WIND POWER SHUT OFF
REGION/3A
WHEN WE ENTERED WWI
LIFESTYLES/1C
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Little leaguers run a gauntlet of high fi ves from the Pendleton High School baseball and softball teams
during the grand entry opening ceremony for Pendleton Little League at Ken Melton Little League Park on
Friday in Pendleton. This year there are more than 400 boys and girls competing in Pendleton on 36 baseball
and softball teams. The Pendleton Little League parade starts at 9 a.m. Saturday on Main Street with games
starting at 11 a.m. at Ken Melton Park.
HERMISTON SPLITS
DOUBLE HEADER SPORTS/1B
WEEKEND, APRIL 8-9, 2017
141st Year, No. 125
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Chamber
plan relies
on ‘spirit of
cooperation’
Chamber would move from
conference center, be paired
with museum downtown
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Drug Court graduate Michelle DeBord stares out the window of her Pendleton home while refl ecting on the day her
husband died from a prescription drug overdose. According to DeBord, it was her husband’s death that began her
downward spiral into heroin addiction and problems with the law.
Pendleton woman emphasizes humanity behind recently cut program
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Michelle DeBord rifl es through a binder
stuffed with homework assignments and
personal papers to fi nd a dozen photo-
graphs illustrating her troubled past.
Each picture tells the story of a
woman struggling with addiction and the
sudden death of her husband. They reveal
numerous trips to rehab and lost custody
of her two oldest children. Her eyes well
with tears as she confronts the painful
memories.
DeBord, 39, is a heroin addict. “A little
piece of heaven on Earth,” she described
the drug this week. For years, it was the
only way she felt she could get out of bed,
but came at a price.
“I became a slave to it,” DeBord said.
“It was always about getting more.”
Now two years clean, DeBord insists
her saving grace was Umatilla County
Drug Court. When 13 other inpatient treat-
ment centers failed, drug court succeeded.
Through the program, DeBord said she
learned how to take accountability for her
actions and responsibility for her future.
With drug court set to be eliminated
June 30 due to a half million dollar budget
shortfall, DeBord is putting herself front
See DRUG COURT/12A
Local educators mixed
about 40-40-20 getting 86ed
Graduation goal a good initiative,
but ‘impossible to achieve’
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Oregon schools have had
several years to work toward the
state’s “40-40-20” graduation
goal, but as the Legislature
considers scrapping the goal
entirely, local education leaders
have mixed feelings about it.
One of former Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s signature education
initiatives, 40-40-20 was estab-
diploma.
Now less than
halfway to the self-im-
posed deadline, a
group of legislators has
lished by the Legisla-
submitted a bill that
ture in 2011 with the
would put 40-40-20
goal of graduating 100
on the chopping block.
percent of Oregon’s
The bill’s chief sponsor,
students by 2025. The
state Rep. Paul Evans,
ratios are derived from Mulvihill
D-Salem, argues that
the
post-graduation
the goal isn’t realistic,
expectations set by the
according
to The Oregonian.
state — 40 percent of Oregonians
InterMoutain
Education
with a bachelor’s degree, 40
Service
District
superintendent
percent with an associate’s degree
or professional certifi cate and Mark Mulvihill was a member
20 percent with a high school
See SCHOOL/8A
Management of the Hermiston Confer-
ence Center will be the main topic of discus-
sion during Monday’s city council meeting.
A new plan being presented for the coun-
cil’s approval Monday night would end the
city’s practice of contracting management of
the center out to the Greater Hermiston Area
Chamber of Commerce. Instead, the city’s
parks and recreation department would take
over operations beginning in 2018 and the
department’s offi ces — now housed in the
basement of city hall — would be relocated
to the current chamber offi ces in the confer-
ence center.
As part of the change, the city would
offer the chamber offi ce space in the former
Carnegie Library
on Gladys Avenue,
“The city’s
which is currently
remodeled.
capacity and being
The city hopes to
needs have eventually turn the
main level of the
changed
historic building
and bringing into a museum and
visitors’ center.
that opera-
“The
city’s
capacity and needs
tion (of the
have
changed
and bringing that
conference
operation (of the
center) under conference center)
the Parks &
the Parks & under
Recreation Depart-
Recreation
ment makes a lot of
according
Department sense,”
to a memo in the
makes a lot council’s agenda
packet. “However,
of sense.”
it is anticipated
that our spirit of
— Memo in the city
cooperation with
council’s agenda packet
the Chamber can
continue to be
leveraged to help revitalize the downtown
area by relocating their offi ces into one of
the few historic buildings in the downtown
core and beginning to work together toward
transforming it into a legitimate attraction.”
A news release sent out by the chamber
Wednesday merely stated that the chamber
will be “looking at” moving to a “new
location downtown.”
If the chamber takes the city up on its
offer, it would be located in the basement
of the Carnegie Library, which includes
offi ces, a reception area and a conference
room. The upstairs currently holds the
city’s building department, which would
be moved into city hall where the parks and
recreation offi ces are currently located.
While assistant city manager Mark
See HERMISTON/8A