INSIDE:
HONORING OUR
FIREFIGHTERS
No charges against
Riverside coach
REGION/3A
69/47
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015
140th Year, No. 4
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Council directs
city to sell old
police station
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Nick Goit, owner of Eastern Oregon Tactical, places a Panther Arms DPMS LR-308 out on display at his shop Tuesday
in Hermiston.
THE GREAT DIVIDE
In the West, heritage and landscape shape views of guns
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
Hermiston gun shop owner Nick Goit
engages almost daily in “open carry,”
wearing a holstered pistol on his hip as
he walks about town. He said it doesn’t
raise eyebrows, although it helps to carry
yourself in a professional manner.
“If you see someone coming down the
street with a gun, you don’t automatically
assume they’re going to shoot things up,”
Goit said.
Do that in Portland, however, or Seattle,
Eugene or other urban areas, and people
would most likely be alarmed. There is an
XUEDQUXUDOGLYLGHRYHU¿UHDUPVWKDWVHHPV
every bit as stark as the divisions over
farming practices, wildlife, land and water
use and natural resources.
With guns, however, the disagreement
sharpens in the wake of yet another mass
murder, this time the Oct. 1 shooting at
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Nick Goit, owner of Eastern Oregon Tactical, puts up a U.S. fl ag outside of his
Nine people dead, plus the gunman. Nine storefront while opening the shop Tuesday in Hermiston.
wounded.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley. He started in a current or former country boy of a certain
One issue, two sides
Ashland, went to high school in Bend, and age and he’ll tell you of the single-shot .22
From urban areas, primarily, come the lived in Eugene, Oakridge and La Grande ULÀHOHDQLQJDJDLQVWWKHZDOOLQWKHFORVHW
demands for greater gun control. From before Albany. He’s spent plenty of time in Squirrels beware.
“When I was a kid,” Hare said, “you
rural areas, primarily, comes the answer: Portland and Salem. He guesses the urban-
rural
divide
in
Oregon
isn’t
much
different
could
go out in the country and shoot a
Leave us alone.
than a lot of other states.
gun, and it wouldn’t cause much of a stir
How to cross that divide?
“I think typically the notion is, and I’m — in part because there weren’t as many
“There’s such a culture clash, I don’t
think it can be explained,” said Goit, who sure it’s true, in predominantly rural places people around.
“If you live on a ranch, who cares if you
opened Eastern Oregon Tactical in Herm- people are more concerned about gun
shoot
a gun?” Hare said. “You won’t hit
rights,
more
interested
in
them
and
more
iston four years ago. “The opposite culture
concerned about intrusion” on those rights, anything.”
EDIÀHVPH´
Hare had a .22 for plinking and a
Wes Hare says it’s a really tough ques- Hare said.
Winchester
.308 for hunting deer. Gun
Part
of
that
attitude
comes
from
tion.
Hare is city manager of Albany, in heritage. Many rural Westerners grew up
See GUNS/8A
handling guns at relatively young ages. Tap
The Pendleton City Council voted Tuesday to
try to return the old police station to private hands.
At various points a bank, a police station and a
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directed city staff to look into selling the building
at 109 S.W. Court St.
After Umatilla County decided not to renew
the lease to house its alcohol and drug program,
City Manager Robb Corbett determined that there
wasn’t any expected use for the property and
suggested the city sell it.
Corbett said administrators polled all city
departments to see if there were any remaining
municipal uses for the building and found two: A
water line that connects the building and the Pend-
leton River Parkway and a police vehicle used to
patrol the parkway that is parked at the facility.
Both of those issues will need to be resolved
before the building can be sold.
Kerns said another issue that will need to be
resolved is whether to hire an appraiser to deter-
mine the property’s value, which she estimated
would cost $4,000.
Many councilors said that wasn’t necessary.
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the market price of that is,” Councilor Tom Young
said.
Councilor Al Plute said city staff could deter-
See PENDLETON/8A
Johnson wants a
‘citizen watchdog
committee’
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
State Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, plans
to introduce a bill in 2016 to create a “citizens
watchdog committee” to hold state agencies
accountable for meeting
spending and policy goals.
Johnson said she has
been frustrated by state
RI¿FLDOV ZKRP VKH DFFXVHG
of misleading lawmakers
about how agencies spend
money and the progress of
major projects, such as the
state’s failed Cover Oregon
insurance exchange.
“When I watched some of Johnson
the staff from Cover Oregon
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that’s where an accountability committee could dig
in, and I think there ought to be consequences for
that,” Johnson said. Some lawmakers felt misled
DIWHU &RYHU 2UHJRQ RI¿FLDOV WHVWL¿HG WKH SURMHFW
was on track, and Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, in
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on the exchange.
Johnson wants the committee to check whether
agencies are sticking to budgets approved by the
Legislature and spending money for the purposes
See WATCHDOG/8A
UMATILLA
Homeless camps along
the river disappearing
Hermiston also cracking
down on unwanted camps
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
It used to be a community of sorts,
a haven for some of Umatilla’s most
down and out.
Now the stretch of woods along
the Umatilla River between the high
school and River Road is quiet. The
improvised homeless camp that used
to be nestled against the river banks
is gone. In its place is a red and white
sign proclaiming “No camping,” the
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City Manager Bob Ward said the
sign is part of the city’s enforcement
of an ordinance passed Sept. 1 that
banned living in tents inside city
limits. After people living near the
river were put on notice by the city
that they needed to move or be cited,
Ward said the camp was abandoned
and its tenants seemed to have moved
upriver out of the city.
“When they moved out what
remained was not a pleasant sight,”
he said.
Ward said the city’s public
See CAMPS/8A
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A “No Camping” sign marks the entrance to a spot along the Umatilla
River near Umatilla High School that used to hold a homeless camp.