Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
HARKENRIDER: Named city’s Man of the Year in 1987
Continued from 1A
some members of the Hermiston
Senior Center against naming
the new building, scheduled to
be complete in late 2017 or early
2018, the Harkenrider Center.
He also had many supporters,
however, who voted “Harkie” back
into office repeatedly through the
decades.
Harkenrider always considered
the vote to hire Hermiston’s first
city manager the best thing he
did for the city. It was a point he
focused on even as other parts of
his memory were slipping away.
“I love this town,” he said in
2014. “I’ve given my heart and soul
to the city. I made a lot of mistakes
but I made some good votes, too.”
Harkenrider’s
professional
career was mostly spent at Union
Oil Distributorship, where he
started working with his father
George Harkenrider, who was also
a Hermiston city councilor and
mayor. He later worked for PGG
before retiring. He served in the
armed forces, deploying to Guam
and the Philippines after World War
II. In 1987 he was named the city’s
Man of the Year.
Harkenrider was born in Herm-
iston and met his wife Beverly
there while she was working for
US Bank. The pair were married on
Nov. 4, 1954 in a double ceremony
with her sister and sister’s fiancé.
He is survived by Beverly, their
three daughters and five grand-
daughters.
His youngest granddaughter,
Kacie Jo Upperman, said he used to
babysit her from the mayor’s desk
and take her to everything from
parades to a mayors’ convention
in Seaside. As a kid she knew
“everyone” at city hall from her
time sitting at the press desk with
coloring books and dolls.
“I definitely have fond memories
of sitting coloring and waiting for
grandpa to run the city and come up
with his next wacky idea to make
Hermiston grow,” she said.
Afterward they would go out
for a grilled cheese sandwich and
pickle at a downtown business
known as the Cookie Tree.
He wasn’t afraid to be himself,
she said, and worked tremendously
hard for the city he loved. She said
he loved sports and went to many
Portland Trail Blazers games when
Upperman’s sister Kelly Robinson
became a Blazer Dancer.
“He loved supporting her and
got to sneak in some basket-
ball-watching on the side,” she
said.
It was Harkenrider who took a
truck full of watermelons to Port-
land in 1991 and handed them out
on the street, beginning a tradition
that lasted for 17 years and was
revived two years ago. Harkenrider
was there for the resurrection of the
giveaway in 2015. He kept photos
of the events — which put a media
spotlight on Hermiston produce and
promoted the city to the west side
of the state — in a bookshelf full of
scrapbooks in a small room of his
home lined with Hermiston-related
memorabilia. His knowledge of
Hermiston’s history was extensive
and he often served as the city
council’s institutional memory.
As news of Harkenrider’s
passing spread on Facebook, resi-
dents commented that he will be
missed, calling him a “wonderful
man,” a “huge part of our great
town” and “the nicest man I ever
met.”
“Harkie embodied the true spirit
of Hermiston and of course was
Hermiston’s BIGGEST FAN!”
Kelly Schwirse wrote on the Herm-
READ: Provides socialization skills for the dogs
Continued from 1A
Costley approached Foster
Grandparent
Executive
Director John Brenne about
incorporating PAWS into a
summer reading program,
Brenne said the nonprofit
decided to add cats and dogs
to the mix.
PAWS manager Kevin
Wadlington said that the
shelter does receive some
extra publicity from the
reading to animals program,
but its main motivation
to join was to provide a
community service.
One benefit for the shelter,
Wadlington said, was that the
kids close proximity to the
dogs provided the canines
with important socialization
skills before they’re adopted
out, especially around young
children.
Over in the cats room,
more than a dozen cats
freely roamed around while
Liam Campbell, 10, and his
brother Rowan, 8, read their
books aloud.
Liam was multitasking,
reading aloud from a book
called “I Could Pee On
This: And Other Poems By
Cats” while dangling a toy
suspended on a string in front
of an enraptured black cat.
The boys’ mother, Cath-
erine, said the family adopted
all of their cats from PAWS
and suggested it wasn’t a
hard sell to get her sons to
sign up for the program.
“They were like, ‘OK, we
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The reading to animals summer reading program is a
partnership between Foster Grandparents, the Pendle-
ton Public Library and PAWS.
DACK: Patience most important
part of being a real estate agent
Continued from 1A
Dack said. Finding the right
match between people and
property can be difficult, but
Dack said it’s also rewarding
to help someone find a home
that fits both their needs and
their budget.
“Every sale is kind of a
miracle, because so many
things can happen to keep
the sale from happening,”
she said. “Finance is always
a struggle. We always want
a little more than we can
afford.”
