79/51
NEW
TATERS
TO DEBUT
RACING IN
THE MIDDLE
OF CHEMO
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
Police recover
most of stolen
Indian regalia
REGION/2A
THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017
141st Year, No. 178
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Man dies after collision with train EOTEC
Wednesday plagued by slew of semi truck accidents
East Oregonian
One man died and others were
injured in multiple, unrelated
crashes Wednesday afternoon in the
Hermiston area.
A little before 5 p.m. Wednesday,
a lumber truck overturned near the
intersection of Interstate 84 and
Interstate 82, spilling lumber planks
across the side of the road. The cab
of the truck landed on its side, and
the trailer was fl ipped upside down.
The driver sustained minor injuries
to his ankle and initially declined
attention, but later requested
medical transport. Umatilla County
Fire District 1 and Oregon State
Police were on the scene a few
minutes after the accident.
The driver, a Utah man named
Mike who declined to give his last
name, said the load on his truck was
stacked a little high, which probably
caused the accident.
“The load shifted as I was
coming around the bend and once
it shifted, I tried to account for it,
but there’s not much you can do
once the truck decides to go one
way,” he said. “I sat in the truck
for ten minutes afterward. The
hardest thing was getting out of the
seatbelt.”
Mike said it was a tough way
to end his 12-year career as a truck
driver, after previously having
decided to retire. He said he was in
his last two weeks on the job.
“It’s a good company, but you
get old,” he said. “It’s a hard life. I
want to be with my family more.”
He attributed his ability to walk
away from the wreck to wearing a
seatbelt.
“I would have really been
damaged otherwise,” he said.
He said he then had to fi gure out
what to do about the contents of his
truck — such as his missing cell
phone and other personal effects —
and how to get home.
“I live in Utah,” he said. “So
now I have to fi gure out how to get
there.”
Mike said salvage crews would
come and pick up the lumber and
See ACCIDENTS/8A
PENDLETON
CANNABUSINESS BOOM
Local dispensaries
try to stave off
black market
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
On May 17, the Blue Mountain
Enforcement Team seized a substan-
tial amount of marijuana from a
Pendleton downtown business.
The next day, Pendleton’s two
marijuana dispensaries saw some
benefi ts.
Eight months after Pendleton
voters legalized marijuana sales,
there’s a push and pull between a
growing cannabis retail industry
and a resilient black market.
Kind Leaf Pendleton was the
fi rst marijuana store to complete the
lengthy regulatory process, opening
its doors March 11.
Kind Leaf co-owner Brandon
Krenzler said his 1733 S.W. Court
Ave. is doing well, regularly serving
more than 200 customers a day,
many of them from out of town.
The dispensary now employs 18
people, up from the eight employees
Krenzler started with.
“The city of Pendleton will be
pleased by the money that may be
raised by the taxes,” Krenzler said
this week.
Further south, the owner of the
city’s second recreational marijuana
retailer was less optimistic.
Pendleton Cannabis owner
Shawn Pace said the dispensary,
located 816 Southgate, was doing
well enough to keep the doors open,
but the black market continues to
eat into his business.
In addition to the 17 percent tax
the state assesses on marijuana prod-
ucts, Pendleton voters approved an
additional 3 percent sales tax last
November. Other state-mandated
regulations, like pesticide testing
from producers and processors, are
also factors in keeping black market
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Budtender Evan Hilliard uses chopsticks to handle marijuana while measuring out an order for a
customer on Wednesday at Kind Leaf in Pendleton.
More online
For video visit
eastoregonian.com
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Budtender Josh Mitchell holds out a container with a marijuana
strain called Caramel OG for a customer, off camera, to smell on
Wednesday at Kind Leaf in Pendleton.
weed cheaper than legal offerings.
As evidence, Pace said his daily
sales doubled the day after BENT
made its downtown busts in May.
Kind Leaf also saw an up-tick in
sales that day, Krenzler said.
Pendleton Police Chief Stuart
Roberts has long been skeptical that
legalized marijuana would eliminate
the black market. He said he is not
surprised that Pendleton’s dispensa-
ries have illicit competition.
After Measure 97 passed in
2014, the state allowed individual
Oregonians to grow up to four
marijuana plants for personal use.
See MARIJUANA/8A
passes
$2.2M
budget
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center board
adopted a 2017-2018 budget on
Wednesday.
The $2.2 million budget is a
decrease of $6.9 million from
2016-2017, refl ecting a shift
from construction to operation.
Construction is expected to wrap
up just in time for the Umatilla
County Fair that begins on Aug.
8.
Umatilla County and the
city of Hermiston have both
agreed to raise their yearly
contributions to the general fund
from $45,000 to $75,000 to help
cover staffi ng expenses for a
general manager, administrative
assistant and maintenance
manager. The EOTEC board
is currently advertising for the
general manager position at a
salary between $70,000 and
$80,000.
Marketing
expenditures
for 2017-2018 are budgeted
at $194,285, up from $64,610
in anticipation of having a
fully-completed project to
market to conventions, trade
shows and other events the
EOTEC board hopes to draw in.
The facility’s marketing dollars
come from the tourism promo-
tion assessment of one dollar per
room per night that hoteliers and
RV park owners agreed to.
Events other than the
Umatilla County Fair and Farm-
City Pro Rodeo are estimated to
bring in $132,000 in additional
revenue over the fi scal year.
The rest of Wednesday’s
meeting included a construction
update from Knerr Construction
and Hendon Construction. Carl
Hendon of Hendon Construction
reported that the concrete work
for the rodeo arena is fi nished,
the announcer’s stand has been
framed and the contractors are
currently working on phase two
of the bleachers.
On the rest of the site,
work continues on the barns,
restrooms, landscaping, security
building, fencing and other
elements. Work parties of volun-
teers to prepare the fairgrounds
and rodeo arena for the fair and
rodeo are scheduled for multiple
Saturdays in July.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4536.
HERMISTON
Rock hunting provides cure for summer boredom
Facebook group has
more than 700 members
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A painted rock sits in the grass near the Oxbow Trail.
Hermiston parents looking for a way to
keep the kids entertained for the summer
can add rock-hunting and rock-painting to
their list.
Painting colorful, fun designs on rocks
and hiding them for people to fi nd isn’t a
new idea, but the rocks have been popping
up around town in abundance lately after
local mother Cassandra Evens created
a rock-hunting group on Facebook that
gained more than 700 members in two
weeks. She said she got the idea from a
woman on a Facebook group for moms
and found a lot of local interest.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘If you start
a group, I’ll join,’” she said.
The group is “just for fun,” she said,
and she doesn’t want to set up elaborate
rules or see anyone get frustrated. All she
asks is that people be polite and respon-
sible. That means keeping the messages
on rocks appropriate for children, not
trespassing and not taking large numbers
of souvenirs without contributing any
artwork in return.
Evens said she encouraged the group
to start out placing rocks along the Oxbow
Trail and in Riverfront Park so that begin-
ners had an idea of where to start looking.
Several painted rocks that looked to be the
handiwork of multiple artists could be seen
along the trail on Wednesday. But she said
people have also been posting pictures of
their painted rocks in the Facebook group
See ROCKS/8A