NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
PENDLETON
Father, son prepare for eclipse Fire department
union
after missed 1979 viewing
gets higher pay, better
benefits in new contract
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
MADRAS — The last time a
total solar eclipse blacked out the
sun in Oregon nearly 40 years
ago, Gene Brick was working in
a timber mill that refused to shut
down for the spectacle.
The World War II veteran and
amateur astronomer was devas-
tated when his friends raved
about experiencing a pitch-dark
sky in the middle of the day.
“Everyone who was outside
got to see it, and they enjoyed
telling me all about it — and I
was hurt by that,” said Brick,
now 92. “But work is work, you
know.”
Brick will get another chance
to witness history this month,
when a total solar eclipse begins
its path across the U.S. in
Oregon.
The one he missed in 1979
covered the Pacific Northwest
and parts of Canada. This total
eclipse will be visible from coast
to coast across the nation —
something that hasn’t happened
in 99 years.
Brick plans to watch the
event with his son using two
telescopes: a fancy new one and
one the two crafted together 53
years ago in their basement.
The men will peer at the sun
through both during the eclipse’s
totality, when the moon’s
shadow completely covers the
sun for just over two minutes.
They also will use special
filters to photograph the eclipse
through the newer machine.
For Brick, who survived a
kamikaze attack on the USS
Drexler during the Battle of
Okinawa, the opportunity is the
experience of a lifetime.
“I always loved to look at the
moon,” he said, after peering
through the telescope the pair
crafted in 1964. “I still do.”
The Bricks will have a prime
location for their father-son
moment. The town of Madras,
in central Oregon, is in the high
desert, where summertime skies
are often clear and cloudless. Up
to 100,000 people are expected
to flock to the town and
just agreed to a $10 million bond and
weren’t being “greedy” with their
requests.
Although council members didn’t
hold a vote on it, they did hold a public
hearing about hiring a contractor
during the fire station design process
rather than bid it out once designs are
complete.
Joseph Hull of McCormack
Construction delivered a presentation
on the “construction manager/general
contractor” method, with assurances
from Ciraulo that McCormack would
not receive preferential treatment.
Over the course of his career, Hull
said he’s worked on several projects
using this alternative method, ranging
from the 1990s remodel of Pendleton
High School to the Seattle Justice
Center.
Hull said it would be advantageous
for the city to employ this method
because the designer and contractor
will frequently perform cost evalu-
ations during the design phase and
change the scope of the project accord-
ingly if its needed.
Additionally, a contractor must
produce a maximum cost fee once the
station is 80 percent designed.
The council will hold another
public hearing at its next meeting and
vote whether to use the construction
manager/general contractor” method.
Other actions the council took
include:
• The council unanimously
approved $107,000 in vehicle
purchases for the Pendleton Police
Department.
The department will use the money
to buy three new patrol cars and two
used, low-mileage sedans for the
community services officer and the
code enforcement officer.
• The council also unanimously
approved a $204,193 bid from Jesse
Rodriguez Construction of Silverton to
replace water mains at Northwest Ninth
Street and Southwest 32nd Street and a
$67,676 bid from Columbia Pumping
& Construction of Pasco to perform
repair work on a sewer line running
under the Umatilla River.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Fire Department’s
union has a new contract to go along
with its new fire station.
The Pendleton City Council unan-
imously approved a new three-year
contract with the fire department’s
union at a meeting Tuesday.
According to a summary of the
contract changes prepared by Human
Resources Manager Andrea Denton,
union employees will only receive a
marginal wage increase over the life of
the contract — a 1 percent increase in
2019.
However, the city will now pick up
the employees’ 6 percent contribution
into the Public Employees Retirement
System.
Elsewhere in the contract, the city
and the union agreed to nix the career
development bonus but also created a
2 percent increase in certification pay
for certain professional certificates.
The city will continue to cover 100
percent of the insurance cost share for
union employees and 80 percent for
employee dependents.
In addition to seeing changes to
their salary and benefits, Pendleton’s
firefighters and paramedics will no
longer have to live within 15 road miles
or 30 minutes response time of the
fire station, since a place of residence
clause was removed from the contract.
Fifty percent of all off-duty
employees will no longer have to
be available to report in case of
emergency, contract language Denton
characterized as “unenforceable.”
