Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, July 13, 2018
PENDLETON
Round-Up arena prepped for Whisky Fest
By BRITTANY NORTON
East Oregonian
The Round-Up Grounds
are getting some updates
for this year’s Pendleton
Whisky Music Fest.
At 7:30 a.m. Thursday,
about 100 people went to
work setting up the stage
for the concert. And as a
new addition this year, they
were also installing sod on
the hallowed grounds of the
Round-Up arena. The newly
laid grass is a new feature of
this year’s concert, as part of
the premium standing area
in the concert grounds.
Doug Corey, co-manager
of the event, said the sod
will make it a better experi-
ence for those watching the
concert from the infield.
Corey
declined
to
give the total cost of the
25,000-square-feet of sod,
but said it came at a “signif-
icant cost.”
This is the first year the
music festival offered the
premium standing option,
where spots cost $125.
Corey said they sold more
tickets this year, due to an
increase in demand. He
expects to have 18,500 peo-
ple in attendance.
This is the third year
for the Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest, and according
to convention center man-
ager Pat Beard, it keeps get-
ting bigger.
“We’re so apprecia-
tive for Doug and Andy
(McAnally),” he said. “This
is putting Pendleton on the
map.”
This year’s concert fea-
tures the duo of country
singer Blake Shelton and
rapper Pitbull.
According to Corey, it
took several months for the
musicians to agree to do the
show together, but Corey
and McAnally pursued
the combination because
they thought it would bring
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A work crew hangs a banner on the stage while preparing for the Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest on Thursday in Pendleton.
a variety of tourists to
Pendleton.
“Party in Pendleton is
kind of our tagline, and he
just brings the party,” said
Corey of Pitbull.
The Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest is one small part
of an effort to increase the
town’s allure as a tourist
destination.
Beard estimates that no
less than $20 million will
flow into the city from the
Whisky Fest and Pendleton
Bike Week — a motorcycle
show set for the following
week, July 17-22.
Beard said the Pendle-
ton Round-Up remains the
city’s “marquee event,” but
he is happy to see other
events bring people to the
city. He said future events
he would like to see include
concerts in the Happy Can-
yon arena, bluegrass music
festivals and a regional
Crossfit event.
“Tourism is a business
and industry and it’s the
brightest spot on Pendle-
ton’s future,” said Beard.
As for the Pendleton
Whiskey Music Fest, will
they pursue another unlikely
combination for next year?
“We’ll have to see how it
goes,” said Corey.
CEMETERY: Premium plots crucial
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Fire crews stage on Hill Street while fighting a field fire on Thursday in Weston.
FIRE: One woman living in area
received help for lack of oxygen
Continued from 1A
cles swarmed the town.
The East Umatilla County
Rural Fire Protection District
led the effort to control the
fire and received helped from
fire agencies out of Pendle-
ton, the Umatilla Indian Res-
ervation, Pilot Rock, and
more, plus scene security
from the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office. Roberts said
the diverse group engaged in
a coordinated effort that kept
the flames from engulfing
homes. He said one woman
who lived in the area needed
medical attention for possi-
ble lack of oxygen, but oth-
erwise there were no other
injuries he knew about.
“This was a fantastic
save,” Roberts said.
Duane Thul, city coun-
cilor and former mayor, was
helping to keep emergency
traffic flowing at Main and
Hill streets, where emer-
gency responders amassed.
Thul said the thick smoke
limited visibility to 30 feet.
His worse nightmare as
mayor, he said, was this kind
of fire but with high winds.
That nightmare could have
become reality Thursday
with 30 mph winds, he said.
East Umatilla Fire Chief
Dave Baty was the incident
commander and arrived to
the fire early.
“I was knocking on doors
like crazy to get people out,”
Baty said.
Baty relayed information
and gave orders at the scene
well after crews contained
the blaze. He said he had not
even had time to consider
what started the fire.
feature premium plots for
cremated remains.
Premium plots in general
are a large part of the ceme-
tery’s new business plan.
Hughes said market
research shows that there’s
demand for mid-level and
luxury headstones and cre-
mation containers rather
than just the standard burial
materials Olney offers.
“We’ve always had a
one-size-fits-all approach,
but that doesn’t always fit
what people want,” he said.
