LEON FAIRCLOTH
OF WESTON
PENDLETON/3A
CITY TURNS
OUT FOR
HOLIDAY
STROLL
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RUSSIA
HACKING
PROBE 7A
24/13
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016
141st Year, No. 41
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
HERMISTON
$104M bond
headed to
May ballot
Money would fund replacing,
renovating district schools
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Principal Curt Thompson talks to Hawthorne students about a cooking classroom Monday while on a tour of the Pendleton
Tech and Trade Center.
Trade’s new tricks
See BOND/8A
West Hills revamped
into technology, trade
education center
Prosecutors push
ahead with trial
for last occupiers
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Tech and Trade Center is
a work in progress, and will probably remain
that way even after it opens in January.
As a few dozen Hawthorne Alternative High
School students were led through the former
West Hills Intermediate School on Monday,
they ran into contractors and employees from
the InterMountain Education Service District
working on the building.
Curt Thompson, the district’s career tech-
nical education coordinator and Hawthorne
principal, fi elded questions from the curious
group of teens about the repurposed school,
which will house Hawthorne’s alternative
education program as well as several CTE
classes.
Would the school bus drop them off down
the hill by Pendleton High School or in the
center parking lot? (The center parking lot)
What school would it say on their diploma?
(It would still read Hawthorne)
Could they paint one of the walls with chalk-
board paint and then write on it? (Thompson
wasn’t sure, but he did like the idea of a mural)
While Thompson couldn’t answer all of
their questions defi nitively, he said he was
committed to gathering student input.
The power to build new schools will
offi cially be in Hermiston voters’ hands
during the May 2017 election.
On Monday the Hermiston School
District board unanimously adopted a
resolution placing a $104 million capital
construction bond on the May ballot.
The bond money would go toward a
new elementary school off Theater Lane,
replacement of Rocky Heights Elementary,
replacement of Highland Hills Elementary,
renovations at Sandstone Middle School
and an expansion of Hermiston High
School that would bring its capacity from
1,600 students to 2,000.
It would add 90 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value to local property taxes,
which are currently $4.09 per $1,000 for
education.
Board members acknowledged the
fi nancial impact on Hermiston residents,
but also spoke of students spending their
days in portable classrooms and in schools
with fl oor plans where children have to
cross an unsecured outdoor campus to get
from room to room.
“The bottom line is always the kids,”
board chair Karen Sherman said. “Rocky
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
school classes Jan. 3.
The center will also be open to Pendleton
High School students, who will trek up the
hill to take some of the more advanced CTE
courses when their next semester starts in
February.
Hawthorne has been without a permanent
home since 2014, when the school was moved
PORTLAND — The U.S. government
will push forward with conspiracy charges
against the remaining seven people who
helped take over a national wildlife refuge
in Oregon, just months after the stunning
acquittal of the fi rst group of defendants.
Prosecutors, who faced a Monday
deadline
to
indicate
their
next move, said More inside
they also would Arizona man seeks
proceed
with to withdraw guilty
fi rearms charges plea Page 2A
against six of the
defendants
and
planned to add lesser counts that could
include trespassing or destruction of
property.
That would give jurors the option of a
less serious conviction that wasn’t avail-
able in the earlier case.
See TRADE/8A
See TRIAL/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Principal Curt Thompson talks about a new milling machine in one of the
classrooms of the Pendleton Tech and Trade Center on Monday in Pendleton.
Chris Bettineski, a Pendleton High School
assistant principal and the former lead teacher
for Hawthorne, echoed Thompson’s senti-
ments.
“There’s always growing pains,” he said.
“There’s always adjustments that need to be
made. Nothing stays the same.”
Thompson said the district will begin
moving furniture from Hawthorne’s current
building over winter break and start alternative
Congress passes Columbia
River Restoration Act
Bill allows return of Kennewick Man to tribes
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Congress has passed a
bill authorizing the Environ-
mental Protection Agency
to establish a competitive,
voluntary grant program for
environmental cleanup work
in the Columbia River.
The Columbia River
Restoration Act was included
as part of the federal Water
Resources Development Act
of 2016, which lawmakers
approved Dec. 9.
Grants could help pay
for projects that improve
water quality in the basin,
reduce pollution or clean up
contaminated sites. Oregon
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley, both Democrats,
cheered the legislation,
which was supported by a
diverse group of environ-
mental, tribal and industry
groups.
“Nobody wants to worry
that the water they are
drinking or fi shing in or
swimming in is tainted, but
8 million inhabitants of the
Columbia River Basin have
had their health, safety and
environment endangered by
See RIVER/8A
EO fi le photo
Yakama tribal members Mackie Jackson of The Dalles,
left, and Anthony George of Hood River, second from
left, throw out a gill net during a May 2014 protest of
the proposed coal facility on the Columbia River at the
Port of Morrow in Boardman.
When is it time to
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