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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016
141st Year, No. 23
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Oregon
job
growth
slows
New home,
new energy
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
The third house built by the Columbia Basin Student Home Building Program glows in the late afternoon sun just south of Hermiston High
School. Students in the program are from Hermiston, Umatilla and Stanfi eld.
Student builders learn a lesson in effi ciency and quality
especially important to get the
insulation there right the fi rst time,
before installation.
▪ Different parts of the house call
for different types of insulation, caulk
or other strategies, which students
will start using as they move from
putting up studs to putting up walls
and ceilings.
▪ It is important to make sure
insulation around electrical outlets,
light switches and other breaks in the
drywall is trimmed as precisely as
possible around the hole so that air
does not escape around the edges.
▪ If the fl oor is not properly
insulated cold air will rise from the
crawl space into the home, possibly
carrying mold and other contami-
nates with it.
▪ Ducts need to be sealed at every
joint and other penetration area so
that the air the furnace worked to
heat is not escaping before ever
reaching the people inside the home.
In the spring, Energy Trust of
Oregon will be back to give the
completed home an energy perfor-
mance score that potential buyers
can use to compare with other homes
and see what type of savings they
might see on a lower energy bill. The
process includes a blower door test in
which a fan machine is temporarily
installed into an exterior door frame
and used to pull air out of the house.
Sensors then measure how much air
See HOUSE/8A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Students in the Columbia Basin
Student Homebuilders Program got
a lesson Wednesday in the impor-
tance of energy effi ciency.
The program, which is in its
third year, produces a high-end
house each year built by high school
students from Hermiston, Stanfi eld
and Umatilla under the mentorship
of various local contractors and
experts. One of those partnerships is
with the Energy Trust of Oregon, a
nonprofi t dedicated to helping utility
customers save money through
energy effi ciency.
The houses the students build
have a much better energy effi ciency
rating than the average Oregon home
of the same size, something teacher
Curt Berger said was important to
the Hermiston School District.
“We’re trying to give the students
the best experience we can,” he said.
“The higher quality the home they’re
building, the more they learn, and
these are really nice homes.”
He said he wanted to give
students, who may not have grown
up in such a high-end home them-
selves, a “vision of what’s out there”
and teach them ways to make their
own future homes more energy-effi -
cient. The high energy performance
score is also a draw for homebuyers
who will save signifi cant money on
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Kyle Kent, of the Energy Trust of Oregon, talks to Columbia Basin
Student Home Building Program students from Hermiston, Stan-
fi eld and Umatilla about energy effi ciency.
their utility bills.
“There’s no reason not to build
energy-effi cient homes,” Berger
said. “I just think it’s the right thing
to do.”
On Wednesday, Energy Trust
of Oregon employees visiting
the class encouraged students
to visualize creating a six-sided
“thermal boundary” that keeps air
from moving in and out of a house.
If heated or cooled air is escaping
through the attic, ducts in the fl oor
or nail holes in the wall, then the
home’s HVAC system is working
harder than it needs to, raising the
homeowner’s energy bill and adding
wear and tear to the system.
Students learned:
▪ Heat rises, which means the
insulation with the highest “R
value,” or resistance to heat, should
be used in the attic area.
▪ Amenities like showers and
fi replaces often block future access
to the walls behind them, so it’s
Voters give health district new life
Health district expands
82
Umatilla
730
84
Hermiston
Stanfield
Wash.
Milton- Ore.
Freewater
11
37
Echo
Um
12
Wash.
Ore.
R
Co l u m b i a
Area in detail
Ore.
New health district boundary
Old health district boundary
r
Once in danger of disap-
pearing completely, the East
Umatilla County Health
District is now on the verge
of expanding.
On Nov. 8, east Umatilla
County residents voted
to dissolve the old health
district and create a new
one with new borders and a
higher tax rate.
The roots of such a
signifi cant change start with
the district’s creation in
1988. Health district offi ce
manager Donna Grimes
said the district’s founders
proposed a rate of 14 cents
per $1,000 assessed value to
make it palatable to voters,
and with the intention of
raising it.
But the trio of tax-curbing
state measures passed in the
1990s meant the tax rate
stayed stuck at 14 cents, even
as operational costs rose.
Additionally, the health
district’s boundaries only
encompassed those of the
Athena-Weston
School
District, even as its response
area ran past the school
district boundaries and
covered most of the eastern
part of the county between
Pendleton and Milton-Free-
water, including Athena,
Weston, Adams, Helix and
Tollgate.
Stagnant revenue streams
combined with the resig-
nation the district’s only
paramedic culminated in an
intergovernmental
agree-
ment with Pendleton in 2014
to help provide emergency
services while the district
See HEALTH/8A
ive
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Athena
Pendleton
atill
a R i v er
207
204
Pilot Rock
UMATILLA
84
MORROW
82
74
La Grande
244
395
10 miles
Ukiah
Sources: East Umatilla County Health District,
Athena-Weston School District
UNION
84
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
SALEM — Oregon’s job
growth has cooled down, and
as a consequence growth in
personal income taxes the
state collects has also slowed,
the state said Wednesday in
its economic and revenue
forecast.
Even if the job growth
had continued at its former
red-hot pace, Oregon would
have faced a large budget
shortfall. And that’s what
Gov. Kate Brown focused on
in her response to the revenue
forecast.
“On the positive side,
job growth is higher and
unemployment is lower than
the national average and
Oregon’s economy remains
stable overall,” Brown said.
“However, our obligations
to fund important services
such as public education and
health care still exceed avail-
able revenues, and, looking
ahead, there will be some
very tough budget choices to
make.”
Brown’s communications
director, Kristen Grainger,
said the governor will
propose a balanced budget
on Dec. 1, and that it will
accommodate the revenue
See BUDGET/8A
ODA
facing
backlog of
food safety
inspections
Audit fi nds 2,841
companies past due
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture is struggling
to keep up with routine food
safety inspections, with
nearly a quarter of licensed
businesses at least three
months overdue, according
to a state audit released
Tuesday.
There are 12,000 estab-
lishments — including
grocery stores, bakeries,
processing plants, breweries
and dairies — that require
regular inspections through
the ODA Food Safety
Program, of which the audit
reports 2,841 are currently
backlogged.
The audit, prepared by the
Secretary of State’s offi ce,
identifi ed a number of issues
within the program that
have contributed to falling
behind on inspections, such
as increased staff workload
and high turnover. Inspectors
are also spending more time
on things like offi ce work
and trainings that have taken
time away from completing
inspections.
ODA has 38 food safety
inspectors statewide, and
just two in Eastern Oregon.
Melissa Ney is the lone
specialist based in Herm-
iston, responsible for roughly
See BACKLOG/8A