Fishtrap names new director 
After a year-long nationwide search, Fishtrap, the Wallowa County non-profit that promotes writers and writing in the West, has named current Development Director Rick Bombaci to replace Rich Wandschneider as Executive Director. The transition will take place over the next 90 days, after which time Wandschneider will take a half-time position developing the Alvin Josephy Library of Western History and Culture at Fishtrap, as well as a Fishtrap Endowment Fund.
Bombaci had not originally applied for the Director’s job, but as the process went on and staff and Board looked at current Fishtrap needs, they decided that the person who had helped the organization gain fiscal strength and program stability over the past four years should be given the top job. Bombaci sees his role as one of solidifying financial and program gains.
A 28-year resident of Wallowa County, Bombaci worked for the Forest Service and as a high school business teacher in Enterprise before launching Blue Mountain Computer, which he owned and operated for 20 years before selling in 2003. He then went to work with Wallowa Resources as its Business Development Officer, and with Fishtrap.
The recently completed “Wallowa County Reads” program, in which hundreds of Wallowa County students and adults read and discussed Craig Lesley’s book River Song, is one of the new programs that Bombaci has helped make an important part of Fishtrap’s offerings. The Eastern Oregon Writers in Residence Program, which duplicates in four other eastern Oregon counties Fishtrap’s locally successful ten-year-old program, and Wallowa County’s SMART reading program are other recent additions to Fishtrap’s conferences, classes, and workshops. With a current annual budget of $350,000, Fishtrap has doubled in size in the past four years.
Wandschneider agrees that program and financial stability should be the new focus. He has praise for Bombaci, current staffers Janis Carper and Zanni Schauffler, and all who have served on Fishtrap boards over the past 20 years, but thinks it is time for him to move on. “Rick has more experience than I do managing budgets and employees. Fishtrap can no longer be operated out of a hip pocket.” Wandschneider looks forward to working on a library dream that he and Alvin Josephy talked about for years--a dream that is fueled by over 2000 books and journals left to Fishtrap by the well-known historian who made Joseph his part-time home for over 40 years.
Winter Fishrap at Wallowa Lake Lodge is on for February 22-24, and the 21st annual Summer Fishtrap Workshops and Gathering will be held at Wallowa Lake Camp in July. Bombaci invites questions and comments on all Fishtrap programs, and notes that Fishtrap will continue to serve its two primary audiences, the students and citizens of Wallowa County, and readers and writers from across the region interested in promoting “clear thinking and good writing in and about the West.”