Dog, owner
reunited after
four years 3A
BUCKS HOST
DAWGS IN CRC
FINALE BASEBALL/1B
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015
139th Year, No. 151
Your Weekend
•
•
•
Bark for Life, Saturday
at McKenzie Park
Pendleton Underground
Tour comes alive
“The Orphans” at the
Bob Clapp Theatre
For times and places
see Coming Events, 5A
Catch a movie
WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Oregon families should get
$284 in tax rebates next year
By SHEILA V KUMAR
Associated Press
SALEM — Oregon families
should get an average of $284 in
tax rebates next year, state econo-
mists said Thursday, citing a strong
economy and a bump in job growth.
Economists say the rebates will
total nearly $473 million, or $123
million more than was predicted
in February, when economists said
taxpayers would receive nearly
$350 million in tax rebates.
The steady economic improve-
ments have led the state to collect
slightly more than projected in
both corporate and personal income
taxes.
Unlike previous rebates, which
used to be distributed as a check
in the mail around Christmas,
More inside:
PSD superintendent cautiously
optimistic about state revenue
forecast Page 12A
Oregonians will instead receive a
tax credit and pay less when they
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Josh Lehner, senior economist at
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Analysis
“It’s a credit on the tax return so
you don’t get the check in the mail,
you just get lower taxes to pay in
April,” he said.
Oregon’s one-of-a-kind “kicker”
law is triggered when tax collec-
tions exceed projections by at
See REBATES/12A
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures via AP
Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron
star in the action-packed
“Mad Max: Fury Road.”
For showtime, Page 5A
For review, Weekend EO
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
71/52
73/46
71/47
HERMISTON
City budget
promotes
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By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A new paint job for Herm-
iston’s water tower is one of
several community enhance-
ment projects built into the
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The budget committee
spent three hours going
over the $57 million budget
Wednesday night before
approving it for recommen-
dation to the Hermiston City
Council.
The $40,000 set aside for
a more aesthetically pleasing
paint job on the water tower
was representative of the
city’s goals for a more
visually appealing city.
The budget also included a
$100,000 reserve fund for
projects by the Community
Enhancement
Committee
formed a year ago.
The committee released
a list of priorities recently
that included a “downtown
gateway” at the intersection
of Southeast Second Street
See HERMISTON/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sunridge Middle School sixth-graders take an art class on the banks of Buck Creek at the Pendleton School District’s Outdoor School
Thursday in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton.
Nurtured by nature
Coalition wants statewide
funding for Outdoor School
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Preserving Outdoor School in
Pendleton and Hermiston hasn’t
always been easy.
On more than one occasion,
budget cuts have forced the districts
to write Outdoor School off the
books. But each time, dedicated
parents and community members
have stepped up to raise the money
needed to keep it operating.
Now, a statewide coalition of
parents, educators and local govern-
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state funding to provide Outdoor
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Oregon, with a pair of bills currently
before lawmakers in Salem.
The Oregon Outdoor Education
Coalition formed over the last year
to give advocates of Outdoor School
a single unifying voice, urging the
importance of the program that was
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County.
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Pendleton in 1971, and has been run
continuously since — despite a few
close calls along the way. Caroline
Fitchett, who coordinates the state-
See SCHOOL/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Biological research technician Tami Johlke, with the USDA
Agricultural Research Center, teaches a class on soil erosion
Thursday at the Pendleton School District’s Outdoor School in the
Blue Mountains east of Pendleton.
County drought requests head to governor
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Brown
The Oregon Drought
Council will forward eight
more requests from counties
seeking an emergency drought
declaration to Gov. Kate
Brown, including requests from
Umatilla, Morrow and Grant
counties in Eastern Oregon.
Keith Mills, state engineer
for the Water Resources Depart-
ment in Salem, said there was
little disagreement among the
Water Availability Committee
at Thursday’s meeting.
“We have no snow,” Mills
said. “We don’t expect condi-
tions to recover throughout the
state.”
Requests
from
Lane,
Deschutes, Josephine, Jackson
and Wasco counties will also
be sent to the governor. Brown
has already declared drought
emergencies in Klamath, Lake,
Harney, Malheur, Baker, Crook
and Wheeler counties.
If Brown signs off on all the
requests, the 15 counties in a
declared state of drought would
far surpass last year’s total of
nine as brutally dry conditions
creep north across the state.
Snowpack is almost entirely
melted in the Umatilla, Walla
Walla, Willow Creek and John
Day basins, with less-than-av-
erage total precipitation to boot.
That has left streams and
reservoirs dangerously low
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area. Water releases started
out of McKay Reservoir near
Pendleton on April 21, about
two months ahead of schedule,
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trucking spring chinook up the
Umatilla River.
See DROUGHT/12A