REGION
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
HERMISTON
Couple crowned king and queen
64 years after their original prom
City employee
loaned to chamber
to learn how to run
conference center
“It was beautiful. The
kids were gracious,
and the faculty were
just wonderful.”
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Donald and JoAnn Clayton didn’t go
to their high school prom because of a
lack of communication.
“His story is, he asked me and I didn’t
ever give him an answer,” said JoAnn
with a laugh. “And my story is, he just
presumed I’d go. So we didn’t go!”
Fortunately, the Claytons got a
second chance at the high school
tradition, going to the Hermiston High
School prom nearly 64 years after the
one they missed.
Earlier this school year the couple
was visiting Hermiston from Port
Angeles, Washington, where they’ve
lived for more than 40 years. At that
time, Donald stopped in at the high
school to have a chat with principal Tom
Spoo. He asked if he and his wife could
attend the Hermiston prom, and Spoo
happily agreed.
But what the couple didn’t know
was the school had some ideas of their
own. District librarian Delia Wallis,
leadership adviser Dave Rohrman and
students from the student government
class began planning ways to make the
evening special for the couple.
“We had just intended to show up,”
JoAnn said.
Instead, the school treated the
Claytons to an evening they won’t
forget. They were chauffeured around
in a 1951 Mercury by Fred Clark of the
Hermiston Classic Car Club. They were
served dinner by Ford Bonney of Hale’s
Restaurant and stayed at Oxford Suites.
At the prom, Donald was dressed in
his Marines Corps uniform and JoAnn
donned a blue dress. The couple was
seated at a special table, where students
came up and chatted with them.
Wallis said students were very inter-
ested in the couple’s story.
“Several students hugged the pair, and
— JoAnn Clayton,
Hermiston High School prom queen
Contributed photo
Donald and JoAnn Clayton were se-
lected as the Hermiston prom king
and queen Saturday. The couple
graduated from HHS in 1952 and
1953 but their trip together to prom
was delayed more than 60 years.
others made a special point of thanking
Donald for his military service,” Wallis
said.
The biggest surprise of the night,
though, came a bit later in the evening.
“They crowned us king and queen of
the prom,” said JoAnn. “It was beautiful.
The kids were gracious, and the faculty
were just wonderful.”
Students formed a circle around the
couple as they danced to “You Belong
to Me” by Jo Stafford.
Students also took the opportunity
that evening to hear about the Claytons’
life in Hermiston, long before any of
them were born.
JoAnn, who was JoAnn Walker at
the time, graduated in 1952, the last
class to graduate from the “old high
school,” Hermiston Union, which later
became the junior high. Donald was
in the first class to graduate from the
“new” school in 1953. Donald joined
the Marine Corps shortly after gradua-
tion and used his “senior sneak day” to
enlist. After he had left for boot camp,
JoAnn said she got a call from Donald.
“He called me and said, ‘When I get
back, we’re getting married.’”
Students attending the 2017 prom
also got a little bit of advice from the
couple, who got married Oct. 5, 1953,
at the Methodist Church in Hermiston.
“Be sure to pick the right person and
then hold on,” JoAnn said.
After Donald got out of the service,
he enrolled at Washington State Univer-
sity in 1957. The couple lived in Eastern
Oregon and Washington for several
years before moving over to the west
side of Washington.
They adopted three children and
now have nine grandchildren and a
great-grandchild.
“I still can’t believe it all happened,”
JoAnn said. “My husband and I still
look at each other and shake our heads.”
PENDLETON
Rivoli restoration receives $100K grant
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Down-
town Association secured
a $100,000 grant from the
Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department on behalf of the
Rivoli Restoration Coalition,
which will help restore the
historic Rivoli Theater into
a modern performing arts
center.
Thanks to the proceeds
from the grant, coalition
president Andrew Picken
said internal excavation
work could begin as soon as
July.
Both sides credit the
collaboration for landing
the grant, the largest in the
coalition’s history.
Association
executive
director Molly Turner said
the state grant was only
available to Oregon Main
Street programs like the
Pendleton Downtown Asso-
ciation.
The association will take
a 5 percent cut for processing
the grant, the rest of which
will go toward work at the
Rivoli.
Turner praised the coali-
tion for its thoroughness in
planning out the project,
which made applying for the
grant easier.
