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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2017)
REGION/3A 34/24 FIRST STOP MART HIT AGAIN BY BURGLARS PIPE BOMB ATTACK IN NYC SUBWAY NATION/7A TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2017 142nd Year, No. 39 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PENDLETON HERMISTON Downtown railroad gets new fence line City adds fee for ‘lengthy’ records requests Part of Pendleton Enhancement program By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian After starting off with subtrac- tion, the Pendleton Enhancement Project is in the midst of adding to the 500 block of South Main Street. The project — a collaboration between several local organizations and government agencies — is behind the installation of new iron fencing around the railroad tracks. According to a press release from the Pendleton Downtown Asso- ciation, one of the organizations involved with the project, the fences will run from behind the Heritage Station Museum toward Main Street. From Main, the fence will proceed eastward toward Southeast Third Street. Additional fencing will be installed at the site of the former Webb’s Cold Storage building and on the north side of the Eagles See FENCES/8A By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Gabriel Chavez, left, and Dan Woellmer, both with Jimco Fence of Salem, unload sections of fencing while installing a fence along the north side of the Union Pacifi c Railroad tracks on Monday in downtown Pendleton. NOT FORGOTTEN Helix students show gratitude by laying wreaths on veterans’ graves By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian The graves at Olney Cemetery normally sit in peaceful environs disturbed only by the muffl ed noise of passing cars. On Sunday, a bugle playing “Taps” pierced the hush. The Wreaths for Remembrance ceremony, which also included Christmas music, a reading and the posting of the colors by two members of Let ’er Buck Post 922, was a preamble to the main purpose of the gathering — laying wreaths on the graves of veterans buried in the sprawling “It was Pendleton cemetery. really an Before sending his honor. These contingent were men of teenagers and women forth, Gris- wold history who have teacher Lorin fought and Kubishta instructed his sacrifi ced so students to pause after much for our laying each country.” wreath and say the veter- — Alyssa Keene, Griswold High an’s name. School senior “A person does not truly die until their name is never spoken again,” Kubishta said. Armed with cemetery maps, the teens started at the cemetery’s American Legion section then dispersed far and wide around the grounds looking for veterans’ graves. Community members paid $20 apiece for the ribbon-fes- tooned wreaths. Students set them gently at the base of each gravestone. See WREATHS/8A Public records fees for the city of Hermiston have expanded to include email and other digital formats. The city council voted Monday to add $35 per hour fee to cover staff time for “lengthy” records requests that take more than 15 minutes to fulfi ll. The fee will be charged in increments of 15 minutes. Previously, fees were mostly based on reimburse- ment for the physical record — such as a printed page or DVD — instead of based on the staff time it takes to compile the information then redact or format as needed. A memo to the council estimated the city spends $21,000 of staff time on records requests each year. City Manager Byron Smith said the city once fi elded a request for certain types of emails that took $2,000 of staff time to complete but the person did not pay anything because they received elec- tronic copies. He said the most common form of records request was police reports, about 60 percent of which are requested by insurance See HERMISTON/8A PENDLETON Police chief would rather release names involved in shooting By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney A Griswold High School student lays a wreath on Sunday at Olney Cemetery in Pendleton as part of the Wreaths for Remembrance. PENDLETON Holiday Stroll features Santa and tree lighting By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Santa Claus cruised into downtown Pendleton on Saturday in a big red city fi re engine. His shiny black boots hit the pavement outside the Children’s Museum of Eastern Oregon on Main Street, and eager children clamored around the jolly old elf while parents posi- tioned for photos. His arrival marked the beginning of the Pendleton Downtown Association’s second Holiday Stroll, an event to draw the commu- nity to downtown for treats, fun and shopping. Local merchants said last year’s stroll worked in spite of the harsh winter weather, and this year’s seemed to be going as well or better. Mark Royal served up sugar cookies and fresh pretzels at his Rolling Stone Bakery, 215 S. Main St. While the stroll was not underway until 3 in the afternoon, he said the shop already had an uptick in See HOLIDAY/8A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Caleb Hinkle, 3, poses with Santa as his mom takes a photo Saturday during the Pendleton Holiday Stroll. Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said if he had his way, he would release the identities of the suspect and offi cers involved in the Nov. 29 police shooting. Two Pendleton police were involved that night with chasing down a theft suspect from the Walmart, according to Roberts, before one offi cer opened fi re after seeing what police described as “a dark colored pistol.” Roberts said he would prefer to release the names of everyone involved, but the “standard operating procedure” nationwide in police shootings is to keep information from the public. Getting to this point probably involved plenty of lawyers and case law, he said, but the standard does not square with how police agencies claim to operate in a transparent manner. The circumstances make it look like police are trying to hide something, he said, when that is not the case. Police and district attorney offi ces often protect iden- tities of offi cers involved in shootings for the sake of the investigation and not to See SHOOTING/8A