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TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016
140th Year, No. 72
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Hermiston man dies after fight
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A Hermiston man died late
Friday night from injuries
sustained in a ¿ ght that tooN
place north of Hermiston two
days before.
David Wayne Newton, 53,
died at Sacred Heart Medical
&enter in SpoNane at 1050 p.m.
Friday night after being taNen off
life support the night before.
According to the Umatilla
Newton
&ounty
Sheriff¶s
Of¿ ce,
witnesses reported that Newton
sustained a head injury during a
physical altercation with Lloyd
Allan Terpening, 54, from
Irrigon, at a commercial property
on 81252 Hwy 395 Wednesday
night. Both men were reportedly
living on the property while
helping clean it out.
Undersheriff Jim Little¿ eld
said Monday that Terpening
had been questioned and was
scheduled to taNe a polygraph test
but had not been arrested and no
charges had been ¿ led.
“After the entire investigation
is complete we will turn it over
to the district attorney¶s of¿ ce,´
he said, noting that investigating
such cases taNes time and is “not
always cut and dried.´
Hilda
White,
Newton’s
mother, said Terpening, who
goes by Allan, was a close friend
of Newton’s. When her son was
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
It has been six months since an explosion and fi re gutted the old City Hall building in Pendleton.
ClocN ticNing on building repairs
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
With shattered windows and
charred bricN, the old Pendleton
City Hall serves as a starN
reminder of the July 21 explosion
the engulfed the building for
hours and claimed the life of a
25-year-old man.
The family that owns the 34
S.E. Dorion Ave. building still
plans to restore it, but a city ordi-
nance could hasten those efforts.
According to the city’s
nuisance ordinance, any structure
that sustains damage from a ¿ re
must be repaired enough to meet
city building code within a year of
the ¿ re.
The building owners must also
taNe steps to repair the damage
within 120 days of the ¿ re, with
the possibility of an additional
120-day extension if the property
owner can show the city that an
engineer or architect is maNing
plans.
City Manager Robb Corbett
said he didn’t Nnow enough details
on the ordinance to comment on
it and referred the issue to City
Attorney Nancy Kerns.
In an email, Kerns wrote
that the building’s owner has
engaged a engineer to develop
reconstruction plans, activating
the extension.
That gives owner Jose
Quezada and his family until
March 17 to start repairs and July
21, 2016 to bring the building up
to code.
Corbett said a representative of
the Quezada family has inquired
about obtaining funding from
the Pendleton Development
Commission to help cover the
cost of repairs, but an application
hasn’t been submitted. The
commission provides loans and
grants to projects in the down-
town area.
Marco Quezada, the son of
Jose Quezada, said the family has
hired an engineer to maNe plans
and are still gathering bids for the
repairs.
Repairs won’t come cheap —
Marco Quezada said the window,
exterior bricN and roo¿ ng costs
alone are $260,000 and the
family is still looNing into costs
on repairing the structure and
electrical worN.
Marco Quezada said that if the
family can secure the money, they
should start rebuilding the old city
hall over the summer with plans
to maNe it into a housing complex.
He said city staff have not
informed him of the repair
requirements of the nuisance
ordinance.
The East Oregonian ¿ led
a public records request to the
Oregon State Fire Marshal in
August for the investigation into
the explosion and ¿ re, but it has
yet to be ful¿ lled.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0836.
HARNEY COUNTY STANDOFF: DAY 23
Tribe asks feds to stop armed
group’s free travel at refuge
By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press
The Burns Paiute Tribe wants
federal of¿ cials to bar armed
activists from traveling bacN and
forth to a national wildlife preserve
they are occupying in southeastern
Oregon, fearing tribal artifacts will
go missing or the group will disturb
burial grounds.
The small group tooN over
buildings at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge more than three
weeNs ago that store over 4,000
archaeological artifacts and maps
detailing where more items can be
More inside
Authorities say demands by
leaders defy logic and law
Page 7A
found. Members of the group, who
are occupying the site to oppose
federal land use policies, recently
posted videos to social media that
show them looNing at some of the
relics and criticizing the way the
federal government has stored them.
The artifacts belonged to ances-
tors of the Burns Paiute Tribe, which
worNs closely with the U.S. Fish
City planner
resigns, cites
‘difference
of opinions’
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
See NEWTON/8A
PENDLETON
Old city hall must be up to code by July 21
PENDLETON
and Wildlife Service to preserve
prehistoric sites and artifacts at the
refuge.
The tribe has “grave concerns
regarding the present handling
of the occupation as well as the
prosecution of the militants,´ tribal
chairwoman Charlotte Rodrique
wrote in a letter Friday to U.S.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch
and FBI Director James Comey.
Federal authorities have taNen a
hands-off approach so far and say
they want a peaceful resolution.
One of the group’s leaders, Ammon
Bundy, has been in contact with an
See STANDOFF/7A
Pendleton City Planner Evan
MacKenzie resigned from his position
Monday, ending an almost eight-year
stint with the city.
A city press release did not speci¿ cally
state why MacKenzie was departing city
government, but did commend him for
his worN on the Pendleton Downtown
Plan, the Comprehensive Land Use Plan
and other updates to land use ordinances.
“The City of
Pendleton appreci-
ates Evan’s commit-
ment to the commu-
nity and wishes him
well in the future,´
City
Manager
Robb Corbett said
in a statement. “In
addition to his worN,
Evan
contributed MacKenzie
in many positive
ways through volunteering of his time to
Pendleton,´
In a FacebooN message to the East
Oregonian, MacKenzie attributed his
resignation to differing opinions.
“I had a different viewpoint on the
City’s goals and policies than manage-
ment, and a different viewpoint on
administering the code as well,´ he wrote.
“It made for an unpleasant environment
for all parties, and when Robb asNed me
to resign I agreed to do so. I had a good
seven and a half years with the City of
Pendleton but it’s time to move on.´
Corbett did not return a request for
comment.
MacKenzie, who was hired in 2008,
previously announced he would resign
his job in 2014 to taNe a similar position
in Ketchum, Idaho. He reversed his posi-
tion a few weeNs later, saying there was
a “miscommunication´ between himself
and Ketchum of¿ cials about salary.
MacKenzie sometimes attracted
public criticism, especially from Sign
Men Neon Co. owner Ed Miltenberger,
who excoriated MacKenzie for muddling
the sign approval process.
According to the press release, the city
intends to ¿ ll MacKenzie’s position and
will evaluate how to manage his duties in
the interim.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.
IRRIGON
Friends, family
and colleagues
remember
councilwoman
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The conversation was emotional as it
was businessliNe.
Phyllis Danielson met with her friend,
Christine Sorenson, for the last time on
Jan. 12. Sorenson’s
health was failing,
and she Nnew there
wasn’t much time.
Together,
Danielson
and
Sorenson
served
on the board of
directors for the
Irrigon Chamber of
Commerce, which Sorenson
they helped revive
almost two years ago. Sorenson was
appointed treasurer, and vowed to Neep
worNing until she couldn’t anymore.
The day ¿ nally came, and it was
time to teach the job to someone
else. Sorenson was gentle, but franN,
See SORENSON/7A