Saturday, January 28, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
Health care signup deadline is Jan. 31 FUNDS: County created an online
Page 10A
East Oregonian
(AP) — The future of
the Affordable Care Act is
unclear, stirring up financial
and medical concerns for
many consumers. It leaves
some to wonder, What now?
Experts say the best thing
to do is to focus on the here
and now — including the
Jan. 31 deadline to sign up.
About 11.5 million people
nationally had signed up for
coverage through the ACA’s
public exchanges as of the
end of December. President
Donald Trump has vowed to
repeal it, but lawmakers have
yet to reach an agreement on
a replacement.
“What we have seen,
certainly following the elec-
tion but it continues today,
is uncertainty,” said Jennifer
Sullivan, vice president of
programs at Enroll America.
“The truth is no one knows
how the law will fare this
year, the uncertainty is
warranted.”
The process to repeal or
replace the law could take
time, but a health emergency
could hit at any time. And
without insurance, it could
be financially disastrous.
So if you don’t have
health insurance, consider
signing up.
The final deadline to
access coverage through
ACA is Tuesday. If you
sign up by then, you’ll can
get coverage by March
for the remainder of 2017
and avoid a tax penalty for
being uninsured. If you are
in a state that has expanded
Medicaid under the law and
you qualify for that, you can
sign up at any time.
Special
enrollment
periods are still available after
the deadline, which allows
people to adjust coverage if
they are going through life-
changing circumstances such
as marriage, divorce, loss of
a job or the birth of a child.
“It’s still the law, so it’s
in your best interest to have
insurance,” said Elizabeth
Colvin, program director
for Insure Central Texas.
“People think something has
happened, but the Affordable
Care Act is still the law.”
Colvin said all signs
suggest a lengthy transition.
Though people may worry
that their coverage may
be yanked away, she notes
that these health insurance
policies are legal contracts
that guarantee coverage for
the year and are unlikely to
be challenged.
So should you bother
to enroll? Absolutely. Visit
healthcare.gov to find out
how to sign up and where to
get help.
SAGE: Cost $8.2 million to build
Continued from 1A
Davis said, due to food safety
and security regulations. The
SAGE Center is a way for
them to better understand
how farm and energy tech-
nology works.
“I think it’s fascinating for
people to learn how far things
have come over the last
hundred years,” Davis said.
The SAGE Center oper-
ates with the backing and
support of the Port of Morrow,
Oregon’s second-largest port,
with approximately 50 busi-
nesses generating more than
$100 million in tax revenue
for the state.
Gary
Neal,
general
manager at the port, initially
wanted to create a museum in
2001 after Tillamook Cheese
opened a new cheese-making
plant in Boardman but did not
include a visitor center like
the one it has in Tillamook.
Instead, Neal thought the
port could shine a spotlight
on all the natural resource-
based industries it serves,
from making cheese and
potato chips to electricity and
ethanol.
“These are some of the
most sophisticated operations
in the world here,” Neal said.
“We need to tell that story.”
Early designs for the
SAGE Center called for
a
10,000-square-foot
box-shaped building, though
the final building would be
three times as large with a
silo-themed exterior, movie
theater and additional confer-
ence space.
The SAGE Center opened
June 1, 2013, and cost $8.2
million to build. Roughly
$3.7 million in funding came
from the state grant $4.5
million from by the port.
“We think it’s a first-class
facility,” Neal said. “We’re
pretty proud of it.”
Over the last three fiscal
years, Neal said the port has
continued to cover between
$400,000 and $600,000 per
year in operating costs at the
center. However, with a $40
million capital budget, he said
the port is happy to continue
supporting the center.
“We didn’t get into this
lightly,” Neal said. “It’s not a
routine thing that we do, but
it’s something important that
we felt we needed to do.”
Neal said the SAGE
Center was never intended to
be a self-supporting facility.
Education, not money, is the
goal, and he feels they are
doing a good job at the center.
Others at the port and
around the region agree.
Debbie
Radie,
vice
president of operations for
Boardman Foods — an
onion processor that employs
175 people — said many
of their customers have a
specific interest in sustain-
able farming and energy
efficiency.
The SAGE Center is a
place where Radie said she
can bring customers to learn
about how those farming
practices work.
“Sometimes people are
misinformed and not under-
standing how sustainable
the water use is here,” Radie
said. “I think the SAGE
Center showcases that well.”
Radie said employees
at Boardman Foods also
appreciate being able to bring
their kids and families to the
SAGE Center for movie
nights or activities.
