TOP 10
Saturday, December 30, 2017
East Oregonian
levels
of
groundwater
nitrates. The permit also does
nothing to account for air
emissions, they argued.
Regardless, the agencies
denied a petition for recon-
sideration in July, allowing
Lost Valley to move ahead.
It is expected to provide
between 125-150 jobs, and
the milk will be sold to
nearby Tillamook Cheese at
the Port of Morrow.
Continued from 1A
refrain from making up 14
hours of missed class time.
Interstate 84 and Interstate 82
were closed repeatedly due
to icy conditions and crashes,
particularly on Cabbage Hill,
and Oregon Department
of Transportation workers
worked thousands of hours
of overtime in January and
February to help keep the
interstates and state high-
ways clear.
The extreme weather was
a boon for some businesses,
as repair work for fend-
er-benders piled up and snow
shovels fl ew off the shelves,
but other businesses reported
an unusually-low winter
slump as people avoided
driving the icy roads as much
as possible.
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8
3
Umatilla County Fair
moves to EOTEC
Nearly three years after
its groundbreaking, the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center hosted its fi rst
Umatilla County Fair and
Farm-City Pro Rodeo in
August.
Construction on the
project, located on the south-
eastern edge of Hermiston,
came down to the wire as
volunteers and contractors
worked nearly around the
clock to fi nish everything
needed for the fair and
rodeo’s new home.
The fair dealt with
complaints from neighbors
and fairgoers about traffi c
jams, dust, noise and a
lack of shade, but also saw
plenty of compliments from
participants who enjoyed the
larger venue, air-conditioned
exhibitor hall, extra box
seats in the rodeo arena and
much-improved
restroom
situation.
The move prompted
changes at the old fairgrounds
in the center of Hermiston,
where the former Hermiston
Senior Center was torn down
and a new parking lot for
Hermiston High School, set
to open next week, was built.
And after tapping Nate
Rivera as EOTEC’s interim
manager, the EOTEC board
hired venue management
company VenuWorks to
begin full-time operation of
the center in January 2018.
4
Marchers take to
Pendleton streets
The organizers of the
Women’s March on Pend-
leton expected about 150
people to show up Jan. 21
for the event. They got more
than 400.
Women, men and children
strode through downtown
Pendleton streets from city
hall to the Umatilla County
Courthouse to the Heritage
Station Museum. Many
hefted signs expressing the
need for respect, compassion,
and solidarity with women.
The event coincided
with marches nationwide.
Women’s rights was the
central theme of the day,
but marchers expressed a
multitude of reasons for their
participation. Some spoke
out against President Donald
Trump or police brutality,
others showed support for
the Black Lives Matter
movement and immigration.
At the end, they sang
“We Shall Overcome,” an
anthem if the Civil Rights
Movement, and “This Land
is Your Land.”
The Blue Mountain
Marchers hit Pendleton
streets again on Earth Day,
April 22, for science, and
around 150 marched in June
to show support for LGBT
rights.
Marchers on the other
side of the political spectrum
took to Pendleton streets in
August to show support for
Cliven Bundy and his family.
The event drew 13 people.
The marches might not be
done. Organizers are looking
at another Women’s March
for Jan. 20, the one-year
anniversary of President
Trump’s inauguration.
5
Marijuana goes on
sale in Pendleton
The sale of marijuana
went from a practice that
was nearly banned in 2015
to one of Pendleton’s fastest
growing industries.
After city voters deci-
sively voted to legalize
medical and recreational
marijuana, Jan. 1 marked the
fi rst day cannabis businesses
could apply for licenses.
Despite needing to gain
approval from both the city
and the state, and pay the
thousands of dollars worth
of accompanying fees, three
Page 11A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Marchers take to Pendleton streets during an the Equality March for Pride and Unity on Sunday, June 11,
in Pendleton. More than 130 people participated in weekend march.
6
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A marked increase in the amount of smoke from northwest wildfi res can be seen in these side-by-side
photographs from Monday, August 4, and Tuesday, Aug. 5, in Pendleton.
Wolf
depredation,
kills throughout year
Wolves, a protected
species in Eastern Oregon,
spent much of 2017 in the
crosshairs of both poachers
and state wildlife offi cials.
Following
repeated
attacks on livestock in the
area, the Oregon Department
of Fish & Wildlife approved
kill orders for four wolves
from the Harl Butte pack
in Wallowa County, plus
one more wolf from the
Meacham pack which had
preyed multiple times on
cattle owned by Cunningham
Sheep Company.
But that wasn’t all.
A wolf was also poached
in Wallowa County in
November, and a hunter
reported that he shot a wolf
he believed was threatening
him in Union County. The
man was not charged in the
incident.
The Oregon Fish and
Wildlife Commission now
heads into 2018 looking
to fi nalize an update to the
state’s Wolf Conservation
and Management Plan.
Specifi c proposals have
drawn criticism from conser-
vationists and ranchers alike,
ensuring contention over the
predators is far from over.
9
7
5
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Budtender Evan Hilliard uses chopsticks to handle
marijuana while measuring out an order for a cus-
tomer on Wednesday, June 21, at Kind Leaf in Pend-
leton.
Twin carousels simultaneously milk 80 cows on
each side while slowly revolving in the milking par-
lor at the Columbia River Dairy outside of Board-
man.
