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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2017)
A great egret fl ies down the Umatilla River near the Ken Melton Little League Park on Monday in Pendleton. Staff photo by E.J. Harris TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017 141st Year, No. 256 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD New law puts brakes on prison population expansion Second women’s facility on indefinite hold By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pharmacist Cindy Parks of Pendleton consults with patient Jan Cavallaro of Pendleton about possible drug interactions after Cavallaro underwent knee replacement surgery on Monday at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. Diving into disaster relief Echo woman on medical team that provided care for Hurricane Irma victims By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian When it comes to hurricanes, Cindy Parks has been there, done that. Parks, an Echo resident and pharmacist at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, recently returned from a three-week stint caring for “medically fragile” Hurricane Irma evacuees in Naples, Florida. In the past she responded to hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and Superstorm Sandy. She may head out to Puerto Rico to help with Hurricane Maria recovery next. “Most people are compas- sionate,” she said. “Most people want to help and I’m one of the lucky ones because I get to do something to make a difference.” Parks is part of the National Disaster Medical System, which AP Photo/Gerald Herbert Firefi ghters check on Kelly McClenthen, who returned to check on the damage to her fl ooded home, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Bonita Springs, Fla. on Sept. 11. sends teams of medical profes- sionals to assist overloaded local professionals in responding to a disaster or public health emergency. In addition to the hurricanes, the Oregon Disaster Medical Assistance Team she is a member of deployed to the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and has fl own in to help provide support during non-emergency mass gatherings such as the pope’s visit to Wash- ington, D.C. Each team — which is made of a balanced group of doctors, nurses, therapists, specialists, veterinarians, command staff and others — is on call during one quarter of the year, but Parks said the rapid succession of disasters recently meant teams from fourth quarter, including hers, had to deploy early. While some teams were directly treating victims injured in hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, this time Parks’ team was fl own by military plane outside of the disaster zone to Naples, Florida, where a large high school was sheltering about See PARKS/10A “Most people are compassionate. Most people want to help and I’m one of the lucky ones because I get to do something to make a difference.” — Cindy Parks, Echo resident and pharmacist at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton HERMISTON Harkenrider Center on pace to beat winter Council tours senior center, approves raise for police By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian The Harkenrider Center is on time and on budget. Hermiston city councilors toured the partially-completed senior center Monday before their regular meeting to learn about the building’s fl oor plan and progress. “It’s going very well I think,” said Jared Wendlandt of G2 Construction. He said G2 is working hard to get exterior work fi nished before winter hits so that bad weather See HERMISTON/10A Staff photo by Jade McDowell Jackie Meyers, Bonnie Luisi and Gary Luisi look out of what will one day be a set of french doors at the Harkenrider Center during a tour on Monday. SALEM — Oregon’s prison popula- tion in the next decade is forecast to be 11 percent less than previously projected largely due to a law passed earlier this year, according to a report by the state Offi ce of Economic Analysis. The Oregon Safety and Savings Act came out of state legislators’ desire to avoid having to open a second women’s prison in the state. The programs are “just in the formative stages and data do not exist to produce reasonable estimates. However, these programs are impacting intakes already, and as such are having an impact on prison usages,” state economists wrote. Opening the second prison would have cost the state nearly $10 million at a time when state legislators were facing a $1.4 billion revenue defi cit. The Oregon Emergency Board in December denied a request from the Department of Correc- tions to fund the second prison. Instead, lawmakers and the nonprofi t Partnership for Safety and Justice crafted bills aimed specifi cally at reducing the female prison population. Gov. Kate Brown signed the act into law Aug. 8. See PRISON/10A PENDLETON BMCC pool set to close at end of season By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton High School swim team will continue to use the Blue Mountain Community College pool, but the team’s longterm facility outlook remains murky. The Pendleton School Board approved an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding with BMCC to use the pool for the 2017-2018 swim season. The district will pay the college a $1,827 fl at rate to use the indoor pool for 7.5 hours per week from November to February. But unless the BMCC Board of Educa- tion takes action, this will be the last time the pool will be made available to the high school. Beset with problems to its ventilation, pumps, concrete and sheet rock, BMCC temporarily drained the pool and closed it down for much of 2016. After meeting with the three main enti- ties that use it — Pendleton High School, Hermiston High School and the Pendleton Swim Association — the college agreed to make some of the needed repairs and reopen the pool. But the move was only meant to provide temporary relief to the organizations that use it while a more permanent solution was found. Casey White-Zollman, BMCC’s vice president of communications, said the college’s programming doesn’t have any need for the pool and it’s still set to close on June 30, 2018. See POOL/10A
