WEEKEND EDITION
VERA ADDS
ANOTHER
ALL-STATE
HONOR LOGGING HISTORY THROUGH AN ENCOUNTER WITH ALI
BASEBALL/1B
MODEL TRAINS
LIFESTYLES/1C
OPINION/4A
JUNE 11-12, 2016
140th Year, No. 171
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
EOTEC
approves
$9.1M
budget
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Skills trainer Rex Holcomb holds out one of the therapeutic tools called a feeling buddy, he uses with students at the
Lifeways Day Treatment Program.
Treating trauma
Team of counselors and teachers strive to help kids cope
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Calm and chaos intertwine
daily at the Lifeways Day
Treatment Program.
Inside
the
program’s
cramped cinderblock building
on Southeast Third Street, 24
severely traumatized children
learn how to cope. The kids,
from all around Umatilla
County, come to the Pendleton
center from unpredictable,
sometimes dangerous, environ-
ments. The children are often
out of control, easily angered
and lacking social skills. Morn-
ings at the center are a time of
fi nding equilibrium.
On a recent day, a young
The Eastern Oregon Trade and Event
Center approved a $9.1 million budget on
Friday.
The 2016-2017 budget includes $8.5
million earmarked for construction.
Operating costs have been a question
mark for the EOTEC board, as the event
center building recently became operational
while most of the project remains under
construction. For the 2016-2017 fi scal
year the city of Hermiston and Umatilla
County are budgeted to contribute $45,190
each to be added to a beginning cash fund
of $55,300 and an estimated event revenue
of $46,200 for the year. An additional
$297,665 from the tourism promotion
assessment on hotels will provide funds to
be used for marketing.
See EOTEC/14A
Leaders react
to concealed-
carry ruling
By KRISTENA HANSEN
Associated Press
girl entered the front door in
full-tantrum mode. Two staff
members escorted the grade-
schooler to the safe room, a tiny
enclosed area where she could
calm herself using techniques
she has learned at the center. She
emerged minutes later looking
composed, bee-lining for a
beanbag chair and snuggling in.
See TRAUMA/14A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
CJ Brunette is one of four teachers working in the Lifeways
Day Treatment Program helping children deal with trauma.
“You would go nuts if you took everything home with you. The stuff
that’s happened to them — I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
PORTLAND — Some Oregon political
leaders had strong reactions to a federal
appeals court fi nding that carrying a
concealed weapon in public is not a consti-
tutional right.
Thursday’s ruling upheld neighboring
California’s requirement that applicants
show “good cause” for getting a permit.
It might not have an immediate impact
in Oregon. Concealed-carry licenses are
much easier to obtain in Oregon than
California, and local governments and
authorities can’t make that process any
harder without lawmakers’ permission.
But gun control has been a high-profi le
topic at the Capitol in Salem in recent years
— largely stemming from last year’s back-
ground-check law that Democrats failed
to tighten in February and the Umpqua
Community College shooting last fall.
Some say the ruling could fuel the reform
— Rex Holcomb, skills trainer
See GUNS/14A
HERMISTON
Baldo said goodbye to bombs, now to books
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston Public Library director Marie Baldo stands next to a display
case full of pigs she has received over the years working at the library.
Librarians often get stereotyped
as quiet individuals who do most of
their living in the pages of books.
But before Marie Baldo was
handling returns, she was handling
nuclear weapons in Germany.
Baldo,
Hermiston
Public
Library’s director since 2004, is
retiring at the end of the month. It’s
her second retirement, after fi rst
retiring from the U.S. Army.
“When I was a teen there were
two things I wanted to do,” she
said. “I wanted to be a librarian —
big time, I wanted to be a librarian
— and I wanted to join WAC (the
Women’s Army Corp).”
When she left high school she
decided to pursue the librarian path,
but she graduated from college into
a recession and after six months of
not fi nding work as a librarian she
went on to plan B and joined the
Army.
The WAC was being phased
out, but her college degree allowed
her to enter as a second lieutenant
and participate for a year before
she was transitioned to ordnance
work. She spent much of her Army
career handling nuclear weapons
in Germany, but jokes she was
“issued” her husband Fred Allen
at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,
Alabama. She eventually transi-
tioned from nuclear weapons to
chemical ones and ended up as
commander of the Umatilla Chem-
ical Depot in the late 1990s.
The next step would have been
the Pentagon, but Baldo didn’t
want to move to Washington, D.C.
Her husband had already retired
See BALDO/14A