REGION
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
East Oregonian
BRIEFLY
HERMISTON
Work underway to expand Sunset Park
Library hosts
book sale
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Children and families visiting
Sunset Park in Hermiston will have
twice as much room to play after city
employees are ¿nished renovating the
park.
Work began last week to tear out
shorter chain link fences in front of
the park and the forbidding six-foot
security fences that previously lined the
south side of the park.
Before winter weather hits, the city
will also tear out the asphalt driveway
leading into the Public Works depart-
ment from Fourth Street to move it to
Elm Avenue, connecting the current
Sunset Park area with an adjacent empty
lot that the city recently purchased.
Parks and Recreation director Larry
Fetter said the effect will be a larger,
more welcoming park.
“It will feel twice the size,” he said.
He is currently pursuing grants to
put new playground equipment at the
park and to add a basketball court or
other sport court.
Right now Sunset Park doesn’t give
off the friendliest vibe, Fetter said,
discouraging some potential use. In
addition to major improvements like
new park equipment he said replacing
chain link fence with attractive land-
scaping, improving irrigation, adding
a detention pond to address Àooding
and working to signalize the crosswalk
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
City staff have removed the six-foot security fence topped with barbed
wire that lined the south side of Sunset Park and now plan to remove the
driveway pictured in the background, connecting the park to the lot on
the other side.
leading to the park should increase the
number of people using the park.
“All of that combined should make
it a much more inviting park,” he said.
Fetter said the extra lot purchased
to expand the park only cost the city
$20,000 and he is using in-house Parks
and Recreation staff to perform the
work of renovating the park to keep
costs down.
Walkways and extra landscaping
will be added to the park in the spring.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
or
541-564-4536.
BRAZILE: Retired the East Oregonian Let ’er Buck Trophy last year
combined 20 seconds Àat
to tie for ¿rst place in the
event with Clay Tryan and
Jade Corkill. The duo posted
a time of seven seconds
Saturday, third-fastest in the
round.
“We’re gonna remember
this one for a long time,”
Brazile said.
Cowboys at this year’s
Round-Up faced a slippery
challenge early in the week,
as steady rain fell Thursday
and soaked the stadium’s
grass in¿eld. Fortunately,
Brazile
competed
in
tie-down and team roping
events Wednesday, dodging
the worst of the conditions.
The sun reappeared
Friday and Saturday, along
with warmer, drier weather
for
the
championship
rounds. Brazile and Smith
capitalized in team roping,
good enough to earn the tie
with Tryan and Corkill, who
headed into the day atop the
leader board.
Brazile ¿nished fourth
in calf roping, and as the
afternoon wore on it became
all but certain he would
ride out from Pendleton an
all-around champion once
again. He ¿nished with
$16,763 in winnings.
“Man, it’s great,” Brazile
said after his victory lap.
“These are hard to win.”
Yet Brazile makes it
look easy no matter where
he goes: As rodeo’s most
decorated professional, he
has won 21 world titles
and earned more than $5.5
million in total winnings
from the Professional Rodeo
Cowboys Association.
Perhaps nowhere has
that dominance been more
apparent in recent years than
the Pendleton Round-Up.
Brazile, who has competed in
the Round-Up for 19 years,
won his ¿rst all-around title
in 1999 before making this
latest four-year exclamation
point.
Brazile retired the East
Oregonian Let ‘er Buck
Trophy last year, which he
said he has on proud display
in the foyer of his Decatur,
Texas, home.
Brazile said he had the
privilege of meeting the
previous record holder
Webster before the pro rodeo
hall of famer died in 2013.
“He was never short with
sharing his wealth of knowl-
edge,” Brazile said.
Now Brazile stands alone
as the most accomplished
cowboy of Round-Up.
“I’ve had so many heroes
in this industry, and I just
hope I can live up to half of
what they meant to me,” he
said.
Brazile said there’s “no
doubt” he’ll be back next
year, looking for his record
¿fth straight championship.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
TRANSIT: Additional ideas included
creating park and ride, pool and ride sites
feedback on how to put
together the plan, the ¿rst of
which was held at Pendleton
City Hall Monday.
At the meeting, City
Planner Evan MacKenzie
said the plan is meant to
address the transportation
needs of people who can’t or
don’t use cars to get around.
As a result, the plan will
propose areas where the city
can add sidewalks, improve
or add bike lanes and install
new transit stops.
To demonstrate Pend-
leton’s transportation de¿-
ciencies, the city took about
a dozen consultants and
meeting attendees on a bus
tour, starting near the old St.
Anthony site and ending at
the new one.
The tour started in a
gravel lot by the 76 gas
station on Highway 11,
which acts as the city’s
Greyhound stop.
While consultants noted
the lack of sidewalk and
bike path for pedestrians
trying to travel the street,
J.D. Tovey of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation planning
department said the area has
also been dif¿cult for the
tribes’ Kayak Public Transit
service.
Matt Hughart, an asso-
ciate planner for Kittelson
and Associates, said the
high amount of traf¿c on
Highway 11 might make
nearby Court Place a better
alternative for pedestrians
trying to go to a and from
Highway 11 and the River-
side areas.
