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East Oregonian
Thursday, July 21, 2016
UMATILLA
Council keen on outlet mall, Old Town development
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The city of Umatilla is looking
to take a greater role in economic
development as city councilors and
staff meet together in a series of
goal-setting sessions.
City Manager Russ Pelleberg
said he has been working with the
county, the Port of Umatilla, the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation and Business
Oregon on some projects in “very,
very preliminary stages” that could
bring more businesses in to the area.
“There are many pieces of the
puzzle in motion,” he said.
Pelleberg said one of those efforts
has been to start actively marketing
available land to companies that
might be a good it, offering up
detailed information packets about
everything from the amount of
trafic passing by each day to the
infrastructure in place.
On Tuesday, during a workshop
to discuss councilors’ goals for the
city, one type of business everyone
wanted to set their sights on was
an outlet mall. Councilors and staff
pointed out that a collection of
brand-name stores not found in the
Tri-Cities had the potential to draw
people from there who were looking
for nearby deals with no sales tax
attached.
Mayor Dave Trott said at the
meeting that the city needed to foster
local entrepreneurship but also look
aield for opportunities.
“It’s not necessarily people in
our back yard who have got the
interest,” he said.
Pelleberg told councilors that
it would take “a lot more than a
phone call” to bring an outlet mall
to Umatilla but it didn’t mean they
shouldn’t work on it.
He told the East Oregonian that
he has been looking with engineers
at what will be needed to bring
water to some of the properties in
the urban growth boundary along
Highway 395. Construction there
often is not feasible because of a
lack of the water necessary for ire
suppression.
Pelleberg also said he and coun-
cilor Mark Ribich have teamed up
to start talking to each local business
owner, asking what the city can do
to help them thrive, and asking what
the city could do to help ill empty
storefronts. They’re also planning
on “cleaning up” the language in
the city’s codes and then making
a more concerted effort to enforce
them. He said pushing for clean-up
of eyesores will help make the city
more attractive to potential busi-
nesses.
Another common theme in
the list of goals submitted by city
councilors is partnering with the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation to re-open the
Old Town Site to the public. The
land, now held by the Army Corp
of Engineers, holds signiicance as
a historical site both to the tribes
and to the city, which packed up and
moved from the land 50 years ago
in anticipation of looding from the
John Day Dam.
The CTUIR and the city have
been working with the Corps to
gain permission to remove invasive
species and place nature trails and
historical kiosks through the site.
The city is also helping the tribes
with a road project in the port area
that will open 195 acres up for
development. Pelleberg said since
he has become city manager, the city
and port have buried the hatchet and
he has a great working relationship
with Port of Umatilla Director Kim
Puzey, along with other entities such
as the city of Hermiston.
“There’s a lot of teamwork
happening here,” he said.
The city is also starting discus-
sions with the Army Corp of
Engineers about the possibility of
taking ownership of more land near
Umatilla.
“There’s a fair amount of Corps
land in the urban growth boundary
that is just sitting vacant,” he said.
The city council would also like
to start focusing more on parks and
recreation. Currently Pelleberg, in
his dual role of city manager and
public works director, oversees
the city’s parks, which he has been
working to expand and improve. But
the city does not have a recreation
program or a recreation director in
place. Pelleberg said it’s time for the
city to start “investing in itself” by
creating some city-run recreational
programs for youth and possibly
adults, too.
City councilors were asked
recently to submit a list of goals
they were interested in seeing the
city pursue, and Tuesday was their
second work session to discuss the
list. Other things on the list included
helping the Umatilla Fire Depart-
ment establish long-term funding
support, helping staff pursue more
certiications, enhancing commu-
nity events, making downtown
businesses’ signs more uniform,
promoting “Umatilla Pride,” adding
benches to the Third Street walking
path, creating a committee educa-
tion program for new committee
members, writing a ive-year capital
improvement plan, rebranding the
city, improving the city website and
developing the RV park and marina
to their full potential.
Pelleberg said they didn’t have
an oficial number of items they
wanted on a inal list, but it was
helpful to weed out items that
weren’t feasible and to get a feel for
councilors’ top priorities and how
those priorities might be accom-
plished. He said the city was going
to work hard on increasing livability
and attractiveness to businesses,
but some items would require time
to deal with federal regulations or
secure funding.
“This is going to be a time-con-
suming thing, and it’s not going to
happen overnight,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.
GRAIN: United Grain was formed in 1969
Continued from 1A
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Dana Zzyym, of Fort Collins, Colo., left, and Paul D.
Castillo, staff attorney of the South Central regional
ofice of Lambda Legal, emerge after delivering ar-
guments in a hearing on Zzyym’s lawsuit requiring
people to pick a gender to get a passport in the U.S.
Federal Courthouse early Wednesday in Denver.
