HARVEST
FESTIVAL
FULL OF FUN
Visit Garner’s Sporting Goods
in Pendleton for one hat
LESTER WALLACE
OF LEXINGTON
HERMISTON
BATTLES
HILLSBORO
REGION/3A
SOCCER/1B
66/49
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016
140th Year, No. 243
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
SeaPort planes grounded
Commercial flights cease at airport as company begins liquidation
East Oregonian
For the moment, Eastern
Oregon Regional Airport
has no commercial air
service.
SeaPort Airlines, which
had fl own in and out of
Pendleton since 2008,
ceased operations Tuesday.
In a court hearing
Tuesday, a judge ordered the
SeaPort be converted into
Chapter 7 liquidation effec-
tive at noon Wednesday.
“This is a very sad day
for our employees, share-
holders, and the communi-
ties we serve,” said SeaPort
president Tim Sieber in
a press release. “While
we made great strides, a
successful fi nancial reorga-
nization did appear possible
and we were forced to make
the diffi cult decision to
cease operations.”
According
to
the
company, customers with
tickets on SeaPort Airlines
that were purchased with
MasterCard or VISA credit
cards may apply for a refund
through their credit card
company. Customers using
other credit cards must
inquire at their respective
credit card companies about
refunds.
Susan Norquist, of Pilot
Rock, works for Prestige
Care. Four employees of
McKay Creek Estates and
HERMISTON
Elizabethan Manor, which
are owned by Prestige Care,
fl ew on SeaPort Monday
morning to a health care
conference in Portland. They
had taken the train back out
to the Portland International
Airport for their return fl ight
Tuesday night, but found no
See SEAPORT/8A
Counties join
forces on rail
safety plan
Worst case scenario is
derailment in populated area
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Socorro Paris hands a bunch of celery to fellow Agape House volunteer Maria Travino on Tuesday morning. Both women
started volunteering at the outreach center about 11 years ago.
Agape House celebrates 30 years of giving
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
After 17 years of working
the front desk of the Agape
House, Adelina
Torres
doesn’t judge anyone who
comes in to get an emergency
food box to make it through
the month.
“Some people, when they
come in for the fi rst time,
they cry because they feel
embarrassed,” she said. “I tell
them it’s OK, but sometimes
they pick up the box and they
go outside crying.”
The nonprofi t, which is
celebrating its 30th anni-
versary with an open house
on Sunday, serves several
hundred Umatilla County
residents per month with
food, clothing, showers,
fi rewood, job training, gas
money and other help.
That knowledge doesn’t
always make the experience
easier for those who fi nd
themselves in need of help.
On Tuesday morning
Torres and her coworker
Ovelia Munoz greeted clients
as they trickled in. Some sat
quietly in the chairs, waiting
for a food box with an air
of someone who has been
there many times before.
Others approached the desk
hesitantly, sounding unsure
of the procedure, or paced up
and down the room, looking
around furtively as if worried
someone might recognize
them.
One man declared he
hadn’t needed help in “a
very long time.” Another
man and woman searched
through a shopping cart full
of household goods for a
blanket to give the little boy
See AGAPE/2A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Community service worker Kelly
Adams, of Hermiston, pulls weeds
Tuesday morning at Agape House.
Three months after an oil train derailed
and caught fi re in the Columbia River Gorge
near Mosier, the Local Emergency Planning
Committees for Umatilla and Morrow
counties are working to prepare for a similar
disaster close to home.
Both committees held a joint meeting
Tuesday at Good Shepherd Medical Center in
Hermiston, where they decided to collaborate
on a rail safety plan that would outline what
to do should another oil train derail in the
region.
That followed a presentation from the
Offi ce of the State Fire Marshal, which
provided an overview of the incident in
Mosier to help local emergency planning
committees, or LEPCs, refi ne their response
and procedures.
“The way you respond to something like
this has to be unique to the area you’re in,”
said Terry Wolfe, LEPC program coordinator.
“It may never happen in your area, but if it
does, you’re going to be ready for it.”
On June 3, a 96-car Union Pacifi c trail
hauling Bakken crude derailed along the
Columbia River near Mosier. Sixteen total
cars jumped the tracks, three of which caught
fi re, sending a dark plume of smoke over
the Gorge. No one was hurt, though 47,000
gallons of oil spilled.
Roughly one-third of the oil burned away,
while the rest either seeped into the soil or
drained into a nearby water treatment plant,
causing damage. Offi cials evacuated resi-
dents from within a half-mile radius and used
a total of 1.5 million gallons of water to fi ght
the blaze.
Numerous local, state, federal and tribal
agencies descended on the scene as traffi c
backed up for 20 miles along Interstate 84.
Within three hours, every motel in Mosier,
Hood River and parts of The Dalles was
booked.
Offi cials established a unifi ed command
center at the Mosier School to plot the next
steps. The Washington Department of Ecology
and neighboring tribes deployed an absorbent
See RAIL/8A
PENDLETON
EOCI readies for inmate
workers outside the fence
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The end is nigh for Pendleton’s
29-year agreement that bars Eastern
Oregon Correctional Institution inmates
from working outside the prison.
A 10-inmate crew and its overseeing
offi cer from Two Rivers Correctional
Institution, Umatilla, started landscaping
work this week outside the Pendleton
prison. Capt. Jeff Frazier at EOCI said
staff are training with the Umatilla
unit and screening minimum-custody
inmates to work outside the fence come
Oct. 24, a fi rst for the facility.
“They will do work in the commu-
nity,” he said.
Two Rivers spokesperson Sherry Iles
said the training crew came from the
Umatilla prison because it already has a
minimum-security facility and provides
inmate workers for community projects.
The Oregon Department of Correc-
tions opened medium-security EOCI
in Pendleton in 1985 after converting it
from a state mental facility. Two years
later, the state agreed to a deal with the
city not to have inmates work outside the
fence.
Locals have shifted their views since.
Prison offi cials in early May pitched the
idea to the Pendleton City Council to
allow inmate work crews in the commu-
See EOCI/8A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Tommy Kolpin and Cesar Najera, two members of an inmate work
crew from the Two Rivers Correctional Institution, work Monday
outside the secure perimeter of the Eastern Oregon Correction-
al Institution in Pendleton. The work day marked the fi rst since
the Pendleton City Council voted to repeal a near 30-year ban on
inmate work crews, the last of its kind in Oregon.