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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2015)
REGION Tuesday, April 14, 2015 East Oregonian Page 3A Community gives emotional response to schools budget By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian In their visit to Boardman, the members of the Joint Ways and Means Committee got an unexpect- edly emotional response from the local educational community. Voices cracked and tears were shed while teachers, administra- tors and students appealed to the committee Saturday to increase the state’s K-12 education budget. The Oregon Lesislature passed a $7.3 billion budget earlier this month, which will cause some area school districts to cut positions and programs. “I come from a business back- ground and we can’t treat our schools like businesses,” Umatilla School Board member Jon Lor- ence said. “There’s differences. We can’t turn students away. We can’t raise our price of tuition. We can’t choose who our clients are.” Lorence said Umatilla has al- ready cut 29 positions since 2009 while gaining 66 students and will have to cut more to close the GH¿FLW WKH GLVWULFW QRZ faces because of the state budget. Umatilla School District Super- intendent Heidi Sipe said she had to inform three employees of their layoffs last week in addition to re- assigning 15 employees. “To have education funded at this level, it feels ... like education isn’t valued any longer and it breaks our heart.” — Heidi Sipe, Umatilla School District Superintendent “When we were in the recession and our staff was being asked to do more and more and more with less, it was a patriotic duty,” she said. “We all understood. We had to pull together. We had to do it. But ZKHQ ¿QDQFLDO WLPHV DUH EHWWHU WR have education funded at this level, it feels ... like education isn’t valued any longer and it breaks our heart.” Sipe and Lorence’s impassioned speeches were matched by their daughters’ pleas to the committee. Umatilla High School student Cameron Sipe said the recent spate of budget cuts has convinced her to become an architect instead of a teacher like her mother and father. Unlike her classmate, Megan Lorence still planned to become a teacher, but was unsure about the ¿HOG¶VIXWXUH “When I become an educator, what will be left for me?” she said, Photo by Antonio Sierra Students from Clara Brownell Middle School in Umatilla hold up signs at a Joint Ways and Means Committee meeting in Board- man Saturday. The “755” represents the $755 million Oregon uni- versities are asking for from the Legislature. ¿JKWLQJ EDFN WHDUV ³:KDW ZLOO EH left for the students?” Pendleton School Board Chair- man Steve Umbarger said his dis- WULFWZLOOUXQDGH¿FLWWKH QH[W¿VFDO\HDUZKLFKZLOOEHPDGH worse if Pendleton voters don’t ap- prove a general operations tax levy next month. %HFDXVH RI WKH GH¿FLW KH VDLG the district will consider staff re- ductions, fewer school days and half-day programs for juniors and seniors. In an interview after the meet- ing, Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ash- land, who co-chairs the Joint Ways and Means Committee, said the Legislature will reanalyze the K-12 education budget after the May forecast. Forty percent of any additional HERMISTON One Book One Community author to visit April 22 By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian There is only one week left to read this year’s One Book One Communi- ty novel before the author comes to Hermiston. Charles Martin, author of “A Life Intercepted,” will be in town April 22. Martin said it was a surprise to get the call notifying him that his book had been selected for this year’s com- munity-wide reading project spon- sored by the Altrusa Literacy Com- mittee. “I’m really honored,” he said. “I think it’s really cool that they would do that.” The novel — Martin’s 11th — tells the story of Matthew “The Rocket” Rising, a superstar college football quarterback accused of rape the morn- LQJ DIWHU KH VLJQHG KLV ¿UVW FRQWUDFW with the NFL. Twelve years later, out of prison and registered as a sex offend- er, he returns to his hometown to try to convince his beloved wife Audrey that he was falsely accused. Martin said he was interested in ZULWLQJWKHVWRU\RIDJRRGPDQ¿JKWLQJ with everything he has to keep the love of his life, despite convincing evidence she should leave him. “I wanted the reader to think he could never prove he was innocent, WRUHTXLUHKLPWRUHDOO\¿JKWIRUKHU´ Martin said. )RU 0DWWKHZ ¿JKWLQJ IRU $XGUH\ means risking more prison time in or- der to train a teenage quarterback she has come to think of like a son. Martin said even though the book details those Charles Martin training sessions and The Rocket’s in- sights on the game, he wouldn’t classi- fy it as a “football book.” “What I had hoped to do is write a love story in the packaging of foot- ball,” he said. Still, Martin’s love for the game is evident in those passages. His own college football career consisted of one year as a walk-on at Georgia Tech be- fore he got injured. He thought he had put that disappointment behind him until he found himself cheering on the sidelines of his son’s high school foot- ball game. “I unpacked my love of football in writing the story,” he said. As for the love story, he said he UHÀHFWHGRQKLVRZQ\HDUROGPDU- riage. “Any female lead I write has some element of my wife,” he said. He found himself in an interesting position when “A Life Intercepted” came out the same week as the real-life video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an elevator. Suddenly Martin found himself being asked on live television for insight on misbehav- ing star athletes, something he doesn’t have any experience with beyond writ- ing a book about it. “It did end up having a pop culture relevance I didn’t expect,” he said. However, Martin said his books has been called optimistic and redemptive. He likes to use the word hopeful. He said the world is fed a “steady diet of hopelessness” in the news and on so- cial media and he wants to give people a reason to think things can get better. ³, ZRXOG OLNH SHRSOH WR ¿QLVK P\ stories and have something bubbling up inside of them, some hope that wasn’t there before,” he said. After working with students at Hermiston High School, Martin will speak at the Eastern Oregon Higher Education Center at 7 p.m. on April 22. He said the evening will include perspectives on “A Life Intercepted,” questions from the audience and most likely a sneak peek at his new book “Water From My Heart,” which comes out on May 19. