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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2017)
McBEE TAKES A SEAT MANCHESTER STRESSES UNITY Kick in the pants to Senate Democrats REGION/3A FATIH/7A OPINION/4A FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017 141st Year, No. 159 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Your Weekend • • • Beard to run city’s center Century Ride of the Centuries in Pendleton Ballet production at Bob Clapp Theater Ugandan Kids Choir in Hermiston Sunday For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Convention Center hasn’t had full-time director since 2013 Catch a movie By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Disney via AP Everyone’s favorite aquatic criminal is back for more swashbuckling adventures in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” For showtime, Page 5A Weekend Weather Fri 76/49 Sat 82/54 Sun 88/56 Staff photo by E.J. Harris City of Pendleton employees Dean Harrison, left, and Mike Hoeft paint lane lines on the bottom of one of the pools Thursday at the Pendleton Family Aquatic Center. Bide the pool tide Aquatic centers prepping for summer swim season By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Oregon had no plan for checking Medicaid eligibility By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — When Oregon expanded access to Medicaid in 2014, it had no system in place to perform the annual checks on recipient eligibility required by federal law. That was one of the many fl aws of Cover Oregon, a state health care exchange also intended to handle patient registration for Medicaid. Medicaid is the federal government’s health care coverage for the poor and other qualifying groups. In Oregon, about a quarter of the state’s population — approx- imately 1 million people — receives it. More than three years after the expansion was launched under the Affordable Care Act, the state is scrambling to fi nish verifying whether See MEDICAID/10A Hot weather has people itching to hit the pool, but they’ll have to wait at least a couple more weeks. Although the weather is ripe for swimming, lifeguards have to fi nish up their school year, pools need repainted and water slides buffed before municipal aquatic centers are ready to open for the season. “There’s a lot of cleaning up we have to do,” Hermiston parks and recreation director Larry Fetter said. Hermiston’s aquatic center opens June 10. A long checklist of items, from boiler inspections to a software upgrade for the pool’s chemical control system, have already allowed the center’s lap swimming pool to be fi lled. It took 12 hours to fi ll the pool from a fi re hose, but three days to warm it up to a comfortable tempera- ture. On the multi-use pool side, crum- bling tiles have been replaced with a new cement lip, but the pool still needs power-washed and repainted, and the water slides need some work too. Layers of dust, which are particu- larly bad this year due to construction at Good Shepherd Medical Center next door, have to be scrubbed away. “Sometimes we get a year, some- times we get two years out of the paint,” Fetter said. “On the slides, calcium deposits form and slow it down, so you have to buff them out, EO fi le photo Pool goers enjoy lazy river current portion of the Hermiston Family Aquatic Center in June, 2015. Pendleton Family Aquatic Center Hermiston Family Aquatic Center Open: June 16- Sept. 5 Public swim: Noon to 8 p.m. daily Rates: $4 for age 3-17, $6 for adults, children under 3 free Season Passes: $50 for youth, $59 for adults and $117 for families if purchased before June 15 ($55, $65 and $130 after) Additional information: The Til Taylor Wading Pool opens June 19 and is free admission. It is available Monday-Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Transportation to and from the pool is available via the Let’er Bus shuttle, which has stops at various schools and parks. For shuttle schedules, swim lesson schedules, special events and other information visit www.pendleton- parksandrec.com. See POOL/10A Open: June 10 to Aug. 27 Public swim: Preseason June 10-16 3:10 to 8 p.m. then regular season 1:10 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11:10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Rates: $4 for children under 13 and active military members, $5 for teenagers and seniors, $6 for adults and $20 for families. Season passes: $50 youth and seniors, $60 adults, $150 families Additional information: For swim lessons, cabana rentals and other information visit hermiston- pool.com. For more aquatic centers and pools in the region see Page 10A As the event recruiter for the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce, Pat Beard is used to marketing the Pendleton Convention Center as an asset to the tourism industry. Representing the center will soon become Beard’s full-time job. The city announced Friday that Beard has been named convention c e n t e r director, the f a c i l i t y ’s fi rst full- time director in four years. Beard d e s c r i b e d Pat Beard the conven- tion center position as a continuation of the work he did for Travel Pendleton, the tourism promotion arm of the chamber. “There’s a lot of cross- over,” he said. Beard was hired to helm Travel Pendleton in 2013. Prior to that, he was a manager for six years at Hamley’s western store and saddle company. A graduate of Central Washington University, Beard is a member of Oregon Society of Association Management, Oregon Tour and Travel Alli- ance, and Cascadia Meeting Planners International, and serves as a board member for the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, Pendleton Prog- ress Board, and the Pendleton Convention Center Commis- sion, according to a city press release. Beard said his plan for the future of the convention center was simple: provide “world- class” customer service, information technology and food services. And although event recruiter is no longer his See BEARD/10A HERMISTON Water coalition addresses area’s shrinking supply Presentations focus on issues across basin By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The reborn Oregon Water Coalition held its annual membership meeting Thursday morning at the Hermiston Conference Center, with presentations focused on water projects, laws and regulations that may impact local irrigators in the coming years. Most questions were saved to the end, when Justin Iverson with the Oregon Water Resources Department discussed new rules for the Walla Walla subbasin intended to curb declining groundwater levels in the region’s deep basalt aquifer. Iverson, who manages the OWRD groundwater division, reviewed the latest designation of the subbasin as a “serious water manage- ment problem area,” which was approved by the Oregon Water Resources Commis- sion on May 11. That means regulators will no longer approve new agricultural wells in the 300,000-acre subbasin, which includes Milton-Freewater and Weston. See WATER/3A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Yogoat? JoHanna Sanders of Richland does a plank with a Nubian goat kid on her back during goat yoga session on Thursday in Boardman. The goat yoga was put on by Lauren Barth, owner of the Nourish Yoga Studio in Hermiston, as one of her “just for fun” yoga classes. For video from the event visit eastoregonian.com
