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