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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 2017)
36/34 SPORTS/1B NATION/8A REGION/3A FORMER BUCKS GIVE BACK IN THE HEART OF TRUMP COUNTRY Second suit fi led between Hamley’s co-owners THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2017 142nd Year, No. 51 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar Most cans, bottles will add dime deposit in January With few exceptions, containers to become refundable in 2018 By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Brace for impact Juan Ortega, 15, of Pendleton prepares for a hard landing while jumping a plastic sled on Wednesday while sledding at Aldrich Park in Pendleton. Four laws that made a difference in 2017 By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau we have an obligation to keep each other safe,” Parrish said. Many of the hundreds of laws Oregon legislators pass each year may go largely unnoticed by the public. Several laws, however, left a palpable mark on the lives of Oregonians in 2017. The Pamplin/EO Capital Bureau has highlighted four recent laws that made an impact in the past year. Pumping your own gas in Eastern Oregon Oregon is one of only two states in the nation where residents are prohibited from pumping their own gas. While this may seem to be a luxury for some urban dwellers, it has been a source of consternation for motorists and gas station owners in rural parts of Eastern Oregon. In Heppner, for instance, there is only one gas station in town, and it isn’t open 24 hours a day. During hunting season, the line of motorists waiting for the gas station to open sometimes extended four blocks down Main Street, said Heppner resident LeAnn Wright, an offi ce support specialist for the Morrow County Juvenile Department. Two years ago, the Legislature passed a bill to allow self-fueling between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in certain rural counties, to prevent travelers from being stranded over- night. Earlier this year, lawmakers expanded the timeframe for Distracted-driving restrictions Oregon’s new distract- ed-driving law closed loopholes in a preexisting ban on holding a cellphone while driving and enhanced penalties for violations. House Bill 2597 expanded the ban to include holding any mobile electronic device while driving, even while waiting at a stoplight. Drivers face a fi ne of up to $1,000 for their fi rst offense. Less than a month after the law took effect Oct. 1, Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn — who voted for the law — was pulled over and fi ned $265 for using her cellphone while driving. She was using the phone to get directions to the KATU EO Media Group fi le From stricter distracted driving laws to minimum wage increas- es, some of Oregon’s hundreds of new laws were more palpable than others in 2017. studio in Portland, where she was scheduled to give an interview, she said. “Old habits die hard for those of us who were introduced to cellphones before there were specifi c laws related to distracted driving and phone use,” Parrish said. “It might be diffi cult for people to break a years-long habit of driving and using a cellphone, but it’s a habit I never want my kids to start.” Nearly 3,500 people were killed and about 391,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in the United States In 2015, according to the most recent statistics from the National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration. “We all share the roads, and See LAWS/8A Starting Monday, Oregonians will have more incentive to recycle their old Gatorade bottles and Red Bull cans. Oregon’s can and bottle deposit law is expanding in 2018 from soda, beer and water to include a long list of other beverages whose containers can now be redeemed for a 10 cent deposit. “Generally, if you can pour it and drink it, it’s covered,” a notice on the Oregon Liquor Control Commis- sion’s website says. There are still exceptions for wine, distilled spirits, infant formula, milk and meal-replacement beverages. But an updated list of containers now includes sealed containers between 4 ounces and 1.5 liters for coffee, tea, juice, energy drinks, sports drinks, protein shakes, kombucha and several other bever- ages. The Oregon Beverage Recy- cling Cooperative, which runs the BottleDrop center in Hermiston and works with beverage distributors throughout the state to coordinate recycling of more than 1.2 billion containers per year, wrote in a news release that it had invested more than $3 million in new machinery, including $2 million in BottleDrop centers and $1.1 million in new sorting machines at grocery stores to prepare for the change. It also added 16 new employees, several new trucks and trailers and expanded capacity at a plastic recycling facility in St. Helens. “The expansion of the bottle bill that starts on Jan. 1 is an important step toward bringing the success of the bottle bill in line with the kinds of products that are out there today, keeping more litter out of Oregon’s beautiful natural areas, and making sure that those containers are getting recycled,” wrote Jules Bailey, chief stewardship offi cer of the OBRC. Many recyclers, including Pendleton Sanitary Service, have stopped accepting plastic containers due to new restrictions from China that have stopped overseas exports of mixed plastics. But according to the OBRC news release, 100 percent of the plastic collected by the coop- erative at grocery stores and Bottle- See DEPOSIT/8A PENDLETON From Africa to Oregon Couple moves to Pendleton from Namibia By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Kathy Setzer’s journey to Pendleton started 10,000 miles away in southern Africa during the height of summer and ended in a frozen winterland. It was about a year ago when the couple left the hot, arid climate of Windhoek, Namibia, and fl ew to Port- land where winter gripped the city with a veneer of ice and snow. They waited a couple of days to fi nish the trek, using the time to buy a new car, until the weather eased enough for them to brave the Columbia Gorge. A job waited for Our New Neighbors MeetÊEasternÊOregonÕsÊ newestÊresidents Jim in Pendleton where he’d been hired to direct the Umatilla County Public Health Department. Kathy and Jim journeyed east on Interstate 84 and arrived unscathed. Though Jim had traveled to Pendleton months earlier for an interview, this was Kathy’s fi rst glimpse of her new home except for some Googling sessions while still in Namibia. Upon arrival, their car slipped as it navigated their steep neighborhood street but safely See SETZER/8A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Kathy Setzer moved to Pendleton a year ago from the African country of Namibia.