VETERANS
MEMORIAL
MOVES FORWARD
BEAVERS
BACK FROM
THE BRINK
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2018
142nd Year, No. 175
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
UMATILLA
City
gives
Corbett
salary
bump
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
City Manager Robb Cor-
bett left the Pendleton City
Council meeting Tuesday
with higher pay and more
job security than when he
started it.
The council went behind
closed doors to discuss Cor-
bett’s contract and when
members re-emerged, they
unanimously raised his sal-
ary from $123,256 annually
to $133,500. Corbett had
worked on one-year con-
tracts since he was hired in
2011, but the council also
amended his deal so that
he now serves on a “rolling
contract.”
The council gave Corbett
a sterling evaluation on May
15 but didn’t renew his con-
tract. Tuesday was the last
scheduled meeting before
the end of the fiscal year.
Having only received
cost-of-living increases in
prior years, the increase in
pay represents the largest
raise in Corbett’s Pendleton
career.
When
the
council
returned to an open meet-
ing, Mayor John Turner said
the city determined Cor-
bett’s new salary by finding
the average between the sal-
aries of the Hermiston and
La Grande city managers.
Hermiston City Manager
Byron Smith earns $137,330
per year while La Grande
City Manager Robert Strope
brings in $129,675 annually.
If the council had cho-
sen not to raise Corbett’s
salary at all, he would have
fallen behind one of his sub-
ordinates. As both the police
chief and the public safety
director, Stuart Roberts is
set to earn $124,109 per year
starting July 1.
Human Resources Direc-
tor Andrea Denton explained
that Corbett’s new rolling
contract requires a specific
action from council to end
his employment with the
city. If the council takes no
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Armstrong stands in abandoned two-story home that is being remodeled into a medical clinic, just
west of Highways 730 and 395.
City’s only clinic forced to move
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
hen her contract with the
Umatilla Hospital Dis-
trict ends on Oct. 29,
Jennifer Armstrong wants her
patients to know she isn’t going
anywhere.
Armstrong, a nurse practi-
tioner, plans to open up a private
wellness center in Umatilla after
the hospital district board voted
in May to not renew her contract
to continue providing services at
the Encore Wellness 4 Life clinic
— the city’s only medical clinic.
Danice McBee, who sits on
the board, said the special taxing
district wanted to “go in a dif-
ferent direction” but they were
still discussing what that would
look like and are not ready to
announce anything yet. She
declined to elaborate on what
had prompted the decision. They
do plan to continue using the tax
money collected by the special
district to provide medical ser-
vices to the community in some
form after Armstrong’s contract
ends, she said.
W
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Armstrong will move the Umatilla
Clinic to an abandoned two-story home that is being remodeled.
Armstrong and her husband
Mark Keith, who have already
opened a second Encore Well-
ness 4 Life location in Kenne-
wick, are hoping to open the new
private clinic on Nov. 1 so that
Umatilla doesn’t see any gap in
services. They have purchased
a three-acre lot just west of the
intersection of Highway 730 and
Playing spashketball
See CORBETT/8A
Highway 395. The abandoned
white two-story house will be
converted into a medical clinic
by November if all goes accord-
ing to plan, while the “wellness
complex” will add hospice hous-
ing, walking trails and other fea-
tures later.
“It’s going to take a while to
get all the other things built, but
a lot of the same services (as the
current clinic) are going to be
here,” she said. “It’s not going
to feel like a clinic, but we will
still do what patients are accus-
tomed to.”
Those extra services will
include living quarters for hos-
pice care, adult respite care and
even longterm care, Keith said.
They also plan to sell products
such hemp-based CBD sup-
plements and kombucha, a fer-
mented tea (the Mayo Clinic’s
website states that while kom-
bucha does contain health-pro-
moting substances such as pro-
biotics, in light of health claims
about things like preventing can-
cer, currently “valid medical
studies of kombucha tea’s role in
human health are very limited”).
They want to add RV spots for
family members of patients to be
able to stay overnight during vis-
its if needed and create walking
trails around the property.
A group of practitioners who
Armstrong currently contracts
with have agreed to follow her to
HERMISTON
Brazilian farmers learn about
precision irrigation in the U.S.
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Airk Schaaf, 10, watches as Deven Barkley, 17, shoots a basket while
swimming at the Pendleton Family Aquatic Center on Wednesday
in Pendleton.
See CLINIC/8A
Fred Ziari of IRZ Consulting
and most of the 30 Brazilian farm-
ers he hosted in Hermiston this
week don’t speak the same lan-
guage — but they do share a com-
mon goal.
“We are blessed because we
have food,” Ziari said, gesturing
to nearby trays of fruit and pas-
tries laid out for the guests from
Brazil. “But I travel to Africa and
other places every year where peo-
ple are extremely hungry. As well,
our state of Oregon looks beauti-
ful but we have hunger here, too.
All of us, Brazilian and American,
need to play a vital role in feeding
the world.”
IRZ Consulting, one of multiple
businesses that Ziari has founded,
helps farmers around the world
increase their efficiency and yield
through high-tech irrigation. Ziari
said the Hermiston-based business
hosts visiting farmers from other
countries for an “international
exchange of ideas.”
Leonel Olivira, a soybean
farmer from the Brazilian state of
Bahia, said Tuesday he was most
impressed by “how you can remote
See FARMERS/8A
Title
Sponsor
Saturday June 23, 2018 • 8:30 AM - Roy Raley Park
$25.00 Includes Water bottle & T-shirt
Register today at https://stanthonymuttstrut.itsyourrace.com
Proceeds will Benefi t the
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(including Pet Therapy) and P.A.W.S. Animal Shelter in Pendleton.
For more information call 541-278-2627 or email EmilySmith@chiwest.com
2801 S T A NTHONY W AY ,
P ENDLETON , OR. 97801
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