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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2016)
REGION Friday, February 5, 2016 East Oregonian Page 3A PENDLETON Senators press Vandals wreck public restrooms FCC on bogus equipment fees East Oregonian Pendleton Parks & Recre- ation has closed some city park restrooms after vandals destroyed toilets and tore a stall door from a wall. &LW\ RI¿FLDOV VDLG WKH vandalism has been a problem for a number of years and it is not getting any better. Interim parks director Donnie Cook said his department on multiple occasions closed restrooms at Trailhead Park, Roy 5DOH\ 3DUN DQG %URZQ¿HOG Park because of repeated vandalism. He said the recent repair bill for the restroom at Trailhead Park, where culprits smashed porcelain to pebbles, could come to $200, while he estimated repairing the door at Roy Raley Park at $2,000. Cook has been working with the parks department since 1991 and has always encountered vandalism, he said, but it has been more ³YLROHQW DQG GHVWUXFWLYH´ in recent years. Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said the destruction peaks during colder months as well as in the height of summer, and the crimes occur in spurts and most happen at night. Cook said transients disable electronic locks on the restrooms so they can live in the facilities, yank out ventilation fan wiring to charge cellphones and defe- cate and urinate on the walls. Others rip off and destroy toilets and sinks and spray- SDLQWJUDI¿WLDFURVVVXUIDFHV Roberts noted some people VWDUW ZDUPLQJ ¿UHV LQ WKH restrooms. Drunks leaving downtown bars often damage the restroom in %URZQ¿HOG 3DUN RQ 0DLQ Street. Photo provided by Pendleton Parks and Recreation This photo taken recently of the public bathroom at Brownfield Park shows the complete destruction done by vandals of a toilet and other fixtures. The city parks depart- ment is trying to combat the ongoing rack and ruin. Cook said staff are repositioning security cameras to get a better look at people going in and out of bathrooms and replacing porcelain sinks and toilets with stainless steel ones. The department also reduced operating hours for the Roy Raley bathroom. The city caught a group of three or four youth they believed had vandalized bathrooms in the past, Cook said, but there was not enough evidence to prose- cute them. Roberts encouraged anyone who sees anything suspicious at a restroom along the city’s river parkway or in city parks to call police. The vandalism is costly, he said, and timely reports may help police catch any miscreants. WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oregon’s U.S. sena- tors joined four of their colleagues Wednesday in pressing Federal Commu- nications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler about companies charging consumers for equipment they do not use. Consumers of Internet and TV service complain more about billing than another other problem, according to a statement from WKH RI¿FH RI Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden Wyden. More than 30 percent of consumer complaints in 2015 to the FCC were about Internet service billing and 38 percent were about TV service Merkley billing. Wyden and fellow Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, both Demo- crats, joined Senators Al Franken, D-Minnesota, Edward J. Markey, D-Mas- sachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and presidential candidate Bernard Sanders, I-Ver- mont, in writing a letter to Wheeler about what the Live Music This recent photo shows vandalism done to a partition in a public restroom at Roy Raley Park. The Oregon Farm Bureau to better quantify drought is neutral on H.B. 4113 and effects. Several committee would like to see resources SALEM — Despite dedicated to understanding members said they supported generous amounts of WKH ¿QDQFLDO LPSDFW RI the idea but cautioned that the snow and rain this winter, drought across the state, said task force alone doesn’t solve Eastern Oregon is expected Mary Anne Nash, public the drought problem. “This does not check the to continue experiencing policy counsel for the organi- box. We have a crisis in water drought in 2016 based on low zation. April Snell, executive VXSSO\´ VDLG 5HS 0LNH soil moisture levels. In light of this prediction direct of the Oregon Water McLane, R-Powell Butte. ——— from the National Weather Resources Congress, said The Capital Bureau is a Service, the state’s water the task force is a step in the regulators want to set up right direction but she agreed collaboration between EO a “Task Force on Drought that Oregon State University Media Group and Pamplin (PHUJHQF\5HVSRQVH´WR¿QG or the Oregon Department of Media Group. tools for alleviating drought Agriculture should be funded impacts. The idea recently won approval from Oregon lawmakers on the House S ATURDAY & S UNDAY , F EB . 13 & 14 Committee on Rural Commu- nities, Land Use and Water, which unanimously referred a bill to create the task force to the Joint Ways & Means Bleu Cheese Topped Sirloin &RPPLWWHH ZLWK D ³GR SDVV´ Fire Roasted Salmon with Mango Salsa recommendation on Feb. 3. Reservoirs levels in Live Music Saturday Oregon and across much of AT 9 PM IN THE SALOON the West are below average, DAKOTA BROWN F R E E - N O C O V E R which means it’s too early WR³GHFODUHYLFWRU\´RYHUWKH CALL FOR RESERVATIONS 541.278.1100 GURXJKWWKDWDIÀLFWHGIDUPHUV Saloon Opens at 4 PM • Dinner beginning at 5 PM in 2015, said Tom Byler, director of the Oregon Water Resources Department. “We’re still not where we COURT & MAIN • DOWNTOWN PENDLETON want to be, despite the good year we’ve been having so IDU´ KH VDLG QRWLQJ WKDW WKH long-term weather forecast for spring anticipates above normal temperatures and below average precipitation in the Northwest. The task force proposed in House Bill 4113 would consist Come, relax and enjoy the of roughly a dozen members, game at the Red Lion Lounge. with the governor appointing Doors open at 1:30 pm up to 11 and leaders in the House and Senate appointing February 7 th four, said Racquel Rancier, senior policy coordinator for OWRD. Members would examine short-term tools for dealing with drought, such as emer- gency groundwater usage and temporary transfer of water rights, as well as longer-term solutions, such as water storage, she said. 3 0 4 S E N y e Av e . , P e n d l e t o n , O R redl i o n . c o m • 54 1 -276-6111 The task force would also improve information sharing among the diverse stake- holders, Rancier said. By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Bureau The Place for Lovebirds H AMLEY S TEAK H OUSE Join us Superbowl Sunday! 9:00 PM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 Photo provided by Pendleton Parks and Recreation Task force recommended for recurring drought shady practice. “We are troubled upon hearing complaints of consumers being charged the modem rental fee after they have returned the rented equipment to Comcast or being charged the rental fee having never rented a modem LQWKH¿UVWSODFH´ their letter states. “Not only are the majority of customers using automatic payment systems and may not personally autho- rize every erro- neous charge, many consumers report having to call and remedy this problem throughout several billing F\FOHV´ T h e lawmakers asked if and how the FCC regulates erroneous fees, how many unauthorized charges the FCC is aware of, the number of consumer complaints about erro- neous equipment fees and what — if anything — is the FCC doing to address such complaints. <RX FDQ ¿QG D FRS\ RI the letter at www.wyden. senate.gov. Cale Moon 8 S.E. COURT, PENDLETON 541.278.1100
