County signs extension document for park
Final judgement on facility in a holding pattern
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, October 16, 2008 12:46 PM PDT
| |
| A final decision regarding ownership of the Cow Hollow Park (above, south of Nyssa) is still on hold but the Malheur County Court has expressed written interest regarding its plan to continue to oversee the facility. |
VALE — Malheur County officials are waiting for a federal decision on the disposition of Cow Hollow Park, southwest of Nyssa, regarding whether ownership will go to the county or to a veterans group that plans to turn the location into a housing development for homeless veterans.
At Wednesday’s County Court session, officials signed an extension of a revocable license from the General Services Administration, which allows the county to oversee and allow use of the park until the end of the year. How long the county will maintain jurisdiction over the park, however, is still undetermined.
The park was originally a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the 1930s and then a Japanese-American relocation camp during World War II. After the war, the site was turned into a recreation site with picnic areas, ball fields and other athletic facilities and maintained by the community from hunting proceeds and donations. Hunters were allowed to camp around the park and paid for hunting rights on local farms.
Cow Hollow Park and Recreation Association was formally organized in 1984 to care for the park, and it leased the property from the United States Bureau of Reclamation until a land exchange was made between the BOR and the United States Bureau of Land Management nearly four years ago. Management of the site was later returned to the BOR, which had the park declared as surplus earlier this year, and the Malheur County Court filed an application for ownership, with members of the park association and local residents agreeing to maintain it.
The park was then turned over to the GSA’s Property Disposal Division, which declared it surplus in the Federal Register.
A veterans organization, Vans for Vets, has also formally applied to take ownership of park with plans to use it to set up homes for homeless veterans.
“They have first shot at it,” Stephanie Williams, county counsel, said at a County Court session, Wednesday.
The applications will be reviewed by the Federal Housing Administration, she said. The county has sought assistance from Oregon’s congressional delegation to obtain ownership.
