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East Oregonian
BRIDGE: Project has
already raised $70K
Continued from 1A
The group convinced
Union Pacific Railroad Co.,
which owns much of the land
on the block, to demolish
the dilapidated Webb’s Cold
Storage building.
The Pendleton Enhance-
ment Project has been
interested in creating a plaza
and food hub in the area
surrounding the railroad
tracks, in addition to using
the historic Eighth Street
bridge as a decorative
feature.
Time is of the essence for
the city government, which
needs to mitigate or re-pur-
pose the existing bridge to
replace it as a part of a $7.42
million project.
The city received a federal
grant that covers much of the
project and needs to sign an
agreement with the Federal
Highway
Administration
and the Oregon Department
of Transportation before
proceeding with bidding out
the project.
But because the bridge is
considered historic, the city
needs to provide the highway
administration with a plan
for the its re-use before the
project can proceed.
In a report to the city
council,
public
works
director Bob Patterson
recommended the council
support the Eighth Street
Bridge relocation. If the
council voted to support
the project, Patterson said
he would return with a
resolution on how to grant
the bridge to the Pendleton
Enhancement Project and
the Pendleton Downtown
Association, a nonprofit that
will act as the Pendleton
Enhancement
Project’s
fiscal agent.
The Pendleton Enhance-
ment Project estimated that
re-purposing the bridge
would
cost
$102,000,
Patterson wrote, and the
organization still needs
approval from Union Pacific
to locate the bridge on its
property.
The Pendleton Enhance-
ment Project has already
raised $70,000 from private
donors and Umatilla County
and is asking for another
$20,000 from the Pendleton
Development Commission.
One of the leaders of the
Pendleton
Enhancement
Project, Chuck Wood, is a
former commission chair
and Pendleton city coun-
cilor.
Besides ODOT deeming
the current bridge struc-
turally deficient, the city is
replacing the Eighth Street
Bridge with hopes that it
will spur development and
expansion to the north.
The council will also
consider
other
issues,
including:
• City staff have secured
a $14.9 million loan from
the state for drinking water
infrastructure, but they need
approval from city council
to seal the deal.
Staff leveraged the city’s
water utility increase to
TWO
HOURS
every
morning
paid off
my credit
card debt.
Become an
East Oregonian
Carrier.
211 SE Byers Ave.
Pendleton
or call:
541-276-2211
1-800-522-0255
secure the loan, which will
be used for a variety of
water system repairs and
replacement across the city.
• To accommodate the
Pendleton Unmanned Aerial
Systems Range, the council
will consider buying back an
airport building the city sold
12 years ago.
According to a report
from city manager Robb
Corbett, the city sold the
1906 N.W. 56th Drive
building to Community
Bank for use as a check and
debit card processing center
in 2005.
The city now wants to use
$395,000 from a state grant
package to buy the building
and turn it into a range
control facility that drone
companies can rent.
Corbett wrote that the
prospective control facility
already has a $88,000
commitment from a UAS
business and expects more in
the future. Once completed,
the new facility would also
become the offices for range
manager Darryl Abling.
• The council will also
decide whether a specific
property is a nuisance or not.
City attorney Nancy
Kerns wrote to the council
that the owners of a property
at 1521 S.E. Alexander
Place were cited March 8 for
violating the nuisance ordi-
nance by keeping several
unlicensed and inoperable
vehicles, car parts and other
solid waste on his property.
The
owner,
John
Sullivan, filed a protest with
the council over the city’s
determination that his prop-
erty is a nuisance.
Kerns recommends the
council find the Sullivan’s
property a nuisance, direct
him to abate it or have the
city abate the property if he
doesn’t do it himself.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
WIND: Winners have opportunity to compete nationally
Continued from 1A
of hours after school to the
project.
Loli’s mother, Betty
Jarrette, said her son even
forsook athletics to build the
turbine.
“Once he’s dedicated
himself to something, he’s
going 100 percent for it,”
she said.
Team
Donovon,
a
group of five high school
juniors and seniors, had a
worrisome moment when
its turbine crashed after the
wind started. Team leader
Donovon Carmack rebuilt
the fan, and the team went
to the duct tape to keep the
turbine in place. The second
time was a success.
