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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2017)
Page 8A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian STANFIELD: Needs to find sources of additional revenue Continued from 1A “responsive government” to something more broad about being development-friendly, change “cultural opportuni- ties” to language about being inclusive, and add a phrase about being a safe commu- nity. With that in mind, coun- cilors and city staff began bringing up ideas for goals. Public Works Councilor Jason Sperr said he would like to see more things to do at city parks, such as adding a play- ground or disc golf course. “I like the park down here, but there’s not really much to do,” he said. Councilors also liked the idea of pursuing a bike path between Feedville Road and the Pilot service station, and getting more sidewalks installed to make the community more pedes- trian-friendly. They also focused on historical preservation. They agreed the old water tower north of Coe Avenue, while unused, was still a unique feature they would like to see preserved as a landmark for years to come. Right now city hall, the public works shop, police station, public library and council chambers are spread across multiple facilities. Library director Cecily Longhorn said she would like to see city hall moved from prime commercial real estate on Main Street into one of the city’s remaining historical buildings, with room to combine services. “It’s a good goal to have it all in one building,” Larsen agreed. “It’s definitely a long-term goal, and not anything we will achieve Staff photo by E.J. Harris Consolidation of the city’s numerous facilities was also a point of discussion at the city council meeting Tuesday in Stanfield. very soon, but I think we should have it on our radar.” For the library, Sperr and public works director Scott Morris said the “awful” lighting needed to be replaced, as well as the worn carpet, and mayor Thomas McCann said he would like to see the library open for more hours. Administration To achieve goals like new lighting in the library, the city must come up with the funds to do so. Longhorn said her budget is so tight that something like new carpet or lighting is out of reach without a grant or money from the city general fund. McCann said he wanted to see city staff actively exploring new financial options. “We need to continue to research sources of addi- tional revenue,” he said. Some sources of revenue discussed included grants, fundraisers, raising fran- chise fees on companies, increasing citizen fees like the public safety fee or looking at bonds or levies. New councilor Susan Whelan said she wanted to see staffing at city hall realigned to have someone focused on economic outreach and development so the city could possibly gain revenue through growth. Larsen said one of Stan- field’s biggest challenges was the difficulty of competing with Hermiston for housing and business development, but one thing Stanfield has that Hermiston doesn’t is an interchange on Interstate 84 where businesses like restau- rants could lure travelers into stopping. “We need to capitalize on that,” he said, noting it was a goal of his to expand the city’s urban growth boundary all the way to the interchange. Other administrative goals discussed included doing more longterm financial forecasting instead of just looking at the budget year to year, doing wage studies to see if the city is staying competitive in its hiring and having metrics to measure each department’s successes and areas of weakness. Police Department On Tuesday the council also discussed goals for the police department. Police chief Bryon Zumwalt said both Stanfield and Echo school districts had expressed interest in helping fund a “community resource officer” that would spend time in the schools with students. He said Stanfield’s current code enforcement officer has a full-time job in Hermiston and thus spends limited time doing code enforcement in Stanfield. The hope would be to turn her position into more of a full-time opportunity where she would spend part of her time in the schools and then increase her time spent on code enforcement. “She’d be used every- where, to fill in the holes,” he said. Councilors expressed a desire to see more positive public relations for the police department after it gained a “black eye” for the city with an Oregon Department of Justice investigation into department members in 2015. Zumwalt said since then the department has been in a “rebuilding phase” and is doing much better. Larsen suggested police participation in community events like National Night Out could help build relation- ships and a positive image for the department. He said the police committee had also suggested goals for making police salaries more compet- itive with surrounding agen- cies and creating a regular replacement schedule for equipment and vehicles. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. PENDLETON: Rivoli project could be complete in 2021 Continued from 1A County contributed $7,500 from economic and community development for the work, and Picken said another $12,000 came from a state grant. The rest — roughly 86 percent — came from individuals and foundations. More grant funds could be on the way, thanks to the relationship with the Pendleton Downtown Asso- ciation, a nonprofit member organization for downtown merchants. Molly Turner, the asso- ciation’s program manager, said she and Picken put in hours of hard work on an application for a $100,000 Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant. Only official Oregon Main Street organizations can apply, she said, and the downtown association is one. “It’s a very competitive process,” she said. “There’s 45 applicants.” The application was due March 17, and Turner said they will hear back in May about the outcome. Picken said if the money comes through, the Rivoli project will be in good shape to proceed with demolition this summer and kick off the first of three construction phases. He estimated the whole Rivoli project could wrap up in 2021. As he told the county board, the limiting factor used to be belief in the project, and now it’s cold, hard cash — a solvable problem. As an example, Picken brought up in an interview a recent success of the Pendleton Downtown Association. Jill and Mike Thorne, Pendleton wheat farmers who have long been active in local politics and community, promised to give $50,000 to the down- town association if it could raise an equal match. Picken said Fred Bradbury, the PDA’s president, took that on and got it done. The revitalization efforts come from the people who live here, Picken said, and they build on each other. The money can come from far and wide, and suggestions and input from outside the community, but the people who are going to help Pendleton live in town. Given that the Rivoli restoration is a multi-million dollar undertaking, Picken said the only feasible way the project could get done is through a local nonprofit. Without the political pressures of a public body or the profit concerns of a private company, Picken said the Rivoli coalition has greater flexibility to achieve its goal. Pendleton Enhancement Project The Pendleton Enhance- ment Project is traveling