WEEKEND EDITION
TIGERS RALLY BACK
HOW
MUCH
SNOW?
BOYS HOOPS/1B
LIFESTYLES/1C
OFF TO THE
SLED RACES
OUTSIDE/8C
JANUARY 14-15, 2017
141st Year, No. 65
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Plan to close mental hospital brings déjà vu
Pendleton hospital closed in 2014 so $130M facility could be built in Junction City
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
File photo by Brian Davies/The Register-Guard
Visitors to the Oregon State Hospital Junction City
campus walk outside the facility during a public tour in
Junction City in January 2015.
When Gov. Kate Brown
released her $20.8 billion
budget for the next biennium,
one item on the chopping
block shocked some eastside
Oregonians.
There, on page 60, was
something that caused jaws to
drop — the proposed closure
of the state mental health
hospital in Junction City. To
understand the consternation,
one must go back to 2014.
That year, Pendleton lost the
Blue Mountain Recovery
Center, one of three state
mental health facilities in
the Oregon State Hospital
system, shut down along with
the Portland campus. In their
place, a pristine $130 million
hospital opened in Junction
City north of Eugene.
Now that facility, after
only 19 months in operation,
is slated for closure. The state
will pay off the bonds used to
build the hospital until 2039.
Retired Oregon repre-
sentative
Bob
Jenson
(R-Pendleton) and his wife,
Evelyn, shook their heads
upon hearing of the possible
closure. Both had fought
hard for decades to retain the
Pendleton hospital.
“It was on the chopping
block back in 1984,” said
Evelyn, former superin-
tendent of the Pendleton
hospital, which started as
the Eastern Oregon State
Hospital in 1948. “It was
always offered up.”
When the state announced
plans to close Pendleton
and Portland hospitals and
replace them with one in
Junction City, Evelyn said
she felt dismayed. Instead of
having three hospitals scat-
tered around the state, there
would be two within a short
distance of one another.
“It didn’t make a lot of
sense,” she said. “Those
facilities need to serve the
entire state, not just a concen-
trated area.”
Bob spent hours lobbying
his fellow legislators each
time the budget ax hovered.
He said he and then-Sen.
See MENTAL HEALTH/10A
Schools
ponder
how to
make up
snow days
East Oregonian
A rash of snow days at
schools across Oregon has
put them in the debt of the
state.
The Oregon Depart-
ment
of
Education
requires all students meet
a minimum number of
instructional hours, a
threshold some local
school districts are strug-
gling to hit as prolonged
bouts of inclement weather
have forced closures.
Now local school
districts will have to
decide whether they
schedule make-up days or
petition the state to waive
the minimum instructional
hour requirement for the
2016-2017 school year.
Pendleton has already
missed six school days
this year due to snow and
Hermiston has missed
fi ve. Many other local
districts have missed
similar class time.
In Pendleton School
District human resources
director Brad Bixler said
school offi cials still are
considering all of their
options, but a defi nitive
plan has yet to take shape.
With the construction
of Washington and Sher-
wood Heights elementary
schools pushing the start
of the K-5 back by three
See SNOW DAYS/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Tollgate Store marks the halfway point between Weston and Elgin on Highway 204 and is the area’s only restaurant.
LAST C
STOP
Remote Tollgate Store and Restaurant
is the only place for food and services
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
ecil Berry poked inside the
Tollgate Store & Restaurant on
a bluebird Friday morning, snow
piled high after a barrage of recent
storms, looking for someone to ride the
freshly groomed snowmobile trails.
“I’m here every day at 9 a.m.,” said
Berry, who lives in the small mountain
community. “If there’s someone to go
snowmobiling with, I talk them into it.”
Perched atop the Blue Mountains
halfway between Weston and Elgin
along Highway 204, Tollgate is a hub of
year-round outdoor recreation. There is
snowmobiling and skiing during winter,
mushroom hunting in the spring,
camping and lake fi shing over summer
and big game hunting later in the fall.
For hunters, anglers and powder
hounds alike, the Tollgate Store is the
only place to meet and grab a bite to eat
before heading out into the woods.
“This is the last resort on the moun-
tain,” Berry said. “If it goes, there won’t
even by anyplace to stop.”
After 10 years, store owner Jeff
Pinsker said he is burned out and looking
to sell the two-acre property, which
includes the main store and restaurant, a
two-bedroom home upstairs, shop next
door and four rental units in the back.
It is listed for sale by owner, with an
asking price of $450,000.
Pinsker, 50, moved to Tollgate
from California after buying the store
in 2006 with his business partner,
See TOLLGATE/10A
Eastern Oregon Forum takes aim at gun laws
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The 2017 Eastern Oregon
Forum will open with a bang.
“Gun Facts, Regulations,
and the Second Amend-
ment” opens the annual
discussion series Tuesday at
Blue Mountain Community
College, Pendleton.
Navigating the fraught
legal and political waters
falls to three panelist: Stuart
Roberts,
long-serving
Pendleton police chief; Lou
Jaffe, board member of the
nonprofi t Gun Owners For
Responsible
Ownership;
Roberts
Jaffe
and
Jerod
Broadfoot,
former hunting lobbyist and
co-founder of the Oregon
Outdoor Council.
The
numbers
vary
depending on the source,
but between 270 and 310
million guns are in private
Broadfoot
hands in the United States,
giving the nation the highest
rate of gun ownership in the
world. The American Journal
of Medicine in March 2016
published a study showing
the fi rearm death rate in the
United States was 10 times
higher than other industrial-
ized nations.
Roberts said he would
speak about fi rearm training
for police, prevailing case
law on police use of deadly
force, and Oregon gun laws in
general, such as for carrying
and transporting guns. He
said he believes there needs
to be a certain amount of gun
regulation and that someone
qualifi ed to carry a concealed
weapon may not be qualifi ed
to use a gun in a high-stress
situation.
Still, he said, he plans to
stay in the middle of the road
See GUN LAWS/10A
Mark your calendar
• Jan. 17 — “Gun Facts,
Regulations, and the
Second Amendment”
• Feb. 21 — “Cascadia
Aftermath”
• Mar. 21 — “From Field
to Froth”
• April 18 —“On with the
Show! A History of Happy
Canyon”
All lectures meet in the
BMCC Science and Tech-
nology building, Pendleton,
and begin at 7 p.m. The
cost is $6 at the door or
$20 for the entire series.
Students are free.