with you so that you don’t have to call search and rescue come rescue your thirsty ass with your tail between your legs and some famer on your butt for drunkenly crashing his tractor into a cliff. Disclaimer: creative license was taken with this story for emotional effect.
And speaking of criminal activities, here’s another moral: if someone calls you and wants to pave your driveway here sometime soon, don’t believe them! Well, believe them but don’t do it! It’s a trap! Apparently there’s a new scam going around Union County: a group of pavers will call at random a household and offer to repave their driveway at a reduced rate with leftover materials. The deal is so good to be true the residents agree and, several weeks and a crappily-done driveway later, they’re slammed with an inflated bill that’s much higher than the original quote and a heavy obligation to pay-up on the job they wouldn’t otherwise have needed. And the worst part of it: the scammers aren’t really doing anything illegal. Apparently everything they’re doing falls within the letter of the law, and though the residents aren’t required to pay them, most feel guilted or intimidated into actually paying the bill. Fortunately awareness is growing about the issue and these people are backing off. But it never hurts to share this video along and warn a few other poor souls about the infamous asphalt bandits! Not that we’re shamelessly plugging ourselves or anything.
What should we do with the wolves? That’s a question that’s up for debate–again. And you’re the people, LaGrandeAlive, that the state wants to give input on this question. And on October 7th, you’re going to get to. The Department Fish and wildlife is holding a meeting for public input on this question At the Blue Mountain Conference Center in La Grande, Oregon. The wolf management plan is up for its second review since 2005. And the ultimate question is this: what is the state’s place in managing wolves that threaten livestock? Is it their responsibility? Is it the rancher’s responsibility? Should lethal force be invoked? Who gets to pull the trigger, ultimately? Currently, there’s different phases in the wolf-management system: phase 1 means that no wolves can be killed except with a permit. Population needs to be boosted and so lethal means are off-limits Phase 2 is less restrictive, and phase 3 is even less restrictive than phase 2. It’s the least restrictive phase and allows for lethal methods to be used by multiple parties. Now, I have my own opinions, but those aren’t really important. The people’s opinions I really want, like the Department of Fish and Wildlife, are yours LaGrandeAlive. What should be done about this wolves? What authority should the state have in managing them? Should they be allowed to kill them or relocate them to a safer, less rancher-heavy locale? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
But let’s talk about furries of the less-dangerous sort,; namely, goats, cows, and horses, piggies covered in little fur snorting on the ground, bunnies that bite your fingers, chickens clucking and cock a doodle dooing at the most random of times all right there for you to pet. If you don’t mind the smell, that is. All these were at the Union County Fair last weekend. Here’s some pictures of the event. It was a blast. Lydia and I went and pet the animals, got a free pancake and sausages at the breakfast on Thursday, perused the booths and watched some tunes Thursday night. We didn’t ride any rides, though. Seriously, 3.75 for a single ticket? I love paying almost five bucks to feel nauseous and pick gum off my shoes after the ride. Apparently this year’s turnout was bigger than recent years, largely as a result of the evening entertainment. So now that we’re done with our pictures, how about yours? Post your favorite fair picture in the comments section below.
And what else is going on this week? Well, If you head the other direction from Wallowa county, there’s also a fair going on in Baker City until Saturday night. Also this weekend, the Shakespeare troupe is back again, this time on a lonely island with Prospero as their muse. The Tempest is showing two times for free this weekend at Riverside Park, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm. Also on Friday, the swim club will meet up at Pioneer Park for their annual meeting. And two more things for Saturday, first a Craft Supply Swap at the Cook Memorial library. If you have craft supplies in “good condition” they can be bought and traded for other supplies, bring them in. I just I wonder what constitutes “good condition” for craft supplies: at least half the glue hasn’t been eaten by a child? Also, Union is hosting their Grassroots Festival this weekend which will include over 20 yard sales, a car show, live music, a children’s fair, duck and lawnmower races, dancing, and Pioneer Days in the museum. The festival will go all day long Saturday and is generally free for the public. Bottom line, there’s a lot going on this weekend. None of you have any excuse to be anywhere but out and about.
It has been a fire-filled weekend. Sunday night, after a restful day of reading and relaxing, my girlfriend Lydia and I were looking out from my window on Depot St when, suddenly, we smelled smoke and noticed the air was a greyish tint. We were curious. So we went outside, walked down the alleyway behind some of the restaurants on Adams Avenue and, sure enough, there it was, a plume of smoke billowing from an air vent behind GC Asian fusion, a local Oriental restaurant in La Grande. We walked by casually, not really wanting to disturb the fire-fighters who were pulling up or the somewhat-frantic waiters milling around in the alleyway outside. Apparently the fire was the result of a small appliance downstairs at the restaurant. But what amazed Lydia and I was that there were still customers in the restaurant! Being served! That’s good customer service: they still serve your food, even when the floor is burning out from underneath them. Just kidding: the fire apparently wasn’t that big of a deal.
And and more weekend weirdness. There was an almost 13,000 person power black-out this weekend. You probably experienced it, like I did. I was in the office here, actually, editing a new LeGrandealive.tv short when, suddenly, all the power went out. I freaked out. Premiere closed, my project died, I yelled and screamed but, ultimately, nothing could be done. Everything was gone, my project, my edits, my last four hours of work. Frustrated, I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing until, about two hours later at around 5:45 PM, the power came back on and, fortunately, all of my work was there–auto save saved my ass once again. However other businesses that were actually didn’t have such an easy time of it. Businesses like Safeway and Granada theater and many small restaurants had to close during the time and many businesses with with a refrigerated section had to take special measures to save their produce. Ultimately, the blackout was caused by problem with a substation on Gekeler Lane. So what’s the moral of this story? Save your work. You never know when the power could go out or aliens could shoot an EMP and knock it out the electricity in their cataclysmic attack on Earth.
