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