Page 10A
East Oregonian
OFF PAGE ONE
Friday, November 24, 2017
INTERNET: Most landline
phones are internet-based now
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Volunteers bow their heads in prayer before serving at the free community Thanksgiving dinner at
Hermiston High School.
HERMISTON: Dinners started in the late 1980s
Continued from 1A
were doing.
“Why do we need to pick
someone up?” One of the girls
asked.
“Because it’s a nice thing to
do,” Adam said. “And, because
she might not have a car to get
there herself.”
The girls were eager to help
their parents, carrying bags full of
meals up to the door and helping
unload the boxes. At each home,
the family introduced themselves,
asked the name of the person they
met, and wished them a happy
Thanksgiving.
Some people receiving deliv-
eries are alone, or waiting for
families to arrive. “We’ve been
instructed, if they want to invite
us into the house, we can go in
and give them company for a few
minutes,” Adam said. He recalled
a home they went to their first year
of volunteering.
“The home wasn’t fit to live in,”
he said. “But the lady invited us in
— all she wanted to do was talk.”
Sometimes, they had unex-
pected orders come in. At one
delivery, a man in a neighboring
apartment saw them and asked if
they had any food left.
“No, but they’re serving dinner
at the high school. We can place an
order for you,” Rachel said.
Twenty minutes later, they were
back with hot meals for the man.
The Archers’ final assignment
for the day was driving a woman,
Mary Getchel, to the meal.
Jules, the Archers’ eight year-old
daughter, chatted cheerfully with
Getchel, who shared a little about
herself.
“I’ve lived here for 15 years,”
she said. “I like the dinner.”
Joe Kiser, who helped start the
Community Fellowship Dinners in
the late 1980s, said he was pleased
to see how it’s expanded.
“The first meal had 11 people,”
he said. “From there, it blossomed
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Cole Ayers, 8, and his mother, Elissa Ayers, volunteer at the free
community Thanksgiving dinner at Hermiston High School.
to about 30 people. And from
there it just exploded, into the
hundreds.”
Kiser’s wife, Laurie Ball-Kiser,
coordinated the meal for several
years. She passed away in June,
but the event is still going strong.
“The goal was just to open up
and help people during Thanks-
giving and Christmas,” Kiser
said. “Just do something for the
community.”
For Adrea Powers and her six
year-old son Kody, the dinner was
the beginning of what they hope
is a new tradition. After moving
to Echo a month ago, Powers said
she and her son were looking for
something to do on Thanksgiving.
“I was trying to instill in him the
true meaning of Thanksgiving,”
she said. “To serve and participate
and be a part of our new commu-
nity.”
Powers said she didn’t register
to volunteer, but showed up on
Thursday and just asked if they
could do anything to help.
“We don’t have family in
the area, and don’t know a lot of
people — it didn’t make sense for
us to cook on our own,” she said.
But at the end of the meal,
Powers and her son had made
friends with their tablemates,
longtime volunteers Larry Parvin
and Marian Perdas.
“Everyone has been receptive
— it’s been very nice to meet other
people,” she said.
———
Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan
at jramakrishnan@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4534
ARCHIE’S: Some came as far away as North Carolina
Continued from 1A
The Archie’s Thanksgiving
event usually attracts around 100
people, Contway said, and many
of them who came expressed
similar sentiments: gratitude for the
deliciousness of the meal, relief that
they didn’t have to make the meal
themselves and an appreciation
for the positive contribution to the
community the restaurant makes
through the donation drive.
Terry and Sandy Mayberry of
Pendleton have been longtime
Archie’s Thanksgiving attendees,
but they brought in children,
grandchildren and other relatives
this year. Some came as far away
as Boise and North Carolina to join
them for Turkey Day.
The
Mayberry’s
Archie’s
evangelism spread to the next table
over. Sheila Campbell of Pendleton
is friends with the Mayberrys, and
when her plans fell through, she
invited a few generations of family
on her first trek to Archie’s Thanks-
giving feast.
