REGION
Friday, March 3, 2017
East Oregonian
PENDLETON
BRIEFLY
Minivan crashes into Walker’s Furniture
East Oregonian
A minivan with three passengers
crashed into Walker’s Furniture &
Mattress in Pendleton, causing damage
to the store but leaving no one injured.
Susan Struzinsky said she was
driving the Kia Sedona from South-
gate/Highway 395 so her 90-year-old
aunt could check on a delivery from
the store at 1907 S.W. Emigrant Ave.,
Pendleton. Her cousin and dog were
also in the car, she said, and they
entered the parking lot from Southwest
20th Street and drove around vehicles
parked out front.
“I went to stop the car, and it just
kept going,” she said.
The Kia clipped a nearby pickup,
went over the yellow parking barrier
and smashed into the front of Walker’s,
taking out a large window and caving
in the wall below.
Struzinsky said she and her family
were OK, though the crash was a
fright. And a Good Samaritan found
Struzinsky’s dog and brought it to her.
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Pendleton police and paramedics attend Thursday to Susan Struzinsky,
who was unharmed following this crash into Walker’s Furniture & Mattress
at 1907 S.W. Emigrant Ave., Pendleton.
PENDLETON
Oregon East Symphony to present ‘Sunrise Mass’
East Oregonian
Concert-goers can take a
metaphorical journey during
an upcoming performance of
“Sunrise Mass.”
Conductor Beau Benson
will lead the Oregon East
Symphony and Chorale —
taking listeners from the
starry Heaven to Earth, from
undifferentiated darkness to
solid, warm life, evolving
spiritually as a human, said
OES executive director J.D.
Kindle. The performance is
Saturday, March 11 at 7:30
p.m. in the Vert Auditorium,
480 S.W. Dorion Ave.,
Pendleton. Tickets are $20
for adults, $15 for students/
seniors or $45 for a family.
An orchestral chorale
work by contemporary
Norwegian composer Ola
Gjeilo, it’s a spin on the tradi-
tional Latin Mass chorale
works, Kindle said. Gjeilo
was born in Norway in 1978,
and moved to the United
States in 2001 to begin his
composition studies at the
Juilliard School in New
York City. He is currently
c o m p o s e r- i n - r e s i d e n c e
with Voces8 and DCINY.
A full-time concert music
composer based in New York
City, Gjeilo also is interested
in film, and his music often
Photo contributed by J.D. Kindle
Steve Muller, Oregon East Symphony assistant chorale conductor, leads a rehearsal
of “Sunrise Mass.” The performance is Saturday, March 11 at the Vert Auditorium in
Pendleton.
draws inspiration from
movies and cinematic music.
Additional pieces to be
performed by the sympho-
ny’s string orchestra include
Heinrich Biber’s “Battalia,”
Arvo Pärt’s “Cantus in
Memory
of
Benjamin
Britten,” Franz Schreker’s
“Intermezzo” and Antonio
Vivaldi’s “Concerto Gross
Op. 3, No. 11.”
The
Oregon
East
Symphony Chorale, with
rehearsals conducted by
assistant chorale conductor
Steve Muller, features singers
from across northeastern
Oregon and southeastern
Washington.
Participants
include Jenny Barnett,
Norman Baton, Kate Botorff,
Nika Blasser, Tammy and
Gary Burnett, Clara Burton,
Andy Cary, Beth Condon,
Marva Dawley, Kate Dimon,
Murray Dunlap, Suzi Eaton,
Chris and Gary Ferguson,
Bill Finney, Carol Guenther,
Matt Henry, Anita Herbig,
Alan Kendrick, J.D. Kindle,
Karen
Lange,
Robert
Lanman, Luz Martell, Bill
Mayclin,
Janet
Miller,
Sharon Miller, Steve and
Cathy
Muller,
George
Nelson, Denise Owen, Bob
Pfieffer, Beth Read, Aaron
Thomas, Jacob Try, Christina
van der Kamp and Chuck
Wood, with Sue Nelson as
the rehearsal accompanist.
Advance tickets are avail-
able at www.oregoneastsym-
phony.org, Pendleton Art+
Frame, 28 S.W. Court Ave.,
and the symphony office,
345 S.W. Fourth St. They
also will be sold at the door.
For more information, call
541-276-0320.
FIRE: First time the building will be staffed around the clock
Continued from 1A
station. Two paid firefighter/
paramedics and an intern
staff the station.
