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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
VALDEZ: Worked BUILDING: Arts center opened in 2001
at UPS for 20 years
Continued from 1A
Continued from 1A
Show your support
to the point we would like
to see some of his friends,
maybe hear some memories
we didn’t know about,” he
said.
Tony said Kenneth was
the type to “try anything at
least once,” and had so many
different interests outside
of work that it was hard to
keep track of them all. A few
included wrestling, horse-
back riding, four-wheeling
and other outdoor sports.
“Even now, talking to
his friends, I say, ‘Really, he
liked to do that?’” he said.
Kenneth wrestled for
Hermiston High School as a
teenager and returned to the
school in 2013 as a volunteer
wrestling coach. His brothers
said he was proud of the kids
he coached and would talk
about their successes to the
rest of the family.
“He worked nights, and
he would go straight out of
work to go to tournaments
without sleep,” Diaz said.
Kenneth grew up in
Zillah, Washington, until his
family moved to Hermiston
partway through high school.
He was the second of four
boys and is survived by his
brothers, his mother and his
three children.
He attended Blue Moun-
tain Community College, and
Tony said later his brother
found a “home” at UPS,
where he worked in various
positions
—
including
package delivery and in the
warehouse — for 20 years.
He said it has meant a lot
to him to hear from people
at UPS and elsewhere how
many lives in the community
his brother touched.
“He was genuine,” Tony
Candlelight vigil for all those
affected by the tragedy:
Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.,
McKenzie Park, Hermiston
Participants are asked to bring
candles, glow sticks, small
flashlights or other devices that
will help light up the park.
Celebration of Hurtado’s life:
Saturday, 10:00 a.m.,
Hermiston Assembly of God,
730 E. Hurlburt Ave.
Celebration of Valdez’s life:
Saturday, 2 p.m.,
New Hope Community Church,
1350 S Hwy 395, Hermiston
said. “If you talked to his
friends, they would say
Kenny would be there in a
pinch.”
A celebration of life will
be Saturday, August 27 at
2 p.m. at the New Hope
Community Church, 1350 S
Hwy 395, Hermiston, with a
potluck gathering to follow
in the fellowship center.
Tony said anyone who
wanted to come pay their
respects was welcome, and
people who were anxious to
help the family in some way
could contact New Hope
about helping cook, set up or
clean up.
He also said that if people
wanted to make donations
to the family to help cover
the cost of funeral services,
the best method would be
through an account set up in
Kenneth Valdez’s name at
Columbia Bank.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
ODF: 31 fires have burned
total of 834 acres so far this
season in northeast Oregon
Continued from 1A
backlog of administrative
work as ODF files insurance
claims and emergency
requests from federal agen-
cies. Some claims have not
been completely processed,
and the audit shows ODF
has paid $1.5 million in
interest on loans to bridge
fire funding.
Non-fire programs also
contribute to the firefighting
effort within ODF, which is
absorbed into their budgets.
The last three fire seasons
have delayed the depart-
ment’s other work, including
planning and management
to make the forests more
fire-resilient.
“It is understandable how
other core missions of the
agency could suffer when
the priority each summer
shifts to fighting raging
wildfires and protecting
Oregonians,” Atkins said.
The ODF Northeast
Oregon District is respon-
sible for protecting 1.9
million acres of state and
private land in Umatilla,
Union, Wallowa and Baker
counties, as well as small
portions of Morrow, Grant
and Malheur counties. John
Buckman, district forester,
said he has about 25
permanent staff, which has
remained mostly flat over
the years. The district also
hires roughly 50 seasonal
firefighters.
Prior to the 2015 season,
the 10-year average for
acres burned within the
district was 2,500. When fire
season gets busy, Buckman
said all foresters chip in
on suppression efforts, but
the work doesn’t end there.
They also help private land-
owners with salvage logging
and replanting trees after the
fires are contained.
Those were big jobs a
year ago on the 82,659-acre
Grizzly Bear Complex, and
103,887-acre Cornet-Windy
Ridge Fire, Buckman said.
“They’re working very
hard, managing their normal
day-to-day jobs and, in
particular, during the fire
season,” he said.
