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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2016)
FOUR OFFICERS KILLED, SEVEN INJURED DURING DALLAS PROTEST NATION/8A FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2016 140th Year, No. 190 WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar HERMISTON Your Weekend Pursuit ends with crash near high school • • • By ALEXA LOUGEE East Oregonian Hermiston Funfest in Downtown Hermiston Caledonian Games at Athena City Park Brews by the Blues festival, Milton-Freewater For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Bjurlin An attempted traffi c stop Thursday morning led to a brief pursuit and crash near Hermiston High School that left one person injured and another in handcuffs. David A Bjurlin, 31, of Kenne- wick, was lodged at the Umatilla County Jail on charges of attempt to elude in both a vehicle and on foot, felony failure to perform the duties of a driver, third-degree assault, reckless driving and driving without a license. The name of the injured female driver was not immedi- ately available. Valerie Juul of Hermiston was See CRASH/10A Staff photo by Alexa Lougee Emergency responders inspect a pickup hit by a fl ee- ing car on Highland Avenue in Hermiston. Sun BMCC 78/57 74/53 Pool’s fate in hands of community 72/54 ALBERT CLOUGH OF ARLINGTON By ALEXA LOUGEE East Oregonian Enjoy a free trip to the Pendleton Underground Tours Several members of the Pendleton Swim Associa- tion stood in solidarity to encourage board members to save the Blue Mountain Community College pool at Wednesday night’s board meeting. Michelle Cramp, a swim parent and board member of the PSA, started the public comment period by saying, “I’m here to fi ght for our pool. These kids would be devastated if they lost their pool.” The BMCC pool is used by both the Pendleton and Hermiston high school swim teams as well as the Pend- leton Swim Association. PSA also runs a Learn to Swim program, teaching younger kids water confi dence and swimming skills. The pool also has open swim times for lap swimming and family swimming as well as offering a variety of classes for adults, including water aerobics. A recent Pendleton High School graduate, Dylan Clemons, has been swim- ming since he was 6 years old, and is headed off to college this fall to be a colle- giate swimmer. He attributes his time at the BMCC pool to his success. Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Amy Ford also stood in support of the pool on Wednesday. Ford moved to Pendleton about 16 years ago from The Dalles. She said at age 40 she was pretty out of shape and decided to make some changes. She started swim- ming in January, three days Grant County commissioner will face recall in August By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Another elected offi cial in rural Eastern Oregon is facing a recall by local voters. This time, it’s Grant County Commissioner Boyd Britton up against a campaign to remove him from offi ce. County Clerk Brenda Percy said she certifi ed 505 signa- tures as of Thursday to place a recall on the ballot for Aug. 16. At least 490 signatures were needed for the petition to move forward. The effort to recall Britton comes a little more than a week after residents in neighboring Harney County voted overwhelmingly to keep Judge Steve Grasty, who earlier this year denied Ammon Bundy and other members of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation from meeting at a county fairgrounds building. A prospective petition to recall Britton was fi led March 28. It accuses him of failing See BRITTON/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris The border collie Teddy runs up the back of owner Greg Gustafson in a move called vaulting to catch a Frisbee during an exhibition by Border Collie International on Thursday at the Pendleton Public Library. Border collies need love, too Show teaches kids to be responsible pet owners By WILL DENNER East Oregonian Greg Gustafson has seen his fair share of border collies abandoned. He remembers riding his bike through a park in Corvallis and seeing a stray, two-month-old pup named Ritsa wandering without her owner. When the owner fi nally showed up, he asked Gustafson if he wanted the dog, explaining that he and Ritsa didn’t get along very well. Gustafson took in Ritsa, and shortly after adopted more border collies. In an effort to give dogs a home and keep them active, Gustafson See DOGS/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris The border collie Read bounces a basketball off of his nose after it was thrown by Greg Gustafson during an exhibition by Border Collie International on Thursday at the Pendleton Public Library. “If we can teach them to have respect and love for the animals when they’re kids, now we’re a step ahead.” — Greg Gustafson, founder of Border Collie International See POOL/10A PENDLETON After turbulence, SeaPort reports better performance By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The fi rst half of 2016 was unkind to SeaPort Airlines, but clearer skies could be ahead. Between February and June, SeaPort, a Portland-based commer- cial air service that runs passenger fl ights between Pendleton’s Eastern Oregon Regional Airport and Portland International Airport, shuttered all but six of its routes, declared bankruptcy and saw the U.S. Department of Transportation threaten to strip Pendleton of its $1.8 million subsidy to provide commer- cial fl ights. SeaPort’s service also suffered around this time, hitting its nadir around the time the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to data provided by SeaPort, the airline was only on time for 40 percent of its fl ights during the fi rst week of February. The very next week, SeaPort’s completed fl ights percentage hit a new low, bottoming out at 64 percent. Although SeaPort attributed most of its cancellations in February to mechanical repairs, it also attributed some of them to a nationwide pilot shortage, which airline offi cials say is one of the reasons the company went through bankruptcy. SeaPort’s metrics have steadily rebounded since then, and the company is starting to publicize the upward trend. According to an email from SeaPort Director of Marketing Claire James, between April 1 and June 10, Pendleton completed 99 percent of its fl ights, 96 percent of which were on time. A June 10 press release touted a 97.5 company-wide completion rate. “We’ve been investing in improving our operational reli- ability in recent months, and I’m pleased to say that those efforts have been paying off,” SeaPort President Tim Sieber said in a statement. “We know that our customers expect timely departures and arrivals, and we want to exceed their expectations in all areas of our business.” Sieber did not return requests for further comment. A Thursday press release said SeaPort has only gained steam since then, SeaPort now reports a 99 percent completion rate across its six routes, with Northwest fl ights in Pendleton and Portland on-time 90 percent of the time. SeaPort states that it considers a fl ight “on-time” if it departs within fi ve minutes of the public schedule, a method more stringent than the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 15 minute benchmark. SeaPort also announced that June 29 marked the 75th consecutive day the airline has gone without a controllable cancellation, a record streak the company has continued to extend. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.
