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