TRUMP WANTS
TO INCREASE
NASA BUDGET
55/35
SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE:
SPRING
SPORTS
PREVIEW
NATION/7A
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017
141st Year, No. 112
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
EASTERN OREGON TRADE AND EVENT CENTER
Manager wanted, salary still in question
Fair, rodeo leases signed and competing event dates blacked out
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center’s partners agree the
project needs a manager, but they
are still working out the details on
who that will be and how much they
will be paid.
“It’s got to be boots on the ground
on a day-to-day basis,” Umatilla
County commissioner Larry Givens
said. “It can’t be someone who just
knows marketing or just knows
construction or just knows fair and
rodeo.”
During a joint work session
Monday the Hermiston City
Council and the Umatilla County
commissioners discussed the
operations plan proposed by the
EOTEC board.
The plan calls for a general
manager to oversee an adminis-
trative assistant and contracted
janitorial/maintenance
services,
while also managing the budget,
overseeing day-to-day operations,
booking events and creating and
implementing a marketing plan.
The manager would report to the
EOTEC board, which would adopt
the budget and general policies,
while the city council and county
commissioners would appoint
board members and approve funds.
City councilors said they agreed
with the overall structure but wanted
to see some dollar fi gures attached.
City manager Byron Smith, who
also chairs the EOTEC board, said
after some early calculations he
believes that budget can support a
$60,000 to $75,000 salary for the
general manager.
The position will only oversee
one or two employees, but mayor
David Drotzmann and councilor
John Kirwan questioned whether
See EOTEC/8A
PENDLETON
City council
buys in for
bridge move
Enhancement group aims to
gather $102,000 for project
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Congressman Greg Walden looks at medical supplies while on a tour of the new St. Anthony Hospital with project man-
ager Joe Kunkel in Pendleton in Nov. 2013.
Walden uses clout to tout
Obamacare replacement
Congressman’s district expands Medicare
more than other Republican districts
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
For Rep. Greg Walden,
these are heady times.
The new chairman
of the powerful House
Energy and Commerce
Committee helped unveil
a federal health care
plan to the nation at a
news conference earlier
this month. The Oregon
lawmaker addressed a
Participants in a
Hood River rally
in favor of the
Affordable Care
Act stood for
an hour Sun-
day, January 15
and listened to
testimonials.
crowd of reporters about
the proposed unraveling of
former President Barack
Obama’s Affordable Care
Act. Walden didn’t mince
words in describing the
GOP mission.
“Facts are, we’ve
arrived at the scene of
a pretty big wreck and
we’re trying to clean up
the mess,” he said. “If we
Photo by Kirby
Neumann-Rea,
Hood River News
See WALDEN/8A
The Pendleton City Council was won
over by the PEP squad.
At a meeting Tuesday, the council
unanimously agreed to support the Pend-
leton Enhancement Project in its efforts
to re-use parts of the Eighth Street Bridge
as a decorative feature of the 500 block
of South Main Street. Acting as the Pend-
leton Development Commission, council
members also unanimously approved a
$20,000 request from the group to help
fund moving the bridge.
Chuck Wood, a former city councilor,
commission chair and a current leader
with the Pendleton Enhancement Project,
said the community organization is on
its way toward raising the estimated
$102,000 needed for the move.
The Pendleton Enhancement Project,
a group of local government offi cials and
nonprofi ts, has secured $20,000 from
Umatilla County and a $50,000 matching
grant from private donors.
Wood said the group is still negoti-
ating with Union Pacifi c Railroad Co.,
which owns much of the land in the area,
on where to place the bridge trusses.
Plans have included placing some of the
trusses by the railroad tracks and pairing
them with a fence to prevent pedestrians
from crossing the tracks outside of the
sidewalk.
If the Pendleton Enhancement Project
can’t raise all the money for relocation
costs or Union Pacifi c nixes the idea,
public works director Bob Patterson said
the historic bridge would be placed in
storage.
Patterson said the Federal Highway
Administration requires some sort of
re-use or mitigation plan so the city can
proceed with a long-planned replacement
project.
The council also unanimously
approved a $14.9 million loan from the
state to improve and replace the city’s
See PENDLETON/8A
Joseph Creek restoration
to use logging, burning
First major project
by Blue Mountains
Restoration team
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Accelerated
restoration
is coming to the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest,
including an increase in
logging and burning.
The U.S. Forest Service
has approved a massive
proposal to treat more than
100,000 acres on the Wallowa
Valley Ranger District north of
Enterprise, part of a broader
regional effort to increase the
pace and scale of forest resto-
ration across Eastern Oregon
and Washington.
Tom Montoya, supervisor
for the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest, signed a
record of decision for the
Lower Joseph Creek Resto-
ration Project on Friday.
Activities will include more
than 16,500 acres of commer-
cial logging and fuels reduc-
tion, and up to 90,000 acres
of prescribed burning over the
next decade.
It is the fi rst major project
to be completed by the Blue
Mountains
Restoration
See CREEK/8A
Photo contributed by U.S. Forest Service
Swamp Creek, a tributary of Joseph Creek, fl ows through Wallowa County and
will be subject to the Lower Joseph Creek Restoration Project.