Buckman said the season
has been less severe so far
this year, and they hope to
get back to a normal routine.
The Northeast Oregon
District declared fire season
June 28, and so far have
“More and more
severe wildfires
are a reality the
agency must take
into account as
it tries to meet its
larger mission.”
Pazzi Chapel in Florence,
Italy. Lavadour said because
locals resented the fact
that Johnson, a Portland
architect, was designing the
building, Pendleton archi-
tect R.W. Hatch was hired to
oversee the contractors.
Also well-known in its
history — though for more
sensational reasons — is the
story of Ruth Cochran. She
was closing the library one
night in October 1947 when
she suffered an aneurysm,
and ultimately died the next
day. Stories have circulated
that her spirit still haunts
the building, which attracts
plenty of visitors. Lavadour
and fellow staff members
dismiss those rumors.
“We just tell them she
was a librarian who worked
here,”
Lavadour
said.
“There’s no haunting.”
The library’s first day
was preceded by a mad
dash of people moving
books from old city hall to
the new location the night
before. According to an East
Oregonian article published
on Aug. 26, 1916, “Not a
single hour has been lost to
the patrons of the library.”
The library was even-
tually renamed Pendleton
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Karen and Fritz Hill look at a photography exhibit in the East Oregonian Gallery
on Tuesday at the Pendleton Center for the Arts.
Public Library and remained
in the Carnegie Building
until 1996, when upgrades
such as ADA accessibility
and earthquake structural
improvements proved to
be too costly. The library
moved to the Helen McCune
building at 502 S.W. Dorion
Ave., while the Carnegie
Building was suddenly
vacant.
Current Pendleton Public
Library director Mary
Finney worked at the library
from 1990 until they moved
locations in 1996. Before
her move to Pendleton, she
worked in another Carnegie
building, the Winfield
Public Library in Winfield,
Kansas. Though Finney said
she arrived at the Pendleton
library after its Main Street
heyday, she remembered
the steam-heated building
having a cozy feel while
working there.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A stained-glass window by Portland artist Robert Middlestead adorns the ceiling
of the Pendleton Center for the Arts building.
“It was always a pleasant
place to be because it felt
homey,” she said. “I really
enjoyed working there and
felt honored to be in that
building.”
After getting approved
by the city, the Pendleton
Arts Council began raising
money for a $1.8 million
renovation in 1997 and
opened the arts center
in 2001. The renovation
included replacing old struc-
tures, changing the base-
ment layout and preserving
the
Italian-renaissance
architecture that Johnson
originally sought.
Though the building
changed through the renova-
tion and now has a different
name, Lavadour said the
arts center serves the same
purpose that it was origi-
nally intended for: giving
the community a place to
congregate.
“We believe that — just
like the library gave books
to people for free — it’s
important to serve the
community,” she said.
“When it’s free for every-
body, you get such a diverse
group of people in the
building.”
———
Contact Will Denner at
wdenner@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0809
— Jeanne Atkins,
Oregon Secretary of State
seen 31 fires burning a total
of 834 acres.
Buckman
wouldn’t
say whether he thought
longer, hotter fire seasons
represented a new normal.
He commended his staff,
calling them a “can-do
bunch.” However, State
Forester Doug Decker
agreed with the conclusion
and recommendations in the
state’s audit, and said they
are committed to improving
their practices in a letter he
sent to auditors.
Among those recommen-
dations:
• Tracking costs, staffing,
funding and workload
impacts
on
non-fire
programs
during
fire
seasons.
• Track data on strategies
to prevent catastrophic
wildfires.
• Develop a systematic
workforce planning strategy
to ensure the agency can
meet future needs.
“We welcome and have
embraced the audit process
as yet another opportunity
to review and improve our
practices and processes,
and we are committed to
incorporating these recom-
mendations into planning
processes where the real
work forward will be imple-
mented,” Decker wrote.
Millions of acres remain
at high risk of wildfire in
Oregon, the audit points out,
including state, federal and
private forests. Atkins said
a healthy and sustainable
forestry department will
help lead to healthy and
sustainable communities.
“More and more severe
wildfires are a reality the
agency must take into
account as it tries to meet its
larger mission,” she said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
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