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.