Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Fort McMurray saved from
worst of Alberta wildfi re
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Jack Sanders has published numerous books on religion.
SANDERS: Battled budget cuts to
the religious studies department
Continued from 1A
The
University
of
Oregon will honor Sanders,
a long-time professor there,
by planting a fl owering
dogwood — Sanders’ favorite
tree — near the sculptures.
The planting will follow a
celebration of life attended by
fellow academics, friends and
family. In addition, the Reli-
gious Studies Department has
unveiled a memorial award
in Sanders’ name, given
annually to a religious studies
student who demonstrates
excellence in research and
writing.
Sanders compiled a heady
resume during his academic
years of degrees, professor-
ships, grants and scholarly
books and articles. After
moving to Pendleton, he
wrote two historical books.
Sanders died Jan. 21. A
broken right hip in November
sent him to the hospital with a
good prognosis, but a couple
of days later, he fell from his
hospital bed, breaking his
left hip and injuring his head.
Suddenly, this once-vibrant
80-year-old found himself
on a downhill slide. He died
far from home, having been
airlifted to Kadlec in the
Tri-Cities and later moved to
several hospitals in northern
Idaho.
Plass is still devastated.
She remembers the fi rst time
she heard Sanders’ voice
coming from the other side
of his university offi ce door.
Plass, then a graduate student,
had signed up for the profes-
sor’s seminar on Hellenistic
Judaism and had decided
to drop by and meet him in
advance. She knocked and
heard a deep voice inviting
her to enter.
“I opened the door and
walked into his life,” she said.
“We were instant soulmates.”
They married two years
later despite a 19-year
age difference. Over the
next decades, their lives
intertwined. Plass loved
his thoughtful, deliberate,
witty ways and his jokes
“that would sneak up on
you.” Sanders, a widower,
brought his son, Collin, to the
marriage.
Sanders continued down
his career path, serving many
years as the department head
and fi ghting for the depart-
ment’s very existence several
times. Plass carved out her
own place in academia.
On Sanders’ retirement in
2002, the couple moved
to Pendleton, where Plass
become director of grants at
Blue Mountain Community
College. Sanders became
fascinated with local history.
He wrote “Samuel Rothchild:
A Jewish Pioneer in Eastern
Oregon in the Days of the
Old West” about a general
store owner who raised
money for the fi rst Pendleton
fi re engine, served on city
council, owned a silver mine
and seemed an inexhaustible
community leader.
At Sanders’ memorial
service in Pendleton, Harriet
Isom quoted Sanders who
said of Rothchild, “The
American West owes its
development not to the
righteous lone gun-slingers
of western fi ction, but rather
to settlers like Rothchild, who
saw to it that a civil society
developed in hundreds of
small places.”
Isom described Sanders’
as “erudite, highly principled,
a laser mind and a fount of
knowledge” who gave an
annual Groundhog Day party
with Susan at their home.
“Jack might take a subject
seriously, but he never took
himself seriously,” Isom said.
Sanders was a prolifi c
letter-to-the-editor writer to
the East Oregonian. One
expressed his adoration of
Pendleton, penned as he sat
on his deck looking up at the
sky.
“Great western sky,” he
wrote. “Where else could
anyone see a sky like this?
Not back east. Not in the
Valley, where I spent most of
my life. What a great place
this is! How lucky to be able
to see a sky like this.”
Sanders’ second book
came out just before his
death. He edited a collection
of reminiscences on World
War II by Umatilla County
residents called “War on All
Fronts.”
Standing in Sanders’
book-lined study with the
scent of his pipe tobacco still
lingering can undo Plass. In
a bottom desk drawer, she
found a letter with “To my
dear Susan” in his familiar
script. On one shelf, a trea-
sured photo shows Jack in
shirt and tie, fl ashing a grin
from his desk, pipe clenched
between his teeth.
Plass grinned as she shared
her nickname for Sanders.
“I called him ‘wonderful
man,’” she said.
Despite deep loss, Plass
smiles at the tribute his UO
colleagues created — the
Jack T. Sanders Memorial
Award. The fi rst recipient
will be announced at the cele-
bration of life on Thursday.
Recipients, one or two each
year, will each receive $500.
She hopes faculty, friends
and family will raise the
additional $9,000 necessary
to endow the award for years
to come.
Current Religious Studies
Department Head Rick Colby
remembers Sanders as an
honest, hard-nosed, fair and
funny chocolate lover who
included a brownies recipe in
each course syllabus. Colby
credits the continued exis-
tence of the department to
Sanders, who battled budget
cuts in the ’70s, late ’80s and
’90s.
