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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2017)
64/46 RETURN OF MOLLY’S REVENGE THIS WEEK’S WINNERS AND LOSERS REGION/3A PIGSKIN PICKERS/2B THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2017 142nd Year, No. 3 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Main Street plaza project downsized Initial plan of event center, food hub nixed by landowner Union Pacifi c By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton Enhancement Program had ambitious designs for the 500 block of South Main Street, with the ultimate goal of building an event plaza on the old Webb’s Cold Storage at the property. But negotiations with the property owner — Union Pacifi c Railroad — has forced the commu- nity group to scale back its scope to focus on beautifying and enhancing a different space — a downtown parking lot. Chuck Wood, a project member, a retired city councilor, and the former chairman of the Pendleton Development Commission, went before the commission at a meeting Tuesday with a couple of requests. The enhancement project wanted the commission to release a $20,000 grant it had committed to the group in March and reaffi rm its support for the project. For the past year, the project has lined up support from promi- nent local offi cials and nonprofi ts including Wood, Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock, the Community Action Project of East Central Oregon and the Pend- leton Downtown Association. The group divided its project into three phases: the installation of fencing around the railroad, moving old trusses from the Eighth Street Bridge to the 500 block of Main Street and creating a plaza just south of the railroad tracks. Wood said the fi rst phase — fencing on the north side of the train tracks from the Heritage Station Museum to behind the Trendsitions building across Main Street — is supposed to be completed by the end of the year. See PENDLETON/8A Corporations to keep tax break lost by millions of Americans By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer EO fi le photo Byron Wysocki, left, and Jordan McDonald began their partnership in 2001, creating the wireless broadband company Wtech- link. This photo was taken in 2011. DISCONNECTED Wtechlink co-founders split after lengthy legal battle By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Jordan McDonald’s legal battles with his former business partner over one of Eastern Oregon’s top internet service providers have ended. Court records show McDonald a few weeks ago cut ties with Byron Wysocki and Pendleton-based Wtechlink, the company they opened together in 2002. “I’m out of it, I’m no longer working there,” McDonald said. “That’s no longer my problem.” Wysocki now is the sole owner of Wtechlink. “I’m out of it, I’m no longer working there. That’s no longer my problem.” — Jordan McDonald, co-founder of Wtechlink “It was an ugly divorce, and both parties have moved on,” he said. “I wish Mr. McDonald well and have nothing buy admiration for him.” Wysocki said Wtechlink has around 4,000 customers in Pendleton, Pilot Rock, Athena, Adams, Helix and on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and he remains at the helm, while his mother, Carol Wysocki, now oversees the company’s fi nances. She is a certifi ed public accountant in the Tri-Cities, Washington, and said Wtechlink remains healthy, but beyond that she did not want to comment. She also declined to say if Byron Wysocki has treated Wtechlink as a personal checking account, one of the central reasons McDonald sued Wysocki in late 2013 and tried More online To view some of the court docu- ments visit eastoregonian.com to oust him from controlling the company. McDonald in that lawsuit alleged Wysocki mismanaged Wtechlink and siphoned off tens of thousands of company dollars for other endeavors and personal expenses. They settled the suit in October 2015, with Wysocki agreeing to buy out McDonald’s 35 percent share of the company See WTECHLINK/8A WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans would lose a prized tax break under President Donald Trump’s sweeping revamp of the tax code, but corporations would get to keep it. The Republican proposal would eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes, a widely popular break used by some 44 million Americans, especially in high-tax, Democrat- ic-leaning states like New York, New Jersey, California and Illinois. But corporations, which pay billions in local property levies and state income taxes, wouldn’t be affected. Republicans are determined to over- haul the nation’s tax system by year’s end, offering a plan that lowers the corporate tax rate from 36 percent to 20 percent and reduces the number of tax brackets. Trump and the GOP cast the plan as a boon to the middle class. Meeting at the White House on Wednesday with members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, Trump said, “this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, in my opinion.” Democratic members of the committee remained united in opposi- tion to the current plan, said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat. He said their message to the president was: “You fi x it (the tax system) with real tax relief that helps the middle class. You don’t give tax cuts to people like him (Trump).” Toward the end of the meeting, Trump issued a thinly veiled threat to Democratic senators, according to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Most of the Democratic members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee who were invited are up for re-election next year in states Trump won in 2016. Brown is among them. Brown said Trump told them, “I couldn’t imagine being a Democrat See TAXES/8A Massive Oregon wildfi re may help fi ght against tree disease By JES BURNS Oregon Public Broadcasting Photo by Jes Burns, OPB/EarthFix Fire crews spray off a fi re engine used on the Chetco Bar fi re, in an attempt to pre- vent the spread of the plant disease, Sudden Oak Death, to other states. BROOKINGS — Usually the parking lot at Brookings’ harbor is fi lled with boat trailers, rusty pickup trucks and tourists. But this day in late August is not a usual day. There’s a wildfi re burning fi ve miles from town — and the vehicles coming through are much, much larger. Jesse Dubuque, a resource advisor for the Chetco Bar Fire, directs the driver of a fi re truck to a large shallow pool, about 6-inches deep with metal tracks leading in and out. “Vehicles that have been up on the fi re or going up to the fi re, they come and they drive up on to it,” she says. It’s called a weed wash. “There’s a pressurized water system that sprays all the contaminants (and) dirt,” Dubuque says. This is the front line in preventing the spread of sudden oak death, a plant disease that is killing trees by the thousands along Oregon’s south coast. Tanoaks are the primary species affected, although there are dozens of the plants and shrubs that can be carriers. Sudden oak death has had ecological as well as economic consequences for the timber and plant nursery See TREES/8A
