SESSIONS STEPS
ASIDE FROM
RUSSIA PROBE
2A STATE
CHAMPIONSHIP
COVERAGE
NATION/10A
SPORTS/1B
FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2017
141st Year, No. 99
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Your Weekend
Maroon 5 to headline Whisky Fest
•
•
•
Battle of the Bars at
the Let ’er Buck Room
“Fiddler on the Roof” at
Hermiston High School
“Joseph & the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat”
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Catch a movie
Tickets for July concert
go on sale March 10
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
In it’s inaugural year, Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest was a little bit country. This
year, it’s a little bit rock ’n’ roll.
The organizers announced this week that
Maroon 5 will headline the festival, and it’s
not diffi cult to see why. One only has to
look at the numbers.
• More than 20 million albums and 70
million singles sold worldwide
• Five singles that have been in the top
Ben Rothstein/Twentieth Century Fox via AP
fi ve of the Billboard Hot 100 charts
• Three Grammy Awards, three Amer-
ican Music Awards, four Billboard Music
Awards, and four Teen Choice Awards
• More than 39 million likes on Facebook
and 13.8 million followers on Twitter
• More than 1.8 billion views on the
band’s 2015 music video “Sugar”
“That’s billion with a b,” co-organizer
Doug Corey said.
Corey and co-organizer Andy McAnally
said Maroon 5 will headline the second-year
concert at the Pendleton Round-Up grounds
on July 15.
Another number that matters to the orga-
nizers is the approximately 12,000 tickets
See PENDLETON/10A
Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Adam Levine from Maroon 5 performs on NBC’s
“Today” show on June 25, 2014 in New York.
HERMISTON
Featuring Hugh Jackman’s
fi nal turn as Wolverine,
“Logan” is a gritty, R-rated
take on the clawed mutant.
For showtime, Page 5A
For review, Weekend EO
UMATILLA
Trott
resigns
as mayor
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
51/35
45/31
45/30
Federal
agency
kills wolf
in Wallowa
County
Incident deemed
unintentional
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture on Feb. 26 inad-
vertently killed a gray wolf
from the Shamrock Pack in
Wallowa County.
The wolf died after
coming across what’s known
as an M-44, a spring-acti-
vated device that releases
cyanide powder to poison
target animals. In this case,
USDA Wildlife Services
was using the device to kill
coyotes on private land to
reduce confl icts with live-
stock.
M-44s are triggered when
canids such as wolves or
See WOLF/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Shoppers Cathy Michael, center, and Marilyn Gardner, right, talk with shop owner Brandi Howard
about shoe styles while shopping at Andee’s Boutique on Thursday in Hermiston.
Re-store downtown
Action groups looking to give Main Street a jump start
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
If Main Street is considered the heart of a
community, then Hermiston is rolling up its
sleeves and preparing for some CPR.
Downtown stakeholders met this week to
form fi ve action groups ready to tackle chal-
lenges they feel Hermiston’s downtown district
faces.
“Hermiston has a lot of potential, but there is
defi nitely some room to take some action,” Main
Street coordinator Emma Porricolo said.
Porricolo, who is partway through a year-long
stint as a RARE (Resource Assistance for Rural
Environments) student for the city of Hermiston,
told the group that interviews with downtown
business owners, managers and property owners
See DOWNTOWN/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston downtown stakeholders are attempting
to tackle challenges confronting Main Street, like
enticing more retail and restaurant businesses.
Umatilla Mayor David Trott
has resigned, citing irreconcilable
differences with the city council.
Trott has been at odds with
other city leaders since January,
when
he
called
a
special exec-
utive session
to
discuss
the perfor-
mance
of
city manager
R u s s
Pelleberg
and the city
c o u n c i l Trott
chose
to
take no action on his concerns.
In a lengthy resignation email
sent to the council Wednesday
night, Trott accused the council
of putting “its collective head
in the sand” and trying to quash
any public discussion of problems
Umatilla faces.
“Attitudes like this show a
disdain and lack of respect for the
public that the Mayor and Council
represent,” he wrote. “Our
‘public’ are not going to shrivel
and melt away because of an
open and honest public discourse
between the Mayor and Council.”
The council met in executive
session on Jan. 25 at the request of
Trott. Trott told the East Orego-
nian before the meeting that he
felt Pelleberg had lied on his job
application when he fi rst applied
to work for the city as public
works director in 2013.
Pelleberg wrote that his
reason for leaving Columbia
Irrigation District in 2012 was
“elimination of position.” The
See TROTT/3A
HERMISTON
Fire station opening
extends coverage east
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County Fire District 1 now has full-time staffi ng at its Fire
Station 22 at the intersection of E. Punkin Center and Diagonal
Road east of Hermiston.
Firefi ghters spent the fi rst
full-day shift Wednesday at Fire
Station 22 setting up the building
and getting systems up and running.
It was a quiet day, but signifi cant
as the station at the intersection of E.
Punkin Center and Diagonal Road
moves into 24/7 mode.
“The station will provide service
to a lot of people,” said Umatilla
County Fire District 1 battalion
chief Corey Gorham, looking at a
map of the district’s service area.
“The majority of the population in
rural areas are out this way.”
The station is northeast of town,
about halfway between the down-
town fi re station and Hat Rock State
Park.
Gorham said the district hired
six new fi refi ghter/paramedics in
order to meet the increased staffi ng
needs that will come with the 24/7
See FIRE/3A