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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
BMCC: Ready to start turning plans into reality
Continued from 1A
I want to thank all of our
supporters, including our
employee
associations,
Board
of
Education,
students, the Friends of
BMCC, business partners
and countless community
members who came out to
support our efforts. Without
you, we would not be cele-
brating right now.”
Preus spent much of the
past few months on the road
in Umatilla and Morrow
Counties,
answering
questions about the capital
improvement bond, often
making multiple appear-
ances in a day. She is taking
Friday off.
“I plan to be standing
in a stream and hopefully
catching a ¿sh,” she said.
She can ¿nally relax,
something she hasn’t done
too often since an earlier
$28 million bond failed in
November 2013 by a margin
of 57 percent to 43 percent.
After months of listening
sessions to discover why
more voters didn’t back
the bond, college leaders
whittled the measure into a
package they considered a
more palatable product.
One voter who would
have joined in the cele-
bration, but couldn’t, was
Roberta Anderson, who
¿lled out her ballot from her
hospital bed only days before
she died Friday at age 103.
Anderson, a retired educator,
cast her last vote in support
of the bond. The Pendleton
centenarian loved to read
about politics and didn’t
miss any opportunity to vote.
She was of sound mind,
said her daughter Carolyn
Frasier, and adamant about
participating despite being
in her ¿nal days.
“She considered every
election important,” Frasier
said.
According to state elec-
tion law, Anderson’s vote
will count, even though she
died before Election Day.
Proceeds
from
the
15-year capital improvement
bond will launch a precision
agriculture program in
Hermiston and a Workforce
Training and Early Learning
Center
in
Boardman.
Proceeds will also renovate
the Agricultural Center
where supporters held their
Tuesday night celebration.
“I’m just really looking
forward to bringing our
plan to fruition,” Preus said.
“We’ve talked about it for so
long, and it will be exciting
to see it come to life, ¿nally.”
The president said the
college is ready to start
turning plans into reality.
“We’ll be able to move
quickly,” she said.
Taber typed on his phone,
trying to make sure of the
numbers and ¿nally put it in
his pocket. He said he’d had
no idea whether the bond
would Ày or go down.
“We put in the time. We
put in the effort. We put out
the information,” he said.
“All we could do was hope
people would see the bene¿t
of what we wanted to do.”
Tomorrow, Taber said, he
will drive around Pendleton
and pick up yard signs.
Including partial Morrow
County returns, 5,233 voters
were in favor of the bond
and 4,740 were opposed.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
MARIJUANA: ‘It’s a very subjective standard’
Continued from 1A
marijuana since January,
which has forced him to take
extra measures to keep the
odor from his car and house.
“We normally open
our windows in the early
evenings to cool our house
down in order to save
energy,” he said. “The
prevailing winds bring the
odor from my neighbor’s
house to my house. We
will not be able to open
our windows. It’s going to
increase our energy bill.”
Despite maintaining the
grow for ¿ve years, Woods
said Arbogast has only been
complaining about the grow
for the past several months.
Woods said he has ¿lters
installed into his ventilation
system that dampen the
smell. He added that there
are stronger ¿lters on the
market for commercial
grows, but they are prohibi-
tively expensive.
Woods said he replaces
¿lters every four to ¿ve
months and dries his medical
marijuana
every
four
months.
Roberts said ¿lters could
be used to mitigate the smell,
but marijuana can emit odors
even when its not in the
drying process.
“I’m not going to talk
about the intensity,” he
added. “It’s a very subjective
standard in terms of whether
people are offended by it or
not.”
Included in the amend-
ment was also a provision
that bans marijuana grows
from public view.
City Attorney Nancy
Kerns said the provision was
a public safety issue.
“If I have a great bumper
crop of marijuana in my
backyard, I may have neigh-
bors that don’t approve of
marijuana and don’t want to
have to look at it,” she said.
“I may have people who see
it from the street and think ‘I
think I’ll sneak up there in
the middle of the night and
harvest some of that.’”
Councilman Chuck Wood
said there’s already a state
law that requires marijuana
be screened from public
view. Mayor Phillip Houk
said the provision could be
considered a housekeeping
measure.
Ultimately, the amend-
ment passed 6-1, with Coun-
cilwoman Jane Hill voting
against and Councilman Al
Plute absent.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
EOTEC: Increased boardroom from 482 square feet to 600
Continued from 1A
outside money and keep
the Hermiston Conference
Center for use by local
groups; however, “there are
three de¿nite community
events that have outgrown
the conference center.”