The building is 31 years
old, but this is the first time
it will be staffed around the
clock. It also went through
some upgrades and remodels
to make the building more
livable. A semi truck hit the
station in June 2014, and
though no one was inside the
building at the time of the
crash it hit the area where
firefighters would stay. It
took several months to repair.
The
three
district
employees staffing the
station on Thursday were
Lt. Nate Stephens, firefighter
and paramedic Dan Shult
and resident intern Hunter
Eynon.
“Before, the closest
(fully-staffed) station was
Station 21,” Gorham said,
speaking about the down-
town safety center shared
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Some renovations like installing kitchen appliances to
the living area were necessary in getting the station
ready for full-time staff.
with the police station. “You
couldn’t get any ambulance
response out of here until
yesterday.”
The station has four vehi-
cles, including a brush truck,
an interface truck, a water
tender and a medic unit.
Stephens said the district
always budgets for new
equipment,
but
didn’t
purchase any new engines or
trucks for the station yet.
“Probably a new engine is
needed next,” he said.
Gorham said the current
staff at Station 22 will stay
there for the whole year, and
in January, other firefighters
will rotate in.
The increased hours
for the station were made
possible when the Hermiston
and Stanfield departments
merged in 2016, creating the
UCFD. The consolidation of
the two districts resulted in a
combined tax rate of $1.75
per $1,000 assessed property
value for Hermiston and
Stanfield residents.
The merger is expected
to generate about $900,000,
which will go toward new
staff, replacing vehicles and
toward staffing the Punkin
Center station full-time.
UCFD Chief Scott Stanton
said he estimates about
$625,000 of the funds
generated from the merger
would go toward staffing the
station.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
Garden club
offers scholarships
PENDLETON — The
Dirt Dabblers Garden
Club is offering a $1,000
scholarship to students
attending or planning to
attend Blue Mountain
Community College during
the 2017-18 academic
year who are interested in
horticulture.
Students interested
in landscaping, botany,
birds, forestry, nurseries,
beekeeping or wildlife
are eligible to apply.
Scholarship applications
are available on the Blue
Mountain Community
College website, www.
bluecc.edu, under Local
Scholarships.
The deadline for
applications is March
30, 2017. For more
information, call Mary Jane
Peterson at 541-966-1017.
Trail riders
plan cleanup,
vaccination clinic
IRRIGON — A group
of area horse enthusiasts are
heading up a trail cleanup
at the Columbia Heritage
Trail.
The event is being held
in conjunction with a Spring
Vaccination Clinic. The
OET Vaccination Clinic is
Saturday, March 11 from
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the
Columbia River Equestrian
Center, 81900 Pleasant
View Road, Irrigon. Dr.
Don Peters will be offering
vaccinations, Coggins tests
and health certificates.
There is a $5 farm call fee.
For more information,
contact Julie Errend
at 541-314-0137 or
julieerrend@yahoo.com.
assistant manager position
he left has not been refilled
to this day, but public records
show the district’s board
voted to terminate Pelleberg
for unsatisfactory perfor-
mance. Trott also felt that
Pelleberg should have been
more forthcoming about
the fact that the institution
where his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees are from
— Breyer State University
— is an unaccredited online
company that has been
labeled a “diploma mill” by
the Alabama Community
College System.
Trott also said he was
calling the meeting to discuss
concerns about Pelleberg’s
interactions with city plan-
ning director Bill Searles,
whom Pelleberg had sent a
letter of discipline to. Trott
said he was also in contact
with citizens who had alleged
unethical behavior by some
city employees that he was
attempting to look into.
At the following city
council meeting on February
7 city councilor Mel Ray
asked for an executive
session to be added to the
end of the meeting to discuss
Trott’s performance. Trott
denied the request, saying
that the public needed prior
notice, and requested that
councilors’ concerns about
him be aired in an open
session on March 7.
Later, after receiving
emails from councilors crit-
icizing his request to have
the discussion in public,
Trott withdrew his request
for an open session. The
city also canceled a planned
Feb. 21 executive session for
Pelleberg’s annual review.
In his resignation letter
Trott criticized councilors’
suggestions that it would be
“political suicide” for the
city if the council had the
discussion about Trott in
open session.
“We,
the
collective
Council (Councilors and
Mayor) asked for the public’s
trust by electing us to office,”
he wrote. “We took an oath
to represent and serve the
public, and to uphold local,
state and federal laws. We are
not above the public, we are
here to serve the public, and I
fear that some of our Council
has either lost sight, or never
had sight, of that obligation.
