34/20
LOCAL CLIMATE
GROUP GAINS
MOMENTUM
TRUMP DECLARES
JERUSALEM
ISRAELI CAPITAL
REGION/3A
WORLD/7A
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017
142nd Year, No. 36
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Marijuana farm application sent
back to planning commission
Riverside neighbors worry about odor
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The members of the
Pendleton City Council
threw a boomerang Tuesday,
making a decision on a
Riverside marijuana grow
that could come right back
to them in 2018.
The council held an
appeal hearing for Burn-
swell Family Farms Tuesday
as owner Brandon Krenzler
took a second shot at getting
conditional use approval for
the pot farm. The council
ultimately decided to send
Krenzler’s application back
to the planning commission
that had previously denied
him.
City Planner George
Clough said Krenzler’s
application was originally
heard on Aug. 14 at a Pend-
leton Planning Commission
meeting. Unlike Krenzler’s
presentation for his recre-
ational marijuana dispen-
sary, Kind Leaf Pendleton,
Clough said his presentation
for Burnswell lacked detail.
“Frankly, he phoned it
See MARIJUANA/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Brandon Krenzler, owner of Kind Leaf marijuana shop,
wants to start a marijuana grow operation at the old
Riverside Nursery off Highway 11 in Pendleton.
HERMISTON
PENDLETON
Rodeo City
Inn to be
boarded up
Hotel owners have yet
to clean up property
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Substation technician Darrin Balch with Potelco Inc. of Sumner, Washington, installs a ground wire on a riser structure at the new
Umatilla Electric Cooperative substation off East Elm Avenue in Hermiston on Wednesday.
Power to the people
Umatilla Electric Cooperative ready to fl ip switch on new substation
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A new Hermiston East Substa-
tion will help Umatilla Electric
Cooperative keep the lights on
more consistently in Hermiston.
The $4.75 million project,
located at the corner of Elm Avenue
and Northeast 10th Street, will
begin operating later this month.
Josh Lankford, UEC engi-
neering manager, said the new
substation would have the ability to
serve most, if not all, of Hermiston.
Customers will continue to be
spread out over multiple substa-
tions, however, so that a problem
at one substation doesn’t knock out
power to the whole city.
“We keep things broken up,”
Lankford said. “That limits your
outages.”
The substation features newer
technology and equipment, which
should provide improved reliability
compared to the area’s other
stations. And when a falling tree
branch, haphazard bird or other
problem disrupts service, Lankford
said Hermiston customers should
see their power restored much more
quickly now that UEC has the extra
capacity to “backfeed” them over
to the new substation while repairs
are being made elsewhere.
During a tour for Greater Herm-
iston Area Chamber of Commerce
members on Wednesday, Matt
Williams, the UEC senior engineer
who oversaw the project, said
power from Bonneville Power
Administration will come into the
substation by way of transmission
lines from the McNary Dam and
leave through six feeders — three
See SUBSTATION/8A
Umatilla County is sealing
the doors and windows on the
ramshackle Rodeo City Inn.
The county’s board of
commissioners
during
its
Wednesday meeting in Pend-
leton took up the latest action
on the inn. County counsel
Doug Olsen told the board the
county in early October sent a
“dangerous building” notice to
the inn’s owner, Western Hotels
& Properties, a limited-liability
company in El Centro, Cali-
fornia. The notice directed the
company to clean up and secure
the building within 60 days and
make structural repairs within
180 days.
The fi rst period closed, Olsen
told commissioners, and the
owner has done nothing to the
building. All the doors are open
and all the windows are broken
at the old three-story hotel off
Interstate 84’s exit 202. Olsen
said the county has the authority
to board up the place and bill the
owner for the cost.
Eli Stephens of Pendleton
addressed the board about the
inn. He has property nearby and
said the place remains troubled.
“There are still people we
chase out of there, still people
hanging around,” he said. “...
I just want to see it boarded
up to make it not an attractive
nuisance.”
Commissioners Bill Elfering
and George Murdock were on
board with that.
“Well, it’s been a huge
problem for the county,”
Murdock said. “Two sher-
iffs have both been deeply
immersed in dealings with the
See HOTEL/8A
PENDLETON
Round-Up reports
record ticket sales
High-end, low-end options
boost revenue in 2017
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
EO fi le photo
A boy watches the Pendleton Round-Up on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017.
Prior to the Pendleton Round-
Up’s centennial celebration in
2010, Randy Thomas said he
received some words of caution.
Thomas was an ex-offi cio
member of the Round-Up Board
of Directors at the time, and
recalled board members from
other rodeos encouraging the
Round-Up to take advantage of
its anniversary, with the caveat
that revenue would likely dip in
the years that followed.
Now entering his fi nal year as
publicity director, Thomas said
that not only have the Round-
Up’s ticket sales managed to stay
within 10 percent of the 2010
benchmark, they exceeded them
in 2017.
On the road at the PRCA
National Convention in Las
Vegas, offi ce director Jason Gray-
beal said the Round-Up brought
in $1.15 million in ticket revenue
and $760,532 in retail revenue in
See ROUND-UP/8A