After meeting behind closed doors,
the council emerged and unanimously
approved the new contract without
debate.
The International Association of
Fire Fighters represents 21 members
of the Pendleton Fire Department and
Ambulance Service, excluding admin-
istration, reserves and interns.
Salaries currently range from
$42,168 per year for a single-role para-
medic on the bottom tier to $100,488
for a captain on the top tier.
In a previous interview, Fire Chief
Mike Ciraulo said union members
were aware that Pendleton voters
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
This frame grab from a video shows Gene Brick, 92, left, and
his son, Bartt Brick, peer through a telescope in Madras, June
12, that they made together in 1964. The two plan to watch
the upcoming solar eclipse together Aug. 21, 2017, as it passes
through Oregon.
surrounding Jefferson County
for the Aug. 21 event, creating
worries about overcrowding and
traffic.
Brick’s son, Bartt Brick, is
on the Madras City Council
and will be on call during the
eclipse. But taking the time to
watch the event with his father
is important to him. The elder
Brick got the last four credits
he needed for his high school
diploma by signing up for the
U.S. Navy and never attended
college — but even in his 90s,
he’s studying particle physics.
The pair decided to build
the telescope when the younger
Brick was 14, after finding a
piece of glass in his late grand-
father’s garage that was hand-
ground into a concave lens for
a telescope. Gene Brick worked
long, hard days cutting logs at
the mill then stayed up into the
night working on the project
with his teenage son.
“We’d bought ourselves a
book on telescopes and a new
dictionary, and after about —
what — four or five months, we
had a telescope,” Bartt Brick
recalled on a recent summer day.
“I’d sleep about half the
night,” his father added with a
chuckle.
The two dragged the tele-
scope outside on the night they
finished, aimed it toward the
heavens by propping it on a
stepladder, and peered into the
night sky until they spied the
Ring Nebula, a dying star in a
constellation about 2,000 light
years from Earth.
“We were so excited, we
ran in and told Mom. But at 2
o’clock in the morning, she
wasn’t as thrilled as we were,”
the younger Brick said.
Over the years, the telescope
got a lot of use from the family
and from a string of neighbor-
hood children who lined up most
evenings to peer at the moon.
But when the 1979 total solar
eclipse came along, the elder
Brick was working, the younger
Brick no longer lived at home,
and the telescope went unused.
When Bartt Brick moved
back to Madras three years ago,
the stars aligned for another
crack at a shared celestial show.
On Aug. 21, three genera-
tions of Bricks will assemble.
They’ll have a sleek black,
new telescope equipped with a
remote control and a USB cord
for snapping photos through a
computer.
But they’ll also have on hand
the unassuming, unmounted
metal cylinder they worked on
so long ago.
“Dad’s had a message for
me ever since I was 2 years old,
and it was, ‘Be curious,’” Bartt
Brick said. “And boy, did I learn
how to be curious with this.”
Corrections
The August 1 East Oregonian article “Plant goes offline for picnic and repairs” contained the wrong date for the next Stanfield City Council meeting. The next city council meeting is scheduled
for Tuesday, Aug. 15. The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Very hot with
sizzling sunshine
Very hot with
plenty of sunshine
Very hot
102° 65°
102° 68°
Hot with some sun
SUNDAY
Partly sunny and
very hot
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
104° 72°
101° 70°
101° 71°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
106° 69°
105° 64°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
99°
90°
108° (2009)
58°
60°
41° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.00"
0.01"
11.30"
7.27"
7.96"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
Yesterday
Normals
Records
HIGH
LOW
100°
90°
109° (2009)
55°
60°
41° (2002)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.00"
0.01"
6.59"
4.94"
5.93"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
Last
Aug 7
Aug 14
New
Aug 21
104° 71°
104° 72°
Seattle
94/68
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
107° 74°
5:40 a.m.
8:22 p.m.
4:34 p.m.
1:35 a.m.
