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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2016)
Enjoy a framed art print from Pendleton Art + Frame HENRY WILKINS OF CONDON HIGH-SPEED CHASE ENDS IN ARREST PLAN FOR FEDERAL WOLF DELISTING CLEARS HOUSE PENDLETON/3A NORTHWEST/2A FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2016 140th Year, No. 195 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD 80 KILLED IN FRANCE Truck plows through crowd during Bastille Day celebration By CIARAN FAHEY and RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press NICE, France — A truck loaded with weapons and hand grenades drove onto a sidewalk for more than a mile, plowing through Bastille Day revelers who’d gathered to watch fi reworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday. At least 80 people were killed before police killed the driver, authorities said. Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre described a horrifi c scene, with bodies strewn along the roadway, and Sylvie Toffi n, a press offi cer with the local prefecture, said the truck ran over people on a “long trip” down the sidewalk near Nice’s Palais de la Mediterranee, a building that fronts the beach. Wassim Bouhlel, a Nice native who spoke to the AP nearby, said that he saw a truck drive into the crowd. “There was carnage on the road,” he said. “Bodies everywhere.” He said the driver emerged with a gun and started shooting. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 80 people were killed, including children, and 18 were in critical condition, and the Paris prosecu- tor’s offi ce announced an investigation for “murder, attempted murder in an More inside Trump postpones vice president announcement citing attack Page 6A organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise.” “We are in a war with terrorists who want to strike us at any price and in a very violent way,” Cazeneuve said. The ranking politician of the Alpes-Maritime department that includes Nice said the truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of 1.2 miles. Many of those on the ground were in shorts and other summer clothing. Eric Ciotti said on BFM TV that police killed the driver “apparently after See FRANCE/2A AP Photo/Claude Paris Forensic offi cers stand near a truck with its wind- screen riddled with bullets, that plowed through a crowd gathered to watch the fi reworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France, Friday. PENDLETON HERMISTON New fi re district faces rent increase City proposes yearly rent go from $1 to $100,000 By ALEXA LOUGEE East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris The Pendleton Downtown Association has developed a plan for their perceived lack of available parking on Main Street. Parking, trees and regulations New downtown group hopes to tackle old issues By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton Downtown Association’s next goal is to fi nd a place downtown. The association is $1,500 away from meeting its target, which would give it $100,000 to rent a downtown offi ce and hire an intern. But President Fred Bradbury and the rest of the nonprofi t membership organization want to go beyond that, putting together plans to tackle downtown issues like parking, tree maintenance and business regulations. Charles Denight has long kept tabs on the downtown area, fi rst through his involvement with the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce and now through his role as the associate director of the Pendleton Develop- ment Commission, the governing body of the city’s downtown urban renewal district. “I’ve seen downtown associations rise and fall and this is the strongest I’ve seen it,” he said. Denight attributed much of the associa- tion’s growth to Bradbury’s organizational skills and focus on details. Bradbury said the last iteration of the association reached out to him last year and asked him to take over. See PENDLETON/12A The fi re board for Umatilla County Fire District 1 met Wednesday and learned their landlord is proposing to increase their rent. The city of Hermiston owns the Public Safety Center, which houses the police department, and leases a portion to Hermiston Fire and Emergency Services. The terms of the original lease, which had been in effect since 2007, had the Hermiston Fire Department paying $1 a year. When the new district was formed on July 1, the previous lease agreement was terminated. The city proposed a new lease agreement with the fi rst year’s rent at $100,000. “This is kind of ridiculous,” fi re board member Mike Hawman said in response to the proposed fi gure. The city proposed the second and third years’ rent be $65,000, the fourth year’s rent be $30,000 and succeeding annual rent be $1 a year after that until 2115, when the term of the lease would end. Board members and Fire Chief Scott Stanton all conceded they need a lease agreement with the city, but there was no way they could afford the proposed 9,999,900 percent increase. The board voted to allow Chief Stanton to enter into negotiations with the city for a more affordable lease price. Stanton said he was confi dent they could fi nd “middle ground for what would be fair.” Mark Morgan, Hermiston’s assistant city manager, said the lease agreement is a conversa- tion the city and the fi re district have been having for a couple of years. Under Oregon law there is a property tax cap of $10 per $1,000 assessed value. With the new See FIRE/12A Removal of Dillon Dam could happen this winter By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian A headache for farmers and fi sh on the lower Umatilla River for decades, the Dillon Dam is fi nally near its end. The Umatilla Basin Watershed Council and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation plan to remove the troublesome diversion dam outside of Echo by next summer. Not only has the concrete structure long blocked passage for native salmon, steelhead and lamprey, it has been a maintenance nightmare as gravel bars routinely wash over the irrigation headgate. But before the dam can come out, water rights for the local Dillon Irri- gation Company need to be rerouted from another source. The watershed council came up with a design in 2014 “We won’t have fi sh caught below that are essentially getting fried every year.” — Jon Staldine, executive director for the Umatilla Basin Watershed Council that taps into the neighboring Westland Irrigation Canal, running 11,000 feet of pipe down Andrews Road and back into the Dillon Irrigation Ditch — completely bypassing the dam. Funding for the project appears to be in place after the Oregon Depart- ment of Fish & Wildlife’s Restoration and Enhancement Board approved a See DAM/12A EO fi le photo A large gravel bar washed over nearly half of the Dillon Diversion Dam on the Umatilla River outside of Echo in March 2014.