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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2016)
ELITE DUCKS OREGON BEATS DUKE 82-68 MARCH MADNESS/1B FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 140th Year, No. 115 Your Weekend One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD 90-year-old recalls days as switchboard operator Stations of the Cross Friday in Hermiston Easter egg hunts around the area For times and places see Coming Events, 5A • • Private liquor sales one step from ballot By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau Catch a movie Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP An orphaned billionaire butts heads with an orphaned alien in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” For showtime, Page 5A Weekend Weather Staff photo by E.J. Harris Fri Sat Sun 53/30 59/41 54/34 Ninety-year-old June Kononen used her voice to help people stay connected as a telephone operator and to entertain on the stage as an actor. $4M will be spent to repair refuge BURNS (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will spend roughly $4 million to clean, repair and upgrade the Oregon wildlife refuge that was the site of a 41-day armed occu- pation by ranchers earlier this year. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe said he wants the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns to become a symbol to the rest of the country that collaboration, not confrontation, endures, The Oregonian reported. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell made similar statements during her visit to the refuge earlier this week. Photos of the refuge shared by federal of¿ cials show that the ranchers left a mess inside the building. The compound is undergoing a giant spring See REFUGE/10A Contributed photo By KATHY ANEY Ƈ East Oregonian J une Kononen thinks fondly of the days when phones had cords and telephone operators connected calls by plugging jacks into a switchboard. Kononen worked as a telephone operator off and on for 25 years –— but she almost didn’t get the job. The 90-year-old remembers interviewing in 1948 to become one of 100 operators based in Pendleton. The interviewer gazed at the tiny Kononen and then up to the large switchboard ¿ lled with holes that each represented a local phone number. June Kononen poses with her husband Ellis and their daughter Elaine in younger days. “I was too short, really,” Kononen recalled. “If I stood on the rim of my chair, I could reach both ends. The woman hired me anyway.” Kononen settled in quickly. The job, she found, took energy and unÀ agging good cheer. “Number, please,” said Kononen, when each call came in. She plugged each cord into the proper jack and pulled a key to ring the person. Many of the farm families around Pendleton shared party lines. Each family received a different ring pattern, such as two rings, a pause and another ring or maybe one long ring. The operators memorized them all. “So often, you’d hear a click,” she said, explaining that someone else on the party line was listening in. “Nothing was sacred.” Operators weren’t allowed to listen in on calls, but occasionally, well, they heard. One operator heard part of a conversation involving one of the ladies at a Pendleton brothel called the Cozy Rooms. The young woman See KONONEN/10A “It’s all done with computers and mechanical voices now. Something is missed by not having operators.” See LIQUOR/10A — June Kononen Hermiston-Pendleton area growing slowly this decade East Oregonian Midway through the decade, the Herm- iston-Pendleton area is growing, albeit slowly. The U.S. Census Bureau released its population estimate for counties, metro and micro areas to the public Thursday. It estimated 87,721 people reside in the Hermiston-Pendleton micropolitan area. While the bureau didn’t release data for individual cities, it did provide estimates for Umatilla County, Morrow County and the Hermiston-Pendleton micropolitan area, which encompasses the population of both counties. The bureau calculates its estimates by looking at births, deaths, administrative records and survey data. The projection shows the Hermis- ton-Pendleton area has grown by 0.76 percent since the 2010 census. Umatilla County experienced the lion’s share of the population boost, growing by 642 people over the past ¿ ve years. Morrow County grew by 17 people. The bureau attributed the area’s growth to a natural increase of 2,925, meaning that births far outpace deaths. But at the same time, more than 2,128 people moved out of the area than moved in. The Hermiston-Pendleton area’s 0.76 percent growth rate is good for third among the seven micropolitan areas in Oregon, beating out Brookings, La Grande, Coos Bay and Klamath Falls. Despite beating out many other rural areas, the Hermiston-Pendleton area was signi¿ cantly behind Hood River’s .54 percent increase and Astoria’s jump of 2.14 percent. While many micropolitan areas are either growing at minuscule rates or shrinking, their urban counterparts all experienced signi¿ cant growth. Oregon’s six metropolitan areas were led by the Bend-Redmond area, which grew by 11.12 percent. SALEM — The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday certi¿ ed the ballot title for a grocer-backed ballot initiative that would privatize liquor sales in Oregon. The certi¿ cation came after the court denied a request by sponsors of Initiative Petition 71 to revise the ballot title written by the Oregon Attorney General’s Of¿ ce. Sponsors Gerry Dory and Lynn Gust of Wilsonville objected to a statement in the title that said the measure would “eliminate liquor revenue.” The ballot certi¿ cation clears the way for the spon- sors to collect the 88,184 signatures needed to place the measure on the November ballot. “We’re pleased the court’s review is concluded and eager to begin engaging directly with Oregonians about getting the state out of the business of promoting and selling liquor,” Rudy Dory, co-founder of Bend’s employee-owned Newport Avenue Market and co-sponsor of the initiative, said in a statement. The measure would end state sale and distribution of liquor and allow beer and wine retailers, including grocery stores, to sell liquor. Privatization would result in the loss of more than $200 million in state revenue used to pay for state and local services, according to Orego- nians Against The Takeover, a coalition of labor organiza- tions, craft brewers, distillers and winemakers that opposes the ballot initiative. Replacing that revenue might be challenging given that the Oregon Legislature needs a three-¿ fths majority to pass a new tax, said Paul Romain, a lobbyist for the Oregon Beer & Wine HERMISTON :DWHUULJKWWDNHV¿UVW VWHSWRZDUGFHUWL¿FDWLRQ Project could bene¿ t local agriculture By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The Port of Umatilla and city of Hermiston are making progress on certifying a key water right to deliver more irrigation water from the Columbia River. It’s another step forward in a long and complicated process that, if successful, could mean big-time growth for the region’s agricultural economy. Last year, the port agreed to lease an unused portion of its Columbia River water right — 100 cubic feet per second — to the Northeast Oregon Water Association, an organization working to expand farming in Umatilla and Morrow counties. NOWA is currently working with policymakers and envi- ronmental groups to apply for new irrigation water from the Columbia as part of an ambitious, multi-phase project to grow more acres of high-value crops like onions and potatoes. As part of the deal, NOWA intends to leave the port’s water in stream as mitigation for native ¿ sh including salmon and steelhead. But before that can happen, the port’s water right must be of¿ cially certi¿ ed by the Oregon Water Resources See WATER/10A