Martin Chavez, a junior,
said he and his two partners
put in about 24 hours to
make their turbine and saw
how it worked with a box
fan, but the wind tunnel was
a big difference. The duct
tape, he said, was pretty
important.
Students connected their
turbines to a computer
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Jon Roschke with the KidWind Project speaks with
Martin Chavez, a junior at Riverside Junior/Senior
High School, Boardman, while Chavez tests his wind
turbine Saturday during the KidWind Challenge at
the school.
system that read their power
output in milliwatts and
displayed that on a large
screen. Unofficial results
pegged Chavez’s turbine as
the biggest power producer.
A pair of wind turbine engi-
neers also were on hand to
meet with teams after their
tunnel trials to provide feed-
back and tips on improving
designs and performance.
Jon Roschke of Portland
is regional director for the
KidWind Project. He led
a workshop in January to
kickoff the challenge. He
said winning teams have the
opportunity to compete at a
national event and industry
trade show in Anaheim,
California. Last year’s was
in New Orleans and drew 53
teams.
While that’s exciting,
Roschke said, the KidWind
Challenge
is
about
providing real-world educa-
tion in science, technology,
engineering and mathe-
matics. Students learn, for
example, that while the
power the turbines produce
is immediate, delivering that
as energy is another matter.
This was the first
KidWind
event
in
Boardman, Roschke said,
and credited local sponsors
Avangrid and EDP Renew-
ables for making the whole
thing possible. He added
challenges have been going
in some northwest commu-
nities for years, including in
Ellensburg, Washington, and
in Newport, which branched
out to cover other forms of
renewable energy. He said
his goal is to broaden the
event to include teams from
Irrigon and Hermiston.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
BILL: Several other states have similar laws or legislation
Continued from 1A
stations are concerned about
the unusually broad nature of
Senate Bill 248, particularly
the recently released …
amendments and that they
may adversely impact the
public’s right to know, partic-
ularly if that person involved
is a public trustee.”
The legislation would
allow prosecutors to use
pseudonyms for sex crime
victims
and
witnesses
during grand jury indictment
proceedings. Once a suspect
was arraigned, the defen-
dant’s attorney would receive
the names of the victims and
witnesses, but those names
would still be sealed from
public records.
“All this bill would do is
protect victims’ names from
public record, associates and
family members in case after
case that I see where family
members and associates
intimidate victims and try to
prevent them from coming
to court, knowing that their
testimony is key, especially
in sexual assault crimes,”
said JR Ujifusa, deputy
district attorney with Mult-
nomah County, who spoke
on behalf of Oregon District
Attorneys Association
Several other states,
including Minnesota, New
Jersey, Maine and Texas,
have similar laws or legisla-
tion, Ujifusa said.
This bill would provide
the same information to the
defense as they receive now,
but that information would
come several days later at the
time of arraignment, he said.
The Oregon legislation
is unique in that it shields
the names of witnesses
and not just victims, said
Gail Meyer of the Oregon
Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association.
“I don’t know of any
other state law — I haven’t
seen one — that would allow
for secrecy in respect to the
witnesses who testify before
the grand jury,” Meyer
testified.
Grand jury proceedings
already are shrouded in
secrecy. Testimony is not
required to be recorded,
though SB248 in the Senate
Judiciary Committee would
change that.
“We don’t have a clue
of what goes on in a grand
jury except by the name of
the witnesses that appear
on the indictment,” Meyer
said. “That is our only clue.
The clue is a big one for us
because it can tell us how
broad and how narrow of
a focus the government is
making out of the allega-
tions.”
Meyer and several private
investigators gave examples
of sex crime cases in which
the name of the accuser
helped investigators to find
information that exonerated
the defendant.
“By enshrining the details
of an indictment from public
view in other cases, severely
impacts the ability of the
defense to marshal and get
going on other facts as they
might be disclosed,” Meyer
said.
The bill is sponsored
by Sen. Kathleen Taylor,
D-Portland, and Rep. John
Huffman, R-The Dalles, and
came out of a work group on
victim safety.