15/1
PENDLETON
FALLS TO
SUNNYSIDE
GOP WON’T
GUT ETHICS
OFFICE
BASKETBALL/1B
NATION/6A
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017
141st Year, No. 57
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
PENDLETON
Turner takes reins as mayor
Former BMCC president sets out vision for fi rst term
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Freshly sworn in as Pendleton mayor,
John Turner gave the audience at city
council Tuesday a preview of how he
plans to lead over the next four years.
“I want to make a promise to all of
you that I will continue to pursue my
(duty) with a sense of energy and quiet
professionalism that have helped me in
good stead for the past forty-some years
of public service,” he said.
Turner will be tasked with leading a
council that was helmed for the last 12
years by Phillip Houk, the second longest
tenured mayor in Pendleton history.
In an interview before the meeting,
Turner praised Houk, who he worked
with when Turner was president of Blue
Mountain Community College and Houk
was on the BMCC Board of Education,
calling him an “excellent cheerleader” for
the city.
Although Houk personally recruited
him to run for mayor, Turner was reticent
to compare their leadership styles, saying
that there were many effective ways to
lead.
Regardless of the style, Turner said
city leaders would need to address some
real issues, pointing out the city’s deferred
maintenance problems and slow growth.
See TURNER/3A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton mayor John Turner is sworn in by Pendleton
municipal court judge Will Perkinson before the start of
the city council meeting on Tuesday in Pendleton.
PENDLETON
Old city
hall faces
daily fi nes
Winter weather delays
completion of roof repairs
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Alistair Harris holds his newborn son, Alistair Jr., as his wife, Searra, looks on from her hospital bed at St. Anthony Hospital on
Tuesday in Pendleton.
First baby arrives
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Umatilla County’s fi rst baby of the
year took his time.
Alistair Harris II arrived Tuesday
at St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton,
at 5:50 a.m. Less than an hour later at
6:18, a Hermiston mother gave birth to
Good Shepherd Medical Center’s fi rst
baby.
That afternoon, Alistair’s parents,
of Pendleton, looked exhausted, but
happy as they took turns cradling their
tiny newborn. This is the couple’s fi rst
child.
Searra called her eight pound, four
ounce son “the biggest blessing ever”
and said sleep could wait.
“I can’t help but stare at him,” she
said, her eyes glued to her sleeping son.
“I just want to hold him. I’ll sleep in
three years.”
Alistair, the father, said he’d gotten
about an hour of sleep since they
checked into the hospital about 7 p.m.
“I am exhausted, but super happy,”
he said. “I’m ready to take him home.”
Little Alistair, with a headful of
fl uffy dark hair, slept on.
Shortly after birth, the baby had
opened his eyes when laid on his moth-
er’s chest and instantly won her heart.
“It was an awesome moment,” she
said.
Last year, 311 babies were born at
St. Anthony Hospital and 433 at Good
Shepherd Medical Center.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Searra Harris holds her newborn, Alistair Jr., in her
hospital bed at St. Anthony Hospital on Tuesday in
Pendleton.
The owners of Pendleton’s old city
hall ran out of reprieves.
At a meeting Tuesday, the Pendleton
City Council voted to begin enforcing
the nuisance ordinance against the
owners beginning Wednesday, meaning
they could be charged up to $500 per
day.
The effort to re-roof the burned out
shell of old city hall has been under
scrutiny of the city council since
October.
The city tried to cite the owners of the
building, the Quezadas, after they failed
to repair the fi re and water damage
more than a year after the building was
severely burned in a fi rework accident
in July 2015.
In October, the council agreed to
stave off the fi nes from the nuisance
ordinance if the Quezadas put a new
roof on the building by the end of the
year.
Although construction commenced,
the roof appeared to be incomplete
as the new year began and a city staff
report confi rmed it.
“At this point only structural bearing
walls and trusses have been installed,”
building offi cial Ty Woolsley wrote
on Tuesday. “No roof sheathing or
roofi ng is in place at this moment. This
leaves the structure susceptible to more
weather damage as time continues.”
Fire marshal Shawn Penninger also
inspected the building and delivered a
similarly grim report, referring to the
large amount of debris in the alley way
behind the building as a fi re hazard.
“As we talked about last week this
place is a mess and I haven’t seen
any real progress in the last couple of
weeks,” he wrote to fi re chief Mike
Ciraulo in an email Tuesday. “Sadly I
See CITY HALL/3A
December unusually cold, wet in Eastern Oregon
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Fresh snow blankets the foothills of the Blue Mountains east of
Pendleton in this image from Nov. 2016.
Bundle up, buckaroos.
More brutal cold weather is on
the way for Pendleton and northeast
Oregon, with temperatures expected
to dip into the low single digits
Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Jim Smith, meteorologist with the
National Weather Service in Pend-
leton, said there is also a 20 percent
chance of snow Wednesday.
December was already especially
cold for the region, with temperatures
averaging roughly 5 degrees below
normal for the month. The average
temperature at the Eastern Oregon
Regional Airport was 28.1 degrees,
with a high of 50 degrees recorded
Dec. 3 and a low of minus-5 degrees
recorded Dec. 16.
Now, Smith said another wave of
Feeling the freeze
Average December temperatures
in degrees Fahrenheit
2016
Normal
Pendleton
28.1o
33.2o
Hermiston
28.4o
33.5o
Heppner
30.7o
34.2o
John Day
24.7o
31.6o
Condon
26o
31.4o
Source: National Weather Service, Pendleton
Arctic air is pushing into the region,
which should keep conditions below
freezing through Saturday. Sunday
should warm back up to near 40
degrees, though freezing rain and
snow are once again in the forecast
for early next week.
More than 18 inches of snow fell
See WEATHER/3A