“This building will be
able to hold larger confer-
ences,” she said.
After examining plans
drawn up by LRS Architects
and G2 Construction, the
authority did make a few
changes while trying to stay
within the building’s $2.7
million budget.
Vijay Patel convinced the
other board members that
a long hallway stretching
the length of the exhibition
hall needed to be expanded
from 12 feet to 15 feet wide
so the hall could be used to
locate commercial vendors,
displays, buffet tables or
other items.
“Those corridors are
becoming dead space other-
wise,” he said.
The group also agreed
that they could do with
less ground-level storage
in order to increase the
size of the boardroom from
482 square feet to 600. At
the same time they asked
the architect to swap the
location of the board room
and restrooms so that the
restrooms were located
directly off the front lobby
instead of down the hall.
A second 12 foot by 14
foot overhead door was
added to the exhibition hall
and the size of a mezzanine
storage area was decreased
to cut costs.
Project manager Gary
Winsand said after the
blueprints were adjusted it
would be about ¿ve or six
weeks before G2 Construc-
tion started work on the
building.
EOTEC’s next regular
meeting is Friday, May 29
at 7 a.m. at the Stafford
Hansell Government Center.
The authority will go over
the 2015-2016 budget and
requests for proposals for
construction of the livestock
barns.
———
STUDENT
OF THE
WEEK
Amie Zitterkob
U MATILLA H IGH S CHOOL
Amie is a senior with a 3.74 cumulative GPA. Amie
is an outstanding young lady, who leads by example
in the classroom and on the athletic field. Amie has
competed in 2 years of volleyball, 1 year of cross
country, 3 years of track and 1 year as football
manager. Last year Amie placed 2nd at state in the
100 meters and 2nd In the 200 Meters. This year at
the state track meet Amie will be competing in the
100 Meters, the 200 meters, the 4x100 meter relay
and the 4x400 meter relay. In her free time Amie
likes to read and hang out with friends. Amie’s
favorite subject is history. In the future Amie plans
on running in college and studying to be a nurse.
Proudly Sponsored by
Working Every Day for a Healthy Community
541-667-3400 • 610 NW 11 th • Hermiston
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Impeachment amendment
passed by Oregon House
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon
would join the other states
where legislators could
remove the governor and
other statewide of¿cials if
a proposed constitutional
amendment passed Tuesday
by the House is eventually
approved by voters.
The 47-12 vote moved
the proposed amendment
to the Senate. If cleared
there, voters would decide
the matter in the November
2016 general election.
The issue arose after
inÀuence-peddling allega-
tions that led to the resigna-
tion of Gov. John Kitzhaber
on Feb. 18. Kitzhaber could
be removed from of¿ce
otherwise only through a
recall election — which
under the Oregon Consti-
tution could be initiated
after six months into his
new term — or through a
felony conviction. A federal
investigation is continuing
of Kitzhaber and ¿ancpe
Cylvia Hayes.
“Most people in Oregon
feel we already have the
power (to impeach), and
we do not,” said House
Majority Leader Val Hoyle,
D-Eugene.
Impeachment
would
apply to the governor, secre-
tary of state, state treasurer,
attorney general and labor
commissioner.
The
constitutional
amendment would require
a 60 percent vote by the
House (36 of 60 members)
to impeach an of¿cial on
grounds of malfeasance,
corruption, neglect of duty,
or other high crimes and
misdemeanors.
The Senate would then
conduct a trial. A 67 percent
majority (20 of 30 members)
would be required for
removal of an of¿cial.
Impeachment is a polit-
ical process, and does not
preclude criminal charges.
“This resolution is not a
weapon and should never
be used as such,” said Rep.
Jodi Hack, R-Salem, the
other Àoor manager. “It is a
tool for accountability of the
executive branch and should
be exercised for only that
purpose.”
But Rep. Mitch Green-
lick, D-Portland, was one
of a dozen opponents of the
measure.
He said the recall elec-
tion, which is a century old,
has served Oregon well. No
statewide of¿cial has faced
an actual recall election,
although several attempts
were mounted against
Gov. Barbara Roberts in
the 1990s. None obtained
the necessary signatures to
qualify for the ballot.