Judge urges U.S. to grant
gender neutral passport
DENVER (AP) — A
federal judge on Wednesday
urged the State Department
to give a gender neutral
passport to a Colorado
Navy veteran who does
not identify being male or
female in a case that’s the
irst of its kind in the United
States.
U.S. District Judge
R. Brooke Jackson also
suggested he might issue an
order forcing the govern-
ment to do so if it does not
successfully negotiate a
settlement to the legal chal-
lenge by Dana Zzyym, who
was denied a passport for
refusing to check “male” or
“female” on the application.
Zzyym was born with
ambiguous sexual charac-
teristics and raised as a boy
but later came to identify
as intersex and neither man
nor woman.
Government
lawyers
argued that moving beyond
two gender choices for
passports would upend
oficials’ ability to verify
identities and backgrounds
because of reliance on
drivers’ licenses and birth
certiicates issued by states
offering only male and
female gender options.
Jackson appeared exas-
perated at times, saying the
State Department needs to
catch up to a new era in
which gender identiication
is not as clear as it was in
the past.
“A lot of things are
changing in our world,”
Jackson said.
It’s unclear whether a
settlement or a judge’s order
giving Zzyym’s a gender
neutral passport would
have wider ramiications
requiring the State Depart-
ment to grant them to other
Americans.
The State Department
since 2010 has allowed
transgender people to
change
their
gender
designation on passports
from male to female or
vice versa with a doctor’s
certiication.
Australia, Nepal and
New Zealand issue pass-
ports that do not designate
gender and citizens of those
nations are allowed to enter
the United States.
But the State Depart-
ment demands that they
state whether they are male
or female when they are
required to apply for U.S.
entry visas.
An Oregon judge last
month allowed Jamie
Shupe to be legally classi-
ied as a nonbinary person,
neither male nor female.
That decision is also
believed to be the irst of its
kind for the country.
Oregon oficials are
working on a process
to allow Shupe to get a
driver’s license with that
designation, said Shupe’s
lawyer, Lake Parraguey.
WILLIAMS: Hired Oct. 2013
Continued from 1A
and our partners at the
county elections ofices,”
Atkins wrote in an email to
staff members.
Bayes will serve as
interim elections director
until the new secretary of
state takes ofice in January.
When a director is chosen,
Bayes will return to her
former position as deputy
director.
Gov. Kate Brown,
then the secretary of state,
hired Williams in October
2013. Williams then had
more than 20 years of
experience in three states.
He was executive secretary
of the Cleveland County
Election Board in Norman,
Oklahoma, before joining
the Oregon Secretary of
State’s Ofice. Before
that, he worked for the
Denver Elections Division
and Automated Elections
Services, a New Mexico
company that provides
elections systems support.
As deputy director,
Bayes oversaw state candi-
date ilings, processing
initiatives and referendums
and campaign inance-re-
lated election law enforce-
ment, and publication
of the voters’ pamphlet,
among other duties. She has
worked for the Elections
Division since 1991.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
and made a good irst impression on
producers.
“I think we’ve been received very
well,” he said. “They appreciate that
we’re here.”
United Grain now has the task of
picking up where PGG dropped off,
while updating infrastructure that has
become obsolete. When UGC agreed to
buy the facilities, it promised to invest
$9 million toward making them more
modern and eficient. Flagg said the
contract gives them ive years to get the
job done, but added they want to move
forward as soon as possible.
“Many of the elevators are so anti-
quated they’re no longer competitive
and, quite frankly, no longer safe,” he
said.
That level of commitment from
United Grain comes at the backing of its
owner, the Mitsui Group, a multi-billion
dollar international trading company
with ofices in Tokyo and New York
City. Mitsui became interested in food
production after building its portfolio in
mining, energy and manufacturing.
United Grain is at the forefront of
that strategy, Flagg said. The company
formed in 1969 and now operates the
largest grain export terminal on the West
Coast in Vancouver, Washington. For
years, UGC operated purely as a wheat
exporter, but with the rise of genetically
modiied crops, an emerging middle class
in China and deepening of the Columbia
River channel to accommodate larger
ships, Flagg said the market has become
signiicantly larger and more complex.
That, in turn, has led United Grain
to branch out and work directly with
farmers, which Flagg said gives them a
greater command of the whole supply
chain. In other words, they can supply
more grain at a faster rate, amounting to
more reliable service for customers.
“It’s all about speed, space and
service,” Flagg said. “That’s why we’re
here.”
The PGG Board of Directors voted
to dissolve in May, ending 86 years of
service in Eastern Oregon. Flagg said
everyone, including himself, regrets that
the co-op failed. But UGC is excited
for the chance to develop relationships
directly with farmers. UGC did retain
nine former PGG employees, including
Jason Middleton, who was hired as
region manager.
