REGION
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
East Oregonian
IRRIGON
Page 3A
BOARDMAN
Watermelon fest brings community together Carty Generating
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Families from around
the region gathered in the
sunshine Saturday for the
annual Irrigon Watermelon
Festival, which featured a
record number of vendors,
games and — oh yes —
truckloads of famous Herm-
iston watermelons, donated
by Walchli and Bellinger
farms.
The day began with
breakfast at 6:30 a.m.,
followed by a parade down
North Main Avenue to
Irrigon Marina Park. Melon-
themed games included a
seed spitting contest and
watermelon bowling, while
vendors dished up slices of
melons by the plateful.
Donna
Eppenbach,
a longtime community
volunteer with her husband,
Don, said Irrigon used to be
the melon mecca of Eastern
Oregon, with numerous fruit
stands lined up and down
Highway 730. The event,
now in its 33rd year, has
become the town’s signature
Staff photo by George Plaven
Brooke Toler, left, and Nikki Phillips, both sophomores
at Irrigon Junior-Senior High School, serve up plates of
watermelon at Saturday’s annual Irrigon Watermelon
Festival.
celebration and a reminder
of the area’s agricultural
heritage.
“In fact, a lot of Herm-
iston melons are still grown
here,” Eppenbach said. “All
of us grew up working in
those stands, or in the ields.”
Other activities included
free boat rides on the
Columbia River courtesy of
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Ofice Marine Patrol,
and a dunk tank where kids
could soak their coaches
and school principals. Live
entertainment played on
stage throughout the after-
noon, and the smell of rich
barbecue wafted across the
park.
The Irrigon Watermelon
Festival is sponsored by the
Morrow County Uniied
Recreation District. Cindy
Turner, this year’s event
secretary, said all proceeds
stay in the community.
“For myself, I just enjoy
seeing all the people,”
Turner said. “It seems like
summer gets so busy, but the
watermelon festival brings
everybody together.”
Phyllis Danielson, who
owns Stokes Landing Bed
& Breakfast near the marina,
said she had a full house of
out-of-town guests.
“This our one big event,
where we all get together and
play,” Danielson said.
For the irst time this year,
out-of-town food vendors
arrived with everything from
snacks to crafts.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
ECHO
Wheat & Barley Pub closing down Aug. 20
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A staple business of
downtown Echo is closing
its doors Aug. 20.
Brad and Shelby Dodson
are closing the Wheat &
Barley Pub to fulill a dream
of selling most of their
possessions and roaming the
United States in an RV.
“We’ve been making
excuses for years, and we’ve
decided we’re just going to
go,” Shelby said.
The pub — with its local
craft beers and wines, meats
smoked in-house, fresh local
produce and a rotating menu
more typical of Portland
than a small Eastern Oregon
town — has garnered rave
reviews over the past few
years, including ive-star
Yelp reviews describing it
as a “real Eastern Oregon
jewel” and a “little gem of
an upscale pub.”
Three years since the
Dodsons took over, Shelby
said business is still good
and the eatery isn’t closing
over “anything like that.”
But the couple wants to
travel.
She said they don’t have
any speciic itinerary, they
just want to see “what’s out
there.”
“We have a map of the
U.S. and a pen, that’s it,” she
said.
She said the couple have
made great friends during
their time in Echo and will
miss their loyal customers.
The red brick building on
Main Street is up for sale
(as are most of the Dodsons’
possessions) but they would
also be willing to rent to a
tenant who would run some
sort of upscale eatery or
other business that would
draw people to Echo’s Main
Street.
“We’re
looking
for
potential renters interested
in doing something similar,”
Shelby said. “We built this
place up and it would break
my heart to see it empty.”
The Dodsons are hosting
a “Grand Closing” celebra-
tion over their last two days
open, inviting people for
one last meal or round of
drinks at the pub over live
music. The celebration will
take place Aug. 19-20 from
5 p.m. to midnight at 201 W.
Main Street in Echo.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Station in service
Gas-fired plant
meets deadline
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Though workers are
still putting the inishing
touches on the Portland
General Electric’s new
Carty Generating Station
near Boardman, the natural
gas-ired power plant is
oficially in commercial
service as of Friday.
PGE announced the
development in a iling
with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commis-
sion, meeting its startup
deadline of July 31 set by
the Oregon Public Utility
Commission. Construction
on the plant began in 2014.
A rate increase took
effect Monday to cover
the initial estimated cost
of the project — $514
million — as previously
approved by the PUC in its
2016 Rate Case Order for
Carty. However, the actual
cost will range somewhere
between
$640-$660
million after the original
contractor,
Abeinsa,
allegedly
performed
shoddy work and failed to
pay some employees.