We should not be ‘trans-
parent’ because it is some
word of the time, we should
be transparent because it is
the only means by which
the public knows that we are
properly conducting ‘their’
business, for the good of
‘their’ community.”
Trott said he would take
his concerns to the state
ethics commission, and his
resignation was effective
immediately.
City councilor Michael
Roxbury
declined
to
comment on Trott’s resigna-
tion and other city councilors
did not respond by Thursday
evening.
The city council meets
Tuesday at city hall at 7 p.m.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
about the event, contact
Jennifer DeBoer at
dlcjam@yahoo.com.
Free genealogy
workshop offers
help
ATHENA — Who are
your ancestors, where did
they live, how did they earn
a living?
These questions and
more may be answered as
people research their family
trees and put the pieces
together. Help is available
during a genealogy
workshop sponsored by the
Athena Public Library.
The free event will be
lead by Kayla Durfee and
Deborah Johns, who have
traced their own family
trees as well as researching
families for their church’s
history. Both women have
a keen interest in history,
said library director Carrier
Bremer.
Facilitated by Durfee
and Johns, the basic
genealogy class is Saturday,
March 11 from 9 a.m.
to noon at the Athena
Christian Church, Fifth
and Van Buren streets.
Bremer also will be on
hand to share public library
resources for people’s
family history searches.
People should bring
names and pertinent dates
(birth, death, marriage)
for siblings, parents,
grandparents and great-
grandparents. Participants
may also bring their own
laptop.
In addition to the
scheduled workshop time,
people are invited to bring
a lunch and stay after
noon for some one-on-one
assistance.
For more information,
call 541-566-2470 or
541-566-2342.
Memorial tourney
deals in poker,
EOU hosts
bingo, bunco
student writing
IONE — The Bob Baker seminar
Memorial Texas Hold ‘em
Poker, Bingo and Bunco
Fundraiser is gearing up for
its 13th year.
Formerly known as the
Ione American Legion &
Auxiliary event, fundraising
activities also include a
bake sale, a rifle raffle and
a pair of raffles for half a
beef, which are cut and
wrapped. The event is
Saturday, March 11 with the
doors opening at 5 p.m. at
the American Legion Hall,
325 W. Second St., Ione.
A sandwich and salad bar
meal is by donation from
5-7 p.m.
The poker buy-in is $40
(with re-buys until 7:30
p.m.) with sign-ups at 6
p.m. and play beginning at
6:30 p.m. Bunco runs from
5-7 p.m. and bingo is from
7-9 p.m.
Raffle tickets can be
purchased in advance at
the Ione Market, Morrow
County Grain Growers
in Ione, from American
Legion members and
auxiliary. Tickets also will
be sold at the door.
Born in Pendleton,
Baker was a lifelong Ione
resident who died in March
2014. He was a member of
the Ione American Legion
Post 95 for 43 years and
served as post commander
for 13 years.
For more information
LA GRANDE — A
conference for young
writers brings students,
teachers and parents
together to participate in
workshops.
Writers in grades three
through 12 are invited to
register for the Oregon
Writing Project’s Student
Writers’ Workshop, which
is Saturday, March 11 at
Eastern Oregon University
in La Grande. The student
cost is $30 and includes
the opening session,
workshops, lunch and an
anthology. Teachers and
chaperones attend for free.
CPDUs and graduate credit
are also available.
The session provides an
opportunity for students to
build on their enthusiasm
for creative writing,
working alongside students
and teachers for whom
writing is a passion. At the
end of the day, participant
writing is celebrated in
an open mic session and
writers can revise and
submit their work for
inclusion in an anthology.
For more information or
to register, contact Nancy
Knowles, professor of
English/writing, at 541-962-
3795, nknowles@eou.
edu or visit www.eou.edu/
engwrite/student-writers-
workshop.
MULTI-MEDIA SALES
Great work environment.
Super awesome team.
Good pay. Retirement plan.
Weekends off. Interested?
TROTT: Said he will take his concerns to the state ethics commission
Continued from 1A
Page 3A
East Oregonian has an
opening for multi-media sales.
No multi-media experience?
That’s fine, as long as you
understand the importance
of customer service, working
hard and a desire to
enjoy your job.
Could this be you?
Send resume and letter of
interest to
EO Media Group
PO Box 2048
Salem, OR 97308-2048
by fax to 503-371-2935 or
e-mail hr@eomediagroup.com
Base wage plus commissions,
benefits and mileage
reimbursement. Benefits
include Paid Time Off (PTO),
insurances and a 401(k)/Roth
401(k) retirement plan.