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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2017)
70/49 PENDLETON DEFEATS HERMISTON BUGGING OUT SPORTS/1B PUBLIC SAFETY LOG/5A Bug up sleeve causes driver to lose control WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2017 142nd Year, No. 2 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Tobacco banned in all parks Will have a six-month grace period on enforcement By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Faced with public health concerns, Pendleton parks are giving up smoking and going cold turkey for at least the next two years. The council amended an ordi- nance banning tobacco at Rudy Rada Skatepark and expanded it to all 22 properties in the Pend- leton parks system. The ordinance doesn’t just ban cigarettes, but any “tobacco products” or “lighted smoking instrument or activated inhalant delivery system.” That means cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, snuff, e-cigarettes or vape pens are also forbidden. Unlike a previous administra- tive rule that banned smoking near playgrounds, the ordinance carries penalties for those who violate it including citations and fi nes. Pendleton Parks and Recre- ation Director Donnie Cook said the ordinance was meant to protect children from tobacco and reduce littering from cigarette butts. From a health standpoint, Mariah Hinds, the tobacco prevention coordinator for Umatilla County Public Health, said these kinds of policies could help prevent tobacco addiction in minors and provide a safe place for former smokers struggling to kick their habit. Umatilla County Public Health Director Jim Setzer said people thought that a ban on smoking in restaurants would never hold, but public attitude has changed on the issue. See SMOKE/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris An excavator moves debris while clearing lots for construction in the Virginia’s Place housing development on Tuesday in Umatilla. Keeping up with the jobs New housing projects could put dent in cities’ housing crunch By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Finding housing can be harder than fi nding a job in some parts of Eastern Oregon, but there are people working to solve that problem. On Tuesday, BC Contracting and PROffutt Limited Partnership broke ground on a new 240-unit apartment complex in Boardman. City Manager Karen Pettigrew said Boardman and the companies located there have been working hard to fi nd ways to bring more “market-rate” housing to the community, allowing more workers to live in the town where they are employed. In 2015 it was estimated that 68 percent of workers at the Port of Morrow did not live in Boardman. “I just wanted to say how excited we are to have this adven- ture starting in Boardman,” she said during the groundbreaking ceremony. Port of Morrow manager Gary Neal thanked PROffutt, the real estate division of the R.D. Offutt company that owns RDO See HOUSING/8A Staff photo by Jade McDowell Representatives of R.D. Offutt Company, BC Contracting and Boardman break ground on a new 240 unit apartment complex in Boardman. One dollar Local leaders bend federal ears on forest plan revision Grazing, restoration remain key issues By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian County commissioners from across Eastern Oregon met Monday with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies in Pendleton to discuss the latest timeline, progress and key issues facing the long-overdue Blue Moun- tains Forest Plan Revision. The gathering was another step in the grueling and contentious process of approving three new land management plans for the Umatilla, Wallowa- Whitman and Malheur national forests, which were last updated in 1990. Forest plans are supposed to be updated every 10-15 years to account for the latest science, and provide the Forest Service with a framework for managing public lands. The Blue Mountains Forest Plan includes 4.9 million acres in Eastern Oregon and Washington. Jim Peña, regional forester for Oregon and Washington, said the Forest Service is in the home stretch of completing the revision, and a fi nal environmental impact statement will be released sometime after February 2018. But county offi cials remain concerned about how the plans will address issues vital to the local economy, such as live- stock grazing, public access, pace and scale of restoration, land allocations and timber sales. Those concerns were laid out to the feds Monday at the Umatilla National Forest headquarters. More than 30 people attended the meeting, including Peña, Republican congressman Greg Walden, 12 county commissioners, all three forest supervisors and represen- tatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Much of the conversation focused on proposed grazing standards in the plan revision that commissioners warned could deal a major blow to the ranching industry. Specifi cally, counties railed against an increase in stubble height on public lands from 4 inches to 6 inches in functioning watersheds, and from 6 inches to 8 inches in at-risk or impaired watersheds. Stubble height is a requirement that relates to water quality, though Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts said some grazing allotments within the forests do not grow 8 inches of grass, even in a good year. “That will almost certainly destroy a few of our smaller producers, and greatly diminish our larger ones if they cannot use our public lands for grazing as they have done in the past,” Roberts said. The Forest Service would also need See FORESTS/8A Oregon sues to obtain stats on DACA arrests By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon has joined nine other states in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for failing to release public information detailing the detention and deportation of immigrants. The lawsuit, fi led Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, claims that federal agencies have failed to respond to requests within a 30-day statutory dead- line and are unlawfully withholding the records. “We value transparency in Oregon — and we should demand the same from the federal government,” said Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in a prepared statement. “Americans have the right to know how many immigrants have been arrested — and how many have been detained — and we should be able to review that critical information in an expedited manner.” A coalition of 10 attorneys general on June 29 submitted a Freedom of Informa- tion Act request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The request sought records related to recipients of Deferred Action for Child- hood Arrivals, arrests and detentions of undocumented immigrants at certain “sensitive locations,” and ICE or CBP detainer requests and databases. The DACA program, created by executive order of then-President Barack Obama, allows recipients, also known as “Dreamers” to legally work and attend school in the United States. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions See DACA/8A Pamplin Media Group Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has joined nine other attorneys general in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for failing to release public information detailing the detention and de- portation of immigrants.
