VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, April 21, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 5A
When Amtrak became Ain’trak
R
emember when you could board a
train in Pendleton, take a seat, open a
book, relax, watch the Columbia roll
on, and step off in Portland a little more than
four hours later? I do. I was one of the last
passengers on the train that used to service
every small city across the West. The one
running through Pendleton was jerked out
of operation on May
10, 1997.
A disclaimer.
My dad was a
railroader and I grew
up on passenger
trains. I am neither
an academic nor
a historian. The
following recounting
of this meeting is
what I believe to
be factual, but it is
definitely colored
by my despair at
the fading power of
trade unions and the
belief that folks who
supposedly represent
us in government
are mainly out to
support big business and screw the working
class.
The meeting was billed as a “Forum
on Saving the Pioneer.” The Pioneer was
Amtrak’s name for the daily passenger
service between Salt Lake and Seattle.
Congress had determined the run was not
making money quickly enough, so it was
to be staked down to the let’s-balance-the-
budget anthill and eaten by appropriations
for higher priorities like defense of Saudi
Arabian oil reserves.
It was one element of a federal feasibility
study concerning the future of passenger
service in the West. We all knew that it was
feasible to run a passenger train between
Salt Lake and Seattle because The Pioneer
had run that route since June 7, 1977, when
Union Pacific canned its passenger service.
The gathering was held in the spanking
new Pendleton City Council chambers in
the late winter of 1997. I was a little out of
my element in a flannel shirt, chore coat,
Levis and yellow Western States Cat hat
while most every
other male in the
room was wearing
a necktie. The guy
sitting in front
of me had sparse
gray-blue hair that
was held an inch
above his pink
scalp by spray
technology. He
looked as though he
had spent so long
in the uniform of
the ruling class that
when he took off
his necktie at night
his neck would still
be smaller than the
jowls above it.
One hundred
other curious souls and I awaited the arrival
of the two U.S. senators from Oregon, the
chairman-president-chief-executive-officer
of the National Passenger Rail Corporation
(AMTRAK), the assistant vice-president of
government affairs for Union Pacific, and
a couple of bushels of local and state-level
patricians.
The mayor of Pendleton in those days
was an old school nice guy who wore an
almost life-sized saddle as a nametag and
prefaced his name with “Your Mayor.”
He opened the meeting by announcing
that it would be postponed for half an hour
because one of the senators’ airplanes was
late in landing. That figured — flying to a
The mayor of Pendleton
in those days was an
old school nice guy
who wore an almost
life-sized saddle as a
nametag and prefaced
his name with “Your
Mayor.”
railroad meeting.
The hometown senator arrived first. Five
minutes of handshaking ensued.
This guy was young, rich and good-
looking, with perfect hair and an autopilot
smile. I had him 3/2 as an eventual candidate
for president of the United States. His
necktie cost more than my pickup truck.
Rumor said he owned Henry VIII’s golf
clubs. The other, big city senator finally
schlepped into his chair. He had a nasty head
cold. His nose was a day-glo golf ball. His
voice was Droopy the Dog’s. He coughed
the meeting to order. He looked miserable.
The meeting went like all meetings:
Senator One: “Gud murning, Ahm glud to be
here.”
Senator Two: “I, also, am heartened by
the opportunity to be with close friends
and colleagues upon the occasion of this
meeting.”
The mayor of Hermiston: “Is there
anything we can do to help Union Pacific
maintain some type of passenger service?”
Head of Amtrak: “Hard decisions are hard
to decide. Give us your money. If you can
raise $2 million by March 15, we’ll see if we
can arrange to run the Pioneer until October
1. Otherwise we shut it down in early May.
The bottom line is the bottom line. No
promises. Promises are hard to keep.”
Union Pacific: “Passenger trains slow
down our freight business.”
Chamber of Commerce: “Amtrak service
is good for local business. Let’s all have a
bake sale and raise $2 million.”
Speaker of Oregon House: “Sorry. We do
not have $2 million to help. We suggest that
more people play the Oregon Lottery.”
Citizen Number One: “I like trains.”
Citizen Number Two: “I hate taxes.”
Senator One: “Danks fur cubbing. We’ll
dink about dis.”
Senator Two: “I’d like to take this
opportunity to thank all my close friends and
J.D. S mith
FROM THE HEADWATERS
OF DRY CREEK
colleagues for attending this citizen forum.
Rest assured, when I am back in Washington,
D.C., I’ll be back in Washington, D. C.”
End of meeting. This was the American
political process at its finest. All was right
with the world. A meeting had been held.
Nothing was accomplished, but a meeting
had been held. A box could be checked,
pictures could be taken, push pins could be
moved on a map somewhere.
End of discussion. End of Pioneer.
■
J.D. Smith is an accomplished writer and
jack-of-all-trades. He lives in Athena.
Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan/The New York Times/The Pulitzer Prizes via AP
This image, provided by The Pulitzer Prizes, shows a cartoon by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan of The New York Times that was part of a series that won the 2018 Pulit-
zer Prize for editorial cartooning. The Pulitzer committee described the work as “an emotionally powerful series, told in graphic narrative form, that chronicled the daily
struggles of a real-life family of refugees and its fear of deportation.”
Professor opposed to OSU Extension District
B
allot Measure 30-126
would establish a new tax
to support the growth of
extension programs in Umatilla
County and Morrow County.
Those programs provide valuable
services to many citizens of the
region, and are
almost entirely
reliant upon
funds allocated
by state, federal
and county
governments.
At present,
county funds
are allocated
Richard
directly by county
Smiley
commissioners.
Comment
Unfortunately,
the measure is
inflated to include funding for
the Columbia Basin Agricultural
Research Center. The mission of
CBARC is to conduct research
and extension for dryland
crops in Oregon and beyond.
Although CBARC scientists work
throughout the Pacific Northwest,
they emphasize needs in eight
Oregon counties: Wasco, Sherman,
Gilliam, Morrow, Umatilla, Union,
Baker and Wallowa. Measure
30-126 proposes to alter the
fundamental mission of CBARC
by shifting 25 percent of its base
budget from taxpayers throughout
the state to only those who pay
property taxes in our two-county
area.
CBARC should not have
been included in this tax levy.
The measure would increase by
43 percent the “locally sourced”
funding at CBARC, from $175,000
currently allocated by the Oregon
Wheat Commission, to $250,000
that would be raised by the new tax
district.
CBARC is one of 11 regional
research centers operated
by the Oregon Agricultural
Experiment Station and consists
of two research stations, one in
Umatilla County and the other
in Sherman County. A single
budget and staffing structure is
used to operate both stations. The
OAES began to disinvest from its
research centers during the 1990s.
Nationally recruited research
scientists who had administered
these centers began to retire or
resign. The OAES refilled most
of those administrative posts
with whomever was the current
administrator of the local county
extension office. The new part-time
— and sometimes off-site —
administrators of affected research
centers invariably emphasized
extension. The new leaders had
little or no stature in science and
most did not acquire competitive
grants that are essential for
operating a research center. As that
process was repeated throughout
the state, affected centers had a
reduced capacity to acquire grants,
and the reputation of the OAES
research center network became
greatly diminished.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Shop manager Paul Thorgers-
en walks through one of the
greenhouses in January 2016 at
CBARC outside of Pendleton.
The OAES expanded its
disinvestment in 2011, when it
directed each research center
to acquire 25 percent of its
operational expense from a local
resource. The OAES reduced its
allocation by that same amount. At
CBARC, that shortfall was initially
satisfied by a short-term operations
grant from the Oregon Wheat
Commission, which levies income
uniformly from wheat producers
throughout the state. This was
appropriate for a research center
that conducts wheat research for
the entire state. After eight years,
the Commission understandably
wants to return to its traditional
funding model of allocating
funds for specific wheat research
projects. CBARC scientists
would be likely to acquire some
of the funds that would become
re-allocated.
As the OAES has reduced
the number of CBARC scientist-
equivalents since 2000, there has
been a corresponding reduction
in CBARC’s ability to acquire
grants that are critical for paying
salaries, wages and benefits
of technicians and temporary
workers, for purchasing and
operating vehicles, for paying
fees to use land, equipment and
greenhouses at CBARC, for
traveling to professional and
industry meetings, and for buying
computers, software, fertilizers
and other supplies and expenses
to conduct research and extension.
Amazingly, the two most recently
hired scientists at CBARC are
being paid for only nine months
of work. Research and extension
at an agricultural research station
requires a 12-month commitment.
The newest scientists must
therefore acquire even more grants
to also pay the unfunded 25 percent
of their salary and benefits.
If Measure 30-126 passes, the
citizens of Umatilla and Morrow
counties will provide 25 percent
of CBARC’s operating expense.
It is predictable that at some
point the county commissioners
or citizens will begin to pressure
CBARC scientists to shift most of
their research from “non-paying”
counties to focus more effort on the
“paying” taxpayers in Umatilla and
Morrow counties. Alternatively,
will the commissioners start
requesting payment of usage
fees from other counties where
CBARC scientists are conducting
portions of their research and
extension program? The latter
scenario is real. When the city
of Umatilla initially hesitated
to endorse Measure 30-126, the
Umatilla County Extension Service
promised to impose upon them
an out-of-district fee for services
delivered to non-participant cities.
A county service district is
not an appropriate way to resolve
the very real funding and staffing
challenges at CBARC. Citizens
of Umatilla and Morrow counties
should not be responsible for
reversing the disinvestment
in CBARC by the statewide
Agricultural Experiment Station
and Extension Service. Instead,
our citizens should challenge those
parent institutions to re-evaluate
how they will adequately support
wheat research and extension in
Oregon.
Measure 30-126 should be
rejected. A revised measure should
be limited to extension programs in
the two-county area.
■
Richard Smiley is an emer-
itus professor at Oregon State
University and former director of
the Columbia Basin Agricultural
Research Center.