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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2017)
65/46 FEWER DEER HUNTING TAGS DOOLITTLE RAIDERS MEMORIAL REGION/3A NATION/9A INSIDE: HORSE SALE GUIDE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017 141st Year, No. 132 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD HERMISTON Budget gap may bring big cuts to health care By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — With about a month to go before a critical revenue forecast, Oregon’s budget writers released a more detailed list of cuts Monday to address the state’s approximately $1.6 billion budget gap if new revenue isn’t raised. The cuts are across the board and intended to show what it would take to balance the state’s budget. For “If you look example, about at those re- 350,000 Orego- nians would no duction lists, longer be eligible Oregonians for coverage under the recent are going Affordable Care Act Medicaid to see things expansion, and a ballot measure to that they care require the state about on those to pay dropout prevention, college lists. And with- readiness, and out new reve- career and tech- nical education nue, we don’t for high school have a lot of students would options.” only be partially funded. — Tina Kotek, The co-chairs Speaker of the of the Joint House, D-Portland Committee on Ways and Means released a similar document in January, with fewer specifi cs. Since then, subcom- mittees have been working on different areas of the state’s budget to fi gure out where agencies and programs could be cut to make those targets. Lawmakers face an approximately $1.6 billion gap between what the state is expected to realize in revenue and what it would take to pay to maintain existing services. “The goal of the list is to move the See BUDGET/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Hermiston resident Bryan Wolfe reads a statement imploring the Hermiston City Council to consider the will of the people of Hermiston before voting on the fate of the Hermiston Conference Center at a special session city council meeting Tuesday in Hermiston. Council votes to take over conference center operations Chamber of commerce will move to new location in 2018 By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian The city of Hermiston will take over operation of the Herm- iston Conference Center and the Greater Hermiston Area Chamber of Commerce will move to a new location in 2018. The city council voted 6-0 in favor of the plan during a special meeting Tuesday night after hearing testimony from a stand- ing-room only crowd that spilled out into the lobby of city hall. All but one of the public comments was against the plan to some degree, including several current and past chamber board members and ambassadors who said they were disappointed to see how strained the relationship between the chamber and city had become. “At one time we were looked at as a valued and trusted partner,” chamber board chair Shirley Parsons said. City councilors and staff said they had a great respect for the chamber’s value to the commu- nity and the “excellent” job that the chamber was doing. They said it was a problem of fi nances and using all city facilities as effec- tively as possible. “It’s a question of resources,” city councilor John Kirwan said. The Hermiston Conference Center was created when the city purchased an old Safeway building in 1994 and the commu- nity raised $600,000 to renovate it. The city has been paying the chamber of commerce to run the See HERMISTON/10A UMATILLA After-school classes inspire experiments STEM Academy is free of charge to participate By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Even though the fi nal bell rings at 2:50 p.m., more than half of Umatilla’s students stay for more. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Academy of Umatilla offers classes after school Monday through Thursday for all of Umatilla’s students, grades K-12, and many students stay back to learn about things they don’t get to do during normal class hours. The program is free to all Umatilla students and is entirely federally funded. Those things can include horticul- ture, drama, robotics, cooking and many other subjects. “Over half the K-12 population does the after-school program,” said Umatilla Superintendent Heidi Sipe. “Over 700 attended last year, and we had 500 regular attendees — that’s kids who took two programs or more.” Each program is a minimum of six weeks, and many are taught by high school students who have to go through training and an internship to be qualifi ed to teach the class. Umatilla’s robotics program is the cornerstone of the STEM Academy, with classes at the elementary, middle and high school levels. But there are many other types of classes, as well. See SCHOOL/10A Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan Middle-school students in the STEM Academy of Uma- tilla work on a project in the after-school robotics class. PENDLETON Council declines sanctuary city status By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Flash storm strikes Pendleton A truck drives through a pool of standing water at the corner of North- west Fourth Street and Despain Avenue after an afternoon thunder- storm inundated the area with heavy rain Tuesday in Pendleton. The City Council took no action on the mostly symbolic measure of making Pendleton a sanctuary city. At a Tuesday meeting, city resident Shaindel Beers asked the council to declare Pendleton a sanctuary city by adopting an American Civil Liberties Union-endorsed list of nine poli- cies and rules that limited local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Beers’ request only drew public support from city councilor Scott Fairley, whose motion to adopt the policies died from a lack of a second. In her presentation, Beers said that although Oregon is already considered a “sanctuary state,” adopting the ACLU’s policies and rules would send a message to undocumented immigrants that Pendleton was a safe and inclusive place. “A scared population isn’t a safe population,” she said. “If we can make people feel safe and See PENDLETON/10A