9
8
ODFW fi le photo
This 2014 photo shows a female
wolf from the Minam pack out-
side La Grande after it was fi tted
with a tracking collar.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Maroon 5’s Adam Levine sings during the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
on Saturday, July 15.
Beat Schmid,
associate director
of the Atmospheric
Sciences & Global
Change Division
at PNNL, talks
about the scientifi c
payload of the Ar-
ticShark unmanned
aerial vehicle to a
group of Pendle-
ton dignitaries on
Wednesday, March
8, at the Pendleton
UAS range.
10
marijuana
dispensaries
opened in 2017.
The fi rst retailer — Kind
Leaf Pendleton — opened in
March and reported almost
100 customers before the
fi rst day was halfway done.
Pendleton Cannabis and
High Desert Cannabis would
follow in the coming months
and have been successful
enough to stay open through
the end of the year.
Although none have
opened yet, two marijuana
grows have also received
approval from the Pendleton
Planning Commission.
The city of Pendleton
hasn’t publicly disclosed the
revenue it has received from
its share of the state tax on
recreational marijuana and its
own 3 percent sales tax, but
there are early signs that pot
has been a revenue generator.
At a recent Pendleton City
Council meeting, Kind Leaf
co-owner Brandon Krenzler
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
reported that his dispensary
has already provided more
than double the $25,000
the city projected it would
receive from marijuana tax
revenue.
That doesn’t mean mari-
juana sales haven’t been
without their fair share of
controversies.
A coalition of neighbors
and
Pendleton
School
District offi cials successfully
pushed smoke shop owner
Bryson Thurman to move his
proposed marijuana dispen-
sary from Tutuilla Road to a
different location after outcry
at a planning commission
meeting.
The summer of fi re
and smoke
Though there were no
major fi res in the area, Eastern
Oregon was inundated with
smoke from all sides. The
northeastern part of the
state was hazy for most of
6
Maroon 5 headlines
Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest
In its second year, Pend-
leton Whisky Music Fest
fl oored locals by netting
headliner Maroon 5. The
show drew people from
all over the West Coast to
see the band perform at the
packed Round-Up Grounds.
The pop/rock band was a
departure from the previous
year’s country headliner, the
Zac Brown Band. With three
Grammys, and the growing
visibility of frontman Adam
Levine on NBC’s “The
Voice,” Whisky Fest orga-
nizers hoped the band would
appeal to a broader base,
bringing in more people to
the event. Event organizers
said more than 16,000 people
attended the concert, a 30
percent increase from the
inaugural show.
The event was also
expanded with a Friday
night concert in downtown
Pendleton, and organizers
addressed
the
major
complaint from 2016 —
long lines for alcohol — by
adding vendors and selling
scrip instead of taking cash
in the venue.
The 2018 Whisky Fest is
July 14, and an announce-
ment for the headliner is
expected in February.
August and September, fi rst
with smoke from wildfi res
in Montana and then, due to
westerly winds, more smoke
from the Eagle Creek Fire in
the Columbia River Gorge.
In addition, fi res near Sisters
in Central Oregon, and in
British Columbia burned
during the summer.
The Eagle Creek Fire was
started September 2 by a 15
year-old boy playing with
fi reworks, who was charged
with reckless burning. It
closed down portions of I-84,
rerouting traffi c to Wash-
ington’s SR-14 for several
weeks. The fi re was declared
100 percent contained on
Nov. 30, almost three months
after it was sparked. The fi re
burned more than 75 square
miles and closed several
trails in the Gorge.
7
Mega-dairy
beats
appeal, starts operation
A second mega-dairy
began operating at the
former Boardman Tree Farm
in 2017, despite concerns
from environmental groups
over potential air and water
pollution.
Lost Valley Farm, owned
by California dairyman Greg
te Velde, received its permit
for a confi ned animal feeding
operation, or CAFO, from
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department
of Environmental Quality on
March 31. The farm will have
30,000 cows at full capacity,
and generate an estimated
187 million gallons of waste-
water and manure every year.
Though ODA and DEQ
insist the permit for Lost
Valley is the most protective
of any dairy in Oregon to
date, a coalition of groups
adamantly opposed the its
approval, saying it would
generate as much waste as a
mid-size city in an area that
already suffers from elevated
10
ArcticShark,
AirBus launch at
Pendleton test range
Some of the Pendleton
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Range’s promise has been
realized this year.
The range broke through
with major companies and
organizations agreeing to
test their new aircraft in
Pendleton.
With the help of a $1.7
million fi nancial package
from the state, the range
unveiled a new hangar at the
Pendleton airport in June. It’s
fi rst tenant is A^3, the Silicon
Valley subsidiary of French
aviation giant Airbus.
A^3 is using the hangar and
the range for Project Vahana,
a drone that’s being tested
as an air taxi, among other
applications. The company
transported the vehicle to
Pendleton in November and
began testing it.
The Pacifi c Northwest
National Laboratory, a
U.S. Department of Energy
facility in Richland, Wash-
ington, also tested one of
their latest unmanned aircraft
— the ArcticShark.
An offshoot of a UAS
used for surveillance and
reconnaissance by the Navy,
the 625-pound drone with
a 22-foot wingspan started
testing at the range in
February.
With the intention of
fl ying a mission in 2018, the
ArcticShark has more than a
dozen instruments it will use
to measure climate data over
the coast of Alaska.