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.