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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 2016)
REGION Friday, September 23, 2016 East Oregonian PENDLETON Car crash puts M-F woman in critical condition East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney As RARE assistant Molly Turner hangs a picture on the wall of the new Pendleton Downtown Association ofice, PDA President Fred Bradbury and board member Jill Thorne help her with straightening. Downtown Association gets a home By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton Down- town Association now has downtown home. A nonproit organiza- tion dedicated to helping businesses in Pendleton’s downtown area, the asso- ciation now has a physical presence on the corner of Main Street and Emigrant Avenue, where Sister’s Cafe used to be located. The association also has person to staff the ofice and hold regular hours, a new development for an organi- zation that had previously been all-volunteer. The association’s attempt at prominence is being led by Fred Bradbury, the owner of Elite Guns & Bows and the association’s president, who raised $100,000 in grants to rent an ofice and hire a staff member. Helping move furniture and hang up pictures Wednesday afternoon, Bradbury said establishing a downtown ofice gave the association a way to better serve its 57 members. “I don’t want to work out of a basement,” he joked. Jill Thorne, a downtown building owner and a member of the association, said it was symbolic that the association’s ofice is now featured on the ground loor of the St. George Plaza, a building that was formerly the ramshackle Temple Hotel before developer Al Plute restored it. Thorne said the commu- nity has rallied around the downtown as a whole in a similar way, with the area now boasting an occupancy rate better than 90 percent. “We’re just trying to take the next step forward to get the economy going,” she said. The person tasked with helping the downtown association take the next step forward is also one of the newest people to town. The association hired Molly Turner to act as the association’s program manager through the Resource Assistance and Rural Environments program, an AmeriCorps program administered through the University of Oregon that places interns in community development roles across the state. Turner will spend the next 11 months iguring out ways to promote organized events around the down- town area. A native of Corvallis, Turner recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a double major in biological anthropology and Spanish with a minor in planning, public policy and management. Turner said she’d never been to Pendleton before applying for the placement, but she was attracted to the region’s outdoor opportuni- ties and the city’s reputation for friendliness, which the town has lived up to so far. The association’s ofice is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. A three-car crash in Walla Walla County Wednesday afternoon injured several people, including a 74-year-old woman from Milton-Freewater. According to Washington State Patrol, a semitrailer traveling eastbound on Washington State Road 12 collided with a westbound SUV as the semitrailer was trying to turn into the Boise-Cascade paper mill eight miles east of Burbank, Washington. After colliding with the SUV, the semitrailer crashed into a second car in the intersection. The driver of the SUV, Carol A. Justus, 74, of Milton-Freewater, was injured in the collision and transported to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. There were three other Staff photo by Kathy Aney A semi-truck lays on its side Thursday about seven miles east of Pendleton on eastbound Interstate 84, blocking two lanes of trafic. Lamb Weston to split from ConAgra Foods By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Lamb Weston, the frozen potato titan with french fry factories in Hermiston and Boardman, is on track to spin off from ConAgra Foods later this fall to become its own independent and publicly traded company. The move was originally announced by ConAgra oficials in November 2015, and a registration statement for Lamb Weston Holdings was iled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July. A spokeswoman said the separation will not affect any of the local manufacturing facilities. Lamb Weston Real Estate AUCTION No Reserve 11 NW 9th St Pendleton Preview Sunday Noon–2:30pm www.MaconBros Auction.com employs more than 1,500 people in Oregon. In 2014, Lamb Weston expanded its operations at the Port of Morrow by opening a new 192,000-square-foot plant with the capacity to make 1 million pounds of fries every day. Corporate ofices are located in nearby Kennewick, Washington, and Boise. ConAgra Foods, based in Chicago, is the largest packaged food company in North America. It purchased Lamb Weston in 1988, but decided they could beneit more as two stand-alone companies. “We are conident that this separation will best position each company to compete and win while creating compelling long- term value for shareholders and delivering beneits to employees, customers