PAXTON
ACES
TIGERS
SPORTS/1B
55/38
TRUMP
IS FINE;
CONGRESS
IS FAILING
NATIONAL
MONUMENTS
UNDER REVIEW
NATION/7A
OPINION/4A
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2017
141st Year, No. 138
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
School board
to talk layoffs
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Bill and Michele Grable’s dog, Duchess, checks out her fl ooded backyard Wednesday. The tree to the dog’s left normally marks
the edge of the creek, but water released from McKay Dam at a rate of 1,160 cubic feet per second has fl ooded the yard.
Reservoir logged
McKay Reservoir
fi lled to capacity
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Bill
Grable
watched
nervously Wednesday as fl ood
waters from McKay Creek rose
into his backyard on Haney
Lane in Pendleton.
“It’s just roaring,” Grable
said. “This is kind of a perfect
storm year, with the snowpack
and all the rain we’ve had this
spring.”
All that water has fi lled
nearby McKay Reservoir to
capacity, prompting the Bureau
of Reclamation to ramp up
discharge from the dam and
leaving the creek swollen in
some low-lying areas down-
stream — including along the
Grables’ home.
Grable fi gures the stream has
crept up 20 feet into his yard,
and has also noticed large tree
stumps washed away in the
strong current.
“It makes me nervous,” he
said.
Chet Sater, natural resource
specialist for the Bureau of
Reclamation in Hermiston,
said they began releasing 1,160
cubic feet per second of water
from McKay Dam on Tuesday
to absorb the roughly 2,000
cubic feet per second coming
into the reservoir, with one
the Umatilla, Walla
Walla and Willow
Creek basins.
With plenty of
snow to melt and
rain falling steady,
McKay Reservoir is
now 100 percent full
for the fi rst time since
2014. A year ago, the
reservoir peaked at
just 83 percent full.
“Basically,
we
hope to keep where
we’re at now with the
releases,” Sater said.
The plethora of
stored water should
bode well for farmers
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
depend
on
Water pours through a spillway on the backside of McKay Dam on that
Wednesday at a rate of 1,160 cubic feet per second. The Bureau of McKay Reservoir for
Reclamation may start tapering off by Friday.
irrigation water. Mike
Wick, manager of the
cubic foot being equal to about the bureau defi nes as “safe Westland Irrigation District in
channel capacity,” then Sater Echo, said he anticipates having
7.5 gallons.
The bureau was releasing said they will notify residents a full irrigation season for
500 cubic feet per second of downstream.
patrons throughout the summer.
Dennis Hull, meteorologist
water at McKay Reservoir, Sater
“I would be terribly disap-
said, though the latest rainstorm with the National Weather pointed if we did not, the way
triggered an increase in outfl ow. Service in Pendleton, said this things are looking right now,”
“We have to do what we has been the wettest year dating Wick said.
have to do, based on current back to October in Pendleton
During the past couple of
since 1973-74, with 13.55 total drought years, Westland has
projections,” Sater said.
Weather forecasts indicate inches of precipitation. Average been forced to shut off irrigation
the rain should let up by Friday precipitation to date usually early as storage failed to hold up
and into the weekend. If that hovers around 8.85 inches.
during the season.
Snowpack also remains
holds true, Sater said they will
“It’s a much different
begin tapering releases from the well ahead of normal for the scenario from last year,” Wick
region, as it has all winter. As said.
dam.
“We are a little leery, because of Wednesday, the Natural
———
it is still raining,” he said.
Resource Conservation Service
Contact George Plaven at
If outfl ows exceed 1,200 measured snow-water equiva- gplaven@eastoregonian.com or
cubic feet per second, which lent at 151 percent of normal for 541-966-0825.
A signifi cant round of layoffs could be
coming to the Pendleton School District
for the fi rst time since the recession.
The Pendleton School Board will be
holding a special meeting Thursday to
consider a “reduction of force,” which
would lay off an undefi ned number of
district staff members.
Human resources director Brad Bixler
said the district is still fi nalizing the list of
positions that would be eliminated under
the reduction and it won’t be available
until the board meeting.
The school board has discussed
looming budget cuts for months and the
facts surrounding it remain the same.
As the Oregon Legislature struggles to
fi nd a way to close a $1.6 billion budget
gap, the state department of education is
projecting that it will give less money to
local districts.
Pairing that with Pendleton’s declining
student enrollment paints a stark picture
for the district.
Gary Humphries, a Sunridge Middle
School teacher and the president of the
Pendleton Teachers Association, said he
doesn’t envy the school board’s position.
“I don’t think they have much of a
choice,” he said.
Humphries said the district can’t shut
down a school or cancel busing services
to balance the budget, leaving layoffs as
the only feasible option.
The district last made signifi cant layoffs
in 2011, when it eliminated nine classifi ed
positions, which encompass jobs like assis-
tants, custodians and secretaries.
Prior to that, the district laid off 19
people in 2009, including six teachers and
10 instructional assistants.
These fi gures don’t include positions
that went unfi lled after an employee
retired or resigned from the district.
The school board will meet Thursday
at 6 p.m. at the district offi ce at 107 N.W.
10th Street.
Environmental
panel fi lled
after split vote
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown’s three
nominees for a new majority on the
Environmental Quality Commission have
advanced to a vote of the full Oregon
Senate.
But in a 3-2 vote Wednesday by
the Senate Rules Committee, minority
Republicans served notice they want the
Legislature to weigh in on a pending plan
for how the commission regulates toxic
air pollution from industrial sources.
The shift that a Brown-appointed advi-
sory panel recommends would focus state
efforts on cumulative effects of pollutants
on public health, rather than the amounts
generated by individual plants.
See PANEL/8A
HERMISTON
Harkenrider Center to bring seniors downtown
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The rain let up on Wednesday
afternoon in time for Hermiston’s
senior citizens and community
leaders to celebrate breaking
ground on the Harkenrider Center.
The Hermiston Senior Center
board and city haven’t always seen
eye to eye on design and future use
of the building, which will be the
exclusive home of the senior center
for its fi rst fi ve years, followed by
some additional community use in
the evenings. But Kathy English, a
prep cook for the center’s twice-a-
week meals for seniors, said there
was a lot to look forward to about
the new building.
“I actually think it’s going to be
wonderful,” she said. “It’s going
to be bigger and better for us.”
Mayor David Drotzmann
called the groundbreaking a
“historic event” taking place
amid major changes to Herm-
iston. Those changes include a
new trade and event center being
built south of town and sale of
the former Umatilla County Fair-
grounds, where the current senior
center sits, to Hermiston School
District.
“There is a lot of change going
on, but this community does as it
always does and rallies around a
cause,” he said.
Drotzmann said the Harken-
rider Center wouldn’t be possible
without collaboration from a
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
number of entities, including Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann speaks to a crowd gathered
at the site
the “guidance and leadership” of the future Harkenrider Center on Wednesday at the offi cial groundbreak-
See SENIORS/8A
ing. Frank Harkenrider, for whom the center is named, listens on.