“The provosts talked
about getting rid of religious
studies,” he said. “Jack kept
making the case that this
is an important academic
endeavor.”
Sanders, Colby said, saw
religious studies much like
history.
“He wasn’t trying to make
people more religious or say
that religion is hogwash, just
realize that religion is part
of the human experience,”
Colby said.
Plass said the memorial
honors Sanders’ bent for
research and writing.
“I’m so pleased that after
14 years of Jack being gone
from University of Oregon,
the faculty honed in on those
roles and remembered what
he stood for,” she said.
The celebration of life
will begin at 10 a.m. in
the Browsing Room of the
Knight Library at University
of Oregon. Those who wish
to donate to the memorial
award can go to the depart-
ment web page to learn more.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
BUDGET: Tries to implement technology when
possible to make county government more effi cient
Continued from 1A
focusing on money the
county will not get, the focus
is on how to best use funds
the county does receive.
General
government
services uses about $25.5
million, the biggest chunk
of the overall budget, with
public safety second at $21.7
million. The road department
gets $11.5 million, and health
and human services receive
about $8.4 million.
He also said the budget
refl ects the strategic plan
the county adopted in 2014
that has two overall prongs.
The fi rst is to implement
technology when possible
to make county government
more effi cient, and the
other is about empowering
employees. To that end, the
county board implemented
Murdock’s idea of profes-
sional development in the
workplace. Investing in the
318 full-time equivalent
employees already working
for the county to make them
better yields benefi ts for the
public, he said.
The budget goes into
effect July 1, and the board
of commissioners usually
adopts the budget in June.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0833.
FORT
MCMURRAY,
Alberta (AP) — At least
two neighborhoods in this
oil sands city were scenes of
utter devastation with incin-
erated homes leveled to the
ground from a wildfi re that
Fort McMurray’s fi re chief
called a “beast ... a fi re like
I’ve never seen in my life.”
But the wider picture was
more optimistic as Fire Chief
Darby Allen said 85 percent
of Canada’s main oil sands
city remains intact, including
the downtown district. Alber-
ta’s premier declared the city
had been saved, adding that
offi cials hope to provide a
schedule within two weeks
for thousands of evacuated
residents to begin returning
to their homes.
Alberta Premier Rachel
Notley said about 2,400
homes and buildings were
destroyed in the city, but
fi refi ghters managed to save
25,000 others, including the
hospital, municipal buildings
and every functioning school.
“This city was surrounded
by an ocean of fi re only a few
days ago but Fort McMurray
and the surrounding commu-
nities have been saved and
they will be rebuilt,” Notley
said.
Notley got her fi rst direct
look at the devastation in
Fort McMurray on Monday
after cold temperatures and
light rain had stabilized the
massive wildfi re to a point
where offi cials could begin
planning to get thousands of
evacuated residents back.
The break in the weather
left offi cials optimistic
they’ve reached a turning
point on getting a handle
on the massive wildfi re.
The temperature dipped to
45 degrees Fahrenheit on
Monday following a week
where the region had unsea-
sonably warm temperatures.
Notley fl ew in Monday
morning to meet with local
offi cials and took a ground
tour of the town before
holding a news conference at
the emergency center.
“I was very much struck
by the devastation of the
fi re. It was really quite over-
whelming in some spots,”
Notley said. “But I will also
Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP
A trailer park damaged by a wildfi re is viewed in
Fort McMurray, Alberta, during a media tour of the
city on Monday. A break in the weather has offi cials
optimistic they have reached a turning point on get-
ting a handle on the massive blaze.
say that I was struck by the
proximity of that devastation
to neighborhoods that were
untouched.”
More than 40 journalists
were allowed into Fort
McMurray on a bus escorted
by police. The forest
surrounding the road into
town was still smoldering
and there were abandoned
cars. Only the sign remained
at a Super 8 Motel and
Denny’s restaurant on the
edge of town.
The Beacon Hill neigh-
borhood was a scene of
utter devastation with homes
burned down to their founda-
tion.
Allen said at one point the
fi re jumped across a road in
Beacon Hill that is 15 to 20
feet wide.
“It jumped that without
thinking about it. This was
a beast. It was an animal. It
was a fi re like I’ve never seen
in my life,” he said on the
media bus.
In the early stages of the
fi re he feared that as much as
half the city could burn down
“I just want to let the
people know that we’re in
pretty good shape,” he said.
