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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 2016)
Page 8A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Tuesday, July 19, 2016 12,000 concertgoers make for long lines By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian The inal guitar riffs and drum beats have barely faded away, but organizers are already planning for next year’s Pendleton Whisky Music Fest. “Our goal is to make the Pendleton Whisky Music Festival an annual summer event,” said Andy McAnally. McAnally and Doug Corey dreamed up the idea for the concert a couple of years ago, but didn’t know for sure whether a major music festival could succeed in Pendleton. Now they know. Preliminary numbers look good. The six-hour concert attracted approximately 12,000 people, many of whom rented rooms in town. Seemingly every local hotel had lit “No Vacancy” signs by the weekend. McAnally said he’d heard that Walla Walla and Hermiston hotels also beneited from the festival and that about 350 RV and tent campers had reserved space through the festival website. In the afterglow of the event, McAnally said he was grateful to sponsors and local organizations such as the Round-Up and Happy Canyon associations and other groups that helped with the effort. Young Life managed the parking lots and RV camping. Local baseball teams oversaw tent camping at Babe Ruth Park. The state champion 11/12-year-old all-star softball team cleaned grandstands prior to the concert. Not everything went perfectly as the festival exploded to life, McAnally said. The lines to purchase whiskey, beer and wine were too long and moved too slowly. One fan, Christopher Waine, commenting on the East Oregonian website, said the wait for drinks was “like sitting in Seattle I-5 trafic at the beginning of a holiday weekend.” McAnally didn’t disagree. “We did have some major issues with long lines to purchase alcohol. We had some issues with people gaining access to the party pit section who shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “These issues will be addressed and ixed. There’s lots of work to be done logistics-wise to make the event better.” McAnally spent much of the concert attending to details, but he inally sat down next to his daughter in the South Grandstands and marveled at the scene. “It didn’t sink in how big this event really was,” he said, “until I saw the entire arena packed with concert fans partying with the Zac Brown Band.” COOTER: Investigation was conducted by OSP Continued from 1A gagged her, then drove her on Interstate 84 to the Willow Creek overpass 10 miles east of Arlington. There, according to the DA’s ofice, he parked out of sight of the interstate and threatened to kill the victim before sexually assaulting her. She was eventually able to call 9-1-1 and they were discovered by the Oregon State Police at 6 a.m. on July 27, 2015. Cooter was taken into custody. He was sentenced Friday by Circuit Court Judge John A. Wolf to 22 years and four months after a plea agree- ment between the defendant and the Gilliam County District Attorney with the assistance of Victoria Roe, senior assistant attorney general. The investigation was conducted by the Oregon State Police with the help of the Gilliam County Sheriff’s Ofice. District Attorney Marion Weatherford said in a statement that Cooter was convicted of kidnapping and aggravated assault in 2003 in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, and sentenced to three years in prison. “The circumstances of the 2003 kidnapping case and his crime in Gilliam County are disturbingly similar, which makes one wonder if there are other victims in the last 10 years,” she said. “This sentence is intended to keep him away from the public long enough that he is unlikely to be able to harm another person when released.” HEALTH: Most Eastern Oregon counties will see same decrease in coverage options in 2017 Continued from 1A Insurance companies contend one of the main reasons for having to with- draw from small markets is to make up for payments the federal government promised companies to help reduce risks, but have not paid out. The “risk corridors” program is one of three programs designed to reduce risk and prevent major revenue loss for insurers participating in the marketplace that might end up with customers who are sicker than anticipated. These programs were supposed to serve as incentives for insurance companies to insure more people. However, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid paid out only 12.6 cents on the dollar to insurers under this program, and according to insurers this resulted in steep losses for several companies, including Moda. To make up for losses, insurers are raising premiums and narrowing network coverage. Mitch Myers, a Hermiston business owner, said he has had the same coverage from Lifewise for 10 years, but in 2014 the company dropped him and pulled out of the Umatilla County market. Since then, Myers has subscribed to two more health insurance plans only to have the company drop him because they are drop- ping individual coverage in Umatilla County. Most counties in Eastern Oregon will see the same decrease in coverage options in 2017 as Umatilla County. Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Union and Wallowa counties will all see four insurance companies pull individual coverage plans and the remaining three companies raise premiums, according to documents obtained from Simmons Insurance Group in Herm- iston. Prior to 2014, when the Affordable Care Act took effect, there were at least ive companies offering individual coverage to Umatilla County, according to Simmons Insur- ance records. Josh Goller of Simmons Insurance cautions residents to pay close attention to their mail for notiications of their insurance companies drop- ping coverage. The window to enroll in a new insurance program for 2017 begins in November. Individuals seeing their premiums increase may be able to relieve some of the pressure. A family of four living in Oregon and making less than $97,000 a year may be eligible for the Advanced Premium Tax Credit. If your estimated yearly income falls in a speciic range, you can use an advance payment of the tax credit to lower your monthly insurance bill. Seven out of 10 people who enroll in a marketplace plan in Oregon are receiving an average of $256 per month to help pay their premiums, according to the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act the percentage of uninsured Oregonians has dropped from 19.4 in 2012 to 8.8 percent in 2015. Visit healthcare.oregon. gov to learn more about insur- ance options. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Fans line up Saturday at the Round-Up grounds waiting for admittance to the irst-ever Pendleton Whisky Music Fest. MUSIC: Took many volunteers, subcontractors Continued from 1A “Our overall vision was to see if the Round-Up stadium is a viable venue for a major concert festival and whether the community would support such an event,” McAnally said. They hired R.J. Romeo to secure the talent and produce the effort. Romeo Entertainment Group handles fairs, festivals, corporate events and rodeos. R.J.’s grandfather, Don, started the company in 1954 and R.J. spent his summers in high school as a roadie. Now, he buys talent and serves as general counsel for the company. Romeo said McAnally and Corey didn’t play around. “For their inaugural event, they wanted to go big right out of the gate,” Romeo said. “It’s a risk, but there are ways to mitigate that risk. You want to do things right the irst time. A lot of fans might not give you a second chance. They can go to the Gorge. They can go to Portland.” Romeo said he caught the vision, too. Job one was hiring some magnetic talent. They set their sights on Zac Brown, and after some date juggling, got a commitment. “We’re excited to have Zac Brown in town,” McAnally said. “They are one of the premier bands in the country. This is their only Paciic Northwest stop all summer.” Putting on a music festival takes a ton of volunteers and also a multitude of subcontractors who must be paid. Breaking even isn’t yet a sure thing, they said. It looked hopeful Saturday afternoon as the line of fans waiting at the gate snaked into Roy Raley Park. Twenty dollar parking places in several nearby lots illed steadily. Every hotel in town seemed to be full. “We’re booked solid,” said Ina Street, manager of Knight’s Inn. “I’ve still got people calling and wanting rooms.” Fans lowed into the Round-Up Grounds, illing the VIP area on the grass and the majority of the grand- stands. People danced on the lawn as the irst two performers entertained. The mood was festive. Keith Uptain, of Gresham, sipped whiskey with a group of friends. He said he heard about the concert on Facebook and had gone online just before tickets went on sale. “I was waiting, my ingers hovered over the keyboard,” he said. Staff photo by Kathy Aney The Zac Brown Band performs at the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest on Saturday at the Round-Up Grounds. “I love Pendleton — it’s such a great town. The spirit of the 1800s is here. You can’t ind that in Portland.” — Keith Uptain, of Gresham Staff photo Kathy Aney Keith Uptain, of Gresham, gives a whiskey toast to his friends during a break at the Pendleton Whis- ky Music Fest on Saturday at the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds. Even so, he didn’t get the irst-row seats he wanted. His spirits, however, were high on this night. “I love Pendleton — it’s such a great town,” Uptain said. “The spirit of the 1800s is here. You can’t ind that in Portland.” By the time the Zac Brown Band took the stage at 8:30 p.m., the crowd was loose and affectionate. Business Fri. Aug 12 • Starts at 8pm Also Featuring: Tormenta De Durango Domador De La Sierra had been brisk at the whiskey bar, where one could also get beer and Zac Brown’s wine, a red blend called Uncaged. The sun had sunk low in the sky and before long, stage lights, two jumbo screens, the moon and several glowing, blow-up Pendleton Whisky bottles provided the only illumina- tion. Brown gave them what they came to hear. The crossover country-rock band showed its soulful side with “Sweet Annie,” “Free” and “Loving You Easy.” The musicians let loose with high-octane performances of a iddle-fueled “Whiskey’s Gone,” “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and a frenetic cover of Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See” that involved dueling electric guitars. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” had the band singing operatic refrains and showing their range. McAnally and Corey sat some- where in the crowd, beaming and maybe sharing a whiskey toast.