LA GRANDE OBSERVER_07-23-12

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ALSO IN SPORTS

CALIF. MAN VICTOR IN LOCAL TRIATHLON

HOME

SWEETS THAT REQUIRE NO HEAT

SERVING UNION AND WALLOWA COUNTIES SINCE 1896

Habitat for Humanitv

Making a difference Dick Mason /The Observer

Tim Hanshew of Mountain West Moving and Storage carries a chair into Imbler Elementary's new school.

Imbler moves imoits new school Dick Mason Brad Mosher i Observe r photos

David Still, Kayla Clement, Lonnie Lester and Burr Betts work together to move a wall in place Saturday at a home being built by the Grande Ronde Valley Habitat for Humanity for Humanity program.

Volunteers make progress on Grande Ronde Valley Habitat for Humanity's ninth house Dick Mason The Observer

Mother Nature is smiling on Grande Ronde Valley Habitat for Humanity volunteers this summer. Smiling almost a bit too brightly. Volunteers are hard at work each Wednesday and Saturday at 2208 North Pine Street building a Habitat for Humanity home. Volunteers are making significant progress on the home thanks in part to warm sunny days. "The weather has been almost too good," said David Still, president of the Grande Ronde Valley Habitat for Humanity Board. Still explained that that on some days the weather has been a bit too hot for comfort. This has not stopped volunteers from making significant progress. Construction started in late spring and should be complete by the end of summer, Still said. Framing of the interior walls was completed Saturday and on Wednesday triangular truss units for the roofwill be set. Par Satar measures his work Saturday at a Habitat for Humanity home being

The Observer

IMBLER - Wednesday was a red-letter day in the history of the Imbler School District. A day some people thought would never come. The district's new $4 million elementary building, in a manner of speaking, officially became a functioning school. Professional movers, district staff and community volunteers carried almost everything out of the old grade school and into its new one. Work started at 7 a.m. and was completed by about 6 p.m. Desks, chan·s, tables, books, maps, globes, cooking equipment and much more were moved. "It is great to have this portion done," said Imbler School District Superintendent Doug Hislop. The bulk of the move was made by a 25-man crew from Mountain West Moving & Storage of La Grande. Mountain West charged the Imbler School District only for its labor and not for supplies and equipment. Kaiger Braseth, the general manager of Mountain West Moving & Storage, said the work was done at cost because he wants to reach out to the school district. "It is important to us and our family to support the school," Braseth said. He noted that he had has wife Teresa are the parents offour children, ages 16 months to five years. Their oldest child will be attending Imbler Elementary this fall and their three younger childTen will be attending in the next several years. Braseth said he is impressed with how Imbler and Summerville communities have stepped forward to get a new school built. Voters in the school district approved a $4 million bond to finance the construction of the school in September of2010.

See Habitat I Page 2A built at 2208 North Pine Street in La Grande. See Imbler I Page 2A

Wherein

Wallowa County did a tornado hit in 1968?

An article on tornadoes in Oregon in The Observer on Friday reported that a 1968 tornado in Wallowa County destroyed 1,800 acres of timber. Where in Wallowa County did the tomado hit? The tomado struck an area near Thomason Meadows about 30 miles northeast of Enterprise. The twister struck

INDEX Classifi ed ....... 4B Comics ........... 3B Community ... 5A Crossw ord ..... 68 Dear Abby ... 108

Record ........... 3A Obituaries ...... 5A Opi nio n .......... 4A Sports ............ 1C Sudo ku .......... 38

WEDNESDAY IN BUSINESS

••••

DICK MASON

in the late afternoon of June 11, 1968. The magnitude of the twister rates very high in state history. ".. .It may well have been one of the strongest tomadoes

WEATHER Ho me ............. 1B Ho roscope ..... 6B Letters ............4A Lottery............ 2A Movies ........... 2A

ever to strike the Northwest, according to "The Oregon Weather Book," by George Taylor and Raymond Hatton, a work published in 1999. The authors listed the tornado as the most damaging in state history and also one of the most mysterious because

ANSWER MAN

Full forecast on the back of B sectio n

Tonight

Tuesday

41

82/49

Clear

LOW

Sunny

few people saw it. The tornado devastated an area along along a path onehalf to two-miles wide and 8 to the 10 miles long. More than 40 million board feet of timber were blown down during the storm. Several men working in the area saw the tornado hit but nobody was injured ac-

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Call The Observer newsroom at 541 -963-3161 or send an email to news @lagrandeobserver.com. More contact info on Page 4A.

Issue 132 3 sectio ns, 22 pages La Grande, Orego n

BLACKSMITHING FORGES BOND

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con:ling to the June 20, 1968, edition of the Wallowa County Chieftain. One man reported that the tornado sounded like "... a hundred freight trains roaring past." Another witness reported that the sky was "as dark as coal"just before the storm hit. The five-minute tomado See Tornado I Page 2A

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Online at lagrandeobserver.com

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