LaVon Hall, a member of the Historic Union Community Hall Board, examines a copy of a painting of the Last Supper on Saturday, April 17, 2021, in the chapel of what is now part of the Catherine Creek Community Center, Union.Alex Wittwer/The Observer
UNION â Sounds that could pass for echoes of the past, elegant architectural features of yesteryear and hidden history.
The old Methodist Church building complex in Union has all this plus something it did not appear to have until two months ago â a promising future.
The former Union United Methodist Church building complex, now named the Catherine Creek Community Center, no longer is in peril after a new local nonprofit, the Friends of the Historic Union Community Hall, purchased it from the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The nonprofit raised $25,000 to make the purchase, which was finalized Feb. 24.
LA GRANDE â Morgan Lake Road soon may be safer to travel.
The Union County Board of Commissioners voted Monday, April 12, to apply for a $99,847 matching grant from the state the county needs before it can receive about $1.2 million from the stateâs All Roads Safety Transportation program for a Morgan Lake Road improvement project, which calls for widening the steep gravel road and installing guardrails.
The project may not go forward unless the state receives the required matching grant by 2022, according to Union County Commissioner Paul Anderes. Should the grant come through by then, project construction could start in 2023.
The match funding grant Union County is requesting would come from a portion of the $2.6 billion Oregon will receive from the American Rescue Plan Act, which Congress passed in early March for COVID-19 pandemic relief, according Courtney Warner Crowell, coordinator for Gov. Kate Brownâs Regional Solutions Program. This programâs advisory