THREE
HURT
IN 395
CRASH
FOOTBALL/1B
OF STANFIELD
HERMISTON/3A
KARL KRAUSE
Enjoy a
free coffee
at Obie’s
Express in
Hermiston
GROGAN,
MURRAY
LEAD
ALL-STATE
19/16
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016
141st Year, No. 42
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Winter storm to
make another surge
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
More snow is forecast to inundate the region starting
Wednesday with meteorologists calling for upwards of
seven inches in Pendleton.
Another winter storm is expected
to dump snow on the lower Columbia
Basin on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service
in Pendleton issued a winter storm
warning for all of Eastern Oregon,
forecasting “signifi cant” snow
beginning late Wednesday morning
through 4 a.m. Thursday.
A wet Pacifi c storm system is
expected to move through the region,
bringing 5-7 inches of snow to lower
elevations — including Hermiston
and Pendleton — through the night.
Towns in higher elevations,
including Heppner, Condon and John
Day, can expect 7-9 inches of snow,
according to the warning.
Temperatures are expected to
stay below freezing all week, with
overnight lows in the single digits.
The weather service warns that
area roadways will be covered and
slick, and less traveled side roads
could become impassable.
Updated forecasts can be found at
the National Weather Service website,
www.wrh.noaa.gov/pdt/.
Measure 97
proponents
unveil new
tax proposal
A Better Oregon proposes
$4 billion tax hike plan
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The two sides that clashed
bitterly over a corporate sales tax measure
on the Nov. 8 ballot profess a willingness
to work together to fi nd a solution to
Oregon’s chronic revenue instability.
But so far, both appear to be marking
their battle lines, only this time for a
skirmish in the Legislature rather than at
the ballot box. Lawmakers face a delicate
tightrope act in which they hope to prevent
alienating one side or the other.
Many of the players from both sides
will remain the same as the fi ght moves to
Salem. And in many ways, their messages
going forward echo those they highlighted
during the election.
Business leaders have conceded the
state needs more revenue. But they are
demanding state pension reform and
curtailed spending before they agree to any
new business taxes.
Meanwhile, A Better Oregon, which
ran the Measure 97 campaign, continues to
hammer on the need for big corporations
to be more transparent and to pay their fair
share.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton,
chairman of the Senate Committee on
Revenue, recently illustrated the challenge
with a quip: If he could get people to agree
to tax guitar playing, he would go for it.
A Better Oregon, a coalition of public
unions and advocacy groups, unveiled its
legislative proposals including a scaled-
back corporate sales tax, an expansion of
health care provider taxes and a require-
ment that companies disclose what they
pay in taxes.
Meanwhile, the business community
is solidifying the power it realized during
See TAX/7A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Robin Harris of Mission found this cat, Cleo, in her hay barn last weekend and called the number on her tags to fi nd the
owners. It turns out the 7-month old kitten was wandering for the last two weeks after its family lost the cat during a wreck
in Interstate 84 near Harris’ house.
A long way home
Kitten survives wreck and two weeks alone
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
A cat named Cleo will reunite
with her family after a car wreck
and days of wandering unfamiliar
country.
The saga started Nov. 28
when a tire blew on Amanda
Egan’s van. Egan was in the
process of moving from Utah to
Washington and drove on Inter-
state 84 about a mile east of the
Wildhorse Resort & Casino. Her
husband Shane was ahead of her
in a Ford Tempo. He had pulled
off at exit 216 to gas up and was
waiting for her. Amanda had the
couple’s three young daughters
and the family’s pets — Cleo, a
seven-month-old kitten, and a
black Chihuahua-pug mix named
Irene.
“The van started to shake.
The tire on the driver’s side blew
apart,” Egan said. “I tried to
move to the side, but we swerved
and rolled over and landed on the
top.”
Egan believes she may have
passed out for a short time. When
she swam back to consciousness,
she heard Elinor, 5, Molly, 3, and
Adeline, 1, screaming in fright.
Amazingly, all were fi ne,
except for scratches and bruises.
A police offi cer at the scene asked
if anyone else was in the car and
Amanda instantly remembered
the animals. Both had vanished.
Soon came the discovery that the
dog had run into traffi c and been
killed. No one could fi nd Cleo.
Egan felt anguished as she
assessed the kitten’s chances of
survival. The family stayed in
Pendleton three days to regroup.
After renting a trailer and
searching unsuccessfully again
for the cat, they fi nally set off with
heavy hearts for their new home
in Bellingham, Washington.
That was that. The girls cried
for several nights, but life went
on.
Then, two weeks after the
accident, the family got a surprise
See KITTEN/8A
Project Exploration looks at future Pendleton
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Contributed image
This concept drawing shows the “Eagles” parking lot repur-
posed as a community plaza for the Pendleton Farmers Market
and other events. Remnants of the soon-to-be replaced Eighth
Street Bridge are used as decorative borders for the plaza.
Project Exploration, an effort to
launch several ambitious civic projects
in Pendleton, is as much about re-ex-
ploring old ideas as it is proposing new
ones.
The committee behind Project Explo-
ration — a group that includes people
associated with the city of Pendleton,
Umatilla County, Community Action
Program of East Central Oregon and
other community organizations —
explained its mission to the public for
the fi rst time at a meeting Monday.
“We’re trying to frame a big tent
effort to make things happen,” Umatilla
County Board of Commissioners
chairman George Murdock said.
Chuck Wood, a Pendleton city
councilor and chairman of the Pendleton
Development Commission, said the
committee began gathering last June to
discuss a plaza and other community
projects.
Later that month, Union Pacifi c Rail-
road Co. agreed to demolish the vacated
Webb’s Cold Storage building on South
Main Street, opening up further possibil-
ities for that area north and south of the
railroad tracks.
Wood shared pictures of concept
drawings that showed the “Eagles”
parking lot — the public parking
lot across Southeast Frazer from the
Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge —
repurposed as a community plaza for
the Pendleton Farmers Market and other
events.
In the drawings, the remnants of
the soon-to-be replaced Eighth Street
See PENDLETON/8A