April

April 6: The price tag on the proposed refurbishing of the Wallowa Lake Dam has jumped to about $21 million, says Dan Butterfield, president of the Wallowa Lake Irrigation District. The refurbishment of the century-old dam is intended to improve the spillways, include a fish passage, add more concrete for weight, replace the five conduit gates with new ones and to upgrade the electrical and instrumentation systems. Costs on the project have risen dramatically in recent years.

April 6: Eastern Oregon’s snowpack is melting faster than expected, worsening an ongoing drought and pointing to a very dry year if conditions continue. Scott Oviatt, a hydrologist and snow survey supervisor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service Oregon, a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said snow started melting almost two weeks earlier than usual, and many sites across the state hadn’t even reached their peak available snowpack levels before melt-off began in the lower elevations.

April 6: Nearly half of Wallowa County, as of last week, is in extreme drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Conditions are such that the county commissioners on April 6 declared a drought emergency, doing so more than a month earlier than they did in 2021. Drought conditions did not improve much during the winter, according to the Drought Monitor.

April 8: After hovering close to it for several weeks, a mark is reached in Region 9 hospitals that has not been seen in several months: Zero. That is, there were no COVID hospitalizations in the six counties, including Wallowa, that make up Region 9. It is the first time there hasn’t been a hospitalization tabbed by the Oregon Health Authority in the region since July 8, 2021, just before the start of the delta spike.

April 14: Sara Hayes is named the new principal at Wallowa’s junior high and high school. She will officially begin in the job on July 1 and in the meantime has been operating in tandem with Rollie Marshall as the interim principal, spending a day a week in the role. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Hayes, who began in education with Wallowa Head Start.

April 16: Maggie Zacharias is crowned queen of the 2022 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo during the dinner and program held Saturday, April 16, at the Thunder Room of the Harley Tucker Arena in Joseph. Zacharias, the daughter of Luke and Marilee Zacharias of Joseph, served previously as queen for the Elgin Stampede. She also has been active in FFA at Joseph Charter School.

April 22: Enterprise Junior/Senior High School is getting a new principal with widely varied experience as Megan Hunter prepares to take up the reins July 1. Hunter, who will replace longtime Principal Blake Carlsen, is coming to Enterprise most recently from Burns, where she’s worked for the Harney County School District.

April 26: After being mothballed since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dragon boats that regularly appear on Wallowa Lake are getting ready to breathe fire again. The Dragons on the Lake Paddle Club is planning a ceremony to “resurrect” the boats in coming weeks, said Trudy Turner, one of the organizers of the club. This time around, the club is to include more than the dragon boats. It is to include kayaks, outriggers and canoes, as well.

April 29: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued a kill permit for up to two wolves from the Chesnimnus Pack in Wallowa County. State wildlife biologists determined members of the pack were responsible for two confirmed attacks on livestock between April 25 and 27 on a public grazing allotment north of Joseph, resulting in three dead calves. ODFW can authorize lethal take of wolves that prey on livestock after two confirmed depredations in nine months. That is the current standard for “chronic depredation” in Eastern Oregon, where wolves were removed from the state endangered species list in 2015.

May

May 1: Connie Guentert takes over as the new executive director of Community Connection of Northeast Oregon. Guentert has been a part of Community Connection for 15 years, the past eight as the county manager in Wallowa County. She will continue to live in Wallowa County and will commute to the agency’s home office in La Grande.

May 17: Wallowa County voters cast 2,554 votes in the primary election. Winning candidates in the county tallies include Democrat Ron Wyden and Republican Darin Harbick for the U.S. Senate; Democrat Joe Yellin and Republican Cliff Bentz for the U.S. House and Democrat Tina Kotek and Republican Christine Drazan for Oregon governor.

May 18: The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners lays the groundwork for a new Wallowa County Road Service District. The commissioners voted to take advantage of a new law approved by the Oregon Legislature that allows counties to direct the state Department of Revenue to deposit federal money that ordinarily would go into the county Road Fund into the Road Service District instead. In essence, having such a road district in place would allow the county to bank additional federal money into its general fund. The proposal must be approved by voters in the November election.

May 25: Coming off one of the driest and hottest summers in recorded history, Wallowa County and much of Northeast Oregon benefits from a recent run of wet, cool weather. Cooler, wetter weather in April and to begin May has helped improve conditions in northern portions of Oregon. Nevertheless, Wallowa County still has areas of moderate, severe and extreme drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor released May 17.

May 25: As the tourism season begins with Memorial Day weekend, Wallowa County is set to rebound from the hindrances of the COVID-19 pandemic that put a dent in it over the past couple of years. Representatives of business organizations in the county express optimism that the coming season will be profitable and active. “It’s looking to be a very busy tourist season,” said Jennifer Piper, executive director of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce.

May 28: The 2022 season of the Wallowa County Farmers Market marks its 20th anniversary. It was in 2002 that the late Beth Gibans, a local organic producer, and a few others had the idea for a market that would feature fresh, locally sourced produce for sale and include artisans and craftsmen offering their products to visitors and community members. This year, the market is back without the COVID restrictions of the past two years.

May 29: A rare snowstorm drops more than 2 feet of snow over two days, forcing the closure of the Wallowa Lake Tramway on Sunday and Monday. “In my 45 years, I have not had a Memorial weekend like this,” Tramway President Mike Lockhart said. The Tramway, which goes from the bottom terminal at 4,450 feet to the top of Mount Howard at 8,150 feet, opened for the season two weeks ago.

June June 7: It’s another rough week for fuel prices, as the regular unleaded gas price at the Enterprise Texaco and Chevron stations increases 30 cents from the previous week to $5.59 a gallon. The price of a gallon of diesel at the Texaco station has hit $6.23 while the Enterprise Chevron is sitting at $5.99.

June 24: A crowd of more than 450 people, many of them families, turns out for Wallowa Resources’ 2022 Woodlands and Watersheds Festival at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds. Wallowa Resources and the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center partnered to celebrate the county’s cultural and natural resources.

June 26: With the rains apparently done for a while, Wallowa County farmers are making hay while the sun shines, as they mow their first cutting of alfalfa across the county. “It looks like we have a really good window toward putting hay up,” says Mark Butterfield, chairman of the Wallowa County Hay Growers. “I don’t think anybody’s complaining about extra moisture. It’s been a blessing both for the stockgrowers and us.”

June 27: Ground is officially broken for a bicycle playground to be built behind Wallowa Schools and plans are underway for an Aug. 20 grand opening, project leader Ron Pickens said. Pickens, a prevention coordinator and alternative school teacher with Building Healthy Families in Enterprise, spearheaded last year’s project to refurbish the Enterprise Skate Park. Since then, he’s been interested in seeing a similar project built in Wallowa.