Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Bentz:
State
should
prioritize
revenue,
PERS
reform
By PARIS ACHEN
and CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton Round-Up Queen Kendra Torrey leads her court around the arena during Wednesday’s opening run-in.
WISHES: Araya will also participate in the Children’s Rodeo
Continued from 1A
The accident left Araya
with brain damage that
confi ned her to a wheelchair,
but it did nothing to dampen
her spirit. Her family calls
her “Araya Sunshine,” and
says that she’s almost always
in a celebratory mood. The
Nixyaawii sixth grader can
often be heard claiming it’s
her birthday.
She’s a big fan of rodeo
culture, but more than the
horses or hats, “she loves the
people,” her father said. Her
sister Miracle, 8, said Araya
says hello to everyone she
sees.
And Trevor Brazile might
be her new best friend.
The cowboy helps the
Children’s Western Wish
Foundation every chance
he gets, he said. For the visit
with Araya, he brought along
his seven-year-old daughter,
Style.
“It’s rewarding to see you
can take someone’s mind off
what they’re going through,
even if it’s just for a little
while,” he said. “It’s humbling
to know you can make that
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Araya Edmiston, 11, of Pendleton is all smiles as she meets Trevor Brazile of Decatur,
Texas, on Wednesday in Pendleton.
kind of difference.”
On behalf of the foun-
dation, Brazile gifted Araya
with enough gear to complete
a genuine cowgirl get-up: a
special silver belt buckle, a
sash embroidered with the title
“Princess Araya” and a hat
decorated with the signatures
of all 17 Round-Up Directors,
plus a sparkling tiara. She also
received a cowboy-themed
Bible inscribed with a hand-
written note from Clyde and
Elsie Frost, whose son died in
a 1989 bull riding accident at
Wyoming’s Cheyenne Fron-
tier Days Rodeo.
The founder of the Chil-
dren’s Western Wish Foun-
dation, Glee Nett, lives in
Cheyenne, Wyo., but travels
the country granting wishes.
She bought a new car three
months ago and has already
put more than 10,000 miles
on it. But she wouldn’t have it
any other way.
“Things like this show the
good in our western heritage
and our rodeo family,” she
said. “It’s a wonderful family
to belong to.”
The foundation also paid
for the Edminstons to attend
the Round-Up’s Kick-off
concert, though Araya’s sensi-
tivity to loud noises prohibited
them from staying for all of
Gary Allan’s performance.
Araya will also participate
in Thursday’s Children’s
Rodeo, something that she
looks forward to every year,
her father said.
Another
wish-granting
foundation, Western Wishes,
will treat Kallen Shuster to a
visit with some of his favorite
cowboys on Friday. The fi ve-
year-old boy from Ontario
suffers
from
Follicular
Bronchiolitis, an auto-im-
mune disease that makes him
dependent on an oxygen tank.
———
Contact Emily Olson at
eolson@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0809
HISTORY: Parking lot construction uncovered human remains
Continued from 1A
round but escaped, only for
the law to catch up with him
later, landing him eight years
in the Oregon State Peniten-
tiary. Maddock was shot in
the face and lived.
Hart was shot and killed,
becoming the fi rst offi cer to
die on duty in Oregon.
The EO did not hold back
its opinion of Vaughn in
describing his fall that after-
noon in 1893: “the man who
appears to have nine lives ...
had at last been the victim of
his own recklessness.”
Building on the dead
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College moved to its
location on the west end of
Pendleton’s North Hill in
1965. Campus construction
continued over the course
of a decade, and not without
hitches.
Grey
Elliott
taught
writing, literature and fi lm
at the college. During the
construction of the parking
lot behind what’s now
the Bob Clapp Theatre in
Pioneer Hall, he said workers
uncovered human remains in
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Only two streets in Pendleton retain their original
names, Main and Court, all of the other streets names
were changed in the 1930s. Jeff Davis Street is now
Southeast 11th Street.
old coffi ns.
“I actually packed a couple
of skulls down to the biology
lab,” Elliott said. “Covered in
real white hair — it was kind
of creepy.”
Bob Jenson, another
BMCC professor at the time
and former state represen-
tative from Pendleton, said
the discovery caused quite
the fuss. No one knew where
the remains came from, and
Elliott said there was concern
the work unearthed an Indian
grave site, so construction
stopped.
He also said the skulls
presented their own mystery
— there were holes in them.
The county coroner, Dr.
