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FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2016
140th Year, No. 210
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HERMISTON
Your Weekend
EOTEC rejects rodeo arena bids
Both bids over $4M budget
Film Frame/Lucasfi lm via AP
•
•
•
“Star Wars” plays at
Movies in the Park
Free First Friday all day
at Tamastslikt
Daddy-Daughter Dance
at St. Patrick’s Church
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Almost a year before the
2017 Farm-City Pro Rodeo,
the Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center board rejected
all bids on construction of the
new rodeo arena.
During a special meeting
Thursday morning John Frew,
president of project manage-
ment company Frew Devel-
opment Group, noted that
EOTEC has only $4 million
available to build the arena.
Neither bid hit that mark.
Bothum Construction, a
Hermiston-based residential
contractor, put in a bid at
$4,477,138. Kirby Nagelhout
Construction Company, a
residential and commercial
contractor out of Bend,
submitted a bid of $4,740,000.
Bothum Construction is
owned by David Bothum,
one of the founders of the
Farm-City Pro Rodeo who
has helped upgrade and main-
tain the current rodeo arena
over the years. He resigned
More inside
Rotary Club
gives $25,000
to EOTEC
Page 3A
See EOTEC/8A
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
PENDLETON
Catch a movie
School
leaders
defi ne
safety
terms
Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP
“Suicide Squad”
When the heroes are out,
send in the villains to
fi ght the supervillain.
For showtime, Page 5A
For review, Weekend EO
Weekend Weather
Fri
92/59
Sat
87/59
Sun
as clear as an August day in Eastern
Oregon,” Wyden said. “We are going
to be trying to use this as a model
As the mass shooting that
killed nine people at Umpqua
Community College in
Roseburg has begun to fade
from the public’s memory,
it has stayed at the forefront
of Mark Mulvihill and Stuart
Roberts’ minds.
The
InterMountain
Education Service District
superintendent and Pendleton
police chief told an audience
of
school
administra-
tors and law
enforcement
from across
Eastern
Oregon how
the
events
in Southern Mulvihill
O r e g o n
spurred them
to
action,
including the
school secu-
rity confer-
ence
they
convened at Roberts
the Pendleton
Convention Center Thursday.
“We seemed almost
desensitized and hopeful
that that event wasn’t going
to be us,” Mulvihill said. “I
know every school adminis-
trator in this room keeps up
at night and wonders, ‘Have
I done everything I possibly
can to keep my kids safe?’
And also at the same time
hoping, ‘Man, I hope that’s
not me that it happens to.’
When you think about it that
way, have you really done
everything you can?”
Mulvihill and Roberts
began discussing ways they
could help prevent a school
See POWER/8A
See SCHOOL/8A
84/56
Obama
denies
$400M to
Iran was
ransom
WA S H I N G T O N
(AP) — President Barack
Obama vigorously denied on
Thursday that a $400 million
cash payment to Iran was
ransom to secure the release
of four Americans jailed in
Tehran. He defended the
transaction as evidence that
the nuclear accord with Iran
has allowed for progress on
other matters.
“This
wasn’t
some
nefarious deal,” Obama said
during a news conference at
the Pentagon.
The money was delivered
to the Iranian government in
January, at the same time the
nuclear deal was settled and
the Americans were released.
The payment was part of a
See IRAN/8A
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden speaks in front of a solar panel covered car port at the Oregon National Guard
facilities at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton.
The balance of power
Wyden tours solar array at National Guard armory
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Against a backdrop of newly
installed solar panels at the Oregon
National Guard armory in Pendleton,
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden spoke enthu-
siastically about what he described
as the “new frontier of renewable
energy.”
Wyden arrived in town Thursday
morning for the offi cial dedication of
the 150-kilowatt
solar array, part
of the Army’s More inside
net-zero energy Wyden fi red up
pilot program. to prevent
The project is forest fi res
expected to cut Page 3A
the
facility’s
energy
bills
by more than $11,000 annually, and
has already generated 166,644 kilo-
watt-hours of electricity — enough to
offset 119 tons of carbon dioxide.
The Oregon Army National Guard
was selected in 2011 as one of nine
locations to test the net-zero initiative,
with the goal to achieve net-zero
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Oregon National Guard Col. Ken Safe speaks about the guard’s plan
for energy conservation at the Oregon National Guard facilities in
Pendleton.
energy by 2020. Speaking to a group
of local offi cials, Wyden praised the
effort as a benefi t to jobs, the environ-
ment and national security.
“The link between these benefi ts is
PENDLETON
FAA issues $500K civil penalty against SeaPort
Claims airline failed to perform inspections on three planes
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
EO fi le photo
The fl ight crew of a SeaPort fl ight prepares for
departure at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport
in Pendleton.
SeaPort Airlines continues
to pay for the sins of its past.
The Federal Aviation
Administration
announced
Thursday a proposal to
fi ne SeaPort $500,000 for
operating three single-engine
Cessna Caravans that it
deemed were not airworthy.
A press release from
the FAA claims the Port-
land-based airline failed
to perform and document
borescope inspections on the
planes’ turbine compressor
blades, as required by a
directive from the agency. If
the compressor turbine blade
fails, the engine could lose
power.
“Airworthiness Directives
are critical safety tools,” said
FAA Administrator Michael
Huerta in the release. “Safe
operations depend on metic-
ulous compliance with their
requirements.”
The three planes were used
for 583 fl ights while inspec-
tions were overdue, which
led to allegations that the
aircraft were not airworthy.
SeaPort also failed to record
the method of compliance
See SEAPORT/8A