LETTER: Commissioners elitists on grass

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, August 20, 2013

To the Editor:

Picture this: Multi-generational families and people from up and down the County, as well as out-of-town guests, gathered on a lawn in mid-town Enterprise on a summer evening to enjoy good food, good music and good fun while children happily play among us.

We have nostalgically recalled the summer band concerts in the hometowns of our youth as we strolled through the Community Farmers Market late Thursday afternoons, then set up our lawn chairs or spread our blanket to enjoy a picnic of local foods on the courthouse lawn while listening to great free music live from the gazebo, 5:30 – 7:00: the Wallowa Valley Music Alliances Courthouse Concert Series.

In summer 2013 it is still happening, but our courthouse lawn now features a series of coldly unattractive red-lettered DO NOT or NO signs, accompanied by yards of bright pink tape warning people off the grass and off the (closed) courthouse steps. Some of these people are veterans, who are honored in brick and stone elsewhere on the courthouse grounds just so long as they are dead.

We hadnt realized that our elected County Commissioners have become such elitists. It appears that the commoners who make up much of Wallowa County (you know the folks who raise our beef, fruits and veggies, who play their guitars, mandolins, upright basses and mountain dulcimers while singing their songs, and those who come to patronize and enjoy it all) give offense to the Commissioners by using the lawn for three hours once a week, June through August.

We have always thought of this as our public land, maintained by our property taxes. Our mistake. Little guys should not enjoy just send in your checks on November 15th.