Paul Knowels, examined the
skulls, Elliot said, and deter-
mined the holes were from
trepanation or trepanning —
the process of drilling holes
into the skull to treat certain
diseases or relieve cranial
pressure.
Elliott said rather than
Indian remains, these likely
were from earlier days of
the Eastern Oregon State
Hospital, the insane asylum
Oregon opened in 1913 on
450 acres below the college.
The state from 1983-85
converted the hospital into
the Eastern Oregon Correc-
tional Institution, the medi-
um-security mens prison.
Elliott nor Jenson said
they knew what happened
to the coffi ns or their dreary
contents.
Town of confusion
Finding your way through
Pendleton was not always as
easy as now (and it’s still not
always easy).
Pendleton had only named
streets in its early days and
no numbered streets. Street
names also lacked directions,
such as northwest or south-
east.
Frostad said Pendleton’s
fi rst street names came arose
from the fi rst property owner
on the block or noted areas
of importance. Railroad
Street, for example — now
Southwest Frazer Avenue —
was next to the railroad yard.
Water Street, now a portion of
Byers Avenue, ran parallel to
the south side of the Umatilla
River.
To get anywhere, she said,
people had to know where
Webb Street met College
Street, a situation that even
in a small town could be
frustrating.
That changed after the
city built its airport in 1930.
Frostad said city leaders
recognized the town’s road
system was messy, so they
alphabetized street names
and added numbered streets,
along with directions, to
create a grid pattern. Only
two streets have kept their
original names over Pend-
leton’s 149 years, she said,
Main Street and Court (then
street, now avenue) because
that is where the courthouse
is located.
The changeover also
brought new designations to
the handful of streets bearing
the names of Confederate
Civil War leaders, including
Jeff Davis Street, Beauregard
Street and Stonewall Jackson
Street.
JOHN DAY — A
prominent legislator who
helped shepherd a massive
transportation
package
through the Legislature
earlier this year is meeting
resistance from leadership
on his calls to prioritize
budget and tax reform.
“Spending reform, tax
reform and (public pension
reform) are in another
world of complexity as
compared to the transpor-
tation package,” said Rep.
Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, in a
meeting with the Pamplin
Media/EO Media Capital
Bureau Wednesday, Sept.
13. “We should be starting
now.”
His comments came
hours after a coalition
called Priority Oregon
announced it had fi led an
initiative petition to make
state and local public agen-
cies use excess revenues
to pay down unfunded
obligations of the Public
Employees
Retirement
System.
The state faces poten-
tially dramatic shortfalls
for Medicaid and PERS in
the next two years.
Instead, Gov. Kate
Brown and House Speaker
Tina Kotek, D-Portland,
want to focus on passing
a “cap-and-invest” carbon
program in the 35-day
legislative session early
next year. The program
would set a limit on the
amount of carbon a busi-
ness could emit and put
a price on any excess. It
would yield an estimated
$700 million per year in
revenue to invest in projects
to slow climate change.
“If they pass cap and
invest to pull $700 million
a year out of our economy,
are we going to go back a
short year later and say we
want another $2 billion to
address PERS?” Bentz
said.
“How much can our
economy stand?”
Bentz and three other
lawmakers — Rep. Phil
Barnhart, D-Eugene; Sen.
Brian Boquist, R-Dallas;
and Sen. Mark Hass,
D-Beaverton — convened
in late August to discuss
a format for pursuing
revenue and spending
reform.
The Ontario lawmaker
said he approached Brown
and Kotek about pursuing
reform ideas now.
“What I have been told
is wait until March,” Bentz
said.
Hass
agreed
that
“cap and invest” policy
should wait until 2019,
when instead of 35 days,
lawmakers have more than
fi ve months to pass laws.
(The Oregon Legislature
convenes for the shorter
session in even years and
the longer session in odd
years.)
“Policies of that magni-
tude should be dealt with
in the long session, and the
short session should be to
add changes that require
prompt attention,” Hass
said.
“I think it is fair to say
we can start a process to
look at that, but I think it is
something we should pick
up in 2019,” he added.
There are a few reasons
why leadership may want
to delay an overhaul of
the state’s interconnected
budget, public pension
system and tax structure.
For one thing, it’s
unclear what Congress
may reform health care
and tax policies that affect
the state budget.
There’s
talk
that
Medicaid funding for
states could move to a
block grant format, Bentz
said. That potentiality
and any changes to tax
policy, such as policies
surrounding deductions,
could affect the amount of
revenue Oregon brings in.