Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 2016)
ROPER FEELS LUCKY TO BE ALIVE Visit the Pendleton Round-Up Gift Shop for a free keychain GLENN SCOTT MEET A FAMILY OF ROUND-UP SPORTS/1B VOLUNTEERS REGION/3A OF PENDLETON 69/41 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 140th Year, No. 242 ROWDY ROUND-UP Broken teeth, bad drivers and black-out drunks Police chief says crowd more aggressive than in recent memory; it’s usually the locals By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Pendleton police responded to more than 800 incidents during Round-Up week, from car crashes to bar fi ghts. Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said he has worked 23 Round-Ups, and folks in town this year were more aggressive than years past. “This year was — from the perspective of managing the event — one of the worst I’ve seen,” Roberts said. “We had 849 incidents that we dealt with throughout the course of the week. We had 61 arrests — 41 misdemeanors and 20 felonies.” More than 20 arrests, he said, came from the enforce- ment unit — a team of police and parole/probation offi cers — that works the streets and bars of Pendleton to target people with warrants. Those are folks likely to cause One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Oregon cowboy’s Round-Up dream comes true More inside For the full public safety log from the weekend, see Page 5A. trouble, he said, so it makes the city safer to fi nd and get them in jail. “The predictable is preventable to some point,” he said. Still, police took plenty of calls for disturbances and fi ghts, sometimes responding to the same bar multiple times in the span of an hour or so. “We had a lot of broken teeth and bloody noses and black eyes and that kind of thing,” the chief said, but no one suffered a stabbing or cracked skull, which usually happens during the week of the event. Roberts also said Pend- leton bars hiring strippers for Round-Up only added to the headaches. Early Friday morning may have been the roughest stint of the week. Offi cers wait until bar traffi c clears the streets, then at 4 a.m. start See ROUND-UP/10A Refuge employees talk of damage during takeover By CONRAD WILSON Oregon Public Broadcasting The testimony of two Malheur National Wildlife Refuge employees on Monday offered fi rsthand accounts of how work on the refuge was affected during the 41-day takeover of the grounds. Fish biologist Linda Beck testifi ed that the occupation of the refuge delayed work she was doing to deal with invasive carp. Testifying for the prose- cution in the trial of seven occupiers, Beck said she and other U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service workers planned a large operation to reduce the carp population in Malheur Lake and its tributaries at the end of January 2016. But Beck, who works at the refuge and owns a ranch in Harney County, said she could not get onto the refuge to perform the removal duties because of the takeover. Prosecutors showed photographs of Beck’s offi ce that appeared in the media. Several photos showed Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and Shawna Cox using her space. There were also several photos of people holding weapons in her offi ce and guns leaning against the wall in her workspace. Pros- ecutors asked Beck whether the weapons were hers. Her response: “I’m not allowed to have guns in my offi ce.” She also described her return to the refuge on Feb. 17 after the occupation ended: “I would describe it See REFUGE/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Shane Erickson of Terrebonne, Ore., poses with the East Oregonian All-Around trophy Satur- day after winning the Pendleton Round-Up. Erickson’s epic week By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian Before he was a professional cowboy, Shane Erickson knew the prestige of the Pendleton Round-Up. The Terrebone resident and Washington native attended Blue Mountain Community College for one year in 1999, and after experiencing the Round-Up that year he started to dream about someday winning the rodeo. Fifteen years after earning his pro card, Erickson’s dream became a reality by winning the all-around title at the 106th Pendleton Round-Up on “I’ve been wanting one of these buckles for a long time. It’s one of the rodeos you always want to win.“ — Shane Erickson, Terrebonne, Ore. Saturday afternoon. “I’ve been wanting one of these buckles for a long time,” Erickson said with a big smile. “It’s one of the rodeos you always want to win, and it’s so tough here because of all the elements.” “I will be proud wearing the buckle, I know that.” It’s also the fi rst time in four years that someone other than Trevor Brazile won the East Oregonian Let’er Buck Trophy, as the legendary Texas cowboy departed the PRCA after the 2015 season to help start Elite Rodeo Athletes. Erickson said while it would have been sweeter See ERICKSON/9A PENDLETON Schools try to put lead to bed Testing, replacement has cost district around $8K By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Alex Aguilera drinks from one of the safe drinking foun- tains Monday at McKay Creek Elementary School. As elementary schools open in Pend- leton, district offi cials will track “parts per billion” as closely as they’ll follow student growth, attendance rates and other statistics. Parts per billion is the unit of measure- ment schools use to gauge lead in drinking water supplies, which has been a persistent problem for schools across the state. This problem is particularly acute at McKay Creek Elementary School in the Pendleton School District, which started its school year Monday along with Washington Elementary School, Sherwood Heights Elementary School and the Pendleton Early Learning Center. Despite replacing some of the front-end hardware like faucets and drinking fountain bubblers after an initial round of testing, the district announced Thursday that 7 out of 10 water sites that failed the test the fi rst time still showed amounts of lead above the action level suggested by the Environ- mental Protection Agency. Lead is a neurotoxin that’s especially harmful to young children and can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems and even death. Following the fallout from a lack of public lead testing in Portland Public Schools, Pendleton joined other district across Oregon in commissioning lead testing for their schools. See LEAD/10A