and other key stakeholders,” said ConAgra President and CEO Sean Connolly last year. After the split, ConAgra will maintain most of their popular consumer brands, which include Marie Callen- der’s, Hunt’s, Slim Jim, P.F. Chang’s, Chef Boyardee and Orville Redenbacher’s. Lamb Weston’s portfolio will focus on frozen potato, sweet potato, appetizer and other vegetable products. Stockholders will own shares of both independent companies. “We carefully consid- ered a variety of strategic alternatives, and believe that the separation of our Lamb Weston specialty potato business from our consumer brands business is the best way to drive shareholder value,” Connolly said. The Tri-City Herald reports Lamb Weston will make its irst appearance as an independent company at an investor brieing in New York City in October. Lamb Weston generated $2.9 billion in sales in 2015. passengers in the SUV. Iona McCauley, 35, of Portland and Crystal McCauley, 18, of Portland, were also injured and transported to Kadlec while a third passenger, Alejandro Torres, 17, of Everett, Washington, was taken Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco. Justus and Crystal McCauley are in critical condition while Iona McCauley is in satisfactory condition and Torres is in stable condition. The press memo states that the driver of the third car, Megan Goenen, 22, of Pasco was also injured and transported to Lourdes, but Lourdes has no record of receiving her. The semitrailer driver, Jeffery T. Rowett, 38, of Rancho Cordova, Cali- fornia, wasn’t injured and was charged with reckless driving. BRIEFLY Cleaner Air Oregon forum comes to Pendleton PENDLETON — Cleaner Air Oregon, a program created by Gov. Kate Brown and jointly led by the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Environmental Quality, will hold its third regional forum Wednesday, Sept. 18 at the Pendleton Convention Center. Residents are invited to provide input on the initiative, which aims to reform industrial air toxics regulations and align them with public health. Public comments will be shared with the Cleaner Air Oregon Regulatory Advisory Committee, which will meet from October through April 2017. The forum will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and include presentations by DEQ and OHA staff. To RSVP, visit www.cleanerair.oregon. gov/forum-rsvp. An online version of the presentation will also be available through the Cleaner Air Oregon website through Oct. 5. Umatilla County ends burn ban Truck rolls on Cabbage Hill Page 3A PENDLETON — Burning is OK again in Umatilla County. The county board of commissioners during its meeting Wednesday lifted the ban. The change to cooler, wetter weather prompted the board to allow non-agricultural burning to resume. The change went into effect Thursday and excludes any land under the jurisdiction of the state of Oregon, the United States government, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation or a ire district. The county’s burn day protocol remains in effect. Farmers and other residents who wish to burn need to check the Umatilla County website at www.co.umatilla. or.us and click the link for “Burn Information,” or call the county burn line at 800-305- 2876 or 541-278-6397. Open burning in the unincorporated areas and outside ire districts requires a permit. Contact the county planning department at 541-278-6252 or the county website for a permit applications. You also can ind daily burn day information on Facebook at Umatilla County Smoke Management. For more information about the county’s smoke management ordinance or to request a permit application, call the planning department. Closures lifted on private forests PENDLETON — The Oregon Department of Forestry will lift regulated use closures Friday on private forests within the agency’s Northeast Oregon District. However, ire season remains in effect for private, state, county, municipal and tribal lands protected by ODF. “While we are trending toward cooler fall weather, the conditions can change rapidly,” said Joseph Goebel, Wallowa wildland ire supervisor. “Parts of the region have gotten some moisture, and while that has helped, there is still a danger of ire spreading.” ODF will still need to issue burn permits for any open burns until ire season comes to an end. Fire season is usually lifted sometime in October, depending on conditions. Campires are once again allowed, with landowner permission. The Northeast Oregon District covers approximately 2 million acres across Umatilla, Union, Baker and Wallowa counties, as well as small portions of Morrow, Grant and Malheur counties. Public use restrictions were also lifted Wednesday on the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests. Route work pays for my children’s activities. R ENTERS Come and get your questions answered. Saturday • September 24th 10AM - 2PM 604 SW Dorion • Pendleton Free food and drinks Fun for the kids Sponsored by the Umatilla County Rental Housing Association Become an East Oregonian Carrier. 211 SE Byers Ave. Pendleton Susan Simpson 333 E Main Hermiston Dawn Hendricks 541-276-2211 1-800-522-0255