City
Engineer
Tim
Simons said the Highway
11 intersection was one of
Pendleton’s worst and the
Greyhound bus stop might
be better served in the
Dave’s Chevron parking lot.
The tour also visited the
sidewalk area in front of
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit on
Southgate, where Hughart
told attendees the proximity
of the sidewalk to the street
and the bike path to so many
driveways made walking
or biking Highway 395
Photography
workshop focuses
on basic skills
WALLA WALLA —
Basic photography skills
are featured in a workshop
offered though the Blue
Mountain Land Trust.
People will learn about
composition, seeing
light, isolating subject
matter, selective focus and
cropping.
Through the Lens with
Greg Lehman is Saturday
at 10 a.m. at Northstar
Winery, 1736 J.B. George
Road, Walla Walla.
Registration is $10 for
adults and free for children
and youths.
Participants will shoot
one another in the tasting
room and on the grounds
of the winery. In addition,
they will explore the vines
and grapes, shooting both
wide scenic and extreme
close-up images. After
the workshop, people can
send their best images to
Lehman for additional
critique.
The class is part of
Learning on the Land,
a 15-program education
series that began in May
and runs into October.
The goal of this series is
to provide the community
with an understanding and
appreciation of our natural
resources.
To register, visit www.
bmlt.org. For more
information, contact Tim
Copeland at tim@bmlt.org
or 509-529-3136.
The Boardman
chamber wants
you
BOARDMAN — The
Boardman Chamber of
Commerce ambassadors
are one of the most visible
groups in the community.
From doing a
groundbreaking or ribbon-
cutting for a new business,
to welcoming dignitaries,
they represent the city
of Boardman and the
chamber.
In addition, the
chamber is starting a new
membership committee.
The group will assist in
overseeing the chamber’s
vision and mission.
For more information
about the ambassadors or
membership committee,
call 541-481-3014 or stop
by their SAGE Center
of¿ce at 101 Olson Road,
Boardman.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at
333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211
S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-
966-0818 with questions.
“(Highway) 395 is a clear portal from
one side of the city to the next, but it has
its limitations. Safety being one of them.”
— Matt Hughart, associate planner
for Kittelson and Associates
dangerous and intimidating.
“(Highway) 395 is a clear
portal from one side of the
city to the next, but it has its
limitations,” he said at the
meeting. “Safety being one
of them.”
Over the course of the
tour, the bus stopped at the
city’s bus shelters and Matt
Berkow of Nelson/Nygaard
Consulting
Associates
explained how they could
improve access, route infor-
mation and add stops on the
other side of the street to
make routes more ef¿cient.
Although not everyone
will need it, Berkow said
public transit was most
useful to young, elderly,
low-income and disabled
residents.
A public transit route
proposal for the 2007 plan
update featured 15 stops,
including in the downtown
area, Pendleton School
District schools, the Eastern
Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution, the Eastern Oregon
Regional Airport and Blue
Mountain
Community
College.
Additional ideas from
the consultants included
creating park and ride and
pool and ride sites and
extending the Pendleton
River Parkway.
The idea of a transpor-
tation plan update drew its
share of proponents and
critics at the meeting.
Pat Beard, event coordi-
nator at Travel Pendleton,
said he would like to see
more data demonstrating a
need for more pedestrian
and bicycle transportation
infrastructure. He added
that the city would need
to market the plan well to
residents used to driving
everywhere.
Meghan DeBolt, the
director of the Umatilla
County Health Department,
said the plan was meant to
shift Pendleton’s cultural
attitudes toward alternative
forms of transportation and
would also attract urbanites
used to getting around
without cars.
The consultants said they
would spend the following
months conducting surveys,
holding public meetings
and polling high school
and middle school students
about their transportation
dif¿culties.
MacKenzie said the
¿nal plan will offer the city
a priority list of projects
that could be paid for with
money from the city budget
or grants.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
s
o t o
h
P
t i n g
W r i
Continued from 1A
HERMISTON — To
help support the Hermiston
Public Library and get
some great deals on books,
be sure to attend the
Friends of the Hermiston
Public Library annual book
sale.
A special member’s
only sale is Thursday from
5-7 p.m. in the library’s
Lanham Room, 235 E.
Gladys Ave., Hermiston.
People can join for as little
as $10 at the door to get an
early start on shopping for
bargains.
The regular sale is
Friday from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m., then on Saturday
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
books are $1 for a bagful.
Anyone interested in
becoming involved with
the Friends of the Library
are reminded that they can
pick up a membership form
any time they stop by the
library.
The library friends are
dedicated to promoting
libraries in general and
providing time and
¿nancial support to
the library. For more
information, call 541-567-
2882.
D e s
i g n
Winner of
the ONPA
2015 General
Excellence
Award
P r i
n t Q u a l i t y
d v
e r t i s
i n g
Continued from 1A
Page 3A
A
MATT
ENTRUP
Sports Reporter
Matt has been a sports reporter at the East Oregonian for nine
years, covering state championships, professional rodeos and outdoor
adventures in that time.
He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Bowling Green
University. He now lives in Pendleton with his dog, Nelly.
Matt’s top hobby is hiking and foraging for mushrooms and berries,
but he also enjoys golf, both disc and traditional. He roots for the
Bengals, Reds and Ohio State University.
Contact Matt at mentrup@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0838.
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