“Chance favors the
prepared mind,” Picken said.
“In this case, chance favored
the prepared organizations.”
With restoration and
architectural plans already
completed, Picken said the
coalition has spent 2017
focusing on raising money for
the first phase of construction,
which includes some internal
demolition, excavation and
beam installation.
With the grant in hand,
the coalition has raised 31
percent of the $559,114
needed for the first phase of
the project. But Picken said
they do not need to wait to
raise the rest of the money
to begin construction, and
hopes to start the demolition
process in July.
Volunteer groups have
already removed 95,000
pounds of debris from the
old movie theater, but the
rest of the work requires
skilled labor to complete.
Picken said that work
will include the removal
of all “nonessential” items
that could pose as a safety
hazard. Any historic aspects
that need to be removed from
the theater will be recreated
during a later portion of the
restoration.
Association
president
Fred Bradbury said the Rivoli
restoration fits into the asso-
ciation’s strategic plan and
meets their goal of building
partnerships throughout the
downtown area.
Picken was eager to test
out the partnership again.
“I don’t see a reason why
we can’t do this with every
grant,” he said.
Turner said any signs of
progress at the Rivoli will
be important for future grant
opportunities. She added that
the association is willing to
help any downtown business
or organization when it
comes to seeking grants.
In total, the state provided
$2.4 million in grants to
organizations across Oregon.
In addition to Pendleton,
Eastern Oregon commu-
nities that received grants
include Burns, Enterprise,
Baker City, John Day, La
Grande and Weston.
In Weston, the state
granted $70,000 to repair
brickwork on the Long-
branch Saloon, located at
201 E. Main.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
HERMISTON
School board adds three paid days for teachers
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Hermiston teachers will
work three extra paid days
next school year.
The school board also
approved a tentative agree-
ment with the Hermiston
Association of Teachers at
Monday’s meeting. They
approved a two-year contract
that includes the addition of
three days, bringing the total
to 192 working days for the
school year, and a cost of
living salary increase of one
percent for the first year and
1.5 percent for the second
year.
The school’s updated
calendar was released,and
includes the additional
workdays. Teachers will
now have an additional
workday on Aug. 21, 2017,
and students will have two
additional school days,
Dec. 18 and 19, before
Christmas break. Those two
days were previously snow
make-up days.
During the meeting,
members of the district’s
online/flex and hybrid
learning team spoke to the
district about the success
of the blended learning
program, which combines
aspects of both online and
classroom learning. Those
students attend school on a
typical schedule, but have a
range of traditional teacher
instruction,
independent
time and online learning.
“It’s
not
intended
to replace a classroom
teacher,” said Amber Utter,
an instructional coach for
the district. “The idea is to
personalize learning, deliver
content to give students
more control, and give them
accountability,” she said.
The board also unani-
mously approved the hire
of Christie Petersen as the
Sunset Elementary School
principal. Petersen is a
longtime educator, with
many years of classroom
I am having a hard time putting into words, the admiration, appreciation and thanks that I feel for
our wonderful team of First Responders.
On the aft ernoon of April 11th, my husband and I were returning from walking our dog. We were
in our pickup, and my husband was driving. He had just pulled into the driveway, said he didn't
feel well, then collapsed. Fortunately, his foot was still on the brake, because he hadn't gotten it
into Park. I called 911, put the pickup in Park, and went around to the drivers side. Th e dispatcher
was very patient with me in spite of the fact that I was panicked because he had stopped breathing.
She asked me if I could get him to a fl at surface, and I said "no" but I could put the seat down and
was pumping his chest as she tried to calm me down. Th e EMS team consisting of Fire Depart-
ment, Police Offi cers and EMT's got to my home in record time and pulled him out of the pickup
and did CPR in our driveway.
experience
and,
most
recently, several years as a
professor and instructional
coach in the Willamette
Valley. Petersen will begin
her job July 1, replacing
outgoing principal Devin
Grigg.
“I am so excited to be
serving with an outstanding
group of distinguished
colleagues in such a strong
district,” Petersen said in a
statement.
Mother’s
Day is
May 14 th
Council approves
changes in parking
downtown
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The city of Hermiston
has loaned the Greater
Hermiston Area Chamber
of Commerce one of its
employees in exchange
for training on how to run
the Hermiston Conference
Center.
