85/60
Fire knocks
out power in
Boardman 3A
PENDLETON GIRLS
TO PLAY FOR STATE
TITLE LITTLE LEAGUE/1B
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015
139th Year, No. 200
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
PENDLETON
No answers yet in deadly explosion
Old city hall was not insured,
had not been inspected since 1997
and a few others lived in the building
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Jose Quezada’s calloused hands Stuart Roberts, Pendleton’s police chief
dumped glass and rubble into a garbage and public safety director, reported six
can next to the wreck that was Pend- people were in the building when the
leton’s former city hall. A blast and blast occurred Tuesday at 8:10 a.m.
¿UH 7XHVGD\ GHVWUR\HG PXFK RI WKH Eduardo Quezada was the lone fatality.
Jose Quezada said he and other
107-year-old structure just a block off
family members are staying with rela-
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The disaster also claimed the life tives in Pendleton. He said he did not
of Jose Quezada’s son, 25-year-old have insurance on the building, and it
was too early to say what would become
Eduardo.
Jose Quezada said he and his son of it, but that was not too important.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
“I don’t care about
(the building). I care
about my son.”
— Jose Quezada,
father of Eduardo Quezada
and building owner
“I don’t care about this,” Jose
Quezada said, gesturing to the building
he has owned for 10 years. “I care about
my son.”
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for neighboring businesses, including
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sister’s Cafe, which he helped renovate. A fi re investigator can be seen through a window as
he searches through the remains of the old city hall
building Wednesday in Pendleton.
See FIRE/8A
Bikers honor fallen sheriff
County
bans ag
burning
East Oregonian
A long line of motorcyclists ride down Dorion Avenue on Wednesday for the start of Pendleton Bike Week.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton Bike Week rallies at Til Taylor Park
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
The hum of motorcycle
engines started soft and reached
full rumble as about 100 bikers
neared Til Taylor Park in Pend-
leton on Wednesday afternoon.
The riders parked and circled up
around the statue of the area’s
most legendary lawman.
A bronzed Sheriff Tilman
Taylor gazed out from on high
aboard a horse that stood atop a
four-foot slab of granite.
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do-rags, sunglasses and respect
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cell phone photos. The Til Taylor
Honor Ride, part of this week’s
Pendleton Bike Week, was all
about honoring fallen lawmen.
Twelve plaques commemorating
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others who died in the line of
duty provided a backdrop for the
scene.
Outlaws shot and killed the
Umatilla County Sheriff in 1920
during a jailbreak. The shooting
eventually left Taylor mortally
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off a six-day manhunt involving
New coalition pushes
$13.50 minimum wage
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
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tion, backed by Oregon’s
largest labor federation, will
press lawmakers next year
to raise the state minimum
wage to $13.50 per hour –
or it will press ahead with
its own ballot measure.
“The bottom line is
that something is going to
happen in 2016,” said Tom
Chamberlain, president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO, in a
conference call to reporters
Wednesday.
The Raise the Wage
coalition is taking a different
political tack than another
group, 15 Now Oregon,
which is nearing the start
of gathering petition signa-
tures to qualify its own $15
statewide minimum wage
for the 2016 ballot.
Chamberlain said “the
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Raise the Wage coalition
is to give one more chance
to lawmakers, who heard
several bills to increase the
minimum wage but did
not advance any of them in
their 2015 session.
Although
lawmakers
passed other bills – a
See WAGE/8A
hundreds of horsemen tracking
the fugitives. The murderers paid
for their crimes in full.
“Justice was served at the end
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Phillip Houk.
The bikers, many from the
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and listened to the mayor tell
See BIKERS/8A
Agriculture burning in drought-
stricken Umatilla County is coming to an
end until conditions improve.
The Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners held an emergency
meeting Wednesday afternoon and voted
for a temporary ban to all burning in areas
under the county’s jurisdiction, including
agricultural burning. The ban goes into
effect Thursday at noon.
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county-run Harris Park campsite. County
counsel Doug Olsen said the board last
took this action in 2012.
County commissioners cited dry
conditions, low humidity and multiple
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County Commissioner Larry Givens also
said the county needs to be ready to help
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in neighboring Walla Walla County,
where an ag burn ban already is in place
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watershed.
Umatilla County emergency manager
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right through timber in the watershed.
He also said the county has an agree-
ment from 1999 with other local govern-
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he has the ball rolling on updating that.
He told commissioners the agreement
still is valid, but agencies probably should
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he said, signatures from area department
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agreement in a day or two.
The county’s road department has four
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llard said, and under the aid agreement
the county would send one or two of the
vehicles to help partnering agencies.
Shadow cast on solar credits’ future
on homes and busi-
nesses.
The
credits,
which will begin
phasing out at the
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
end of 2016, have
revolutionized
When it comes to devel- the rooftop solar
oping renewable energy, not industry, said Bryan
all tax breaks are created 0LOOHU
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equal.
of the Alliance for Wyden
On Tuesday, the U.S. Solar Choice.
Senate Finance Committee
Solar power is still rela-
passed a bill to extend more tively sparse in Oregon, with
than 50 previously expired 85 total megawatts compared
WD[ PHDVXUHV ² LQFOXGLQJ to 3,153 megawatts of wind
a 2.3-cent per kilowatt-hour energy. Oregon could have
incentive for wind farms.
a strong market for solar,
Absent from the package, 0LOOHUVDLGLIWKHFUHGLWVDUH
however, is a re-up on the continued.
solar Investment Tax Credit,
Increasing solar power
which covers 30 percent of could also lead to water
the cost to install solar panels savings in a state currently
Sen. Wyden seeks
amendment to bill
gripped
by
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said. Information
provided by the
Alliance
for
Solar
Choice
shows it takes a
quarter-gallon of
water to generate
one kilowatt-hour
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tricity, compared to
none for solar.
“Oregon is a place that
has great solar potential,”
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to compete on an unlevel
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that option for homeowners.”
There is one more key
difference between the solar
See SOLAR/8A