“That just helps support
a way of life that people
enjoy,” she said.
James Bradshaw, director
of the energy systems tech-
nology program at Walla
Walla Community College,
said he brings 30-40 students
every year to the Agriculture
and Energy Job Fair, where
they can network with
about 30 different potential
employers.
“The Boardman area has
a lot of opportunities for
our students to get jobs,”
Bradshaw said. “There’s
just a lot of synergy going
on in Boardman with agri-
culture and energy, and with
what we’re trying to train
our students here in Walla
Walla.”
Neal said the SAGE
Center may also help local
high schoolers stay in the
region after school, knowing
they have family-wage jobs
in their own back yard. That
will only improve, he said,
with the completion of the
Blue Mountain Community
College Workforce Training
Center next winter, just across
from the SAGE Center.
“We look at this as long-
term messaging,” Neal said.
Gaining visitors will
require constant effort, but
after organizing 168 events at
the SAGE Center a year ago,
Davis said there is plenty of
potential to bring people into
the region.
“I think the SAGE Center
is a great starting point for
that,” Davis said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
STANDOFF: Abernathy told police three times
he was prepared to leave the room and surrender
Continued from 1A
be heard handling a gun and
threatening to shoot.
A negotiator was able to
calm Abernathy down and
eventually granted his request
to talk to police on the land-
line while simultaneously
calling family members and
friends on the cell phone.
Roberts said the ensuing
hours were spent listening
to Abernathy talk with his
family on speaker phone
as they urged him against
hurting anyone or himself.
Although conversations
with some of the non-family
members he called would
sometimes agitate him, he
told police three times that
he was prepared to leave the
room and surrender, even
going as far as to request that
he be allowed to smoke one
last cigarette before being
taken away.
Although authorities were
optimistic they could detain
him peacefully, Abernathy
never left the room.
A few minutes after 8
p.m., the negotiator heard the
sound of a muffled shot.
Police used a detonation
cord, an explosive wrapped
in a plastic coat that sends out
a detonating wave, to blow
the door off its hinges. They
found Abernathy’s body
inside, dead of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound. Abernathy
was 33.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
grant application to request funds
Continued from 1A
and community develop-
ment. Elfering took the helm
of the development depart-
ment almost two years ago,
after the full-time economic
development directer retired.
Elfering said the days of
easy handouts are over.
“The modus operandi
previously before I really
stepped in on it was that, by
golly, if Athena had a steak
fry, call up the county and
get some promotion money,”
he said. “My philosophy
was that we needed to grow
taxpayers.”
Rather than banners,
parades and the like, he
said, the money should go
to projects with lasting value
that could lead to jobs or
add property to the county
tax rolls. The county since
mid-2015 provided $20,000
to expand offices at Oregon
State University’s Hermiston
Agricultural Research &
Extension Center, $5,000 to
Athena for a city swimming
pool project, and $10,000
for an exhibit on wheat at
Heritage Station Museum,
Pendleton.
“We don’t want to fritter
the money away,” Elfering
said.
Michelle Kane, a Girl
Scouts volunteer helps
organize Hermiston’s Me
and My Prince Ball, said
the money they receive
from the county helps the
event operate. While its not
a make-or-break donation, it
helps keeps the price down
for those who participate.
“Every little bit that we
get for our event helps,” she
said.
The county created an
online grant application to
request funds, and Elfering
set up a committee to review
those each quarter. Elfering
serves on the committee,
along with county planner
Tamra Mabbott, county
financial director Robert
Pahl and Susan Bower, who
contracts with the county to
provide employee training
and development.
“I look at this as investment money. If
we invest it right, it will bring a return
to the communities and to the county.”
— Bill Elfering, Umatilla County commissioner
The county does not
inspect or audit projects that
it funds, but Elfering said
recipients provide updates
and report results. The level
of detail in those reports
varies depending on the
project.
The county funded
more than $28,000 in local
tourism efforts, including
several hundred for radio ads
promoting local events and
a $10,000 chunk to Travel
Pendleton, the tourism arm
of the Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce, to advertise the
Round-Up City to the hipster
set in Seattle and Portland.
Chamber director Gail
Nelson said it’s difficult to
track how well the adver-
tising reached the target
audience, but the county
funding was beneficial to
“moving the needle” when
it comes to Pendleton and
tourism.
“We think it was good
value of their tourism dollars
being spent because, I think,
you can argue no one else
was out there promoting
Pendleton,” Nelson said.