The
city
council
amended its contract with
the chamber Monday,
creating a transition to
when the city’s parks and
recreation
department
takes over management
of the center from the
chamber on January 1,
2018.
The chamber’s own
conference center facili-
tator recently resigned, and
the chamber’s executive
board and city staff came
to an agreement that for
the rest of 2017 a parks and
recreation employee will
fill the position. The city
will not reduce the amount
of money it is paying the
chamber to run the center,
however, in recognition of
the valuable training that
employee will receive on
facilitating events in the
building.
Diana Picard, formerly
a part-time employee in
the parks and recreation
department, will take the
full-time job.
The staffing move was
one of several discussed
during a work session
before
the
council’s
regular meeting Monday.
City
manager
Byron
Smith said as the city has
grown and circumstances
have changed, the city has
become overdue for some
restructuring.
Some of those changes
will involve new titles and
duties (and corresponding
salaries), so Smith said he
wanted to run them by the
council before including
them in the upcoming
2017-2018 budget.
The changes will add
about $50,000 per year in
salary costs, but Smith said
the city is netting about
$25,000 per year after a
recent change to U.S. Bank
helped increase interest
earnings and reduce fees.
He said the city will save
another
approximately
$85,000 per year thanks
to a decision to outsource
utility bill mailings to a
national company.
“Mixing that with the
new (remote-read) water
meters we’re installing,
that’s really going to free
up staff to take on some
other roles,” he said.
Smith said the city
doesn’t really have one
dedicated person to handle
human resources, and so
he would like to reclassify
one of the city’s customer
service representatives as a
human resource specialist
after she goes through the
needed training.
City finance director
Amy Palmer’s title would
change to administrative
services director and she
would take on some new
duties such as supervision
of the human resources
position. Palmer was previ-
ously the city recorder as
well, but that duty would
be transferred to the city’s
executive assistant Lilly
Alarcon-Strong.
The city’s current part-
time accounting technician
who spends .25 FTE on
city duties and .25 FTE on
the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center would be
bumped up to a full-time
employee spending half
of her time as an adminis-
trative assistant for public
works.
“If it makes us more
efficient, and it’s not going
to cost us significantly
more money, then our
job is to set policy and
yours is to steer the ship,”
mayor David Drotzmann
told Smith after council
members said they trusted
the suggestions.
On Monday during
their regular meeting, the
council approved changes
in parking downtown. The
city has already begun
restriping parking on
Gladys Avenue in front
of the Hermiston Public
Library to change from
parallel parking to diag-
onal, which will add four
more spaces.
On Monday the council
agreed to also switch to
diagonal parking on the
east side of Northeast
Second Street between
Main Street and Hurlburt
Avenue, gaining two extra
spaces. That will eventu-
ally match the diagonal
parking planned for the
eastern side of the city’s
new festival street between
Main and Gladys.
Morgan said business
owners along Second
Street were excited for
the diagonal parking,
which will create extra
spots, be more welcoming
to people who don’t like
parallel parking and reduce
inefficiencies from long
vehicles hanging over into
the next spot.
The city had sent out
legal notice of a discussion
to expand Hermiston’s
enterprise zone, which
gives certain types of
companies a property
tax break for capital
construction projects that
bring new jobs to the city,
but the council tabled that
discussion until June 12
because Smith said the city
is still negotiating with the
company in question.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastore-
gonian.com or 541-564-
4536.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at
333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211
S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-
966-0818 with questions.
FREE
SCARF
with any $50
baggallini
purchase.*
AAA PENDLETON
1729 SW Court Ave.
541.276.2243
Th ey got a pulse, took him to the airport and Lifefl ighted him to St. Mary's Hospital in Walla
Walla, where he was in ICU for 10 days. I am a fi rm believer in prayer, and it is truly a miracle of
medical and heavenly coordination that brought my husband back to our family.
I commend everyone involved and want to publicly say "THANK YOU" from the bottom of my
heart. YOU ARE WORTHY OF OUR RESPECT.
Th ankfully, Charlotte Carner
*Offer valid at AAA Pendleton
location only, through 5/31 or
while supplies last. Bag shown
as display only, not available
in stores.