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdow- ell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564- 4536. Milton-Freewater horse with injured hoof euthanized By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian The woman who was set to take custody of an injured horse near Milton-Freewa- ter reported a veterinarian had to euthanize the animal. Mae, a thoroughbred, lived in a pasture on Hurst Lane north of the small city. Last year the horse suffered an injury to its left rear hoof. Nila Jackson who lives near the pasture told law en- forcement and the East Or- egonian the animal was not receiving treatment. Cindy Mader learned of the horse and offered to take it off the hands of Chris Keeling, who was in Portland and claimed he could no longer care for the animal. Mader said she brought a veterinarian with her Friday to check out the horse, and the news was not good. Mae was sweaty and in a fever, Mader said, and the infection from the hoof had spread into her hip. Mader said she also talked to peo- ple who were familiar with the horse, and they claimed it was 200 to 300 pounds underweight. Mader said the veterinar- ian determined Mae was too far gone to save. “At least now she’s in a better place,” Mader said. Mader, though, would not identify the veterinari- an. Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said the death of the horse will not stymie an investigation into possi- ble animal neglect, but the VKHULII¶V RI¿FH ZLOO QHHG WR talk to the veterinarian. Such accounts can carry a lot of weight in neglect cases, Rowan said, because veterinarians are experts who can speak about living conditions and the health of the animal. That kind of information can negate the need for a necropsy, Rowan said. Keeling claimed last week in spite of what looked like an injured hoof, the horse was not in need of medical help. The East Or- egonian left him a message Monday. He did not return the call. ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0833. tax collections featured in the fore- cast will go toward education. The Democrat said if districts like Pendleton and Umatilla still come up short, the Legislature will try to “wrestle” with the budget to ¿QG RWKHU VRXUFHV RI UHYHQXH WR cover the difference. Besides K-12 education, representatives from Blue Mountain Community Col- lege, Eastern Oregon University and Oregon State University Exten- sion Services also requested more money for their budgets. Outside of education, the other frequent testimony topic was state support for increasing agricultural water supply. Umatilla County Commission- er Bill Elfering said a study from OSU economist Bruce Sorte states increased water development could generate $2.5 billion in economic development. Craig Reeder, chairman of the Northeastern Oregon Water Asso- ciation, said a fully funded Ore- gon Water Resources Department would allow his group to com- mence construction on multiple shovel-ready projects that would return “hundreds of millions of dol- lars” worth of taxable infrastructure revenue to the state. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asi- erra@eastoregonian.com or 541- Ambre changes name to Lighthouse Resources By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The company work- ing to build a coal export terminal at the Port of Morrow in Boardman has changed its name. Ambre Energy North America is now Light- house Resources Inc., of- ¿FLDOVDQQRXQFHG0RQGD\ President and CEO Ev- erett King said the new QDPHLVDUHÀHFWLRQRIWKH company’s core business strategy and values. Ambre Energy is an Australian company that KRSHG WR EH WKH ¿UVW WR export coal from the Pa- FL¿F1RUWKZHVW/DVW\HDU shareholders voted to sell all North American coal assets to a Denver-based SULYDWH HTXLW\ ¿UP IRU $18 million after failing to draw additional investors. As Lighthouse Resourc- es, the project’s leadership team remains intact but fac- es a number of challenges moving forward. The Or- egon Department of State Lands previously rejected D UHPRYH¿OO SHUPLW QHHG- ed to build the Boardman dock and an appeal won’t be heard until December. The Oregon Transporta- tion Commission has also rejected a $2 million Con- nectOregon grant needed for dock improvements at Port Westward. The project did, howev- er, secure its fourth permit approval from the Oregon Department of Environ- mental Quality on March 31. Lighthouse spokes- woman Liz Fuller said they still believe their proposal meets environmental stan- GDUGV DQG DUH FRQ¿GHQW they will win their appeal with the Department of State Lands. “I think we’ve had as many advancements with the project in recent weeks,” Fuller said. At $242 million, Light- house Resources says Mor- URZ 3DFL¿F ZLOO SURYLGH much-needed jobs and in- vestment in rural Oregon. Environmental groups and tribes oppose the project, citing coal’s negative im- pact on climate change and the dock’s interference ZLWKWULEDO¿VKHULHV ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564- 4547. Annu al H eritage H om e Tou r A fun-filled event with refreshments , presentation on the various home styles found in Pendleton, and a tour of two turn-of- the-century mansions. Saturday, May 2 nd Heritage Station Museum Two tour sessions offered: 11 AM – 2 PM or 12:15 PM to 3 PM Tickets: $20 if bought in advance: $30 on day of event. Call Heritage Station Museum at 541-276-0012 for information 3rd Annual Mammoth Cup BRIEFLY Misaligned track caused derailment PENDLETON — Union 3DFL¿FKDVGHWHUPLQHG a track out of alignment caused the March 2 derailment of a train near Meacham Creek. A total of 10 cars jumped the tracks in a narrow, steep- sloped canyon in the Blue Mountains where the tracks run on an embankment overlooking the creek. One of the tank cars was carrying UHVLGXDOOLTXH¿HGSHWUROHXP gas, and another was loaded with approximately 20,000 gallons of a compound used to make glues and sealants. No hazardous materials were leaked into the environment. An EPA spokesman said last week the wreck had been cleared. Golf Tournament Live From Nashville – Free Event!! Sunday, May 17 Wildhorse Resort Golf Course w ww .Blackw oodLegacy.co m ! " FIRST FRIDAYS ARE FREE! This ad sponsored by East Oregonian. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm 541.429.7700 www.tamastslikt.org