So enough of all this death and distraction and darkness! We need some fun things to cheer us up! And good news! There’s a lot of fun stuff going on, actually, so rejoice! First, the fair is going on in La Grande. Stock owners from hundreds of miles have gathered to show their pigs, cows, horses, goats, and more, to struct in stride and pose their little critters in all sorts of interesting ways and, ultimately, to have fun time getting together and petting furry creatures, just having a rooten-tooten-gooden small town time. It’s happening at the fairgrounds all week weekend long. It opened yesterday with with cream and egg pies for show, exotic small animals judging, amusement carnivals, a talent show, a parade downtown, and the Wasteland Kings capping off the evening. Today it continued with booths and more carnival rides. Tonight at 6pm Becky’s Studio of Dance will perform, and at 8pm the Wheat landers will perform music. Tomorrow, Friday, the fair opens back up at 8am, booths at 10pm, the carnival at 2pm, and at 7:30pm Mary Kate will visit the event. Saturday at 4 PM the junior market auction will take place all the way until 5:30 when Blue Tattoo will perform. Ashes to Ashes will also perform at 8:30 that night. Sunday is the last day for the fair, and at 3pm all exhibits are released. Ultimately, admission is six bucks for adults, four dollars for kids 7 to 17 years old, and there’s also season passes available for $12 and $18 respectively. Veterans are five dollars, and on Thursday night seniors over 60 get in for free. For more information check out their website at unioncountyfair.org.
I met Fred Hill in 2011. I was contacted by Eric Valentine about doing a video about Fred, or I guess, rather, about a pre-death memorial that he and George Venn were holding for Fred. I agreed. I went. I met Fred, and, in perfect Fred style, the first thing he did was tell me a joke. I can’t really remember what the joke was, probably something about my camera equipment or me being a tall drink of water. But what I do remember is chuckling a little bit, not quite knowing what to do with this small, smiling old man who everybody thought was so darn cool and apparently was a really great photographer. Fred died this weekend. I’ve heard about it from multiple places from multiple people: from Stacey at US Bank where Frank where Fred would help get out cookies every Friday. From Brent Clapp who had conversations with him about photography and video and wanted desperately to do an interview with him, but now will never get a chance From Margaret down at direct music who went to church with him, who smiled when she talked about him. From the feature in the Observer. Fred was well loved in this community. So we here at LaGrandeAlive thought it might be nice to do a little memorial interview Eric Valentine, one of his closest friends and a fellow photographer, to mourn the loss and celebrate his life. 
They found a pipe bomb in Wallawa lake! Apparently, last Friday morning some divers were swimming around in the lake and found what looked like a pipe bomb. And, in fact it was! A real life pipe bomb! The bomb was taken off site and detonated. But the most interesting thing about this whole situation for me is that this isn’t really abnormal. Apparently, people find these kinds of explosives in random locations all the time! Generally, they come from past mining operations. Go figure. So, if you’re randomly walking around your property one day, looking at the flowers, smelling the fresh-cut grass, and you casually step on anything that’s looks like a pipe bomb, it very well might be. So, don’t pick it up and shake it or give it to your dog as a chew toy. And certainly don’t throw it in a public lake.
And speaking of pipes, Union is trying to get rid of all its pot. (dear lord, first the deer, now the pot) Over 200 members of the community have signed a petition (Union certainly likes their petitions) and apparently there were actually almost 40 more signatures than were necessary to actually make it a ballot. They just went door-to-door and got people to sign the petition. If passed, the petition would ban the sale production and processing of all marijuana in union for rec relational purposes. The next step for the petition is to be processed by City of Union then to be sent to the county clerk’s office where it will become a ballot measure. Now I’m not a pothead myself, but I do feel bad for the people growing it. On one hand they have the deer eating all their crops. Then the city comes after them and tries to take their pot gardens away! It’s a hard life as a recreational grower. I wonder what a stoned deer acts like? Anyways, what do you think you think LaGrandeAlive? Do you think the pot should be banned in Union or elsewhere? What level should individual cities and towns have to be able to deny a larger ordinance? Is it really solving the problem if there’s still medical growers in the city-limits? Is there a better way of dealing with pot then banning it outright? Or is this the right way to go?
But Union County isn’t the only one that are worried about people blazin’. As of tomorrow, Friday, August 28, at 12:01 AM, new fire restrictions will be in effect. As everyone knows, it’s getting hot outside. And with the comes more fires not of cannabinoid origins. Think thousand-acre fires that burn down houses and forests. And the Oregon Department of Forestry is instituting tight strictures, including prohibitions on campfires, circle fires, cooking fires, warming fires, debris burning, smoking while traveling (except in vehicles on paved roads) nonindustrial chainsaw use during certain times of the day, cutting, grinding, and welding metal outside during those same times a day, fireworks, exploding targets, tracer ammunition, and anything else that could cause a big, big burn. If it can start a fire, don’t use it, or at least make sure that when you use it you’re falling under the new ODF guidelines. As the Union potheads always say, don’t toke unless you’re on a concrete road. If the Union pitchforks don’t getcha, the Oregon Department of Forestry certainly will.
