REGION
Friday, June 23, 2017
PENDLETON
Mayor hands city
critic an ultimatum
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Grumbling about a letter
to the editor published in
the East Oregonian is not
uncommon for the Pendleton
City Council, but it isn’t
usually followed by an ulti-
matum.
At a Tuesday city
council meeting,
Mayor John Turner
used the public
comment section to
deliver a rebuke of
Rick Rohde’s letters
to the editor where
he criticized the city
for directing money
toward
projects Turner
helmed by friends.
Turner seemed
to take issue with
Rohde’s characteri-
zation of the council,
summoning
him
back to the podium
after he complained
about unkempt lots
near McDonald’s.
Rohde is a
regular critic of the Rohde
city on the East
Oregonian opinion page and
at council meetings, and ran
an unsuccessful campaign for
a seat on the city council in
May 2016.
Turner said:
“I’d like to talk to you
about two occasions over the
past several months you’ve
written letters to the EO
making allegations of crim-
inal misconduct against the
city council. On the twentieth
of April, you wrote that, ‘The
city council continues to fund
private projects that benefit a
few people within their circle
of friends.’ That’s an allega-
tion of fraud or corruption.
Then, just a few days ago,
on the seventh of June, you
wrote another letter, saying
‘city officials continued to
spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars on projects that
benefit a few friends and very
little that benefit everyone.’
So those are allegations of
corruption that you’re making
in writing to the public. So I’d
like to ask you at this point
to produce your evidence of
what’s behind those allega-
tions. What are you using for
evidence?”
“Just what I see that’s
happening with the Rivoli
(Theater),” Rohde responded.
Turner continued:
“I’m going to tell you
that there are limits to free
speech. Lacking evidence and
misusing your own personal
opinion, you cross a very
bright and clear line between
freedom of speech and
defamation of character and
perhaps even libel. Lacking
specific evidence,
your conduct is
morally and ethi-
cally irresponsible.
It’s probably illegal.
... But if you present
evidence,
I’ll
guarantee you that
I will personally
take it to the district
attorney for further
investigation. If you
don’t really have
any evidence, and
I suspect you don’t,
then I’d like you to
do the honorable
thing and print a
retraction. If you
choose to do neither
one of those, I’m
going to guarantee
you that I will
continue to remind
you and this council of your
dishonest, disingenuous and
dishonorable conduct of
every meeting I chair.”
“Good for you,” Rohde
responded before returning to
his seat.
On Thursday, Rohde
provided a more full-bodied
response in the format that
earned Turner’s ire in the
first place: a letter to the
editor, which is published
on Page 4A of today’s paper.
Rohde did not return multiple
requests for comment or
clarification.
Rohde’s original letters
to the editor follow sizable
grants the Pendleton Develop-
ment Commission, which is
comprised of the city council,
made to local nonprofits.
The commission gave
the Pendleton Downtown
Association $55,000 in April
to hire an executive director
and cover a year’s worth of
operating expenses.
In May, the commission
gave $96,000 to the Rivoli
Restoration Coalition for the
Rivoli Theater redevelop-
ment project’s first phase of
construction. The funding
is contingent on the coali-
tion raising the rest of the
$560,000 for Phase 1.
BRIEFLY
Woman injured in
Washington wreck
ATHENA — Wash-
ington State Patrol reported
an Athena woman crashed
Wednesday into an
oncoming vehicle, injuring
herself and four others.
Judy McCulloch, 72, of
Athena, around 3:30 p.m.
was driving a 2005 Chev-
rolet Classic westbound
on Highway 12 about a
mile from Clarkston City,
according to the state patrol,
when she made a left turn in
front of an eastbound 2013
Toyota Venza. The Toyota
hit the Chevrolet.
Four occupants in the
Toyota — all from Orofino,
Idaho — and McCulloch
were taken to St. Joseph
Medical Center. There was
no information about their
conditions.
Washington State Patrol
reported McCulloch faces a
citation for failure to yield
the right of way.
Fire tower
groundbreaking is
next Thursday
HERMISTON —
Groundbreaking on a new
tower that will provide
hands-on training to fire
science students will take
place next Thursday.
The public is invited to the
groundbreaking ceremony at
2 p.m. on July 29 at Umatilla
County Fire District 1’s
Station 23 at 78760 Westland
Road outside of Hermiston.
About 47 percent of
the funding for the tower
comes from Blue Mountain
Community College’s bond
issue, while the rest will be
covered by the fire district.
The tower will benefit
all of BMCC’s fire science
students by providing
hands-on experience with
fire suppression, search and
rescue, rappelling and venti-
lation. The college offers an
Associate of Applied Science
degree in Fire Science
Technology and other
certifications for potential and
current firefighters.
