Weekly News Roundup July 28-August 3, 2016
8 News Stories in 8 Minutes 56 Seconds!
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.
