REGION
Thursday, October 27, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
PENDLETON
Where do you want bus stops?
Vacant school
board seat draws
10 candidates
City seeks input on
route for free system
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Hermiston residents may have
noticed a fake bus stop sign appear in
their neighborhood on Wednesday, and
the city wants to know what they think
about it.
The signs are a precursor to the free
public bus system the city plans to begin
on Jan. 2 through an agreement with
Kayak Public Transit. They provide a
map of the proposed route and infor-
mation about a Nov. 1 meeting that will
give community members an opportu-
nity to give feedback on the proposal
before it goes in front of the city council
for a decision on Nov. 14.
The meeting, held next Tuesday
at 5 p.m. at city hall, will be the last
meeting of the Public Transit Advisory
Committee before it submits a recom-
mendation.
The committee has been working with
the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation to craft a bus route
and times using information from an
online survey conducted last month. A
new survey released Wednesday on the
city’s website (www.hermiston.or.us)
asks for input on a name for the new
bus system, which includes options like
the Watermelon Express and Hermiston
Looper. A map of the proposed bus stops
is also available on the website.
The route as currently proposed
would run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday
through Friday, stopping in 25 locations
and making one circuit through town
each hour. Assistant city manager Mark
Morgan said adding any more hours per
week would necessitate hiring a second
driver, raising costs. The initial survey
about the bus system indicated that 74
percent of respondents preferred contin-
uous daytime service to a split shift that
would serve commuters in the mornings
and again in the late afternoon.
In an Aug. 8 work session with the
Hermiston City Council, CTUIR Plan-
ning Director JD Tovey said the cost to
the city would depend greatly on the size
of the system. He said the tribes have
access to significant amounts of federal
grant money for transportation and
could bring in more using Hermiston’s
contribution as a match and counting
Hermiston riders in their system-wide
ridership count. The Kayak Public
Transit system currently includes an
inter-city system that runs between 17
communities.
He said a fixed route through
Hermiston would allow the bus that
runs between cities to stop just once
in Hermiston, instead of three times,
saving enough time to help the CTUIR
reach its goal of extending service to
Boardman in the future.
At a city council meeting Monday,
city councilor Doug Primmer said he
was excited about the work the advisory
committee has been doing.
“All in all, the route looks pretty
comprehensive,” he said. “It serves
different areas of town pretty well, and
the great thing about it is the cost to the
user is zero, and it is intended to stay
that way.”
The city still plans to operate its
$2 taxi ticket program for senior and
disabled riders. But staff expect that
One of the most sought
after jobs in Pendleton this
week is a volunteer position
on the local school board.
Hailing from a variety of
professional backgrounds,
10 candidates will be
interviewed
Wednesday
and Thursday by the school
board before it makes its
decision.
Board Chair Debbie
McBee said she was thrilled
to see so many candidates
for the type of position that
usually attracts one or two
applicants.
“It’s going to be a hard
choice,” she said. “We have
an excellent group of candi-
dates.”
The candidates provided
short summaries about
themselves to the board in
their applications, some of
which is featured below:
• Gary George, Wildhorse
Casino & Resort CEO. As a
member of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation who works for
a company that’s financially
contributed to the district in
the past, George wrote he
wants to help address the
barriers facing Pendleton
students.
• Stephen Bowen, retiree.
Bowen is familiar with the
school district, having been
president of the Pendleton
Teachers
Association
and the Blue Mountain
Community College theater
program, and wants to help
continue to provide a quality
education and safe environ-
ment.
• Rolinda Burd, retired
bookkeeper. A member of
Altrusa and the Pendleton
Chamber of Commerce
ambassadors, Burd wrote
that she wants to be a part of
the school board rather than
complaining about it later.
• Rodney Parker, vice
president/general manager at
Pioneer Title & Escrow. As
a small business owner with
several family members in
the Public Employee Retire-
ment System, Parker thinks
he would have the ability to
understand the budget and
the issues the board will face
in the future.
• Pamela Johnston Duso,
account representative at
Trustime Retirement Plan
Specialists. Duso was
involved with the political
action committee that
supported the 2013 school
bond and thinks her financial
experience will be an asset
to the district.
• Mark Christensen,
retired teacher. A teacher
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A temporary sign outside Foxwood Apartments in Hermiston shows a
proposed bus stop location.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A temporary sign marks the location of a proposed bus stop near the
corner of SE Fourth Street and Main Street.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A temporary sign at the Hermiston Plaza shows a proposed bus stop
location.
