Thursday is the first day of summer, and that means we’re in the early weeks of wildfire season.

Last Wednesday’s Chieftain had a story in which Northeast Oregon experts predicted that this year’s wildfire season would be somewhat more typical than last year, when an unexpected August rainstorm (fueled by the remnants of Hurricane Hilary) drenched the region, and put a damper on fire starts for the rest of the summer. 

No one expects anything like that to happen this year. And predicting a “somewhat more typical” fire season leaves a lot of range. 

So Saturday was a good time for Wallowa County’s four Firewise communities to gather for the second annual Firewise Roundup. The meeting was a chance for the communities — which work together to make their homes less vulnerable to wildfire and to reduce wildfire risks — to compare notes and to get ready for the season. You can read more about the Fireside Roundup in Wednesday’s Chieftain (and, of course, that story will be posted online at our website, wallowa.com, as soon as it’s ready).

We’ve got other stories in the works for Wednesday’s paper (and some already are online). Here’s a sampling:

• The city of Enterprise says a temporary fix could allow it to open the Montclair Street Bridge, possibly as early as the end of this month.

• I covered last week’s statewide online debate on Oregon’s urban-rural divide sponsored by the nonprofit group Braver Angels. Plenty of voices from Eastern Oregon spoke up — on both sides of the debate resolution. 

• Ann Bloom was on hand Saturday at the annual Flora School Days event; her report will also be featured in Wednesday’s paper, and online before that. 

• The Wallowa County Music Alliance is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. As the Courthouse Concert Series gets underway for another season, we’ll fill in the backstory of this remarkable organization. 

As a reminder, the Chieftain will suspend publication of its print edition beginning in July. We’ve already printed a number of stories about this and I wrote about the change in more detail in last week’s newsletter. (Thanks to those readers who pointed out, correctly, that “temporarily suspend” is redundant.)

Suspending publication of the print edition is one of a number of moves by the Chieftain’s parent company, the EO Media Group, to try to navigate a challenging business climate in which expenses are growing and advertising revenue is shrinking.

But there are some important points to keep in mind: The Chieftain’s website at wallowa.com will continue to operate, and I’ll be working to post fresh stories there every day. We are not going to stop providing local news.

I’ll say that again, because it’s important: We are not going to stop providing local news.

In addition, every subscriber to the print edition of the Chieftain will continue to receive a printed product: a regional edition of the East Oregonian that will be packed with as much Wallowa County news as I can squeeze into it. (The regional paper also will contain news generated by EO Media’s Eastern Oregon news operations in La Grande, Baker City, Pendleton, Hermiston and John Day.) EO Media’s Eastside editors still are working out plans for the paper.

I won’t lie: This is a lot of change in a short period of time. But my goal is to continue to keep providing as much local news as possible for the residents of Wallowa County. 

If you have questions about our pending changes, feel free to send me an email at mmcinally@wallowa.com. I can’t guarantee that I’ll have all the answers, but I’ll do the best I can.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to register your subscription for digital access to the Chieftain. Call 541-963-3161 to talk to a member of our customer service staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription. (The online edition also features a big selection of puzzles available only to subscribers.)

And let me clue you in on a new feature on our website that should help subscribers who are experiencing problems logging in. On the right side of the top navigation bar, you’ll see a “?” Click on it, and you’ll go to our new Help Center, designed specifically to help subscribers who are experiencing problems logging in. Log-in problems are a pain, and we’re hoping this feature helps you if you experience those. 

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank the Chieftain’s subscribers: It would be impossible for us to do this vital work without your support.

Mike McInally is the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. You can email him at editor@wallowa.com or mmcinally@wallowa.com.