Smaller
communities
also have legitimate tourism
draws worthy of promotion,
she said, such as the Athena
Caledonian Games and the
Echo car show. Backing
only new tourism attempts,
Nelson said, would be short-
sighted.
She also said she was
concerned how the county’s
shift in economic and
community
development
spending
could
affect
smaller chambers. The
Pendleton chamber’s size
insulates it against losing
county sponsorship of the
big annual banquet, she said,
but smaller chambers could
suffer.
“They’re the ones that
really depend on the county
being a sponsor,” Nelson
said.
The East Oregonian tried
to reach some of the smaller
chambers for comments,
including Athena’s, but was
not able to talk to anyone.
Elfering stressed funding
tourism is a county priority
“because tourism turns into
dollars in the till, and dollars
in the till create job.”
That’s also why, he said,
the county is backing the
drone range at the airport in
Pendleton and the Pendleton
Downtown
Association.
Both received $10,000 from
the county.
But, he said, the grants
are not funding a project’s
total cost nor an organiza-
tion’s operations.
“We can help, that’s the
key,” he said. “We can help,
we can’t do it all for them.”
The county also continues
to pump a few thousand
economic dollars each year
to “bump” prices of youth
livestock sales. Elfering said
the county will continue that
support.
The biggest ask and give
since 2015 was $30,000 for
a radar installation at the
drone range. That project fell
through, and the money is
back again in county coffers.
Elfering also said the
county is not required to
spend all of the state funds
each year and is building
up a war chest in case a
big project needs helps,
such as a housing project
or an agriculture science
facility for large animals at
Blue Mountain Community
College.
“I look at this as invest-
ment money,” he said. “If we
invest it right, it will bring a
return to the communities
and to the county.”
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Paid Advertisement
Rogers Toyota of Hermiston
1550 N. First Street, Hermiston, OR 97838
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Residents of Hermiston and Surrounding Area:
2017 is upon us and we would like to extend a thank you to all the
customers that have chose to do business with Rogers Toyota of
Hermiston and helped us reach a record breaking sales goal in 2016.
Due to the success of 2016, Toyota has provided us with an additional
allotment of New Toyotas. We currently have over 130 new Toyotas in
stock. We thought the best thing we could do is offer our customers
all of our in stock inventory at EMPLOYEE PRICING + $1.00. This is
the biggest and best savings that we can offer - couple that with great
incentives from Toyota, and great interest rates from our local credit
unions and banks, and you will truly see there has never been a better
time to buy.
EVERY NEW AND PRE-OWNED
VEHICLE IN INVENTORY WILL BE
PRICED AT WHAT EMPLOYEES PAY
+ $1.00
Furthermore, with the success of 2016 we have obtained a great
selection of quality local trade-ins. Currently we have over 80 pre-
owned vehicles in stock. We have cars, trucks and SUV’s of every
manufacturer; not Just Toyotas. These quality local trade-ins will be
priced at EMPLOYEE PRICING + $1.00 as well. Vehicles starting as low
as $5,999.***
• No Payments until up to 90 Days *
• Top Dollar for Trades
• Appraiser On-Site
• Extended Special Financing and Terms for this Event
with Top Banks
• 0% Financing on 10 New Models *
• Rebates up to $3,000 **
oyota of Hermiston
• New 2017 Camry LE: $199/mo • $0 Down! **
• College Grads get an additional $750 Rebate
on Select Models ****
*Not valid with any other offers. In-stock vehicles only. No Payments until February 2017 for Tier 1-3 New Toyota buyers up
to 60 months. On approved credit through Toyota Financial Services.
**Stk#17t025. Sale Price $21,588. Rebate $1,500. $0 Cash down. Residual $13,779. 36 months $199.19 mo. 12,000 miles
a year. Does not include tax, title or $75 doc fee.
**$3,000 rebate based on in-stock Toyota Avalon Models.
***2007 Honda Civic. Stk# 17th132c.
****College Graduate Finance Program is valid on the lease or finance (including preferred option) of select new untitled
Toyota models or on Toyota Certified Used Vehicles. College Graduate Rebate is only available on new untitled Toyota
Camry GAS (excl. Hybrid), Corolla, Prius c, RAV4 (Gas only), Tacoma and Yaris vehicles. (TCUVs are not eligible for the
Rebate Program). The College Graduate Rebate Program and College Graduate Finance Program are available upon
credit approval from and execution of a finance or lease contract through a participating Toyota dealer and Toyota Financial
Services (TFS). Not all applicants will qualify. See store for details.
For questions or more information go to
toyotaofhermiston.com or call 541-567-6461