More online
For a map of the proposed bus
stops, visit eastoregonian.com
some of those riders will start using
the free bus system instead, reducing
the $100,000 per year the city has been
Aura Raley bronze unveiling
ceremony set for Saturday
East Oregonian
The beginning of the end
of Pendleton’s series of down-
town bronzes begins Saturday.
That’s when a statue of
Aura Goodwin Raley will
be unveiled to the public at
a ceremony on Main Street
at 1 p.m.
Although there’s still work
that needs to be done, Mayor
Phillip Houk said sculptor
Jerry Werner of Bend will still
be on hand to help present the
bronze at the 300 block of
Main Street, directly across
from the Stella Darby statue.
Referred to as the “Mother
of Pendleton,” Raley helped
found the city, operated a
hotel and donated the land
that would become Pioneer
Park and the Umatilla
County Courthouse.
The last of Main Street’s
statues — a bronze of former
Round-Up Indian Village
co-chief Clarence Burke — is
tentatively scheduled to open
on the 100 block of Main
Street across from the Jackson
Sundown bronze Nov. 12.
Burke and Raley’s bronzes
will complete a series of six
bronzes depicting figures from
Pendleton’s history at Main
Street’s midblock crossings.
Several bronzes, including
those that depict Raley and
Burke, have been funded
through a combination of
grants and the city’s art fund,
which is sourced from 1.75
percent earmark from the
transit room tax.
H AMLEY S aloon
contributing to that program.
The bus system will be open to
anyone. For more information, including
the name survey and route map, visit
www.hermiston.or.us.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
or
541-564-4536.
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— Debbie McBee,
school board chair
and coach in Pendleton for
30 years, Christensen thinks
he can provide insight on the
trenches of education and
will be a hard worker for the
school board.
•
Mason
Murphy,
scientist. Murphy has been
involved with the district’s
3-D printing and robotics
programs and thinks he
can offer further insight on
technology issues.
• Heidi Van Kirk,
attorney. Having been a
volunteer and a member of
the site council at McKay
Creek Elementary School,
Van Kirk said she wants to
work with a team of profes-
sionals to help make the
school system as stimulating
and challenging as possible.
• Brent Hall, attorney.
Hall, a Pendleton High
School graduate and school
volunteer, wrote that he
could use his professional
experience to help with any
legal issues and wanted to
leverage the district’s part-
nerships in an effective way.
•
Fred
Robinson,
veterinarian. As president
of the Pendleton Swim
Association, Robinson is
working with the district to
find a long-term solution to
its pool issues and thinks he
would bring a non-biased
view to the board.
The school board posi-
tion became open following
the resignation of Bob
Rosselle, whose term runs
through June 30, 2017. The
person who is selected will
have to run for a four-year
term in the May 16 election
to continue beyond that date.
The board will hold
interviews open to the public
on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m.
and Thursday at 5 p.m. All
will take place at the district
office at the former Lincoln
Primary School, 107 N.W.
10th St.
McBee said she plans
to propose to the board that
they set a separate meeting
for discussing the candidates
next week. A formal selec-
tion of the candidate is still
set for the board’s Nov. 8
meeting.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
HERMISTON
Good Shepherd welcomes 17 new nurses
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Seventeen new registered nurses
have joined the ranks of Good
Shepherd Health Care System in
Hermiston, representing the largest
graduating class from the hospital’s
nurse residency program since its
inception.
A news release from the hospital
called the number “nothing short of
remarkable” for a rural hospital during
a nationwide nursing shortage.
“This is truly exciting for us,” Vice
President of Nursing Theresa Brock
said in a statement. “We have an excep-
tional group of new graduate RNs who
joined our program because they were
either from the community, enjoyed
their clinicals at Good Shepherd, were
impressed by our onboarding process
and even wanted to work in a rural
community.”
The new nurses have begun
working with an experienced nurse
preceptor in their chosen area of
specialty after completing an intensive
learning experience that started on
Aug. 29. Their preceptorship period
will take up to a year, depending on
the department.
There are two residents in the
Family Birth Center, two in the
Intensive Care Unit, six in the main
patient care unit Medical-Surgical,
two in Surgery and five in Emergency
Services.
Nurse educator Phyllis Garcia, RN,
said after the preceptorship graduates
will come away with the confidence
and experience to take on their own
patient care assignments.
“I believe we extended an invitation
to the right nurses to join our residency
program and I feel confident that my
profession is in good hands,” she said.
Good Shepherd’s next residency
program will begin in August of 2017.
Nurses expecting to graduate prior
to August can apply for the 2017
program at www.gshealth.org/jobs or
call Human Resources at 541-667-
3546 for more information.
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