Archives for January 2018

The La Grande City Council will conduct a work session at 6 p.m. tonight in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 1000 Adams Ave. The purpose of this work session is for the council to discuss the process it will use to determine whether or not to ask voters to repeal the ban on recreational marijuana businesses and impose a 3 percent tax on recreational sales in November 2018.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum along with 19 other attorney generals wrote to Congress urging them to advance legislation allowing states with legalized medical or recreational marijuana to bring that commerce into the banking system. Banks are currently hindered by federal law from providing financial services to marijuana businesses, even in states where those businesses are regulated.

An end-of-the-month community dance will begin at 6:30PM Saturday, at the Union County Senior Center in La Grande. Live music by the Blue Mountaineers, door prizes, a finger-food potluck, and George Neer’s “famous homemade ice cream.” Admission is $3, and age 12 and younger get in free. All are welcome.

Everyone is invited to the Elgin Depot tonight at 6, to watch “Union Pacific,” a film telling the epic story of the building of the transcontinental railroad across the United States.

Contractors will be performing maintenance work on the electric systems in the Baker City area on Sunday. The work will result in the temporary shut down, between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m of the Main Street/Broadway Street and the Main Street/Washington Avenue intersections. Drivers are advised to treat those intersections as four-way stops.

An Enterprise family lost their home to flames Monday afternoon. The home of Ken and Annie Nash on Alder Slope, was completely engulfed in flames when crews arrived. Firefighters fought the fire for an hour, but the home couldn’t be saved. Nobody was hurt.

A La Grande home with three apartments is a total loss after a fire yesterday. Everyone inside the structure on Fourth Street was able to get out safely. The home was directly across the street from La Grande Middle School. . Other homes in the area were spared

Congratulations and happy birthday wishes to Union County farmer Bill Hawkins, who turns 100 years old this month. Hawkins has been married for 76 years to his 97 year old wife, Camille. He was born in La Grande in January 1918, and graduated from La Grande High School in 1935. He says while in Europe, he remembers hearing Adolf Hitler speak using a megaphone to a crowd from a rooftop. Hawkins worked for the railroads.

Measure 101… calling for a fee on hospitals and insurance companies that funds Medicaid, is passing by a large majority statewide here in Oregon, but Union County voters are not all that excited about it. Latest returns show Union County rejecting the measure by almost 57 percent. It is also not doing well in Wallowa County, where almost 51 percent oppose it.

Four La Grande Middle School students had the thrill of a lifetime recently at the Oregon Music Educators Association all-state choir concert in Eugene. Seventh-graders Owen Rinker and Weston Durfee and eighth-graders Megan Carpenter and Jarom Huntsman all were selected to sing solos or perform, during the all-state middle school choir concert on Jan. 12 at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.