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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2018)
OFF PAGE ONE PARK: Doesn’t get a lot of litter, but some vandalism Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A launched itself from the top of a cottonwood tree, a seagull sunned itself on a river rock, swallows swooped and smaller birds twittered all around. A squirrel chattered. Neon blue dragonflies nav- igated like tiny helicopters on joy rides. Water bugs skit- tered across the surface of the water. A snake slithered into a pile of branches. Gavette, retired supervi- sor at the Boardman coal- fired power plant, maintains the park himself. He mows a grassy area — a native grass — with a weed eater every few weeks. He gathers branches carried into the park by spring flooding. He picks up occasional trash, but has been surprised by how little he finds. “There’s not a lot of litter, but there’s been some van- dalism,” he said. Gavette pointed to a nearby maple tree where spray paint marred the bark. Several months ago, some- one absconded with a bench he placed at the park. Gavette replaced it, but chained this new one to a tree. The bench is heavy enough not to float away during spring flooding. Recently, Gavette cleared trail westward for seven blocks and a short way to the east. The retiree spent many hours using a bow saw to clear branches. He opted against a chainsaw to avoid disturbing wildlife. “I try to be as quiet as pos- sible,” he said. hard to build a volunteer base on those inquiries.” The organization utilizes volunteers for its food deliv- ery program, as well as peo- ple to work at warehouses and local food pantries. Hall said CAPECO tracks volunteers and volunteer hours, and has seen a trend in the past few years. “We don’t see new peo- ple of the younger generation entering into volunteering,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because people are work- ing longer, caring for grand- children.” She said. “The number of new volunteers is dwindling at a rapid pace.” She said many of the vol- unteers operating food pan- tries are the same ones who were doing so 10 or 20 years ago, and are now in their 80s. Dave Hughes, director of Hermiston’s Agape House, agreed that most service clubs are struggling to main- tain membership. Hughes said they always need people to help deliver items in the summer when the donation of household goods increases. “There’s a lot from yard sales and people cleaning house, and we struggle find- ing enough people to help sort and pick things up,” he said. Agape House tries to focus on helping younger people cultivate an interest in volunteering, Hughes said. “If we can instill in them a spirit of being volunteers now, it’ll carry on the rest of their lives,” Hughes said. SANCTUARY: Law was passed in 1987 Continued from 1A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Ron Gavette stops to look at a wildflower on a trail he cut through the brush on the north side of the Umatilla River in Pendleton. Gavette walked along his trail, calling it “primitive,” but realizing it might be a good thing. Across the river is the more traveled paved path of the Pendleton Park- way. Unlike the parkway, this trail wends through the woods and grassy openings in a way that plunges the walker into nature. Gavette carefully nav- igated a small log he had placed over a marshy spot and stepped off on the other side. The aroma of mint was thick. Up ahead, he noticed something that made him frown. Someone was camp- ing on the trail. Gavette walked up to the red tent and called out to the occupant. A groggy voice answered from within, protesting that he wasn’t bothering anyone. Gavette advised him to move on, then continued his walk. On the way back to the park, he passed a tree gnawed by a beaver. A little further, he pointed to a tree that had been lying across the path until a neighbor cut through it with an axe. Wood chips littered the ground. This neighbor is just one of many people who have caught Gavette’s spirit and have added improvements to the park. Others plant flowers and pick up trash. Retired Pendleton City Man- ager Larry Lehman recently decided to purchase a second bench for the park, a place he visits often. “The park is gorgeous and it brings you close to the wonderful Umatilla River,” Lehman said. “I appreciate what Ron did here.” Gavette’s tiny park proba- bly won’t become part of the city’s park system any time soon. The city would need to find money for upkeep and also provide access for peo- ple with disabilities. Gavette said he will con- tinue maintaining the oasis he created for as long as he can. He loves to see people there. “People are enjoying it,” he said. “That’s what I get pleasure from.” ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com. VOLUNTEER: ‘We don’t see new people ... entering into volunteering’ Continued from 1A Wednesday, July 18, 2018 They offer positions on their board of directors for juniors and seniors in high school, or college students. But some of those board members recently left for college, and all those posi- tions are now vacant. Recruitment is also tough, Hughes said, especially in the summers when many public events tend to fall on the same day. “For example, the golf tournament,” he said of Agape House’s fundraiser last Saturday. “It falls on the same day as Funfest. It stretches us pretty thin to have a presence at both.” United Way of Uma- tilla and Morrow Counties refers people to organiza- tions that need volunteers and donations. Director Kricket Nich- olson said volunteerism has decreased, for a variety of reasons. Many of the people who used to be stay-at-home moms would volunteer, she said. “Most are now in the workplace,” she said. “Even younger people — employ- ers expect more of them. Or people have time, but they have their own things.” Nicholson added that monetary donations have gone down as well. “There are so many causes, and non-profits ask- ing for money,” she said. “It’s almost like, who gets to the donors first.” –—— Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan at 541-564- 4534 or jramakrishnan@ eastoregonian.com Staff photo by E.J. Harris Volunteers Kyran Miller and Maria Trevino fill food boxes on Tuesday at Agape House in Hermiston. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Volunteers Jan Maitland, from left, LaVern Sanchez and Marcie Myers work on sorting clothing donations Tuesday at Agape House in Hermiston. IP 22 was sponsored by Oregonians for Immi- gration Reform and three Republican state lawmak- ers — Greg Barreto of Cove, Sal Esquivel of Med- ford and Mike Nearman of Independence. Last week, Oregonians United Against Profiling launched an offi- cial opposition campaign against the measure. More than 80 businesses, labor organizations, faith and civil rights groups and law enforcement have joined the coalition against IP 22. Oregon lawmakers passed the sanctuary law in 1987 in response to a spate of racial profiling of immi- grants by police in the pre- ceding decade. In one high-profile case in 1977, Delmiro Trev- ino, a U.S. citizen of Mex- ican descent, was arrested at a restaurant in Indepen- dence because police sus- pected that he was undoc- umented. He later filed a class action suit. His lawyer, Rocky Barilla, won election as a state representative in 1986, marking the first time a Latino was elected to that position in the state’s his- tory. He introduced the leg- islation that enacted the sanctuary law, which passed with bipartisan support. BOUNDS: Apologized for his college writings Continued from 1A four finalists for a judicial vacancy on the 9th Circuit Court. Soon after the selection, several columns published by Bounds in a Stanford college newspaper in the mid-1990s were released by The Alliance for Jus- tice, a liberal judicial advo- cacy group. In the opin- ion pieces, Bounds wrote dismissively about multi- culturalism, sexual assault and the LGBTQ commu- nity. With the revelation of the writings, both sen- ators declined to deliver “blue slips” of approval for Bounds’ nomination. Bounds quickly apol- ogized for the writings, calling them “overheated” while the senators referred to them as “inflammatory.” The blue slip, while not a binding legislative pro- cess, has been a practice followed since 1917 in which home state senators have the ability to approve or deny nominees before they go before the Senate. Merkley said Tuesday he was concerned about the content of the writings and Bounds’ failure to disclose them to the committee, but spent more time in his opening statement argu- ing in favor of respecting established practice. According to a state- ment from Merkley’s office, if confirmed Bounds would be the first nominee in modern American his- tory sworn in as a federal judge without a blue slip from a senator. The purpose behind the blue slip, Merkley said, is to give the Senate the abil- ity to check the presidential power to appoint judges to a lifetime seat. He and oth- ers warned about what the degradation of the blue slip process would mean for future nominations, including when Democrats control the presidency or Senate. “Where has all the honor and principle gone in this chamber?” Merkley asked. President Trump has so far successfully appointed 22 judges to circuit courts, and another nominee is awaiting confirmation.
