43/28
T-WOLVES
SENSING
A CHANGE
Semi driver
dies in wreck
near Echo
BASKETBALL/1B
REGION/3A
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015
140th Year, No. 25
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Ferrioli demands ODOT director resign
Says faulty emissions data foiled transportation package
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon Senate
Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli,
R-John Day, on Wednesday called
for the state’s top transportation
of¿ cial to resign.
Ferrioli accused Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation director
Matthew Garrett and advisers to
Gov. Kate Brown of withholding
key carbon emissions information
from Democratic and Republican
lawmakers who were negotiating
a transportation funding package
earlier this year. Ferrioli cited
public records released by ODOT
and the Governor’s Of¿ ce.
Lawmakers gave up on the
transportation funding proposal
after Garrett revealed during the
¿ rst public hearing June 24 that
the plan would result in a smaller
carbon
emissions
reduction than originally
projected. ODOT staff
had predicted smaller
carbon reductions more
than two weeks before the
hearing, but did not pass
that ¿ gure to lawmakers, Ferrioli
according to emails released by
Ferrioli’s of¿ ce.
Lawmakers have continued
to question the transportation
agency’s
management
in recent months, and
Brown acknowledged last
week that ODOT needs to
reassure lawmakers it is
operating ef¿ ciently in
order to build support for
a possible 2017 transpor-
tation funding package.
The
emissions
calculations were a
critical component of the 2015
transportation negotiations. Repub-
licans had said they would only
support an increase in the gas tax
HERMISTON
HONORING HORNECK
Building to carry on late researcher’s legacy
Don Horneck
if Democrats agreed to repeal the
state’s low-carbon fuel standard,
which takes effect in January and
is supposed to reduce carbon emis-
sions from transportation by up to
10 percent — 7.7 million metric
tons — over the next decade.
Democrats said they would
only consider replacing the fuel
standard with a plan that would
result in at least an equal reduction
in carbon emissions. ODOT staff
provided estimates that the state
See ODOT/8A
A day to
give up
cigarettes
Great American Smokeout
gives tools to quit the habit
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Most smokers eventually ¿ nd
themselves engaged in a hellish battle
with their own willpower.
“We know that 75 percent of
smokers want to quit,” said Umatilla
County Public Health community
educator Janet Jones, “but it’s going
to take multiple times to quit, maybe
six to 10 attempts.”
Today, during the American
Cancer Society’s annual Great Amer-
ican Smokeout, some smokers will
try again. If not today, maybe soon.
According to this year’s National
Health Interview Survey, the national
smoking rate declined to 14.9 percent,
the lowest since the survey began in
1997.
Umatilla County is home to about
12,700 smokers, according to state
smoking data. Twenty-three percent
of adults in Umatilla County smoke
— higher than the state average
of 19 percent. Cigarette smoking
among pregnant women in Umatilla
County (13 percent) is higher than the
national average.
See QUIT/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Guests enter the new Don Horneck Memorial Building at HAREC after a dedication ceremony Wednesday outside of Hermiston.
Research lab one of several HAREC additions in coming year
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Space was a little cramped
Wednesday in the newly dedicated
Don Horneck Memorial Building
at the Hermiston Agricultural
Research and Extension Center,
as nearly 100 people gathered
to celebrate their late friend and
colleague.
No doubt Horneck himself
would have found the whole thing
ridiculous, said his widow, Vicki
Horneck.
“He would have never allowed
it to happen,” she said with a
chuckle.
What he wouldn’t ¿ nd ridic-
ulous is how much new research
can happen in the 1,700-square-
foot building, which houses an
agronomy lab, plant tissue culture
room and three insect rearing
rooms — all in the name of helping
farmers grow healthier, more nutri-
tious ¿ eld crops and vegetables.
The building was named after
Horneck, who spent 15 years
with Oregon State University as
a professor and agronomist at the
Hermiston station. Horneck died
suddenly and unexpectedly on
Sept. 28, 2014, at the age of 56. It
is the only building at HAREC to
be named for an individual.
Hermiston again the
fastest growing city
Pendleton adds residents Most of the growth — 450
residents — occurred outside of
after last year’s decline
incorporated cities.
By SEAN HART
East Oregonian
Population growth rates have
accelerated in Hermiston, Pend-
leton and Umatilla County.
Between July 2014 and July
2015, Umatilla County added 815
residents, a 1-percent increase to
79,155, according to preliminary
population estimates from Port-
land State University.
The data show the county
grew more than the previous year,
which had a 0.6-percent increase.
For the cities, Hermiston
added the most residents, 175,
with a 1-percent growth rate to a
total population of 17,520. In the
previous year, the city added 105
residents with a 0.6-percent rate.
Assistant City Manager Mark
Morgan said he was pleased to see
the growth, which is Eene¿ cial to
businesses because it increases
demand.
“The biggest thing to take away
from this is it really continues to
show Hermiston is in a virtuous
See POPULATION/8A
“It means a lot to myself and my
family,” Vicki Horneck said. “But I
think it means just as much to the
station here.”
One of Horneck’s top projects at
the research station was preserving
nitrates in soil to save farmers
money on fertilizer and increase
production of the region’s irrigated
crops, especially potatoes. In the
See HORNECK/8A
Population growth
Growth Population
Umatilla County
Hermiston
Pendleton
Milton-Freewater
Umatilla
Stanfi eld
Pilot Rock
Athena
Echo
Weston
Adams
Ukiah
Helix
Morrow County
Boardman
Irrigon
Heppner
Ione
Lexington
815
175
145
10
10
10
NA
15
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
105
60
45
NA
NA
NA
79,155
17,250
16,845
7,070
7,060
2,125
1,505
1,140
705
685
370
245
195
11,630
3,505
1,930
1,290
330
255
Source: Portland State University estimated
population between July 2014 and July 2015
PILOT ROCK
City paying
for access to
land it owns
Lawyers say $300 monthly
payment must continue
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Pilot Rock city government is
looking for any way to stop sending
$300 a month to Mary Koch to pay for
an easement to a cellphone tower that
sits on city land.
But getting out of what started in
2004 as a handshake deal has proven
dif¿ cult. And by the time the lease
expires in 2028, according to a staff
report, Pilot Rock will have shelled out
$128,000.
Pilot Rock receives $600 a month
from U.S. Cellular for access to a cell
tower on a hill west of town. Back in
2002, the idea was to have half the
tower on city land and half on Koch
property. U.S. Cellular would send the
check to the city, which would give the
Kochs half each month to allow access
to the tower.
Dr. Richard Koch died in late 2004,
just before he and the city could ink
the deal on paper. Yet a survey the year
before showed the tower was entirely
on city property.
Pilot Rock, though, except for a
See PILOT ROCK/8A