Generations
of war
Four veterans of the U.S. military
share their stories of service
LIFESTYLES/1C
Veterans Day Tribute
SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
HOLIDAY WEEKEND EDITION
NOVEMBER 10-12, 2017
142nd Year, No. 19
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Deadly
day on
quiet
stretch
of I-84
Two wrecks hours
apart block traffic;
at least one dead
By TIM TRAINOR
East Oregonian
A usually quiet stretch
of Interstate 84 west of
Boardman was the site of two
terrible scenes Thursday, one
of which stopped eastbound
traffic for much of the day.
Javier Tejeda and Tyler
Hall were traveling eastbound
on the interstate just before
noon when they saw a plume
of dust and smoke just ahead
of them, then heard and
watched as multiple vehicles
— semi-trucks, pickup trucks
and small passenger vehicles
— crashed into one another.
“It was terrible, it was
awful,” said Tejeda, who
works with Hall for Gordon’s
Electric. He called 911 as Hall
ran toward the crash, breaking
out a windshield with a
hammer, stabbing through an
air bag and ripping a man’s
seatbelt off so he could get
him out of his vehicle.
Tejeda said he described
the horror of the scene to the
Umatilla County dispatcher
who answered his 911 call,
but once he narrowed down
the location of the crash was
told he needed to be trans-
ferred to Morrow County for
assistance.
“The phone (then) just
kept ringing and ringing,” he
said. He said it felt like more
than a minute before he got
through to a new dispatcher, a
delay that he thought was too
long with lives on the line. He
A last-minute flight cancel-
lation had pushed state Senator
Bill Hansell’s bedtime back to
2 a.m. on Wednesday morning,
but he was still sitting in front of
constituents at Hamley’s Cafe in
Pendleton by 8 a.m.
“I may fall asleep up here,” he
said, perhaps only half-jokingly.
He and Rep. Greg Barreto
were hosting the first of five
joint town halls over two days,
broaching a wide-ranging series
See I-84/11A
See TOWN HALL/16A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sen. Bill Hansell and Rep. Greg Barreto listen to a question on climate from former Pendleton City Councilor Chuck Wood, third from right,
during an early morning coffee hour talk at Hamley Cafe on Wednesday in Pendleton.
Who are you
going to call?
Ground work
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Barreto, Hansell hear bill
ideas from constituents
If your street has a pothole or the
new factory next door smells like
vomit, it can be hard to know who to
call for help.
The most passionate Facebook rant
in the world might get a gratifying
amount of likes, but that pothole
will stay as long as the government
agency in charge of the road doesn’t
know about it. So who exactly is “the
government” and how can you make
sure you hear your well-reasoned
treatise on why the neighborhood park
needs another restroom?
Cities
City officials in small towns are
often so accessible, you might have a
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Andrew Clark of Pendleton discusses domestic violence leg-
islation with Sen. Bill Hansell on Wednesday before an early
morning coffee hour talk at Hamley Cafe in Pendleton.
See GOVERNMENT/16A
PILOT ROCK
Korean War veteran shares
Navy stories with students
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Pilot Rock student body lines a hallway as veterans and their families walk
to the gymnasium for a Veterans Day Concert on Thursday in Pilot Rock.
Standing in front of nearly
the entire Pilot Rock School
District, Bob Deno was
nervous.
The Korean War veteran
was in the Pilot Rock High
School gym to for the school’s
Veterans Day celebration.
After a school-hosted break-
fast, veterans and students
were ushered into a morning
assembly where bands and
choirs performed patriotic
tunes led by music teacher
Jacob Try and a slideshow was
shown of local veterans.
Deno, who served four
tours in Korea, was the
keynote speaker at the event,
scheduled right in the middle
of the proceedings.
Deno looked over the
crowd of a few dozen veterans
and the entire student body,
some outfitted in stars and
stripes, and proceeded to find
some levity in his experience
with war.
He talked about joining
the Navy and seeing the ship
he would be stationed on for
See VETERANS/16A