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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2015)
BUCKS BEAT BULLDOGS Red, white and Adams TENNIS/1B 76/47 REGION/3A TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015 139th Year, No. 133 WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar Umatilla County Budget Consolidation gives county wiggle room Sheriff will ask for funding for two more deputies By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Griswold High School documentary fl immakers Bradey Cope and Paden Flerchinger will be competing at this years’ National History Day Contest with their historical documentary about Walter W. Waters and the Bonus Army. HISTORY IN HELIX 7HHQ¿OPPDNHUVZLQWLFNHWWRQDWLRQDOFRPSHWLWLRQ By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian More online 2UHJRQLDQ FROXPQLVW -HII 0DSHV last year dubbed tiny Griswold High School “a farm team for the History Channel.” Located in Helix, population 184, the school is a perennial power at the state National History Day competi- tion in Portland. Helix students have traveled to Washington, D.C., for the national competition the last 13 years in a row where the Helix documen- WDU\¿OPPDNHUVPDNHWKH¿QDOVZLWK regularity. This year, two Helix teams will DJDLQFRPSHWHDWQDWLRQDOV-XQH DIWHUZLQQLQJ¿UVWDQGVHFRQGIRUEHVW To view past documentaries produced by Helix students, go to mrkspages.weebly.com/ documentary-archive.html. This year’s documentaries will be posted this summer after the National History Day Contest in Washington D.C. documentary Saturday at the state competition at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. The winning duo, Bradey Cope and Paden Flerchinger, also earned the competition’s Best Entry Award among the almost 100 participants in multiple categories. The team won airfare to D.C. With their 10-minute video, the young documentarians introduce viewers to a man named Walter W. Waters. The World War I veteran from Burns led a protest in Washing- ton, D.C., that some say eventually led to creation of the G.I. Bill, a law that provides education and low-cost loans to service members. Waters had returned home from war and looked for work. As with many other men who had fought in WWI, his savings were depleted and MREVZHUHKDUGWR¿QG&RQJUHVVKDG authorized a one-time payment to veterans, but it wouldn’t be given un- til years later. See HISTORY/8A Umatilla County’s pro- posed budget of $68.9 mil- lion for 2015-16 holds the line on staff and services. The county begins budget discus- sions Wednesday morning. County Commission- er George Murdock, chief budget writer for the county, said cuts to administrative positions during the past two years have helped the county balance revenue with expen- ditures. The commission- ers’ executive director job is gone, as is the economic development director. The county board of commission- ers also combined the direc- WRUV RI ¿QDQFH DQG EXGJHW LQWRDFKLHI¿QDQFLDORI¿FHU “Other more modest changes have been made within departments to con- solidate functions,” Murdock states in his budget message. “We anticipate further chang- es during the coming year.” County departments be- gan working with commis- VLRQHUV RQ WKH QH[W ¿VFDO year’s budget in December. Murdock said that is why he does not anticipate many sur- prises. 6WLOOWKHVKHULII¶VRI¿FHLV going to push for two posi- tions the county may not be able to cover in the proposed Umatilla County Total budget 2014-15: ........ $66.2M Proposed: ....... $68.9M General fund 2014-15: ........ $25.4M Proposed: ....... $26.6M Budget revenues: Beginning: ...... $19.8M Property tax*: . $14.8M Local: ............. $12.7M State: ............ $16.9M Federal: ............ $4.6M Budget hearings Wednesday: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday: 8 a.m.-noon Umatilla County Court- house, 216 S.E. Fourth St., Pendleton *And Payment in Lieu of Taxes Source: Umatilla County prosed budget 2015-16 $26.6 million general fund. 7KH VKHULII¶V RI¿FH FRQ tracts each year to provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers law enforcement services on land adjacent to the Columbia River at plac- es such as McNary Beach. Sheriff Terry Rowan said the contracts usually cover about six months of a year, from early or mid-May to about the middle of September. He said he is going to ask the county to provide enough money to make that a year- round position. ³,W¶V GLI¿FXOW IRU XV WR EULQJ RQ WKHVH FHUWL¿HG RI¿ cers knowing it is just a short window of time versus hav- ing the ability to hire a full See BUDGET/8A PENDLETON )LOPIHVWOHDUQVIURP¿UVWURGHR By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Organizers of the Pendle- ton Real West Festival were encouraged by the early returns from the inaugural showing while acknowledg- ing more work is needed if they want to turn the festival into a Round-Up City main- stay. Festival Director Thomas Phillipson said he will take the next couple of months to evaluate the festival before committing to another event ed screen delayed the opening screening of “The Winding River” at the Pendleton Elks Lodge by an hour, requiring a planned post-screening con- cert from Portland country band The Earnest Lovers to —Thomas Phillipson, be moved up to before the festival director movie. Despite the hiccup, Phil- lipson said the premiere was next year. $OWKRXJK H[DFW ¿JXUHV able to withstand the hand- haven’t been calculated yet, ful of refunds, with the rest Phillipson said expenses out- of the weekend’s screenings weighed returns in the festi- running smoothly. Solid crowds showed up val’s initial go-round. Instead of the short three IRU PDQ\ RI WKH ¿OPV ZLWK months he used to organize a Friday afternoon screening the festival this year, Phillip- of rockabilly documentary son said he’s attracted to the “Welcome to the Club” play- idea of getting a whole year ing to a sold-out crowd at the Prodigal Son Brewery & Pub. to plan the next one. Pat Beard, Travel Pendle- “If we’re going to do it next year, we’re going to do it ton’s event recruiter, said he’s received solid feedback from twice as big,” he said. Besides advertising in the the business community. Beard said high turnout East Oregonian and on social media, the festival was short for a Saturday night screen- on publicity, meaning the au- LQJRIWKH¿OP³-RKQQ\ dience was mostly limited to Guitar” at Hamley’s Slick- Pendleton and the surround- fork Saloon was a pleasant surprise for Hamley’s man- ing area. Phillipson, who works agement. Beard also met a Portland full-time at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, said couple who stayed for the he wants to recruit a Pendle- weekend after initially com- ton native to work on public- mitting to only staying for the ity and attract more festival premiere. “Those are the things you sponsors, which would allow the festival to be less reliant can’t measure with atten- dance,” he said. RQER[RI¿FHUHFHLSWV ——— The event’s execution Contact Antonio Sierra at didn’t proceed without the asierra@eastoregonian.com occasional hitch, either. A missing part from a rent- or 541-966-0836. “If we’re going to do it next year, we’re going to do it twice as big.” Cozy cub Staff photo by Kathy Aney A fox cub pokes its head out of a hole in southwest Pendleton. Only one staffer works on fuel standard More hires to come for program By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon has just eight months to launch its low-carbon fuel pro- gram and so far, only one employee to do the work. The Department of Environmental Quality has started the process to hire one full-time and one part-time employee to implement the program but for now, all that work still falls to air quality manager Cory-Ann Wind. The goal of the program is to reduce the carbon content of transportation fu- els by 10 percent over the next decade through a combination of blending clean- er biofuels into gasoline and diesel and purchasing carbon credits. Although Or- egon adopted the standard in 2009, it was never implemented and was on track to sunset this year until lawmakers passed a bill in March to make the program per- manent. Lawmakers did not set aside addition- al money for the state to implement the program. Rather, the Department of En- vironmental Quality will hire two new employees to work on the program using money already budgeted for jobs that are currently vacant. “The primary thing we’re doing now is reaching out to fuel importers to make sure the right people are doing the right See FUEL/8A
