Enjoy a free pass to the Heritage
Station Museum in Pendleton
JULIANA LUKE
OF ADAMS
PAYNE
PLEADS
GUILTY
WHITE SOX
SACK
SEATTLE
OREGON/7A
BASEBALL/1B
86/55
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2016
140th Year, No. 198
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Pendleton softball team heads to West Regional tournament
PENDLETON
Voters will
have say on
marijuana
Council picks old hospital as
preferred site for fire station
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A mix of emotions wash over players on the Pendleton 11/12-year-old all-star team as they board airplanes bound
for Portland on their way to the Little League softball West Regional tournament in San Bernardino on Tuesday at the
Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton.
State champs sendoff
Community covers
costs of trip to
San Bernardino
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
A crowd gathered Tuesday
evening at the Eastern Oregon
Regional Airport to send off
Pendleton’s most recent celeb-
rities — the state champion
11/12-year-old Little League
Softball all-stars.
The team would soon head
to Southern California for the
West Regional tournament. A
cake adorned with bat and ball
stood ready for cutting. The
frosting read “Good Luck in
San Bernardino.”
The players arrived at
the airport with plenty of
exuberance and some trepi-
dation since three of the girls
had never before fl own. But
excitement ruled the day.
“They feel like celebrities,”
said Coach Kristan Garton.
“They feel so special.”
“I’m super excited,” said
third baseman Daisy Jeness.
“It’s going to be a great expe-
rience.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Pendleton 11/12-year-old all-star team line up for photos underneath the bucking
horse at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport on Tuesday in Pendleton.
The emotions of heading to
a major tournament lingered
just under the surface.
“We’re prepared,” said
center
fi elder
Delaney
Duchek, “but I’m nervous.”
Garton said the community
provided an ocean of support,
helping defray team expenses.
Seaport Airlines donated
the use of two planes for the
Pendleton-Portland leg of
the journey. An anonymous
$1,000 donation covered the
rental of a 15-passenger van
the team will use during the
10 days in San Bernardino.
DG Gifts donated labor to
add “Oregon” and the players’
names to their jerseys.”
Safeway and Cash & Carry
donated party food and the
See SOFTBALL/8A
Three referendums on marijuana sales are
now in the hands of Pendleton voters, but not
before a health scare during Tuesday night’s
city council meeting.
Pendleton City Council received passionate
testimony from several members of the audi-
ence before unanimously voting to pass a series
of ordinances and resolutions that offi cially
places medical and recreational marijuana sales
and a local 3 percent tax on the November
ballot. All three issues will be different ques-
tions on the ballot.
People from the audience testifi ed that
marijuana helped them treat everything from
thyroid cancer to bipolar disorder. It got serious
when Pendleton resident Randy Wolf started
convulsing in the audience shortly after testi-
fying that he used marijuana to treat seizures
and other ailments.
Fire Chief Mike Ciraulo was in the audience
and began tending to Wolf before escorting him
out.
While he couldn’t comment on what affl icted
Wolf, Ciraulo said Wolf declined transport to a
hospital and left city hall with his husband.
Other members of the public talked about
how allowing marijuana retailers would hurt
the black market and bring revenue to the city.
Mike Mullins and Jenifer Valley of Happy
Valley spoke about how their marijuana busi-
ness employed a couple dozen people and kept
its money at a local credit union, a point of
concern for some councilors who worried that
local marijuana businesses would not be able to
keep their money in a federally insured bank.
In other council news, the Pendleton City
Council unanimously selected the old St.
Anthony Hospital site as their preferred loca-
tion for a new fi re station.
The council made the decision after
weighing the pros and cons of St. Anthony with
the old Pendleton Cinema location.
Fire Chief Mike Ciraulo pointed out that
while the Pendleton Cinema site was slightly
cheaper to develop and would generate faster
response times, the St. Anthony site had more
room for training and parking.
The estimated cost of acquiring and devel-
oping the St. Anthony property is $2,010,000
while the estimate for the old Pendleton cinema
ranged between $1,735,000 and $1,965,000.
City Manager Robb Corbet noted that these
estimates didn’t include the cost of construc-
tion.
Councilors Paul Chalmers, Chuck Wood and
Neil Brown all leaned toward the St. Anthony
site because it wouldn’t take commercial real
estate off the market and its space for parking
and training, among other reasons.
This sentiment was echoed by Fred Brad-
bury and Jill Thorne of the Pendleton Down-
town Association, who said a downtown fi re
See COUNCIL/8A
BOARDMAN
Port to expand
wastewater use
for irrigation
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The Port of Morrow is
expanding its capacity to
recycle industrial wastewater
for local farmers to irrigate
their crops.
As the port continues
to grow, General Manager
Gary Neal said there has
been a sharp increase in
the amount of wastewater
generated by food proces-
sors and data centers at the
East Beach Industrial Park.
“You can grow basi-
cally any crop with
that process water.”
— Gary Neal, Port of
Morrow general manager
The nutrient-rich water is
already used to water nearby
farmland under a permit with
the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, but
in order to keep up with the
See WATER/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Webb Cold Storage comes down
An excavator is used in the demolition of the Webb Cold Storage building as a
man uses a hose to suppress dust on Tuesday in Pendleton.