PGE ired Abeinsa and
assumed construction of
Carty in December, and
is now suing two surety
companies to recoup a
$145.6 million perfor-
mance bond on the work.
More than 50 subcontrac-
tors have also iled liens
against the property.
The utility says it
will provide additional
information on its strategy
moving forward in another
SEC iling due Wednesday,
as well as its quarterly
earnings
conference
call also scheduled for
Wednesday. Unless the
bond is recovered, PGE
has said it intends to ask
for another rate increase
to recoup the full cost for
Carty.
Carty has been built
in the shadow of the
Boardman Coal Plant and
works on a combined cycle
system, with one turbine
running off the combustion
of natural gas and the other
running off steam. The
power is carried irst to
the Grassland Substation
about a mile away from
the site, and from there fed
onto the Bonneville Power
Administration transmis-
sion system in Gilliam
County.
The Carty Generating
Station was identiied in
PGE’s 2009 long-range
energy plan to ill a
customer demand growing
at a rate of 1-1.5 percent
every year, according to
spokesman Steve Corson.
PGE
serves
roughly
840,000
customers
primarily in the Portland
metro area and Salem.
———
Contact George Plaven
at
gplaven@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-966-
0825.
BRIEFLY
Man suffers serious injuries
in motorcycle crash
UMATILLA — A single-vehicle motor-
cycle wreck on Highway 730 east of Sand
Station sent one adult male to the hospital
Sunday afternoon with serious injuries.
Umatilla Fire Chief Steve Potts could
not immediately identify the rider, who was
traveling westbound when he was ejected
over the guardrail and down an embankment.
Potts said the man was conscious as he was
lown away in an air ambulance.
“He certainly had serious injuries,” Potts
said.
The cause of the crash in unknown. No
other injuries were reported.
Health Insurance 101
available in Hermiston, M-F
State oficials will be hosting “Health
Insurance 101” town halls in Eastern Oregon
this month.
The informational sessions will include
presentations from the Oregon Health
Insurance Marketplace and Senior Health
Insurance Beneits Assis-
tance on topics including the basics of health
insurance, insurance rules, insurance options
in Eastern Oregon, Affordable Care Act
myths and a question and answer period.
The town halls will be Aug. 15 from
6-8 p.m. in La Grande at Northeast Oregon
Public Transit (2204 E. Penn Ave.), Aug. 16
from 6-8 p.m. at the Milton-Freewater Public
Library (8 S.W. Eighth Ave.) and Aug. 17
from 6-8 p.m. at Good Shepherd Medical
Center (610 N.W. 11th St. Room CC2).
Pre-registration is recommended to make
sure there are enough seats and handouts.
Email info.marketplace@oregon.gov or call
855-268-3767 (toll-free).
M-F schools lead free
MILTON-FREEWATER — According to
Superintendent Rob Clark, all schools in the
Milton-Freewater School District recently
underwent testing for lead in drinking water.
The results of those tests came back as nega-
tive at every source for every school.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire
reports, and press releases. Email press
releases to news@eastoregonian.com
Hermiston
Drug & Gifts
Goss Family
JEWELERS
Your Local Jeweler
h ursday, Aug. 4
25% Of ALL
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Phone: 541-289-4677 • 215 E. Main St., Ste. A • Hermiston, OR 97838
Hours: Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Open 4:30pm-6pm
come in and check
out our specials!
Gifts • Cosmetics
Perfumes • Cards
Old Fashioned Soda Fountain
541-567-3072
114 E. Main St., Hermiston
Supporting
Our Local
Businesses
541-564-4530
800-522-0255
333 E. Main St., Hermiston, OR
www.hermistonherald.com
TWO
HOURS
every
morning
paid off
my credit
2012 NW Carden Ave.
541-276-1522
card debt.
First Aid, Choking
SUPPORTING
OUR LOCAL
BUSINESSES
211 S.E. Byers, Pendleton
541-966-0800
541-567-6211
www.eastoregonian.com
Adult & Infant CPR/AED
Classes Given Monthly
When: Friday, August 5, 2016
Where: St. Anthony Hospital
Rooms 3 & 4 • 1pm-5pm
Become an
East Oregonian
Carrier.
211 SE Byers Ave.
Pendleton
or call:
541-276-2211
1-800-522-0255
$60-per session:
Includes Manual
Registration Required
Call Emily • 541-278-2627
2801 St. Anthony Way
Pendleton, OR
www.sahpendleton.com
541-567-6196
106 E. Main St., Hermiston