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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2016)
INSPECTION SCORES IMPROVING BULLDOGS DEFEAT THE DALLES REGION/3A BASKETBALL/1B 63/43 Why we should know who shot Finicum OPINION/4A WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016 140th Year, No. 88 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Plute behind on property taxes Expects to settle debt by May By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pendleton City Councilor and business owner Al Plute owes thousands of dollars in back taxes on a cluster of properties on the corner of Southeast First Street and Emigrant Avenue, according to the Umatilla County Assessment and Taxation Department. City councilor Al Plute owes the city of Pendleton more than $25,000 in delin- quent taxes. The embattled councilor, who is the target of a recall attempt, was unapologetic about the debts. While tax records for the Bowman building and the St. George Plaza could not be located as of press time, Plute estimates he owes $6,000 on the St. George and $16,000 on the Plute Bowman, but said he is well on his way to being caught up. Additionally, he owns a cluster of properties near the corner of Southeast Emigrant Avenue and Southeast First Street. According to Umatilla County tax statements, Plute owes $4,318 on those properties, which includes a parking lot for tenants of the nearby St. George apartment complex. Plute’s tax bills range from $135 to $2,359, the latter having recently received a $77 payment. He said that his money was tied up in battling a lawsuit with Pendleton Plumbing and he made a business decision to divert his funds to his legal fees. “It costs a lot of dough to pay for two attorneys,” he said. Now that the lawsuit is settled, Plute said he has See PLUTE/3A PENDLETON Chalmers selected for at-large council seat By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Friends of Mat Ramm share hugs after a celebration/cystic fi brosis awareness event for Ramm at Pendleton High School. ‘Breathe easy, Mat Ramm’ &\VWLF¿EURVLVVKRUWHQVOLIHRI3HQGOHWRQJUDGGRHVQ¶WGLPLQLVKLW of life, starting a GoFundMe account to raise money for the event. He hyped the memorial Friends and family said gathering on social media as a CF goodbye to 21-year-old Mat awareness event and a chance to Ramm on Saturday at Pendleton swap Mat stories. This was pure Mat Ramm, High School. Those who knew him say he packed much into his said his mother Marissa Hascall. short life despite having cystic She said her son had a gift for ¿EURVLV D EUXWDO GLVHDVH RI WKH reaching out to others even in lungs and digestive system. the darkest of times. Only days Before Ramm died on Dec. 29, before he died, Hascall said, he planned his own celebration Mat entered Oregon Health & By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Science University and noticed an injured man on a gurney in the emergency department. “Keep your head up, man,” Ramm told him, “It’s going to get better.” “That was my kid,” Hascall said. “He cared about every- body.” On Saturday, many of those he touched arrived at Warberg Court sporting T-shirts that read “Ramm Strong,” “Breathe easy, Mat Ramm” and “Cure CF.” One friend, a fellow CF patient, left her hospital bed to attend. Hascall wore a special shirt that proclaimed, “My Son is my Hero.” Attendees described a gritty and resilient man. By age 3, said his mom, he took more than 20 pills and endured daily percussion treat- ments where his mom thumped See RAMM/8A ,WWRRNDQKRXUWRLQWHUYLHZWKH¿YHFDQGL dates who applied for the vacant at-large seat on the Pendleton City Council, but it only took the council minutes to appoint Paul Chalmers. Chalmers, the Umatilla County assessment and taxation director, was the only candidate to receive votes at a meeting Tuesday. During his interview earlier in the evening, Chalmers stressed his Chalmers more than two decades in county government, a commitment to public works and public safety and a desire to restore trust between the city and the community. “I think city government has a responsi- bility for transparency,” he said. “I think city government has a responsibility for integrity. See COUNCIL/3A More online For video of the city council meeting visit eastoregonian.com Vaccination deadline hits schools By JENNIFER COLTON East Oregonian Fire protection bill passes House authority to counties, which could provide their own training, Coming off a record-setting equipment and insur- ZLOG¿UH VHDVRQ LQ 2UHJRQ ance to the volunteers. lawmakers have passed a bill to The bill applies only to help rural counties contain range- counties with 200,000 ODQG¿UHVEHIRUHWKH\JHWWRRELJ or more acres of range- land that fall outside any and cause too much damage. Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, forest protection district. “There’s large tracts Smith spearheaded the legislation that allows counties to form rangeland of unprotected land in protection associations under local Eastern Oregon,” Smith said. “It GRHVQ¶W UHFHLYH SULRULW\ LQ ¿UH emergency management. In the past, rangeland protection ¿JKWLQJEXWKDVKXJHLPSOLFDWLRQV associations could only be formed for landowners.” Smith described HB 4007 as by ranchers and landowners coor- dinating with the state Board of “an essential piece of legislation” Forestry. The idea is for neighbors that will help catch and extinguish WR DFW DV YROXQWHHU ¿UH¿JKWHUV LQ ZLOG¿UHVZKLOHWKH\DUHVWLOOVPDOO remote areas where there might The bill passed the House 59-0 on Monday. Rep. Brent Barton, QRWEHDQ\RWKHU¿UHSURWHFWLRQ House Bill 4007 expands that D-Oregon City, was excused from By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian voting. “The earlier you can SXWD¿UHRXWWKHEHWWHU it is for everyone,” Smith said. Wheeler County Sheriff Chris +XPSKUH\V WHVWL¿HG LQ favor of the bill, saying rangeland protection associations will give emergency manage- ment agencies another tool to deal ZLWKWKHJURZLQJZLOG¿UHSUREOHP across the West. Humphreys said there are about 500,000 acres of unprotected land in Wheeler County. That’s nearly half of all land in the county. In KH ZDV QRWL¿HG E\ ORFDO state and federal agencies they Hundreds of Eastern Oregon children could be sent home from school Wednesday. Feb. 17 is “School Exclusion Day” for the state of Oregon, and any students behind on vaccinations or without documentation will be excluded from class in public and private schools, preschools, child care facilities and Head Start programs in the state. Families with children on the exclusion OLVWZHUHQRWL¿HGLQ6HSWHPEHUDQG2FWREHU but as of Feb. 3, the county still required proof of vaccination for 738 students, according to Sharon Waldern, clinic nurse supervisor for the Umatilla County Health Department. Of those students, 695 had incomplete records with Umatilla County Health, indi- cating students were missing one or more required vaccinations, and 43 students had no vaccination record at all. The numbers do not include families with approved exemption paperwork. “Exclusion Day is important because one RI WKH VXUH¿UH ZD\V WR SUHYHQW FRQWDJLRXV disease is to get vaccinated,” Waldern said See FIRE/8A See VACCINE/2A