Athena library
builds up summer
reading program
ATHENA — Youths in
kindergarten through age 14
are invited to participate in
the summer reading program
at the Athena Public Library.
With a theme of “Build
a Better Community,” the
activities include a massive
Lego project, which kicks
off Monday, June 26 at
10 a.m. at the library, 418
E. Main St., Athena. In
addition, the Wednesday
evening program (adults
must accompany kids) is at
6:30 p.m.
Children are invited to
bring their own Lego bricks,
Kevas, Duplos or other
wooden/plastic blocks to
create something fabulous,
awesome, quirky, enormous
or miniature with no tools
except the blocks. Children
not interested in building
can learn embroidery
stitches with Brenda or play
with the Pokemon Club.
Also, the Athena Public
Library board open house
is Wednesday, June 28
from 5-7 p.m. The library is
celebrating its ninth birthday
in the new building. Cookies
and punch will be served.
The library director is
seeking family histories and
old photos of the Athena
area, especially pictures of
buildings that are no longer
standing or earlier photos
of buildings that are still in
existence.
For more information,
contact 541-566-2470 or
athenalibrary@cityofathena.
com.
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Roadkill clear for harvest, consumption
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Some folks
in Oregon might not want
to ask, when served an elk
burger or a venison steak,
where the meat came from.
Under a roadkill bill
passed overwhelmingly by
the Legislature and signed
by the governor, motorists
who crash into the animals
can now harvest the meat to
eat.
It’s not as unusual as
people might think. About
20 other states also allow
people to take meat from
animals killed by vehicles.
Aficionados say roadkill
can
be
high-quality,
grass-fed grub.
“Eating
roadkill
is
healthier for the consumer
than meat laden with antibi-
otics, hormones and growth
stimulants, as most meat
is today,” noted People for
the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, or PETA.
Washington state began
allowing the salvaging of
deer and elk carcasses a year
ago. Pennsylvania might
top the country in road kills,
with Oregon wildlife offi-
cials telling lawmakers that
the eastern state had over
126,000 vehicle-wildlife
accidents in 2015.
“We are at or near the
top of the list. We have a lot
of roads and a lot of deer,”
said Travis Lau, spokesman
for the Pennsylvania Game
Commission, though he
added the total number was
uncertain.
Pennsylvanians can take
deer or turkeys that are killed
on the road if they report the
incidents to the commission
AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach, File
In this 2008 file photo, a wounded deer lies in the road after being hit by a car on the
northbound lane of Interstate 295 near Freeport, Maine. In Oregon, under a road kill
bill passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature and signed by the governor, motor-
ists who crash into the animals can now harvest the meat for human consumption.
within 24 hours, Lau said in
a telephone interview.
Gov. Kate Brown signed
Oregon’s bill last week
after the Senate and House
passed it without a single
“nay” vote.
But a few Oregonians
voiced opposition.
Vivian
Kirkpat-
rick-Pilger, a Republican
Party official in moun-
tainous, forested Josephine
County, told legislators that
people have been salvaging
roadkill meat in Oregon for
years — since vehicles and
animals have been colliding
— and they’ve never
needed a law or permit to
do it.
Actually, the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife said that before
last week, the only people
allowed to keep roadkill
were licensed furtakers, and
no one — not even licensed
hunters — could keep game
animals found as roadkill.
The rules were aimed at
discouraging people from
hitting a game animal with
their vehicle to take the
meat or antlers. “It’s not a
legal method of hunting,”
the department’s website
says.
Les Helgeson, of the
community of Beaver, near
the northwest coast, told
legislators that roadkill
“would not be palatable,
much less pass any sense of
health standards for human
consumption.”
But those who have
sampled it say otherwise.
Todd Toven of Castle
Rock, Colorado, posted a
video on YouTube showing
himself carving up a deer
that had been hit by a
vehicle on a highway and
finished off by a deputy
sheriff’s bullet. Toven made
it into venison sausage.
“A lot of people who
don’t hunt hear the word
‘roadkill’ and they get
turned off,” Toven said.
“We’re talking perfectly
clean, cold meat.”
Oregon’s new law calls
for the state Fish and Wild-
life Commission to adopt
rules for the issuance of
permits for the purpose of
salvaging meat for human
consumption from deer or
elk that have been acci-
dentally killed in a vehicle
collision.
The first permits are to
be issued no later than Jan.
1, 2019. The antlers must be
handed over to the state’s
wildlife agency.