While there were plenty of
out-of-towners celebrating their
Thanksgiving at Archie’s, Pilot
Rockers also made their presence
felt. Patsy Boader said she and her
group of local friends meet for a
cup of coffee every day at Archie’s.
Stopping in for a quick bite of
Turkey is continuing that routine in
a different way.
“I actually live in Pendleton now,
but I guess old traditions die hard,”
said Virginia Jones, who was seated
next to Boader.
Some guests needed Archie’s in
a pinch. Elsie Tester and her family
only live a couple blocks away from
Archie’s and are regulars at the
establishment. But their oven broke
last week, and Archie’s turned into a
much-needed backup option.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Elizabeth Tester, 4, holds a plate loaded with Thanksgiving dinner
on Thursday afternoon at Archie’s Restaurant in Pilot Rock. The
eatery doesn’t charge for the meal, but instead collects donations
for the Pilot Rock Food Pantry.
Archie’s Thanksgiving patrons
left with full stomachs, but they also
made sure that other people in the
community would eventually get
some food as well. Nearly everyone
interviewed said they intended
to donate to the Pilot Rock Food
Pantry.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0836.
company is doing, go to a different
company.”
There are fears among
consumers, however, that all
internet service providers will
move in the same direction,
leaving few real choices. When
American
Airlines
started
charging fees for all checked
baggage in 2008 it caused an
outcry from customers, but within
weeks the other airlines began to
follow suit.
Wtechlink co-founder Byron
Wysocki of Pendleton said
ending net neutrality only seems
to benefit stockholders of major
communications companies. One
downside for consumers could be
your internet service looking a lot
like cable TV service. Customers
might have to pay $5 for a package
to watch Netflix, $5 more to use
Facebook and other social media,
and so on.
“That, I think, is a very scary
idea,” he said, and also could hurt
the next great website or internet
innovation.
Oliver Brown, owner of Game
King, Pendleton, plays online
games that require large amounts
of bandwidth. He said he is
opposed to ending net neutrality
and concerned with the possibility
of paying more to access services.
“The net is now a necessity,”
Brown said, and the way to access
everything from entertainment
to job applications to checking
account balances. He said
providers charging more for “fast
lanes” would hurt the customer.
“For the people who struggle
to pay bills and feed kids, $20
to $30 extra a month is a lot of
money,” he said.
The move from neutrality also
is surprising, he said. The FCC in
recent years has fined companies
for throttling data and streaming
services. T-Mobile, for example,
paid $48 million in 2016 to
settle an FCC complaint when
the company slowed data for its
heaviest users.
Brown also said he doesn’t like
the politics of the situation.
“I am really disappointed, you
know?” he said. “How are we
letting these big companies keep
getting more and more advan-
tages? They already nickel and
dime you.”
Franell can see possible advan-
tages for consumers, however, if
providers are given flexibility. He
said some consumers might not
mind if lesser-used websites take
a little longer to load if it means
EOT can give them faster video
streaming.
“I can’t give Netflix prefer-
ential treatment on my network,
even if all my customers want
Netflix,” he said.
Franell said most landline
phones also are internet-based
these days, and regulations
prevent him from prioritizing a
911 call over web browsing.
Wysocki also expressed doubts
about companies slowing down
data. He said that technology is
allowing internet speeds to double
every 16-24 months.
Social media has been full of
warnings that internet service
providers such as Charter could
divide the internet up into
packages like cable TV, holding
some websites hostage unless
customers pay a higher price for
a premium package, or hurting
small businesses by slowing their
websites to a crawl because they
can’t afford to pay a premium
for preferential treatment. While
that would be legal, Franell said
people need to remember that
the internet was not a Title II
utility before 2015 and yet those
scenarios were not happening. He
feels it is unlikely that a repeal
of that 2015 classification would
suddenly bring about a dramatic
change in users’ internet experi-
ence.