According to Hughes,
patrons often seek upright
headstones similar to the
ones erected during the
early 20th century.
Flat headstones are more
affordable and easier to
maintain for mowing and
weeding purposes, but if
people wanted to pay a pre-
mium price for upright head-
stones, the cemetery could
accommodate more sections
that feature them.
To promote these new
services, Hughes wants to
turn the conference room
at the parks and recreation
office into a showroom with
headstone and container
options.
As the maintenance
needs at the cemetery begin
to mount, Hughes sees this
as a good way of driving up
the cemetery’s income.
In the 2017-2018 fis-
cal year, the cemetery had
a $263,350 budget ver-
sus $77,050 in anticipated
revenue, meaning the rest
was subsidized by the gen-
eral fund, which also covers
police, fire, and other parks
and recreation services.
With all of the other city
needs, Hughes said raising
the cemetery’s revenue was
preferable to asking for an
increased subsidy from the
general fund.
“Olney Cemetery aver-
ages up to 80 burials per
year,” the business plan.
“If we increase our average
revenue from each sale by
$500, then we would gener-
ate approximately $40,000
in increased revenue.”
The business plan pro-
poses using half to decrease
some of the general fund
subsidy while using the rest
for cemetery maintenance
and repairs.
And there’s plenty in
need of those services at the
cemetery.
The 100-year-old mauso-
leum hasn’t been renovated
since 1964, and Hughes said
there’s some marble resto-
ration and roof repairs that
need to be done.
The cemetery itself is
so massive that parks staff
spends 40 to 48 hours per
week just mowing and
weeding the grounds.
More revenue for the
cemetery fund could help
pay for a larger lawnmower,
which could shave off 15
hours per week in man
hours.
As he drove through the
cemetery Thursday morn-
ing, Hughes spotted a yel-
low-bellied marmot —
commonly known as a
rock chuck — scampering
amongst the gravestones.
Despite capturing hun-
dreds of the burrowing
rodents, Hughes said mar-
mots and gophers have
steadily chewed away at
the cemetery’s irrigation
system.
Parks staff hand waters
the patches of grass where
the irrigation is damaged,
and although the func-
tioning sprinklers are run
sequentially 24 hours per
day, brown patches aren’t
hard to find at Olney.
With every ambitious
plan comes questions about
price, but Hughes believes it
won’t cost the city too much
money to adopt the plan’s
proposals.
The biggest expense
would be the river, and
although Hughes said he
wouldn’t be able to provide
an estimate until an engi-
neering study was done, he
didn’t think the price would
be “outrageous,” especially
if city staff could provide
the labor to install it.
Hughes said he still
needs to pitch the idea
to local mortuaries and
Friends of Olney, a group
of volunteers that plants
American flags on veteran
graves on Memorial Day
and has helped out the parks
and recreation department
in the past with enhance-
ment projects.
Ultimately, the depart-
ment will have to convince
the Pendleton City Coun-
cil that a little luxury at the
cemetery will go a long way.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
FIREARMS: Curriculum would cover how to respond to an unsecured firearm
Continued from 1A
“In spite of the efforts of
some extremist groups to
simply ban firearms, rational
people recognize that fire-
arms will continue to exist
irrespective of any law,”
Starrett wrote in an email
to the Pamplin/EO Capital
Bureau. “Rather than foster-
ing ignorance and fear, we
hope to provide knowledge
and promote safety.”
Schools
would
be
required to provide a fire-
arms instructor certified
by law enforcement or a
national or state firearms
instruction
certification
organization to teach the
class.
The curriculum would
cover how to respond to an
unsecured firearm, how to
safely secure a firearm if an
adult is absent, safe muzzle
direction, avoiding touching
a trigger and semi-automatic
weapon function “to demon-
strate that removing … the
magazine doesn’t mean the
firearm is unloaded.”
The initiative also bans
any material encouraging or
discouraging firearms posses-
sion or purchase and any live
ammunition during the class.
“A person does not have
to support firearms owner-
ship to recognize that there
is always the possibility
that a child might encoun-
ter a firearm in an unsuper-
vised setting,” Starrett said.