Flagg knew even before the sale it
would take time and money to get the
elevators where they need to be. Some
just simply aren’t equipped to handle
the needs of today’s farmers and, when
it comes to harvest, time equals money.
“I’m dealing with truck lineup issues
at McNary, and it’s only the front end of
harvest,” Flagg said. “If the trucks don’t
get back to the ield, harvest stops ... We
need to make these facilities faster, and
hold more grain.”
The irst step, Flagg said, is to look at
which elevators are worth updating and
which UGC will have to close. Flagg, 66,
said he will facilitate that process and,
once the operation is running smoothly,
he plans to retire.
Umatilla County is one of, if not the
best, grain producing counties in the
U.S., Flagg said. He said it’s up to them
now to improve their level of service and
win PGG’s customers back.
———
Contact George Plaven at gplaven@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.
BIKERS: Three Dog Night performs on Saturday
Continued from 1A
South Dakota, Winnemucca, Nevada and
New Hampshire, the Cunninghams were
friends of Folkestad and had supported
his previous rallies in Baker City.
Although they had only just started
Day 1 of the ive day event, the married
couple said they already think they’ll
come back to Pendleton next year.
Tom liked that the rally was close to
home and was going to feature Three
Dog Night as its headliner.
“That’s what bikers like — listening
to music and drinking beer,” he said with
a grin.
Several other riders came from the
large metro areas surrounding Seattle,
Spokane and Portland and decided to
come either through word of mouth or
advertising.
“That’s what bikers like
— listening to music and
drinking beer.”
Tom Cunningham, of Baker City
With 6,000 attendees last year, Folke-
stad said Pendleton Bike Week was the
largest motorcycle rally in the Northwest
and will probably secure that spot this
year.
Even with the growth, a couple bikers
commented that it was comparatively
small to Sturgis, one of the biggest rallies
in the country.
Weighing Pendleton against Sturgis
didn’t stop dozens of bikers from
rumbling down Court Avenue to Til
Taylor Park for a law enforcement tribute.
While the tribute was also held last
year, the 2016 event was given more
weight because of the recent murders
of police oficers in Dallas and Baton
Rouge, Louisiana.
After noting that he had never worn
the black band across his badge as much
as he has this year, Umatilla County
Sheriff Terry Rowan encouraged the
audience to bring love and joy to their
communities to prevent violence.
Despite previous proposals to replace
Til Taylor Park and its memorial to police
oficers killed in the line of duty, Mayor
Phillip Houk said the park and memorial
would never be removed or replaced.
Despite the somber tone, Houk urged
the bikers to “Let’Er Ride” during their
week in Pendleton.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.
LANGE: Had an illustrious 30-year career at BMCC
Continued from 1A
She said he was a wonderful
father, and it makes her sad to
see her sons Adam, 25, and
Jason, 22, lose their dad right
as they were at an age where
they were really starting to
watch him and try to model
their lives after his.
He really loved his family,
she said, and wanted to look
after them, which is why she
believes he clung to life so
tenaciously in his inal days.
“He just fought so hard,
I think for me,” she said. “I
inally had to talk to him and
say, you know, if you go, I’ll
be OK.”
Karen believes she will
be reunited with Dan in the
next life, a belief he shared.
The family are members of
the Free Methodist Church
in Pendleton and Karen said
their faith has provided peace
and comfort during their
trials.
Scott Little, the Langes’
pastor, said the couple
was already a “steady and
faithful” presence at the Free
Methodist Church when he
arrived 17 years ago, and
they frequently served on the
church’s leadership council
and led worship services on
Sundays.
He said Dan was a
“tremendously gifted saxo-
phone player” who used
his musical talents to bless
the congregation, and that
he always admired Dan’s
humility and sense of humor.
“I really appreciated his
wisdom over the years,” Little
said.
He said Dan and Karen
have always been examples
of service, grace, and love of
the Lord and those around
them. He said through their
trials over the last three years
they kept a positive attitude.
“Even in the worst of this,
it was hard to know just how
dificult it was for Dan phys-
ically, because he just didn’t
complain,” Little said. “...
There wasn’t any sense that
he was bitter or angry.”
Cam Preus, president of
BMCC, said Dan’s 30-year
career at the college was an
illustrious one.
“He left a strong mark on
the college,” she said.
He started out as a music
faculty member but as he
moved up to his inal position
as vice president of instruc-
tion he helped create better
assessments and curriculum
through his skill of analyzing
data.
“He loved to put seem-
ingly unrelated information
into a database and mess
around with formulas, and
then realize when it was all
put together that there were
connections and patterns,”
she said.
Preus said he was calm,
patient, a good listener and
a “friend to many at the
college.”
The family has not inal-
ized a date and time yet for
Dan’s memorial service. The
East Oregonian will publish
it when details are conirmed.
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