He also felt talking points
about internet service providers
being able to sell customers’
web-browsing data were over-
blown, since they are “probably
the only folks not selling it.”
“EOT is not collecting and selling
your data,” he said. “That’s not our
business model. That’s a Google
thing. That’s an Amazon thing.”
Wysocki,
however,
said
providers would be able to look at
what you watch online in real time
and discriminate against websites
or services they don’t like or have
a beef with.
Pai said repeal of some FCC
regulations could help providers
have more resources to expand
services in rural areas, and Franell
agreed. He said EOT doesn’t take
any government money and is
therefore much less regulated than
some providers, and yet about 20
hours of staff time a week are
spent on FCC reporting, out of a
15-person staff.
“Every regulatory burden means
I’m spending time and money
responding to the FCC instead
of spending time and money on
customers,” Franell said.
He also said the move should
mean an end to franchise fees from
municipalities such as Hermiston,
which recently voted to impose
franchise fees on internet sales
starting Jan. 1.
INTERSECTION: 16 percent
of drivers go too fast to stop there
Continued from 1A
section was a four-way stop,”
Carver told the board, “you would
decease drastically the number of
accidents that are there.”
County Public Works Director
Tom Fellows said the traffic at
the intersection is “relatively
low,” with about 1,200 vehicles
using it a day. He explained the
county operates under the federal
“Manual on Uniform Traffic
Control Devices,” which sets
standards for traffic signs and the
like, and the two stops there now
exceed the standard for the road’s
traffic.
Speeding, however, is a
problem though the intersection.
Fellows said the county a few
years ago found 16 percent of
drivers go too fast to stop there.
He also presented options to
improve road safety, including
adding beacons to warn drivers
to slow down and stop. Adding
signs to make the stop a four-way
was the cheapest option at about
$1,000 total.
County Emergency Manager
Tom Fellows told the board what-
ever option is worth the cost when
they consider lives are at stake.
Commissioner Larry Givens,
Bill Elfering and George Murdock
agreed the site was dangerous
and approved the additional stop
signs. The board also told staff
to research and make a recom-
mendation on what lighting will
improve sign visibility.
Fellows at the end of the
discussion said the county does
not stock stop signs and would
have to order them.
In other business, the board
approved ambulance service area
franchise agreements for Pend-
leton, the Hermiston/Umatilla
area, Milton-Freewater, Athena
and Weston, and the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. The franchises
are for five years. The board also
approved a year-to-year franchise
for the Mill Creek area because
the service provider may not be
able to provide coverage for five
years.
The board also adopted the
updated ambulance service area
plan. Roberts said the Oregon
Health Authority praised the
county for the thoroughness of
its plan, which required some
changes to languages to be consis-
tent with state requirements, such
as noting first responders are
“licensed now as an emergency
medical responder.”
But he said he took exception to
the health authority’s finding that
Athena and Weston don’t have
adequate ambulance coverage.
He said reorganization addressed
that issue, and he would notify the
state.
The sheriff’s office also
received upgrades to its vehicle
fleet with the board’s approval
of three 2018 Ford Police Utility
Interceptors for $32,300 each
from the dealership in Gresham
along with a utility task vehicle
for $32,878 from Morrow County
Grain Growers. The county’s
fleet management plan covers
the cost of the Interceptors, and
grant funds pay for the 2018
Polaris XP 1000 Crew HVAC,
which enhances search and rescue
operations, especially in heavy
snow or on tough terrain, and can
transport injured people.
The county’s veteran services
also received the OK to buy
three new 2018 Ford Fusions for
$17,900 each from Tom Denchel
Ford Country, Hermiston.
And in one more vehicle move,
the board approved donating an
old decontamination trailer to the
Northwest Incident Management
Team 6. The trailer is from the
days of the Chemical Stockpile
Emergency Preparedness Program
and is deteriorating on county
land. Staff said the incident team
can put the triple-axle fifth wheel
to real use for fighting fires.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0833.