“Typical of the damaged
areas you’ll see structures
that are completely gone and
structures that are intact.”
Allen said at one point
the fi re raced down a hill
to the corner of a bank, but
fi refi ghters were able to halt
the encroaching fl ames at the
bank. Had they failed to stop
it there, the fi re would have
destroyed the downtown
district, he said.
But other neighborhoods
were not spared. In the
Abasand district, townhouses
were completely destroyed,
and charred children’s bikes
could be seen in backyards. A
parking facility was burned
to the ground.
More than 88,000 people
have left Fort McMurray
since the fi re broke out last
Tuesday in the heart of Cana-
da’s oil sands region. The
bulk of the city’s evacuees
moved south after Tuesday’s
mandatory evacuation order,
but 25,000 evacuees moved
north and were housed in
camps normally used for oil
sands workers until they also
could be evacuated south.
Gas has been turned off,
the power grid is damaged
and water is undrinkable in
Fort McMurray. More than
250 power company workers
are trying to restore the grid
and assess the gas infrastruc-
ture.
“We are now turning our
minds more and more to
the recovery effort,” Federal
Public Safety Minister Ralph
Goodale said.
“This is going to be a long
term endeavor because at the
moment there is no power
and gas, no palatable water
supply. There’s dangerous
hazardous material all over
the place. It’s going to take
a very careful, thoughtful
effort to get that community
back in a livable condition,”
Goodale said.
HERMISTON: City estimated it would
cost $30,000 to repaint entire water tower
Continued from 1A
City Manager Byron
Smith said the Hermiston
Chamber of Commerce
will also consider the
brand for adoption into
their marketing efforts, and
both entities plan to hold a
launch party for the brand
sometime in June.
“We’ll have some items
people can take home and
enjoy with the new branch
on it,” Smith said.
The brand will then be
rolled out over the next few
months, starting with the
city’s online presence and
then moving to letterheads,
signs, city vehicles and —
Smith assured the council
when they asked — the
water tower that started all
the complaints about the
“You Can GROW Here”
brand when it was repainted
in 2013.
The change was criti-
cized because of the tagline’s
unveiling at the same time
marijuana became legal in
the state, and because the
base paint around the logo
didn’t match the rest of the
tower. The city previously
estimated it would cost
$30,000 to repaint the entire
tower, as opposed to the
$14,000 it cost to just paint
the logo and a small area
around it.
Mayor David Drotz-
mann thanked the citizens’
committee and Focal Point
Marketing for their time on
the issue and said he felt that
process, including a series
of surveys, included much
more community input than
the city’s last attempt at
branding.
“I’m excited about the
brand you came up with,”
he said.
On Monday the city
council also:
• Voted to approve
plans for Hermiston’s new
senior center that includes a
basement, at an extra cost of
$550,000 to the city.
• Approved a 7.8 percent
increase for residential
garbage service, as requested
by Sanitary Disposal, Inc.
The increase will add $1.25
to the monthly fee for a
90-gallon cart, according to
a city report.
• Accepted a $29,750
grant from the Oregon Infra-
structure Finance Authority
to look at ways to increase
wastewater capacity in the
Southern Industrial area.
The city will pay $5,250 for
a study.
See tomorrow’s East
Oregonian for more details.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Thank you Pendleton!
The Walla Walla Kennel Club would like to thank all those involved with making the Dog
Show a success! We especially want to thank the staff of the Pendleton Convention Center,
the Round up grounds, Happy Canyon, and the City of Pendleton for the use of their
grounds and setting up the show sites, and patrolling the grounds! In addition, we thank
Travel Pendleton for giving us a grant for advertising, Gordon Electric for putting up our
banner, and the Chamber of commerce and Oxford Suites for putting together judge and
exhibitor gift bags. D & B Supply for sponsoring Best In Show competition, Coca Cola for
donating signage, and MaySon’s General store for their donations. Outwest catering did a
fantastic job catering the event and the cakes made by TastyCakes by Missy were amazing!
We thank Zachary Knight of Blue Mountain Action Council and Randy Thomas, a Pendleton
Round up Board member, for singing the national anthem each morning to start out shows.
We thank Pendleton High School’s girls’ soccer team
for partnering with us in handling parking and helping
with other tasks as needed. We also thank the Eastern
Oregonian for covering our event in the paper, and
anyone who volunteered, participated, or came by to
experience our event! Thanks again Pendleton for
your hospitality! We look forward to coming back in
2017 for our next dog show!
Walla Walla Kennel Club