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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2016)
FINAL POPLAR RUN GETS HUGE TURNOUT Visit Elite Guns & Bows in Pendleton for a free hat KAREN WOOLBRIGHT OF HELIX REGION/3A 63/50 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2016 141st Year, No. 6 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Avakian campaign accused of violations HERMISTON Staff denies allegations of bonuses paid for work done on state time By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau Staff photo by E.J. Harris The city of Hermiston will a new one-mile section of trail that will run down Highland Avenue and connect with the Riverfront Park and Oxbow trails. City moving forward with next phase of loop path N. Planned trail Butte Park H Proposed trail Parks Hospital Harrison Park W. Orchard Avenue Riverfront Park S.W. 11th Street Corp. city limit W. Hermiston Avenue McKenzie Park Belt Park W. Highland Avenue W. Moore Avenue W. Joseph Avenue Source: City of Hermiston sidewalks, bike lanes and gravel shoulder. A contribution of $150,000 from the city and $513,000 from ODOT would turn it into a multi-use trail Hodge Park S. First Street 1,000 feet W. Highland Avenue S.W. 11th Street r t ree S.W. 17th St il l N Riv e HERMISTON 395 207 a N.W. Seventh Street Proposed park site e lac W. Elm Avenue Existing trail oa d st P Fir Legend Um at Another mile of trail will be added next year to the 6.5 mile loop the city is building around the western half of Hermiston. The city council approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation on Monday to build a trail for cyclists and pedestrians along the south side of Highland Avenue between SW 11th Street and SW 23rd Street near Riverfront Park. Assistant city manager Mark Morgan said the trail could end up going even farther along Highland than that, depending on “when he money runs out.” The $663,225 West Highland Trail project fi ts into the wider vision of a Hermiston Loop Trail that will eventually allow bicy- clists and pedestrians to make a 6.5 mile loop around the western side of Hermiston. The fi rst leg of that project came when the popular Oxbow Trail opened in 2014, creating a meandering 1.5 mile asphalt trail connected to Riverfront Park. The stretch of Highland featured in the West Highland Trail project is currently bordered by a patchwork of Hermiston loop trail plan W. Harpe r R N. First Street By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian running parallel to the road on the south side of Highland. Construction is expected to take place next summer. City Manager Byron Smith School board considers new data on proposed $104M bond By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian out niche deals would not get that done. Givens is one of the county’s three representative on the center’s seven-member authority board, which Smith chairs. Smith also negotiated the lease. Drotzmann said the two local governments have provided millions of taxpayer dollars to help create the center at 1705 E. Airport Road, Hermiston, that in 2017 will house the 28-year-old rodeo and county fair, and the authority board deciding how to The closer the Hermiston School District gets to committing to a campaign for a $104 million bond, the less Hermiston residents seem interested in passing it. On Monday, the Hermiston School Board discussed the fi ndings of a new public survey, which collected fi ndings from 373 registered voters between Oct. 3-7, a majority of whom were active in three or four of the last elections. Prepared by The Nelson Report, a public opinion research fi rm based out of Salem, the survey revealed that 48 percent of respondents opposed the bond proposal versus 46 percent in favor. This is a fl ip from a survey in May, when 47 percent of respondents supported the bond and 43 percent didn’t. Furthermore, the amount of people surveyed who were undecided dipped from 10 percent in May to 6 percent in October. The most recent survey’s margin of error is 5 percent. Despite the change in attitude, Superin- tendent Fred Maiocco urged the board not to be intimidated by the numbers, especially considering that surveys before a 2008 bond showed public support between 50-52 percent before it passed with more than 53 percent. “Whether it’s the presidential cycle, the state attention to the ballots or it’s this specifi c issue (people) are concerned about, we have a little more opposition,” he said. “We have to be aware of that, but it’s not out of bounds by See EOTEC/8A See BOND/8A told the council that the city was still working with the Department of Fish and Wildlife See TRAIL/8A EOTEC rodeo lease gets second look from offi cials City, county question 50 year deal Hermiston and Umatilla County offi cials hope to rein in overly generous leases at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center. The board overseeing the center could vote Friday to allow the Farm-City Pro Rodeo to lease the mercantile area near the future rodeo arena for 50 years for a one-time payment Poll shows shrinking support for school bond Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group HERMISTON By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian SALEM – Brad Avakian’s campaign denied wrongdoing following accusations made Monday that his campaign fund paid government employees for campaign work, and that the work may have been done on state time. Avakian, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state, is the head of the Bureau of Labor and Industries. In an opinion piece Monday on Forbes. com, Andrew Andrze- jewski, of Open The Books, a private trans- parency group, claimed that three of Avakian’s employees were paid money out of Avakian’s campaign fund and that two of those employees also contributed to Avakian’s campaign for Avakian secretary of state. The piece alleges BOLI communications director Charlie Burr, BOLI legislative director Paloma Sparks and Jesse Bontecou, Avakian’s executive assistant, were paid a total of $4,500 from Avakian’s campaign fund in 2014 and 2015. Brad Pyle, Avakian’s campaign manager, said payments from the campaign fund, the Committee to Elect Brad Avakian, to three BOLI employees in 2014 and 2015 were See AVAKIAN/8A of $50. But Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann, Hermiston City Manager Byron Smith and the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners met about it Monday in Pendleton and expressed concerns the lease could set a precedent and leave taxpayers on the hook to cover expenses. “EOTEC needs to be — as close as we can get it — to self sustaining,” Commissioner Larry Gives said, and carving
