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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016
141st Year, No. 22
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Barreto named No. 2 Republican in House
Former Pendletonian Jodi Hack appointed GOP’s House whip
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Barreto
Heading into his second
term in the Oregon Legislature,
local Rep. Greg Barreto has
been tapped as the second-
in-command among House
Republicans.
Barreto (R-Cove), who
represents District 58 which
includes much of Umatilla
County, was elected Tuesday
by colleagues to serve as
deputy leader of the Oregon
House Republican caucus. His
primary role will be to support
Rep. Mike McLane (R-Powell
Measure
failure
leaves
hole in
budget
Butte) who was re-elected
as party leader. McLane has
been in the role since the 2013
session and was fi rst elected to
the legislature in 2011.
Barreto ran unopposed for
a second term in the legislature
Nov. 8. He also serves as a
member of the House Agri-
culture and Natural Resources
Committee, House Business
and Labor Committee and
House Education Committee.
Throughout his fi rst term,
Barreto said he focused on
building relationships in the
legislature, learning how to
work bills and work in commit-
tees. He said he was honored to
have earned the confi dence of
his fellow House Republicans.
“It’s about working with
people, but still standing fi rm in
your convictions,” Barreto said.
Looking ahead to 2017,
Barreto said the GOP is once
again the minority party in both
chambers of the legislature —
though Democrats did lose
See BARRETO/8A
HERMISTON
By GORDON FRIEDMAN
(Salem) Statesman Journal
SALEM — Since voters
roundly rejected a corporate
sales tax last Tuesday, legis-
lators and the governor have
been considering options for
cutting the budget and raising
revenue.
One plan may be to revive
a commercial activity tax on
businesses.
What’s the difference
between that proposal and
Measure 97, the tax that
failed Tuesday?
Well, about $2.5 billion
per year, for one thing.
Other options being
fl oated by offi cials include
raising already existing fees
and assessments, bumping
up personal income tax
and property tax rates, or a
so-called sin tax on unhealthy
products.
Lawmakers
caution,
however, that no proposal is
certain.
What is? A $1.4 billion
budget hole. Measure 97
would have more than
plugged the hole. Now,
offi cials face the reality of
budget cuts and a need for
revenue.
Finding a plan that will
work is a conundrum with no
easy solutions.
Compounding
the
problem is the fact that
business and labor groups
— which spent heavily on
opposite sides of Measure
See BUDGET/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Umatilla Electric Corporative truck pulls a trailer down Main Street in Hermiston Tuesday. The 32-foot tall spruce tree will serve as the
Christmas tree for Hermiston’s Winter Festival. It was donated by Larry and Marjorie Davidson of Hermiston and was installed on Second
Street in front of city hall.
Oh! Christmas tree
Hermiston spruces up downtown for holidays
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Christmas came early to down-
town Hermiston on Tuesday, in the
shape of a giant spruce tree now
planted in the middle of Second
Street near city hall.
The tree will be decked out with
lights and a giant star in time for a
tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 1 at
5:30 p.m. that will kick off a month-
long downtown Winter Festival.
The ceremony will include
live entertainment, food vendors,
pictures with Santa and a fi rst look
at the light show the city will put on
each weekend through Christmas.
Last year was the fi rst year the city
blocked off a part of Second Street
for the light show. Parks and recre-
ation director Larry Fetter said while
citizens appreciated the display and
tree, some of them approached the
city about helping make the display
more impressive this year.
“We learned a lot last year when
we introduced the program and so
we’re taking it up a notch,” Fetter
said.
The tree-lighting ceremony will
take place during Main Street’s
First Thursday event, and attendees
will be encouraged to go check out
downtown businesses that same
night.
The 32-foot tree, now anchored
in a hole in the asphalt, was donated
by Larry and Marjorie Davidson.
PENDLETON
Home sweet home
Hospital provides new
locations for warming
station, relief nursery
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Pioneer Relief Nursery will be moving to the site of the former
St. Anthony urgent care clinic at 1312 S.W. 2nd Street in Pendleton,
starting Dec. 5.
St. Anthony Hospital is
dispensing a little early holiday
cheer to two local agencies — one
that provides respite care for kids
at risk of abuse and neglect and the
other that shelters the homeless on
cold winter nights.
St. Anthony is using profi ts from
the 2015 Festival of Trees and this
year’s upcoming festival to remodel
the hospital’s former urgent care
clinic at 1312 S.W. Second St. into
a new home for Pendleton Relief
Nursery. The Pendleton Warming
Station will move into the relief
nursery’s old spot on Court Street.
For now, St. Anthony owns both
facilities. Later this month, the
hospital will offi cially donate the
one-story building near Til Taylor
Park to the warming station. The
facility is an upgrade from the city-
owned building that was used as
a warming station during the past
four winters, said Chris Clemons,
pastor at the Church of the Naza-
rene and executive director for
Neighbor2Neighbor, which runs
the warming station. Homeless
See MOVE/8A