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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 2016)
REGION Tuesday, September 20, 2016 East Oregonian Page 3A PENDLETON The family that volunteers together “It just gets into your blood. It’s a tradition of service.” Grimes clan a mainstay at Round-Up By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Handling livestock at the Pendleton Round-Up can be a dirty, thankless job, but that hasn’t stopped the Grimes family, of Athena, from volunteering decade after decade. Dave Grimes, who works in the agriculture department at Blue Mountain Commu- nity College, has spent more than 50 years behind the scenes at the Round-Up with his wife, Donna. Together, they have three sons — Thomas, Chris and James — who have each put in approximately 30 years of volunteer work. As longtime members of the livestock crew, they’re the ones who make sure the right animal gets to the right cowboy inside the stadium. “We just enjoy it,” Dave Grimes said before Satur- day’s rodeo. “When it’s — James Grimes Staff photo by E.J. Harris Dave Grimes, Donna Grimes, and James Grimes have all volunteered at the Pendleton Round-Up for years. Round-Up time, it’s time to go to town and go to work.” In fact, Round-Up is usually one of the few times the entire Grimes clan is able to bring everyone together in the same place at the same time. However, this year Thomas was unable to come home after he recently started a new job as vice principal and athletic director at Rogue River Junior-Senior High School across the state. It is the irst Round-Up Thomas has ever missed in his life. “I’m emailing him every day and sending him pictures,” Donna Grimes said. “I’m trying not to torture him. I know he wants to be here.” That left Chris to work the east end of the arena, while James manned the west end roping chutes. Before each rodeo, the live- stock are numbered, tagged and assigned to the cowboys competing in each event, which means everyone must communicate closely. All together, they may do up to 1,000 runs over the course of the week. James said he still gets chills when that irst cannon goes off Wednesday, signaling the show is about to begin. He said 106 years of Round-Up history is closely tied to many local family histories, and he is proud to follow in that tradition. “It just gets into your blood,” he said. “It’s a tradi- tion of service.” In addition, Chris Grimes also rode into the arena Saturday during the Grand Entry, carrying the U.S. Marine Corps lag. He irst started volunteering at the Round-Up when he was 8, and whether in school as a kid or at work as an adult, he said he’s always taken Round-Up week off — no exceptions. “We all eat, breathe and sleep the Round-Up,” he said. “I just love it down here.” Not only is the Round-Up a gathering of family, but Dave Grimes said it’s also the one chance to catch up with friends they’ve met over the years from across the country, whether it’s the cowboy from Idaho, the judge from Louisiana or the rancher from Texas. “We’ve become friends with people from all over the place,” he said. Donna Grimes said it’s been a good experience, and they’ve been fortunate to work with many great directors. She said returning every year to Round-Up is dificult to understand, until you’ve done it as long as they have. “It’s just a huge reunion,” she said. “You either get it, or you don’t.” ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0825. Pendleton School Board pledges support to pool Paciic Power contracts with wind, solar projects By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Striving to meet renewable standards By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Paciic Power has agreed to purchase the renewable energy from seven wind and solar projects across the West, including four new solar installations in Oregon. The utility has until 2040 to start generating half its electricity from renewable sources under the Oregon Renewable Portfolio Stan- dard. These contracts will help keep Paciic Power in compliance through 2028, said Rick Link, the compa- ny’s director of origination. “As the result of our recent request for proposals for renewable resources, we have found these acqui- sitions to be cost-effective steps we can take to provide customers the cleaner energy they want,” Link said in a statement. All together, the seven projects will provide 168.5 megawatts onto Paciic Power’s grid — enough to power about 25,000 homes. The four solar projects in Oregon will account for 38.5 megawatts, and are scheduled to be completed before the end of the year. They include the Bear Creek Solar Center in Bend; Bly Solar Center in Klamath County; and Adams Solar Center and Elbe Solar Center, both in Madras. The other two solar projects are located in Utah. Paciic Power has also contracted to buy renewable energy certiicates from the Logan Wind Energy facility “Things are changing in the market so quickly.” — Ry Schwark, Paciic Power. Spokesman in Logan, Colorado, which will generate 201 megawatts but is not connected directly onto the PaciiCorp system. Oregon customers can expect a one-time rate impact around one-twentieth of 1 percent, or about a nickel on a $100 energy bill, according to Paciic Power. Spokesman Ry Schwark said the company expects to go out for another round of renewable energy bids in the near future. “Things are changing in the market so quickly,” Schwark said. Paciic Power serves 740,000 customers in Oregon, Washington and California, including 17,864 customers in Umatilla County. In addition, the Clean Electricity and Coal Tran- sition Act directs Paciic Power to stop serving Oregon customers with coal- ired electricity by 2030. Earlier this month, regulators announced the 427-mega- watt Craig Station Unit 1 in Colorado will shut down by Dec. 31, 2025, to comply with that state’s regional haze plan. PaciiCorp, the parent company of Paciic Power, is a part-owner in the Craig facility. ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0825. YOU’RE INVITED TO A MEDICARE BIRTHDAY PARTY! Are you turning 65 between now and the end of September? If so, we would love to see you! Join us for a FREE and fun event & learn more about Medicare • The basics of Medicare • Your rights & responsibilities • Social Security & Disability Benefits Saturday, June 27 10am-1pm GSMC Conference Center #1 Sponsored by: Good Shepherd Medical Center SHIBA Office Questions? Call 541-667-3507 or hosborne@gshealth.org The Pendleton School Board is committed to support the Blue Moun- tain Community College pool for the next two years, but the amount of money that commitment will cost the school district has yet to be determined. At a meeting Monday, the board unanimously passed a resolution saying it would support the BMCC pool while the college, the school district and the other organizations that use the pool — mainly the Pendleton Swim Association and the Hermiston School District — come up with a long-term solution. Superintendent Andy Kovach said BMCC is looking at how much it would cost in repairs to reopen the pool and continue operation. Although no action was taken, district Human Resources Director Brad Bixler presented a school calendar that gave the elementary school a little more leeway for inclement weather. Because the elementary start date was delayed three weeks for school construction, K-5 students will be taught just above the state’s minimum number of instructional hours. District staff created a hypothetical calendar just in case inclement weather canceled a day of school and knocked schools below that threshold, but Bixler didn’t want the school board to commit to it until a school day was actually canceled. If a day is canceled, Bixler said the district should turn April 13 from all-day conferences to a school day with evening conferences. The board discussed all these issues at the new district ofice at the former Lincoln Primary School. Besides Nov. 8 at Pendleton High School, Dec. 6 at Washington Elemen- tary School and March 7 at Sunridge Middle School, the school board will hold all of its meetings at the new district ofice through Aug. 7, 2017. The board regularly holds a work session on the irst Tuesday of the month at 8 a.m. and a regular board meeting on the following Monday at 6 p.m. Besides moving the district from a converted medical ofice on Southgate, Business Services Director Michelle Jones the new board room will record every meeting. After the meeting, she said the district is still iguring out how it will make meeting recordings available to the public.
