WEEKEND EDITION
INSIDE:
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GUIDE &
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BREXIT/9A
LIFESTYLES/1C
JUNE 25-26, 2016
140th Year, No. 181
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Riding High Ministries presents ‘living parable’ to inmates
HERMISTON
EOTEC
gives Frew
the reins
to meet
deadline
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Todd Pierce, founder of Riding High Ministries, of Shelley, Idaho, works on saddle breaking a horse as a group of
inmates watch Wednesday at TRCI in Umatilla.
Wrangling faith
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The horse was older and
more stubborn than Todd
Pierce was used to, but he
told the circle of inmates
around the pen he didn’t plan
to give up on her.
“I know miracles can
happen,” he said.
Pierce, founder of Riding
High Ministries, had arranged
for the six-year-old mare to
be brought to Two Rivers
Correctional Institution for a
demonstration on breaking a
horse to a saddle, conducted
as a metaphor for accepting
God’s help to change. The
horse, however, was having
none of it.
She ran around and
around the makeshift pen in
the hot sun, ignoring Pierce’s
attempts to calm her and
eliciting the occasional groan
from the inmates as she
skillfully dodged the lasso
yet again.
“I would imagine this
ain’t her fi rst rodeo,” Pierce
said, drawing chuckles from
the audience.
“We’ve all got our own
personalities,
our
own
fears, our own issues,” he
continued. “Hers aren’t
See PARABLE/14A
If Frew Development Group’s role in the
Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center doesn’t
change, there is no point in renewing its contract in
August. That’s what the company’s CEO told the
EOTEC board Friday.
“We don’t want to waste
your money and time,” John
Frew said.
Frew appreciated the
passion behind the project, he
said, but they were “literally
a village building a structure”
and the endless rounds of
meetings with stakeholders
over every detail are Frew
hindering progress.
“If you pursue perfection
and forfeit practicality you’re
never going to get it done,”
he said.
The project is expected
to be completed in time for
the Umatilla County Fair in
August 2017. The current
fairgrounds in downtown
Hermiston will be turned
over to the Hermiston School Brookshier
District on Jan. 1, 2017.
Frew Development Group was hired in 2013
as EOTEC’s project manager. For horizontal
construction such as underground utilities and
for the recently-completed event center building,
Frew also was named the construction manager.
Those projects, Frew said, were delivered “pretty
See EOTEC/14A
“If we keep going as we’re
going, we’re never going to get
there, or at least not next year.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Todd Pierce comforts inmate Jamaul Jenkins while the two
pray together Wednesday at TRCI in Umatilla.
— Ed Brookshier,
EOTEC board member
PENDLETON
Children’s museum crowns two new wiener winners
Jennifer Costley
wins eating contest
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Two champions were
crowned at the kickoff events
at Wiener Weekend Friday,
both competitors having
the speed, focus and guts to
achieve greatness.
Jennifer Costley, the assis-
tant librarian at the Pendleton
Public Library, won the inau-
gural hot dog eating contest
over four other competitors.
Costley downed seven
hot dogs in three minutes to
take the prize, a result she
attributed to her trial run
earlier in the week.
“I practiced and it was
horrible and that’s how I
learned how to eat the hot
dog before the bun,” she said.
Costley is a member of
the board for the Children’s
Museum of Eastern Oregon,
which uses the events of
Wiener Weekend as a fund-
raiser. Contestants signed up
More online
For video of the races
visit eastoregonian.com
sponsors to donations based
on how many hot dogs they
ate.
With 53 sponsors, Costley
had ample motivation to
consume as many franks as
possible.
Costley’s
hot
dog
gobbling prowess resulted
in more than $600 for the
nonprofi t.
13-year-old Jacob Carlisle
See DOGS/14A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Contestants chow down while competing in the hot dog eating contest during the
Dogtona 400 wiener dog races Friday in Pendleton.
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