in many of the same circles as the Rivoli coalition. In its quest to move the historic Eighth Street Bridge from its current location to South Main Street, the enhancement project has secured funding from Umatilla County and the Pendleton Development Commission. The group is comprised of about 30 local government March 25th 7PM No Cover officials and nonprofits, but the enhancement project has a core group of five leaders — Fred Bradbury, George Murdock, the chairman of the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners, Chuck Wood, a former Pendleton city councilor and chairman of the development commis- sion, Charles Denight, associate director of the development commission and Paula Hall, CEO of the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon. Having come together in support of demolishing the old Webb’s Cold Storage building, the enhancement project is now focusing on making civic improvements through incremental steps. According to an inter- view with the group’s leaders, getting smaller projects done in a relatively short period of time is important for the enhance- ment project’s reputation with the public. “You can come up with grand schemes that cost a fortune,” Murdock said. “Consequently, you get nothing done.” Once the bridge project is complete, the organiza- tion literally has a list of proposals to consider. The enhancement project held a meeting in December where they solicited ideas from members of the public about things they would like to see in Pendleton. Not every idea is small. Among the most ambi- tious is a food hub, a multi- purpose building that could include a grocery store, a food co-op, a commercial kitchen and other features. Currently being considered for the space where Webb’s Cold Storage used to be, Hall said a feasibility study would be the next step. Enhancement project leaders said their various expertises and connections give their group an advan- tage over a single entity. For example, Murdock assigned one of his county staffers to help coordinate the group. Additionally, the enhancement project has received assistance from Umatilla County’s assessment and taxation and planning departments. To help them with further planning efforts, the enhancement project is going to enlist students from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, a connection the group made through Denight and Pendleton Center for the Arts director Roberta Lava- dour, another member of the group. “We’re like-minded but we’re from different areas,” Hall said. To avoid falling by the wayside, Wood said the enhancement project will need to continue to meet and collaborate. Before managing Trump campaign, Manafort worked to aid Putin WASHINGTON (AP) — Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates. Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse. Manafort pitched the plans to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Li f e Continued from 1A fully use their water rights. “When they shut you off, you still have to pay that bill,” said Tom Mallams, a rancher and Klamath County commis- sioner. House Bill 2705, a companion proposal requiring the installation of water measurement devices at irrigation diver- sions, also drew objections from irrigators at the hearing. Complying with the requirement would be expensive and the Oregon Water Resources Depart- ment doesn’t have enough staff to analyze the new information anyway, said John O’Keeffe, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “Additional data for the sake of data does not solve any problem,” O’Keeffe said. It would be more real- istic to ensure that water- masters — who can already order water measurements when necessary — are properly equipped to do their jobs, he said. Installing water measurement devices also isn’t practical for farmers who rely on flood irrigation and divert water directly from streams onto fields, according to opponents. Some opponents also questioned the fairness and wisdom of exempting domestic well users from the bill. “If you’re going to manage water, I don’t know how you’re going to do that without looking at private wells,” said Irene Gilbert of La Grande, Ore. Water conservation groups argued that a new funding source is needed because OWRD’s cost of administering water rights is largely borne by state taxpayers. Great work environment. Super awesome team. Good pay. Retirement plan. Weekends off. Interested? OF 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? M ONTE B ECKMAN Send resume and letter of interest to A "No Host" celebration of Monte's life will take place at The Rainbow Cafe in Pendleton on Sat. March 25, from 3 - 5pm EO Media Group He proudly served in the U.S. Air Force. After making his fi rst saddle in 1980 a passion was born. He came to Pendleton to build saddles for the Woods' at Hamley's and was an incredibly talented and sought after artist. He never turned away a soul in need. In lieu of fl owers, donations will be accepted to help the family with fi nal expenses. The private interests who primarily benefit from the system, meanwhile, only pay a one-time appli- cation fee to establish water rights, said Kimberley Priestley, senior policy analyst with WaterWatch of Oregon. “This is the public’s water. The public is currently paying through the general fund for the management of its water,” said Priestley. An annual management fee has already been iden- tified as a stable source of funding by the Oregon Water Resources Commis- sion, which oversees OWRD, she said. As for measurement devices, the requirement is needed because “what gets measured gets managed,” Priestley said. Proponents claim that only 20 percent of Oregon’s water rights holders currently measure and report their usage, since this is a requirement for irrigation districts, governments and those with rights issued since 1993. Despite recognition by the Oregon Water Resources Commission as a key management tool, there has been limited prog- ress in expanding water measurement, according to bill supporters. “We can no longer afford to put our heads in the sand and pretend water management issues will just go away,” said Joe Furia, general counsel for the Freshwater Trust nonprofit. The committee’s chair, Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, said the bills were “conver- sation starters” and would likely change in response to input from a “broad stakeholder group” he’s convened, which includes agriculture and environ- mental groups. MULTI-MEDIA SALES THE He is survived by his sons Dale, Levi, Isaac, and Walker, 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. His son Jared passed away in 2015. Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work. “We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success,” Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, “will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that President Trump had not been aware of Manafort’s work on behalf of Deripaska. WATER: Opponents questioned the fairness of exempting domestic well users from the bill Celebrating Monte was born on Dec. 14, 1949 in Rapid City, SD and passed away on Feb. 27 2017 in Enterprise. 541-276-6111 • Red Lion Lounge • 304 SE Nye, Pendleton Thursday, March 23, 2017 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.