100/68
WOMAN
INJURED
IN COLLISION
A PHS
LEGEND
RETURNS
Rainbow Gathering
begins to disperse
after July 4 peak
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
NORTHWEST/2A
THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017
141st Year, No. 188
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Transportation package gets green light
$30 million earmarked for projects in Umatilla, Morrow counties
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The House
of Representatives passed
a $5.3 billion statewide
transportation
package
Wednesday, 39-to-20.
The bipartisan yes votes
exceeded the 36 that are
constitutionally required to
enact new taxes.
The package now heads
to the Senate in the waning
days of the legislative
session, which must end by
July 10, according to the
Oregon Constitution.
However,
lawmakers
signaled concerns that the
package could face a voter
referral. In another bill, they
added a provision to bump up
any vote by the electorate on
the transportation package to
May instead of the general
November election.
The 10-year plan includes
hikes in the gas tax, regis-
tration and title fees and
new taxes on payroll, new
vehicle purchases and bicy-
cles priced more than $200.
The package also calls for
congestion-priced tolling at
some of Portland’s bottle-
necks.
The package includes $30
million earmarked for proj-
ects in Umatilla and Morrow
counties, and would also
result in thousands of extra
fuel tax dollars for local cities
and counties each year to
spend as they see fi t on road
maintenance. Hermiston is
expected to get an additional
$448,000 on average per
year and Umatilla County is
expected to get $1.5 million
extra per year, according
to a news release from the
offi ce of Rep. Greg Smith
(R-Heppner).
Smith, who sat on
the Joint Committee on
Transportation Preservation
and Modernization, called
Wednesday a “day of
elation” during debate of the
bill on the house fl oor.
“I am a fi rm believer that
See TRANSPORTATION/8A
EO fi le photo
The city of Hermiston will get $4.5 million to overhaul
North First Place, including new traffi c signals at
Orchard and Highland avenues.
HERMISTON
Good Shepherd
hopes purchase of
Gifford Medical
helps recruit docs
Rural areas struggle to attract
primary care providers
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Briana Spencer of Pendleton gets help with her loom from instructor Anita Hathale of Mexican Hat, Utah, during a Navajo rug
weaving workshop at Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts on Friday outside of Mission.
Navajo rug workshop comes to Crow’s Shadow
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Childhood memories came
fl ooding back to Marlene
Stevenson during last week’s
Navajo rug weaving workshop
at Crow’s Shadow Institute of
the Arts.
Stevenson, who lives in
Mission and works at Tamást-
slikt Cultural Institute on the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
was born and raised Navajo in
northwest New Mexico. She
fondly remembers summers
home from boarding school
helping her mother weave rugs
using the wool from their own
fl ock of several hundred sheep.
“It’s in the blood,”
Stevenson said as she practiced
weaving a colorful diamond
pattern Friday in the Crow’s
Shadow gallery.
The workshop, taught by
fellow Navajo artist and weaver
Anita Hathale, was the perfect
refresher course for Stevenson
after 15 years away from the
loom. While Stevenson does
teach beading classes as part
of her job at Tamástslikt, she
admits she has not kept up as
See RUG/8A
“It makes me happy to
see a diverse people
learning how to
weave. It’s my art, and
a gift from my parents.
I just want to share it
with the world.”
— Anita Hathale,
Navajo artist, workshop instructor
Good Shepherd Medical Center will
soon acquire longtime Hermiston practice
Gifford Medical Center. It will add three
doctors and three nurse practitioners,
increasing its total count to 11 primary
care providers.
But Hermiston continues to see a need
for health care providers, a problem it
shares with many rural communities.
“One challenge we face here is
recruiting,” said Nick Bejarano, Good
Shepherd’s director of marketing and
communications.
Bejarano said this year Good Shep-
herd conducted a phone survey and focus
groups with 486 community members.
It found a real desire from residents for
more primary care providers in the area.
Attracting medical professionals to
rural areas has long been a challenge, said
Dr. Doug Flaiz of Family Health Associ-
ates. That practice has eight primary care
providers. Flaiz said he is starting his
43rd year there.
“I enjoy working here,” he said. “I’ve
done a lot of recruiting over the years,
with some success and some failure. At
times it’s very diffi cult.”
Flaiz said one thing that’s frustrated
him is that graduates at the nearest
medical schools, Oregon Health and
Sciences University, don’t seem to want
to work in rural Oregon.
“It’s disappointing to me that OHSU
has had less than a handful of grads come
here in the time I’ve worked here,” he
said. “They seem to want to practice
within fi ve miles of I-5.”
Bejarano said once doctors arrive
See HEALTH/8A
PENDLETON
Lawsuit leads to auction of John Murray Building
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Tim Trainor
The John Murray Building, built in 1912 and formerly Pendleton High
School and a middle school, will go to auction Aug. 10.
The John Murray Building in
Pendleton is heading to the auction
block so real estate broker Kalvin
Garton and his wife Silva can pay
off more than $1 million in debt.
The Gartons agreed in August
2008 to a $950,000 loan at 7
percent interest to Gale and Pat
McClintock of Pendleton for the
John Murray Building, 200 S.E.
Haily Ave., and a nearby lot at
626 S.E. Second St. The Gartons
failed to pay a minimum of
$6,325 a month from November
2015 through February 2016,
according to the lawsuit the
McClintocks fi led in February
2016 in Umatilla County Circuit
Court. They sought $857,129
from the Gartons, plus the interest,
attorney fees and court costs, and
asked the court to foreclose on
the properties and have the sheriff
sell them at auction.
The McClintocks prevailed in
that quest June 7, when Circuit
Judge Erin Landis signed the
general judgment of foreclosure
fi nding the Gartons defaulted
on the deal and owe more than
$877,000 in principal, almost
$83,500 in interest, another
$60,000 more for attorney’s fees,
and nearly $3,500 in court costs.
The total, according to court
order for the sale, comes to
$1,026,232.
See BUILDING/8A