“We want to make sure that
young people have every
tool to stay safe in such a
situation. It seems obvious
that a child who has had the
opportunity to learn how to
respond to this kind of event
will be safer.
“We believe denying
young people this knowl-
edge is irresponsible.”
W.J. Mark Knutson, pas-
tor of Augustana Lutheran
Church in Portland, and
Michael Cahana, rabbi at
Congregation Beth Israel in
Portland, were chief peti-
tioners of an initiative to
ban semi-automatic fire-
arms. They said they oppose
requiring sixth graders to
take a firearms safety class.
“This is a very poor idea
for our state,” Cahana said.
“It accepts the status quo of
guns as an ever-present dan-
ger, that there is no way to
reduce the overwhelming
prevalence of guns in our
children’s lives. We believe
it is time to change the sta-
tus quo.”
Knutson and Cahana who
lead the interfaith coalition,
Lift Every Voice Oregon,
proposed Initiative Petition
43 to ban assault-style fire-
arms for the Nov. 6 election
but had to suspend the effort
because of legal obstacles to
the wording of the initiative
ballot title. The group plans
to submit another initiative
for 2020 to ban the sale of
assault weapons and high
capacity magazines. They
said they also hope to work
with state legislators in 2019
to ban the kind of weap-
ons used in mass shootings
around the nation.
Police say they made an ‘error’ in arresting Stormy Daniels
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio —
Prosecutors on Thursday
dropped charges against
porn star Stormy Daniels just
hours after she was arrested
and accused of illegally rub-
bing undercover police offi-
cers’ faces against her bare
breasts during a performance
at a strip club.
Her attorney said she
was “set up” in a Colum-
bus police sting operation,
calling it an “absurd use of
law enforcement resources.”
Police said they routinely
conduct such undercover
operations.
The 39-year-old adult
film star, who claims to have
had sex with Donald Trump
before he became president,
was charged with three mis-
demeanors, each punishable
by up to six months in jail
and a $1,000 fine upon con-
viction. She was released on
$6,000 bail around daybreak
Thursday.
By early afternoon, pros-
ecutors said they were drop-
ping the case because Ohio’s
law against physical contact
between strippers and cus-
tomers applies only to some-
one who “regularly” per-
forms at a club. In Daniels’
case, it was her first appear-
ance at Sirens in Columbus.
A person who answered
the
phone
at
Sirens declined to
comment.
Columbus
police chief Kim
Jacobs said “one
element of the
law was missed in
error.”
“A mistake was
made, and I accept Daniels
full responsibility,”
she said.
Officers were well within
their area of responsibil-
ity when making the arrests,
she added. But she said the
officers’ motivations will be
reviewed internally. Without
providing details, she said
unsubstantiated allegations
about their moti-
vations were cir-
culating on social
media.
Daniels’ law-
yer called for an
investigation into
the arrest, say-
ing some of the
officers had what
appeared to be
“very Pro-Trump”
social media pages. The
lawyer, Michael Avenatti,
tweeted screenshots from
what he claimed was the
Facebook page of one officer
with a pseudonym and asked
people to help confirm it.
Daniels considered reap-
pearing at Sirens but later
opted for a different club,
Vanity Gentlemen’s Club, a
Thursday night performance
confirmed by manager K.J.
Kopras.
Police said Daniels,
whose real name is Steph-
anie Clifford, smacked the
faces of two female officers
and one male officer with
her bare breasts during the
Wednesday night show. Offi-
cers knocked on the door of
her tour bus after the perfor-
mance and took her into cus-
tody in an arrest that Avenatti
said left her “traumatized
and rattled.”
She was booked under a
10-year-old state law known
as the Community Defense
Act, which says dancers at
“sexually oriented” busi-
nesses are prohibited from
touching customers and vice
versa.
Franklin County Munic-
ipal Court records show
23 similar cases this year,
including the charges against
Daniels, 14 last year and six
the year before.
Daniels has said she had
sex with Trump in 2006,
when he was married. Trump
has denied it. Before the elec-
tion, she was paid $130,000
to stay silent in a deal han-
dled by Trump’s personal
attorney Michael Cohen.
She is suing to invalidate the
nondisclosure agreement.