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CHARLES HODGES
OF HERMISTON
PHELPS
SECURES
22 nd GOLD
GIBBON
FIRE
GROWS
OLYMPICS/1B
REGION/3A
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2016
140th Year, No. 215
Your Weekend
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One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
‘Safety comes first’
Fair rides
rigorously
inspected
and insured
Creedence Clearwater
Revisited at the fair
Pendleton Rock & Roll
Camp concert Friday
First Foods Festival
Saturday in Mission
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
By ALEXA LOUGEE
East Oregonian
Catch a movie
across from the fairgrounds. They
said while they support the fair and
wouldn’t presume to have it shut
Operating a carnival is not
all fun and games.
Davis
Amusement
Cascadia has been bringing
amusement rides to the
Umatilla County Fair for
over 35 years as one of its
many stops in the West.
Kathy Davis, booking
agent with the company,
has been coming with the
carnival for most of those
years. She said they are happy
to provide fun opportunities
for the community, but for
her company “safety comes
fi rst.”
The company and its
rides must meet annual
requirements to be issued a
state operating permit. Those
requirements include an
application with an attached
inspection report and proof
of insurance. That inspection
is done by representatives
of the insurance companies
that provide coverage to the
amusement ride company.
Inspections must be current,
having been done within 90
days of the permit applica-
tion.
Minimum
insurance
requirements in Oregon
require at least $1 million in
loss or injury coverage for
every person who rides or
comes in contact with the
ride.
Aside from state require-
ments, Davis Amusement
has its own safety protocols
employees are expected to
follow. The manufacturer of
each ride includes a checklist
of things to check daily,
weekly and monthly. Each
morning the carnival’s mobile
offi ce sends out a clipboard
to each ride operator with its
attached inspection checklist.
An hour before rides open to
the public, the ride operator
is supposed to run the ride,
check it, inspect seat belts
See EOTEC/12A
See CARNIVAL/12A
Disney via AP
“Pete’s Dragon”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
95/62
99/65
96/61
Two airlines
vie to serve
Pendleton
airport
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
SeaPort
Airlines
is
trying to weather a possible
sea change at Pendleton’s
Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport.
With SeaPort’s Essential
Air Service contract with the
federal government expiring
at the end of the year, SeaPort
and a competitor gave bid
presentations to the Airport
Commission and other local
offi cials Wednesday.
The city needs to
recommend a bid to the
U.S. Department of Trans-
portation by Aug. 24, which
will determine whether the
city will continue with the
beleaguered SeaPort or the
upstart Boutique Air.
Both airlines offer similar
packages to the airport — 21
round trips per week from
Pendleton to Portland with
options to trade some or all
of the trips for direct fl ights
to Seattle.
But the two bidders
covered different themes
when discussing what they
See AIRPORT/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Carnival workers assemble the Ferris wheel on Thursday at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
Growing pains at fairgrounds
could be eased by EOTEC
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The popularity of the Umatilla
County Fair has the fairgrounds
bursting at the seams each August, but
some see a light at the end of the tunnel
with the construction of the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event Center.
The project on Airport Road
promises 55 acres of new buildings
and infrastructure, parking galore and
39 acres to grow on. For this year,
however, the fair is still experiencing
growing pains at its location in the
center of Hermiston.
“All the plumbing and sewer and
electrical is so old, it’s been band-
aided together,” fair manager Don
Slone said.
He said he is looking forward to
infrastructure that doesn’t require
constant intervention and creative
solutions. Another piece he said
everyone is looking forward to is
on-site parking. Currently most fair-
goers and volunteers have to fi ght for
parking on Orchard Avenue, Highland
Avenue and side streets for blocks in
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Umatilla County Fair Court maneuvers through one of the
overnight camping areas on their golf cart Thursday at the Umatilla
County Fairgrounds in Hermiston.
every direction.
“It’s a little awkward for a lot of the
homeowners,” he said.
Jillian and Corbet Weimer know
about that. They live on Orchard
INSIDER SPEAKS OUT
Culture, mismanagement doomed Cover Oregon
By NICK BUDNICK
Capital Bureau
Take a week off, wade
through thousands of pages
of court fi lings in Oregon’s
long-running court battle
with software giant Oracle,
and you still won’t have
the real story of how Cover
Oregon failed and wasted
more than $300 million,
according to Tom Walsh,
a longtime technology
specialist and veteran of the
project.
Hundreds of thousands if
not millions of words have
been written about Cover
Oregon in the two years since
the state project to enroll
Oregonians in ObamaCare
imploded. However, an insid-
er’s account has never been
published until now. Other
top consultants and former
managers have routinely
declined to comment, often
citing the pending litigation.
“I don’t think
Oregon knows
that it (has) a
problem.”
of professional consultants
who bounce from state to
state for months or years at
a time, Walsh is typically
the
top-dog
“systems
analyst” who either leads
or troubleshoots large IT
project design or is paid to
watchdog those who do,
— Tom Walsh
says Shari Benkiel, a long-
Cover Oregon IT contractor time IT consultant who has
worked with Walsh on seven
“I don’t think Oregon large projects in fi ve states.
“He is usually the fi rst
knows that it (has) a
person I call” to fi ll that role,
problem,” Walsh says.
Hint: it has to do with she says. “I call him ‘The
Borderline Genius,’ ” she
management.
Jamie Valdez/Pamplin Media Group
Both sides in the ongoing adds, because of his insights
Tom Walsh, a veteran IT troubleshooter who worked
on the inside of the Cover Oregon project, says the full litigation have struggled to into complex health care
explain the massive scope technology projects.
story of the debacle has never been told.
With a Ph.D. in
of the Cover Oregon failure,
But Walsh is ready worked so hard on the ambi- which came despite a lengthy economics, and a resume that
to speak out because of tious project, and how much head start and extra funding includes IT expertise as well
continued public confusion was spent.
from the federal government. as a stint as head of Medicaid
He’d also like to prevent
around Cover Oregon.
The reality, according to for the state of Illinois, Walsh
debacle
when Walsh? Compared to other brings a level of technical,
“I think people should another
understand why it failed,” the state launches its next large projects, “It should fi nancial and management
Walsh says matter of factly, big-ticket, taxpayer-funded have been easy.”
See COVER/10A
given how many people IT projects.
One of the roving breed