Dack described herself
as a people person, and
said that craving for human
interaction is a big part of
what keeps her coming to
work. Being patient is the
most important part of being
a real estate agent, she said,
because people will often
come into the process not
knowing what they want.
A Realtor can show them a
house that is exactly what
they described, and they
might reject it and choose
something
completely
different from what they
originally said they were
looking for.
She said some of her
favorite sales have been
helping immigrants who
have arrived from a foreign
country find a home in
America.
“It’s interesting to get to
know their background, and
very satisfying when you
help them find what they
want,” she said.
These days, Dack spends
more time in the office
than out selling houses, but
she said she still does help
with the occasional sale if a
former customer comes in
and asks her to help them
with an upgrade or downsize.
She was given high praise
during the Columbia Basin
Board of Realtors banquet,
with the presenter noting that
while many Realtors can’t
“cut it” in the industry for
more than a few years, Dack
“has taken great delight
from the very beginning in
watching our area grow and
prosper and still does to this
day.”
She
has
remained
active in various clubs and
organizations in Hermiston
during her time there, and
even bought an airplane in
her younger days so that
she could fly to real estate
classes and make it back to
her customers faster.
Her motto in facing
tough-to-love properties is
“there’s a buyer for every-
thing.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
iston Herald’s Facebook page. “He
will be missed dearly.”
Mayor
David
Drotzmann
offered up condolences as well in a
statement on behalf of the city.
“We’re extremely saddened to
hear about the passing of Frank
Harkenrider; undeniably Herm-
iston’s ‘greatest cheerleader.’” he
said in a written statement. “This
community would not be where it
is today without Frank’s nearly five
decades of direct service to the city
of Hermiston. I think naming the
new Harkenrider Center after Frank
was the least we could do to honor
his unrivaled level of community
service.”
Services are pending, with
arrangements in care of Burns
Mortuary.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.
SORTE: County passed its largest
ever road budget earlier this year
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Joy Rana, a volunteer with Foster Grandparents, left,
taps on the glass to get a puppy’s attention as Kaylee
Weston, 10, of Pendleton looks on Tuesday during the
reading to animals summer reading program at PAWS
in Pendleton.
get to play with cats all day,’”
she said. “But they want to
adopt all of them.”
Foster
Grandparent
volunteer Joy Rana said
she could see the progress
the kids were making, not
only in their literacy, but in
their ability to focus on the
material.
Another volunteer, Mary
Taufen-Burcham,
noticed
something else.
“The kids are more
excited to read,” she said.
Taufen-Burcham thinks
the enthusiasm comes from
the children’s authority in
reading their own book
rather than being told which
book to read.
While
the
reading
sessions usually have six
kids, with each child getting
a half-hour block to read and
play with an animal, Rana
said Tuesday’s session was
attended by 14 youths.
If the program is able to
garner enough more atten-
tion, Brenne said the Foster
Grandparents could extend
it from the end of July into
August.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
with large energy devel-
opers. Because those funds
are non-discretionary, Sorte
said they have provided
dollars for commissioners
to invest in county roads
and infrastructure.
“They’ve really allowed
the budget committee and
board of commissioners to
start directing funds toward
their priorities,” he said.
The county did pass its
largest ever road budget
earlier this year, totaling
$7.18 million — compared
to $6.91 million last fiscal
year.
Facilities are another
issue the county must
address moving forward,
Sorte said. When he started,
officials were just dedi-
cating the recently finished
Bartholomew
Building
next to the historic county
courthouse in Heppner.
The next challenge
is figuring out what to
do with the aging north
county offices in Irrigon,
which house the planning
department, parole and
probation, justice court and
veterans affairs. Sorte said
the county is working to
recruit a project manager
for facility planning and
building design that will
examine all possibilities,
while balancing public
input.
“The community has a
great desire to weigh in on
this discussion,” Sorte said.
A request for proposals
has been posted online, and
the county will accept bids
through Aug. 8.
Before he came to
Morrow County, Sorte
worked eight years as a land
use planner for Polk County
and his new position will see
him return to the Willamette
Valley. Melissa Lindsay,
chairwoman for the board
of commissioners, said it is
disappointing to be going
through another transition
but wished Sorte well
moving forward.
“I am looking forward to
the opportunity to continue
moving in a great direction
for Morrow County,”
Lindsay said in a written
statement. “The county
has so many good things
going for it, and we will
all be working diligently
to continue the momentum
into the bright future
Morrow County has.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.