RELAY
READY
TO RALLY
45/39
DEBATE FACT CHECK
HERMISTON/3A
UMATILLA
TAKES LEAD
IN LEAGUE
7A
BASKETBALL/1B
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2016
140th Year, No. 67
Umatilla
County
to back
EOTEC
on loan
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY
‘This is the dream’
Communities commemorate civil rights leader with march and music
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center could get a
big boost to its funding short-
fall. The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
will vote Tuesday morning
to authorize the county to
back EOTEC on a loan up to
$750,000.
The EOTEC fundraising
committee wants to borrow
a big chunk of money and
is seeking donation commit-
ments for multiple years that
would go to paying off the
debt. If a donor promised
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for example, EOTEC would
borrow $25,000 up front
from the fund, then each
year use the donor’s annual
contribution to pay off the
bank.
EOTEC is about $2
million short of the $16
million it needs by March
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of construction. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture
might be able to provide
$325,000, according to
county counsel Doug Olsen,
and Banner Bank is willing
to make a sizable loan to
EOTEC. But the bank wants
the land of the EOTEC site
for collateral.
To obtain the loan, the two
entities that formed EOTEC
— Umatilla County and the
city of Hermiston — needed
to give approval. Hermiston
City Council in December
voted to allow EOTEC to
take on $1.5 million in debt.
But the Oregon Constitu-
tion prohibits counties from
taking on more than $5,000
of debt. So the county board
plans to vote to pledge the
county’s full faith and credit
as the guarantee on a loan
EOTEC obtains for up to
$750,000, or half of that $1.5
million.
Olsen previously said the
county made the same guar-
antee on the construction of
the Stafford Hansell Govern-
ment Center, Hermiston.
The board of commis-
sioners will meet Tuesday
at 9 a.m. in room 130 at
the Umatilla County Court-
house, 416 S.E. Fourth St.,
Pendleton. The board at
See COUNTY/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
More than 100 people gathered to take part in a march down Main Street in Hermiston on Monday to commemorate Martin Luther
King Jr. Day.
Hermiston peace walk
honors legacy of MLK
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Georgina Johnson sings the song “We Shall Not Be Moved” accompa-
nied by Dan Haug and Margaret Mayer, not photographed, on Monday at
the Great Pacifi c Wine and Coffee Co. in Pendleton.
Pendleton celebrates Dr. King’s
birthday with freedom songs
the birthday of civil rights activist
Martin Luther King, Jr.
A portrait of the Baptist minister
7KRVH ZKR HQWHUHG *UHDW 3DFL¿F and Nobel Peace Prize winner sat on
Wine & Coffee Company on Monday an easel. He appeared to look out at the
evening stepped smack into a soundtrack crowd as audience members sang and
clapped and raised a toast.
of the civil rights movement.
Bill Young, of Pendleton, kicked off
Strains of “We Shall Overcome,”
“We Shall Not Be Moved” and other the evening with some of King’s own
protest songs bounced off the popular words.
Pendleton eatery’s brick walls for two
See PENDLETON/8A
hours as about 150 people celebrated
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Hermiston
residents
honored Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.’s legacy Monday
with a peace walk through
downtown and a ceremony
at First United Methodist
Church.
Keynote speaker Dawn
Rome, one of the Herm-
iston Black International
Awareness Club’s founding
members, quoted from
King’s famous “I Have a
Dream” speech.
“Take a look at this
room,” she said, gesturing
to the church full of black,
Hispanic and white commu-
nity members sitting side
by side. “This is literally the
dream right here.”
Though the world might
be a different, less segregated
one than it was during King’s
lifetime, Rome said his ideals
of tolerance, equality and
nonviolence are still relevant
today.
She asked how many
people in the room had
bought a lottery ticket
recently with dreams of
winning the biggest Power-
“As Americans
we have already
won the lottery.
Don’t wait to be
great to do some-
thing, do some-
thing now and be
great at that.”
— Dawn Rome,
keynote speaker
ball jackpot in history. Rome
said for a week she listened to
friends and family talk about
the ways they could use the
money for good, from buying
a home for a family member
to adopting children from
Africa. What she wanted to
know is why so many people
seemed to think they needed
to wait to win the lottery in
order to make a difference in
the world.
“As Americans we have
already won the lottery,”
she said. “Don’t wait to be
great to do something, do
something now and be great
See HERMISTON/8A
HARNEY COUNTY STANDOFF: DAY 16
Mandatory minimum sentences play a role in ranching standoff
By JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — The seeds of
this month’s insurrection at a Harney
County wildlife refuge were planted
in an unusual midnight deal struck
in 2012 between prosecutors and
Harney County ranchers Dwight and
Steven Hammond.
The long blood feud between
the Hammonds and the government
reached a surprise moment of
consensus that night. After eight days
of trial in a Pendleton courthouse on
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their remote Eastern Oregon ranch,
the parties agreed to abide by the
jury’s partial verdict.
The jury informed the judge it
had concluded that the Hammonds
were guilty of two counts of arson.
On seven other counts, the jury had
voted to acquit or was deadlocked.
The Hammonds agreed to accept
the partial verdict, accept Hogan’s
sentence and to waive their rights to
appeal. The two ranchers and their
lawyers believed the U.S. Attorney’s
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The deal blew up four months
later after U.S. District Court Judge
Michael Hogan refused to issue
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sentence. Prosecutors immediately
appealed, calling Hogan’s lighter
prison sentences “illegal.”
The Department of Justice
prevailed. The ranchers were ordered
to return to prison to serve out their
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The case made the Hammonds
martyrs to an angry cadre of
protesters, and the perceived govern-
ment overreach inspired the armed
occupation of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge south of Burns that
has attracted worldwide attention.
Even as the occupation reaches
day 16, several questions remain
unanswered: Why did the govern-
ment decide to charge the Hammonds
under a terrorism statute? Why was
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See STANDOFF/8A