NEAL LEADS
ALL-DISTRICT
TEAM
SANTA TO
TOUCH DOWN
IN UMATILLA
SPORTS/1B
COMMUNITY/6A
48/31
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
142nd Year, No. 30
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
New projects surge at convention center
Facility gets fresh paint job
and high-speed internet
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Shortly after taking over the Pend-
leton Convention Center manager
position in July, Pat Beard put his
stamp on the former National Guard
armory.
There’s been plenty of activity
inside the convention center, but the
most noticeable change — a new paint
job that turned the building’s color
scheme from beige to dark brown — is
on the exterior.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A recent paint job has changed the Pendleton Conven-
tion Center from beige to a darker shade of brown.
“It’s a much warmer
color,” he told the Pendleton
City Council at a Nov. 7
meeting. “It’s representative
of Eastern Oregon.”
Both at the council
meeting and in a following
interview, Beard listed some
of the upgrades made to the
convention center in recent
Beard
months.
In addition to the new paint
both inside and outside the facility, the
center added new projectors, installed
new wayfaring signs, repainted the
curbs and lines in the parking lot,
created a new promotional video and
doubled bandwidth on the convention
center’s wi-fi .
The latter is important to
media-heavy events like the
Oregon School Activities
Association 2A basketball
tournament, where media
members and the crowd are
all competing for internet
bandwidth as they share
information online. Beard
added that unlike other
convention centers, high-
speed internet at Pendleton’s facility
remains free to use.
Beard said these aesthetic and
service improvements are needed
See PENDLETON/10A
Health inspection scores get online database
All restaurants
inspected once
every six months
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Umatilla and Morrow County
residents can now easily check how
their favorite restaurants scored on
their latest health inspections.
Depending on how much you
want to know about your food, that
can be good or bad news. But it’s a
more complex process than diners
might expect.
“Every restaurant we license
has to be inspected [...] once every
six months,” said Joseph Fiumara,
Umatilla County’s environmental
health supervisor.
Though
restaurant
health
scores have always been public,
customers had to request them
directly from the health depart-
ment. They’re now accessible in an
online database.
“It has been available for
Umatilla and Morrow counties
since May or June,” Fiumara said.
Most counties across Oregon will
soon be following suit, he said.
Fiumara said the format on the
website is more comprehensive
than previous presentations of the
data, which he thinks will benefi t
restaurants and educate diners.
Rather than just the numerical
score, diners can now see the
specifi c areas where restaurants
lost points and how they were
instructed to correct them.
“To me, unless you really
understand these scores, they don’t
tell you much, and can have nega-
tive pushback that’s not deserved,”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A cook puts tomatoes on a bun for a hamburger order on Tuesday at the Midway Bar and Grill in Hermiston.
he said. “So I prefer being able to
see the broader process. I can tell
you that you could score a 100 and
I could walk out of there and say
I’d never eat there. A lot besides
the score goes into it.”
Restaurants start out with 100
points, which are deducted for each
violation. A business must score at
least 70 points to be considered
compliant. The scoring process is
broken down into three types of
violations: priority, priority foun-
dation and code violations.
Priority violations are those
that directly lead to food-borne
See RESTAURANTS/10A
“To me, unless you really understand these scores, they don’t tell you
much, and can have negative pushback that’s not deserved.”
— Joseph Fiumara, Umatilla County’s environmental health supervisor
Area in
detail
261
Lower
Monumental
Dam
395
Tu
River
iv
Sna
Dayton
124
The most recent scores for 10 popular Hermiston and Pendleton restaurants
Plan calls for connectivity
of non-motorized trails
er
Touchet
Ri
v
u m i a R.
b
ol
Hamley Steakhouse ........100
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit .....100
Hal’s Hamburgers .............97
Prodigal Son .....................95
Joe’s Fiesta ......................95
Great Pacifi c ....................92
Sister’s Cafe .....................92
Rooster’s .........................92
Thai Crystal ......................90
Virgil’s at Cimmiyotti’s ......74
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
COLUMBIA
125
Walla Walla
College Place
Wash.
Ore.
Wash.
Ore.
Milton-Freewater
730
N
Delish Bistro ................. 100
Walker’s Farm Kitchen ... 100
Nelly’s ........................... 100
Kobe Hibachi Sushi .......... 97
Nookies........................... 95
Ixtapa ............................. 95
Lawan’s Thai Garden ........ 92
Taste of Thai ................... 82
Hale’s ............................. 74
La Palma ......................... 74
WALLA WALLA
12
5 miles
12
12
R
ke
Ice Harbor
Dam
C
127
c annon
er
FRANKLIN
Little Goose
Dam
Pendleton
Forming a path to more
connected communities
WASH.
Project area,
Blue Mountain
Region Trails
Hermiston
E. Li
ttle
Wa
ll a
l l a Wa
UMATILLA
11
204
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
A diverse group of stakeholders in the
Walla Walla Valley — including Umatilla
County and the city of Milton-Freewater
— is nearly ready to unveil its master plan
for developing new hiking, biking and other
non-motorized trails across the region.
After three rounds of public outreach,
project leaders expect to release a draft
version of the Blue Mountain Region
Trails plan later this winter, striving to
boost outdoor recreation and connectivity
between local communities.
The project area is limited to northeast
Umatilla County, along with neighboring
Walla Walla and Columbia counties in
Washington. Planning is focused exclusively
on public lands and existing public right-of-
ways, but may also consider easements with
willing landowners.
Bob Waldher, Umatilla County planning
director, said the plan also takes into account
sidewalks and bike lanes within city limits.
The goal, he said, is to adopt a region-wide
blueprint that will lay the groundwork for
future trails projects and make it easier for
municipalities to apply for grant funding.
“Unless you have a plan, a lot of these
See TRAILS/10A