First
Aug 29
Today
Spokane
Wenatchee
95/66
99/71
Tacoma
Moses
94/59
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 102/66
95/58
92/63
99/57
103/66
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
100/64
102/71 Lewiston
105/62
Astoria
102/68
87/61
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
107/70
Pendleton 95/56
The Dalles 105/64
102/65
106/70
La Grande
Salem
99/58
109/66
Albany
Corvallis 109/63
109/63
John Day
101/65
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
103/66
107/60
100/62
Caldwell
Burns
102/64
98/53
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
87
95
100
69
98
95
107
98
105
101
99
99
97
113
77
77
103
105
102
107
101
109
95
95
104
102
103
Lo
61
48
62
55
53
56
60
63
64
65
59
58
55
74
54
56
66
64
65
70
55
66
66
52
69
71
66
W
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
pc
pc
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Thu.
Hi
82
95
100
68
98
95
106
99
106
100
99
99
97
112
69
71
102
104
102
106
101
109
96
96
104
102
104
Lo
58
50
63
55
51
58
57
69
69
61
56
59
56
72
51
55
66
63
68
69
56
63
67
55
69
72
67
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
85
92
88
66
79
79
81
94
93
63
82
Lo
75
84
68
61
58
68
65
72
78
51
73
W
t
sh
s
r
pc
s
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
Thu.
Hi
94
90
86
72
78
77
81
97
95
65
84
Lo
75
83
67
58
56
59
61
74
77
52
75
W
t
t
s
c
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
r
pc
WINDS
Medford
113/74
Klamath Falls
99/59
(in mph)
Today
Thursday
Boardman
Pendleton
NE 6-12
N 6-12
NNE 4-8
NW 4-8
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Plenty of sunshine today;
very warm across the north. Clear tonight.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Mostly sunny
and very hot today. Clear tonight. Very hot
tomorrow.
Western Washington: Plenty of sunshine
today. Clear tonight. Blazing sunshine
tomorrow.
Eastern Washington: Hazy sun today; ex-
treme heat can be dangerous. Clear tonight.
Plenty of sun tomorrow.
Cascades: Blazing sunshine and very hot
today. Clear tonight. Very hot tomorrow.
Northern California: Mostly sunny today;
very hot in central parts. Mainly clear
tonight.
1
4
7
7
4
1
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Locally heavy storms will extend from the Plains to the Great Lakes
and will riddle the Deep South and Southwest today. Rain will precede a cooldown over the
northern Plains as heat builds in the Northwest.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 110° in Redding, Calif.
Low 34° in Dillon, Colo.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
88
88
83
90
70
86
102
82
90
85
84
85
88
88
85
89
60
73
88
86
81
86
87
103
84
91
Lo
66
72
70
67
51
71
66
66
70
65
68
67
72
56
68
69
52
53
76
75
66
73
68
84
69
74
W
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
s
pc
t
pc
pc
pc
t
t
t
c
t
s
t
t
t
pc
t
pc
pc
Thur.
Hi
89
84
82
90
79
87
100
82
83
87
83
85
93
72
83
92
70
71
88
89
83
84
78
100
88
89
Lo
64
69
72
69
55
72
67
66
71
67
60
71
74
54
68
71
52
50
76
76
65
73
53
82
70
72
W
t
t
pc
pc
s
t
s
pc
t
pc
t
t
pc
c
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
c
c
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
Today
Hi
Louisville
87
Memphis
86
Miami
92
Milwaukee
79
Minneapolis
83
Nashville
89
New Orleans
88
New York City
88
Oklahoma City
89
Omaha
86
Philadelphia
89
Phoenix
101
Portland, ME
79
Providence
83
Raleigh
92
Rapid City
78
Reno
104
Sacramento
99
St. Louis
91
Salt Lake City
99
San Diego
82
San Francisco
77
Seattle
94
Tucson
92
Washington, DC 92
Wichita
90
Lo
70
70
81
66
64
69
74
71
65
65
72
83
64
65
68
48
69
66
72
71
74
62
68
75
72
67
W
pc
c
t
pc
pc
c
t
t
pc
pc
t
t
s
pc
pc
r
pc
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
t
pc
pc
Thur.
Hi
88
90
93
78
64
91
84
86
89
72
89
102
78
80
93
72
103
99
92
98
81
80
98
97
92
85
Lo
72
72
82
59
53
72
74
72
65
54
71
85
63
66
70
48
69
70
62
72
73
63
66
76
74
59
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
t
pc
pc
t
r
pc
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
t