Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A team of seniors called the Gender Benders engages in a slimy tug of war Wednesday during
Pendleton High School’s Mud Wars at the Happy Canyon Arena. The girls won the event.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2017
141st Year, No. 253
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
City plan could
slash $1 million
in airport debt
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Senior Zachary Ferguson gets a hug from senior Felix Aparicio after Ferguson spoke about how much their friendship
meant to him during a “Breaking Down the Walls” session Wednesday at Riverside High School in Boardman.
SMASHING WALLS
Riverside High School
program helps students
relate, solve problems
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Though Rochelle Whellams had just
met the teenagers at Riverside High
School, she had them riveted.
“How many of you have had a time
where someone judged you and it hurt?”
she asked the Boardman students, to an
almost unanimous affirmative response.
Whellams is a speaker from
“Breaking Down the Walls,” a program
that aims to help students relate to one
another and better deal with issues that
cause them trouble in school.
The session, which was founded
in 1984 as part of the “Learning for
Living” program, attempts to engage
students in several ways: get them
comfortable with each other through
games and basic conversations, break
them into smaller groups to get to know
each other, and have them discuss and
think about their own experiences.
“The idea is that kids will start to
recognize other people within our school
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rochelle Whellams, center, leads a group of Riverside High School
students in a exercise meant to show the students how much they have
in common with each other during a “Breaking Down the Walls” session
Wednesday at Riverside High School in Boardman.
that they don’t normally associate with,”
said Riverside principal David Norton.
“And second, to recognize that we all
have baggage. Just because I may be
coming to school upset, there may be a
reason for that.”
Norton said his staff decided to host
the event because they’re trying to help
students who have adverse child experi-
ences, as well as learn more about how
those events affect students’ success
See WALLS/6A
HERMISTON
Local investor in biodiesel project
warns against getting ‘suckered’
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Everyone hopes to get
in on the ground floor of
the next Microsoft or Pepsi,
but investing in a start-up
company is always a gamble.
Glenn Bradley, of Herm-
iston, can attest to that. After
investing $30,000 in the
Inland Pacific Energy Center
in 2006, he has yet to see a
dime of profit. Last week
the state called the operation
— in which developer Bob
Doughty sold shares in a
proposed biodiesel plant in
Stanfield — a “community-
“There are so many scams, I usually can
see them, but this one I got suckered.”
— Glenn Bradley, Hermiston investor
wide investment scam” and
fined Doughty for violating
Oregon securities law.
“There are so many scams,
I usually can see them, but
this one I got suckered,”
Bradley said.
Doughty maintains that
the plan is not a scam and
he still fully intends to build
the plant. He says the project
was merely delayed by the
2008 financial crisis but
his company has come into
more money recently and is
“ready to go.” Last week he
called the state’s investiga-
tion “one-sided” and said he
plans to fight it in court.
Eleven years after putting
in money, however, Bradley
has his doubts he will ever see
a return on his investment,
and he said he knows other
See SCAM/6A
The Eastern Oregon Regional Airport is carrying $2.5
million in debt, but action by the Pendleton City Council
could provide immediate relief and a path to total repay-
ment.
The city’s auditor, Rob Tremper, and Finance Director
Linda Carter explained to the city council Tuesday how
the city could write off a significant amount of the loan’s
interest and gave a general primer on the airport’s debt.
Here’s how it would work:
What is the airport debt?
Decades ago, the city began taking loans from other
city funds to subsidize airport operations. Since 1995, the
airport’s debt on those
loans has grown to more
than $2.5 million.
By the numbers
The city borrows from
a multitude of internal ■ $2.5 million —Total
debt to other
sources, but the lion’s airport
city funds
share comes from the ■ $1.2 million — Total
general fund, the city’s interest “repaid” on
only discretionary fund those loans since 1995
that pays for services like ■ $1 million —
police, fire and parks.
Amount of debt taken
In accordance with a off the books if city
state law, Carter said the retroactively reduces
airport fund pays back the interest rate to 0.5%
balance of the loans at the
end of each fiscal year.
But at the beginning of the new year, the airport takes out
the loans again and re-establishes the debt.
The city is paying back the interest on the loans each
year, but in name only.
According to a spreadsheet presented to the council,
the city has paid more than $1.2 million in interest since
1995. Although that money repaid to the various funds
is represented in the budget, it isn’t backed up by actual
cash.
“What you’re forgiving is an IOU,” said City Manager
Robb Corbett.
How does interest write-off affect the debt?
The loans’ interest rate has long been tied to the Oregon
Local Government Investment Pool and has fluctuated
between 1 and 7 percent over the past two decades.
But as an alternative, state statute also allows the city
See AIRPORT/6A
Hurtado charged
with crimes after
being shot by officer
vehicle and pointed his
gun at Morrow County
Morrow County District Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron
Attorney Justin Nelson will Haak, although he did not
bring charges against a man fire the gun.
According
who allegedly
to
Nelson,
pointed a gun
Haak did not
at a deputy and
expect anyone
was shot in late
to be inside the
September.
vehicle, which
A Morrow
he was tagging to
C o u n t y
be towed. But as
grand
jury
he approached,
recommended
H u r t a d o
bringing
the
opened the rear
charges based
passenger door,
on
evidence
looked out, and
presented by the Hurtado
pointed a gun at
DA.
Efren Hurtado, 26, will Haak.
Haak quickly fired two
be charged with unlawful
use of a weapon, menacing rounds, one of which struck
and carrying a concealed Hurtado in the side of the
weapon. He is currently head, dropping him but not
lodged in the Umatilla penetrating his skull.
According to Nelson,
County Jail.
Hurtado was shot in the Haak rushed back to
early hours of Sept. 22 in a his car for cover, called
parked Chevy Tahoe on the dispatch, and waited for
westbound side of Inter- other police officers to
state 84 near the Boardman arrive. Officers arrived to
find Hurtado unconscious
exit.
Nelson said the grand with a revolver near his
jury heard testimony hand. Hurtado had been
and video indicating that recovering at a Portland
Hurtado leaned out of the hospital.
East Oregonian