Health department redirecting insured patients
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The Umatilla County
Public Health Department
is trying to push away
patients who have insurance
to make room for those who
don’t.
James Setzer, the county
health
administrator,
said public health does it
differently than for-profit
providers.
“Financially we are
sending away the ‘good’
patients, yes indeed,” he
said, but the effort is to help
those who need it more.
Oregon counties are
under a state mandate to
modernize public health,
Setzer explained, and part
of that includes moving
away from having a nurse
or other staffer interact
directly with the patient.
To that end, he said county
health staff have been
counseling female patients
receiving family planning
and reproductive health
services to see if they have
insurance and could use it
with a local primary care
provider.
Setzer said in terms of
public health, it makes sense
to have patients receive
their care from their primary
provider, and reducing
the number of people
the county sees eases the
strain on the limited public
budget. County health saw
211 patients for family
planning in April and May,
according to figures from
the department, and 109 had
insurance while 102 did not.
“We’re making sure
the resources are there for
the people who have no
options,” Setzer said. “If
they have options and are
using up the subsidy, there
is less for people without
the options.”
Most patients have been
understanding, he said,
but he knows some are
concerned about what this
means to people who need
the free or low-cost services
the county provides. The
department, he said, is the
only provider in the county
for the Oregon Contra-
ceptive Care program and
the federal Title X Family
Planning Program, and that
is not changing.
“We’re
not
taking
anything away,” Setzer
stressed. “We’re looking at
all the options to make sure
people get the services they
need.”
For example, Setzer said
the Mirasol Family Health
Center, Hermiston, is taking
up some referrals from the
county. And he is kicking
the tires on the possibility
of contracting out direct
patient care — something
Washington and Douglas
counties in western Oregon
do. But he cautioned that
may work for counties with
more resources may not
translate in rural counties,
including Umatilla, where
resources and health care
providers can be scarce.
Public health, like most
other county departments,
had to trim where it could
and reorganize for the
budget that goes into
effect July 1. On paper, the
department cut positions
from about 31 full time to
almost 21 full time and its
funding dropped by more
than $200,000, to less than
$3.7 million.
Robert Pahl, the county’s
chief fiscal officer, said the
reality is not as harsh. The
county moved the $650,000
school-based Community
Access
for
Resource
Effectiveness and its five
full-time jobs from public
health to human services.
And some grant-funded
programs ran their course
and were eliminated.
Setzer said the budget’s
tight, but it’s always going
to be tight, and Umatilla
County Public Health still
has a job to do.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Free cultural event to follow Hermiston Funfest
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Food and dancing from
around the world will be on
display in downtown Herm-
iston on July 8.
Various cultural groups
from the community are
gathering after Funfest from
4-7:30 p.m. to present a free
family event with entertain-
ment and cuisine that takes
participants “around the
world in one fun day.”
One of the event’s main
sponsors is the Hermiston
Cultural Awareness Club,
which until recently was
known as the Black Interna-
tional Awareness Club. Vice
president Jody Frost said in
the past the club has been
more focused on providing
the community with an
annual Martin Luther King
Jr. Day event, but they
changed the name of the club
in recognition of a desire to
spend more time celebrating
a wider array of cultures.
Around the World in One
Fun Day is a manifestation of
that. Frost said club member
Jesus Rome has been
wanting to put on such an
event for a couple of years,
and the group decided now
was the time. They met with
members of the Hispanic
Advisory Committee and
unofficial
representatives
of the area’s other cultural
communities, including Fili-
pino, Samoan, Nepalese,
Hawaiian,
American
Indian and Russian (the
Scottish will be busy with
OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE
the Athena Caledonian
Games that weekend) to
plan something that would
help showcase participants’
heritage.
“I was kind of surprised,”
Frost said. “The other groups,
I didn’t really know them
before we sat around the
table together, but we have
a lot of different cultures in
Hermiston.”
She said they hope the
event on July 8 commu-
nicates that to the rest of
Hermiston as well.
“People might not be
aware of the different
cultures that are in our
community,” she said.
Frost said the Greater
Hermiston Area Chamber
of Commerce was gracious
enough to let the group use
the stage that will be set up
earlier in the day on Main
Street to accommodate
performers at the Hermiston
Funfest. Each group at
Around the World in One
Fun Day will have 20 to 30
minutes to present dances
or information about their
culture, plus an opportunity
to showcase food and other
items in booths.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Michaud Athletics
The camp will teach all baseball fundamentals and competitive games
For more information and registration
John Murray Building - 200 SE Hailey Avenue
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Our mission is to provide a positive learning environment that
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Gale or Pat McClintock
541-276-9189
Mark Michaud 509-520-6001
