WEEKEND EDITION
BUCKS
PUT AWAY
PUTNAM
SPORTS/1B
LOCAL CHURCH FOR SALE 1C
SOLDIER STILL MISSING 8A
DECEMBER 16-17, 2017
142nd Year, No. 43
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
OUT OF THE FLAMES
Dozens of residents displaced by house fi res over the year
“My mantra has
been we are victors,
not victims.”
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Fire, sparked by a heat lamp,
erupted in the Pendleton-area
home of Michael and Jackie
Whitesell and their three children
the morning of March 14.
“We lost 99 percent of our
stuff,” Jackie Whitesell said. “It
was a total loss.”
The lamp fell into the chicken
pen, igniting the sawdust and
seconds later much more at
45542 Mission Road. Flames
spread and smoke poured out of
the home. Umatilla Tribal Fire
arrived within moments, and
the Pendleton Fire Department
arrived as well. Crews battled
the blaze for more than an hour.
Whitesell said it took more
than seven months — until late
October — before they could
move back into their home.
The family recovered a few
“very precious things” from
the charred remains, she said,
More inside
For tips on fi re prevention
during the holidays see
PAGE 12A
— Jackie Whitesell
Photo contributed by Jackie Whitesell
Michael and Jackie Whitesell and their three children pose
for this recent photograph of their home near Pendleton. The
family, their relatives, and friends worked for months to repair
the home after fi re ravaged it the morning of March 14.
including some photographs of
the children and family heir-
looms of silverware and quilts.
Family
members,
their
congregation at the Pendleton
Baptist Church, the community
and even strangers from around
the country pitched in, she said,
to provide the family with basics
from clothes to bedding.
That help, especially the fi rst
two months, “got us back on our
feet,” Jackie said.
They also had to improvise.
Whitesell home-schools her
children, but the home was unin-
habitable. So during the day they
stayed in their shop, where they
set up a camp kitchen, a small
living area and a play area.
“I did the dishes in an
outdoor shower all summer long
surrounded by sheep in their
pasture,” she said.
At night, they slept in a trailer.
“We did that for eight
months,” she said.
The Whitesells began repairs
and rebuilding in June. Michael
did the electrical projects and
together they did the fi nish work.
Family and friends helped, and
contractors aware of their situa-
tion moved them to the front of
the line. All the effort meant the
work never stalled.
“Our goal was to move in
before the snow fl ew, and we did
that by Halloween,” she said.
They slept in real beds, had
indoor plumbing and fl owing hot
water. She said that fi rst shower
was “amazing.”
Pendleton
fi re
reported
it responded to 19 structure
fi res this year, most of those
residential. Chief Mike Ciraulo
See FIRE/12A
A Pendleton fi refi ghter works to extinguish a house fi re back in March at 45542 Mission Road, east of Pendleton.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
$1.50
Investigator
alleges
misconduct
in Bundy
standoff
Defense fi les motion
to dismiss the case
PORTLAND (AP) — A
lead investigator with the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
who looked into how his
agency handled an armed
standoff with ranchers in
Nevada is alleging misconduct
in a whistleblower memo, a
newspaper that obtained the
document reported Friday.
The memo obtained by
The Oregonian/OregonLive
prompted the attorney for lead
defendant Cliven Bundy to fi le
a motion to dismiss the case.
It also comes as U.S.
District Judge Gloria M.
Navarro debates what to do
about defense team assertions
that federal prosecutors have
not turned over complete
evidence records about the
conduct of FBI and other
government agents during the
standoff. She has dismissed
the jury for a week — until
Wednesday — while she
considers the issue.
Bundy and sons Ammon
and Ryan Bundy and Ryan
Payne are accused of
conspiring to block federal
agents from enforcing court
orders to confi scate family
cattle on public land. Cliven
Bundy had failed to pay
grazing fees and fi nes for years.
The men are also charged with
fi rearms crimes, threatening
a federal law enforcement
offi cer, obstruction of justice
and extortion in a trial that
began last month in U.S.
District Court in Las Vegas.
Larry Wooten, lead case
agent and investigator for
the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, also testifi ed
before a federal grand jury that
returned indictments against
the Bundys for the standoff
at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in
Bunkerville, Nevada.
He said he was removed
from the investigation last
February after he complained
to the U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce
in Nevada.
Last month, he sent a
whistleblower email to the
U.S. Department of Justice,
alleging a “widespread pattern
of bad judgment, lack of disci-
pline, incredible bias, unpro-
fessionalism and misconduct,
See STANDOFF/12A
PENDLETON
Gap widens in street repairs despite new funds
Report measures quality
of pavement condition
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
At the end of 2015, Pendleton City
Council instituted a fee that increased
the city’s budget for repairing streets by
160 percent and dedicated nearly a third
of its revenue toward the towns worst
roads. Two years later, Pendleton’s street
system is in slightly worse shape than it
was before the fee was put in place.
At a Tuesday workshop, Wayne
Green, the city’s associate engineer,
presented a report on the pavement
condition index, which measures the
quality of street pavement on a 0-100
scale.
More inside
ODOT plans to request 153 new
positions for upcoming projects
REGION 3A
The report measured the street
system’s deterioration in a number of
ways:
• Across 78 miles of road, the index
for the city’s road system was scored at
62, a two-point decrease from 2016 and
a fi ve-point decrease from 2013.
• Arterial streets — the city’s busiest
and most well-traveled roads — were
rated at a 76, considered “very good”
under the index’s rating system. Collec-
tors, the streets that connect arterials
See STREETS/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The asphalt is degrading and pitting out along a stretch of Bailey
Avenue in Pendleton.