BULLDOGS’
SEASON
ENDS
SEAWORLD TO END
ORCA SHOWS /7A
SOCCER/1B
49/39
FAMILIES
RECONNECT
TO RIVER
REGION/3A
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015
140th Year, No. 18
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Pot ordinance stalls again
Council can’t get ¿ fth vote to send issue to residents
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston City Council will
have to take another run at sending
a marijuana dispensary ban to the
voters.
Councilors thought they had
passed the ordinance putting
dispensaries on the ballot after
a 4-2 vote Monday but were
reminded that at least ¿ ve coun-
cilors must vote for an ordinance
for it to pass.
An ordinance that doesn’t
receive ¿ ve votes in either direc-
tion will automatically appear
on the agenda for subsequent
meetings until ¿ ve councilors vote
for or against it.
Councilors John Kirwan, Doug
Primmer, Clara Beas Fitzgerald
and Jackie Myers voted in favor
of the ordinance while Rod Hardin
and Doug Smith voted against.
Manuel Gutierrez abstained, citing
his position on the Good Shepherd
Health Foundation board, and
Lori Davis was absent.
Under rules laid out by the
See COUNCIL/8A
Finding Uncle Eddie
Missing since WWII,
Pendleton soldier part of
Manila memorial wall
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Phil Hodgen grew up hearing about his
Uncle Eddie.
Edward O. Williams was a fun-loving
banker, a popular young man about town in
Pendleton. He’d played football at Pendleton
High School. He love to draw and fancied
himself as a cartoonist.
Hodgen, whose middle name is Edward
after his uncle, never got the chance to meet
his mother’s youngest brother. Edward joined
the Army Air Corp with four of his high
school buddies, and lost his life in Burma in
his early twenties only seven months before
the end of World
War II. The
family got a tele- In honor of Veterans Day,
gram informing the East Oregonian will
them of Eddie’s feature stories of local
death, but the soldiers all week.
staff sergeant’s See Page 6A for a list
body was never of local events to thank
recovered.
veterans for their service.
So, that was See Wednesday’s paper
that. The family for a special insert.
grieved
and
slowly got used
to the idea that Eddie would never come
home.
“But, there was always a hole there,”
Hodgen said. “He was just a story in our
lives.”
Then, a little over a year ago, a serendip-
itous conversation gave Hodgen a chance to
reconnect with his uncle’s memory. At his
son’s wedding, a family member mentioned
that his cousin (with whom Hodgen had lost
touch) had learned that Uncle Eddie might
be memorialized at the Philippines American
Cemetery in Manila.
“The family never knew,” said Hodgen,
who is a retired DEQ spokesman who lives
in Pendleton.
The 152-acre cemetery sits on property that
was once a U.S. outpost named Fort William
McKinley. Among the 17,202 soldiers buried
there are numerous Americans. Names of
more than 36,000 missing service members
appear on white marble tablets. That’s where
the name Edward O. Williams might be
Wolves off
endangered
species list
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Bureau
SALEM – After nearly 11 hours of
emotional testimony, back and forth
discussion and two timeouts for legal
advice from a state attorney, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
Commission voted 4-2 Monday to take
gray wolves off the state endangered
species list.
In making the decision, commission
members agreed with an ODFW staff
appraisal that the state’s wolves have
expanded in number and range to the
point that they no longer need protection
under the state Endangered Species Act.
Oregon’s wolves remain covered
under the federal ESA in the western
two-thirds of the state, and ODFW
of¿ cials say the state wolf management
plan remains in effect and will protect
wolves from illegal hunting.
The decision doesn’t close the book
on Oregon’s work to manage wolves.
Some commission members made it
clear they preferred to delist wolves
only in the eastern third of the state,
where most of Oregon’s 82 con¿ rmed
wolves live, but were prevented from
doing so by language in the state law.
Meanwhile, conservation groups are
See WOLVES/8A
HERMISTON
District will
seek contract
for in-school
health center
By SEAN HART
East Oregonian
Edward O. Williams,
who played foot-
ball for Pendleton
High School, died in
World War II and is
still listed as miss-
ing. He is memori-
alized at the Manila
American Cemetery.
Contributed photo
See EDDIE/8A
Hermiston students and school staff
may have easier access to medical
services next year.
The Hermiston School Board autho-
rized district administrators to ¿ nalize
contract agreements for a school well-
ness center at the meeting Monday.
Superintendent Fred Maiocco said
the center at Hermiston High School
will be staffed by a contracted medical
group that will receive payment for
the services from the patients, so the
district will not have to pay for the
medical services. He said the medical
group will assume most of the business
risk, but beginning next school year, if
the wellness center operates at a loss
of more than $10,000 per quarter, the
district will be liable for up to $7,000
per quarter.
Maiocco said representatives from
two groups, Family Health Associates
See HEALTH/8A
BOARDMAN
Farmers Ending Hunger
unveils SAGE Center exhibit
Portland Mayor Hales
makes trip for event
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
By the time 2015 draws to a
close, Farmers Ending Hunger
expects to donate nearly 4
million pounds of fresh, locally
grown food to the Oregon Food
Bank for the year.
That’s a single-year record
and about 1.5 million pounds
more than the organization
managed in 2014, but Executive
Director John Burt said they can
still do more.
“There’s a big hunger issue
in this state,” Burt said. “We
need people to get involved.”
A crowd of 85 people
gathered Saturday evening at
the SAGE Center in Boardman
to celebrate Farmers Ending
Hunger, including Portland
Mayor Charlie Hales and
Oregon Food Bank CEO
Susannah Morgan. The event
also doubled as an unveiling
for the new Farmers Ending
Hunger exhibit at the SAGE
Center — Boardman’s visitor’s
center and regional agricultural
museum.
Fred Ziari, president and
CEO of IRZ Consulting in
See EXHIBIT/8A
The buck stopped there
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A buck stands in a fi eld off of South Market Road on Monday near Mission.