“I have watched the
federal Congress make a
mockery of the impeachment
process,” Greenlick said in
reference to the Republican
effort to remove Democratic
President Bill Clinton in
1998 and 1999. The House
voted to impeach Clinton in
connection with his affair
with a White House intern,
but the Senate fell far short
of the two-thirds majorities
required to convict him.
Rod Blagojevich of
Illinois was the most recent
governor to be impeached.
He was removed by the
Illinois Legislature in 2009,
ahead of his conviction on
federal criminal charges.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
HERMISTON: New charter takes effect July 1
Continued from 1A
term has been expanded
from two years to four.
Mayor David Drotzmann’s
current term, which began
at the beginning of 2015,
still will expire in two years.
But after that the election
for mayor will be held every
four years.
The new charter expands
the list of reasons the city
council can choose to
remove a councilor or mayor
from of¿ce, including
unauthorized release of
executive session material,
absence from 50 percent
of council meetings in a
calendar year, conviction of
a crime “punishable by loss
of liberty” and moving out
of the ward the councilor
was elected to represent.
The city manager also
must now reside in the city.
Provisions with speci¿c
dollar amounts — that the
city has to go out to bid on
any project that costs more
than $500, for example —
were taken out of the charter
so they could be speci¿ed
by a more easily-updated
ordinance instead.
When the city crafted
the new charter it originally
put in language that would
have changed the municipal
judge to an appointed
position, but after hearing
concerns from some citizens
the council voted to make
it a separate amendment
so that it didn’t damage
the charter’s chances of
passing.
Smith said going into the
election he wasn’t sure if
the amendment would pass
or fail, but the reasoning
behind it was that it would
add professionalism to
the process if the judge
had to be interviewed by
the city council instead of
campaigning.
“The council would have
seen it more as hiring for a
position,” he said.
Ultimately,
however,
Smith said the city heard
from citizens who didn’t
want to give up the oppor-
tunity to choose their judge
directly.
“They felt it could have
evolved into cronyism,” he
said.
Even though the amend-
ment failed, the municipal
judge position is still
affected in one way by the
new charter. The charter
speci¿es that the judge must
be licensed to practice law in
the state of Oregon. Thomas
Creasing,
Hermiston’s
current municipal judge,
is a licensed attorney but
Smith said the city has had
at least one elected judge in
the past who wasn’t.
The new charter takes
effect July 1.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
BUTTE CHALLENGE
THANK YOU
A special thank you to everyone who helped with the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald 16th
Annual Butte Challenge 5 & 10k Walk & Run. Each of you had a part in the success of this event.
We should all be proud to be living in such a wonderful community!
PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO THE HERMISTON HIGH SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
A & W Space Age
Advanced Orthopedics
Affordable Family
Eyewear
American Printing
Banner Bank
Big 5
Big River Golf Course
Cell Fix
Chuckwagon Cafe
City of Hermiston
Club 24
Columbia Court Club
Columbia State Bank
Community Bank
Corp of Engineers
Cottage Flowers, LLC
Desert Lanes
East Oregonian
Eastern Oregon Physical
Therapy
Echo Hills Golf Course
Express Employment
Professionals
Fiesta Foods
Good Shepherd
Medical Center
Greg’s Sleep Center
Hermiston Herald
Jones, Greg D.D.S.
Kopacz Nursery & Florist
Larson, Jeremy D.D.S.
Les Schwab, Hermiston
Lucky Endz Gifts
Oregon First Comm.
Credit Union
Papa Murphy’s
Pendleton Country Club
Pheasant Cafe &
Lounge
Rick’s Car Wash
Runner’s Soul
Safeway
Sanitary Disposal
Sears
60 Minute Photo
Third Day Creations
Tom Denchel’s Ford
Country
Umatilla County Fair
Umatilla Electric
Cooperative
Westwinds Nursery
Wieseler, Ryan D.D.S.
Ye Olde Pizza Shoppe
Thank you to our technical T-Shirt sponsors: Eastern Oregon Physical Therapy
and Advanced Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Institute.
Thank you to Inflatable Fun Gym for donating a bounce house.
Also, thank you to our volunteers: Stacey & Colby Lerten, Kathy Bei, Steve, Audra & Natelie
Workman, Cheri Montee, Dana Tassie, Kathy Otnes, Sam & Leslie Weimer and Payton & Jaydon
Hoffert for donating their time to make this such a great community event. The Hermiston High
School Cross Country team is very grateful.