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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 2018)
TWO FROM TRUMP CAMP GUILTY BULLDOGS FACE NEW SET OF RIVALS UMATILLA COUNTY FAIR RESULTS NATION/7A SPORTS/1B INSIDE/6-7B WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 142nd Year, No. 208 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Westgate apartment complex could join recent housing boom City on pace to add more units in 2018 than 10-year high By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian If the city and I & E Construc- tion can hammer out an incen- tive package with the city quickly enough, Pendleton could have more than 200 additional housing units within the next two years. That’s what Karl Ivanov, the president of the Clackamas-based I & E, asserted to the Pendleton City Council at a workshop Tuesday. I & E is targeting a 10-acre prop- erty owned by the city on West- gate, where the old Eastern Oregon Training Center used to be. The proposed 204-unit complex would have five different configurations of apartments, ranging from stu- dios to three-bedroom units. Although Ivanov and the rest of the presenters in his group wouldn’t provide a firm range of rental prices, they said the average price of one of the units would be $1,200 per month. Pendleton acquired the vacant property from the state in 2016, and City Manager Robb Corbett said this is the kind of project city officials had in mind for the land. “This is exactly what we’ve been looking for,” he said Tuesday. Ivanov said I & E specializes in working in small towns, establish- ing apartment complexes in com- munities toward the outskirts of the Portland metro area and other population hubs in the Willamette Valley for people looking to live Staff photo by E.J. Harris A man works on one of the duplexes in the complex off of South- west 30th Street on Tuesday in Pendleton. See HOUSING/8A BOARDMAN Like father, like son Ryan Neal to replace father as Port of Morrow manager Ryan Neal, the cur- rent Port of Morrow Warehousing manager, and son of longtime port manag- er Gary Neal, was selected as the new port manag- er on Aug. 7. He will step in at a time when the port has seen a boom in business, both from tenants and it’s own op- erations. By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian T he search for a new Port of Morrow manager spanned several months and drew applicants from around the U.S., but the role will go to a home- grown candidate. Ryan Neal, the current Port of Morrow Warehousing manager and son of longtime port manager Gary Neal, was selected on Aug. 7 from a pool of about 33 total appli- cants, after the port commission and several panels conducted inter- views with Neal and three other finalists. While the panels made sugges- tions, the five port commissioners unanimously made the final call to extend the job offer to Neal. As Neal prepares to assume the job this fall, he said he plans to build on the rapid growth the port has seen, with both existing and new industries. “We’re definitely an ag resource-based economy, but we’ll continue to diversify,” Neal said. “Obviously technology will con- tinue to be a major part of it. But we’ll see — we seem to get leads all the time.” Neal will step in at a time when the port has seen a boom in busi- ness, both from tenants and its own operations, in the last few years. He said his background in busi- ness, as well as his recent experi- Staff photo by E.J. Harris ence in Boardman, has given him skills he feels will serve the port. “I think I have a lot of structure in my management style,” he said. “Working for companies that have corporate cultures, I understand the good and the bad that comes with that.” He added that he’s developed an understanding of the interpersonal relationships with port clients and employees during his time with POM Warehousing. “I think bridging those gaps in relationships is important to focus on, both at the state agency and at the business level,” he said. A graduate of Riverside High School and Oregon State Univer- sity, Neal started his career with Knight Transportation in Port- land, where he worked for 10 years. After various roles in oper- ations and business development, he moved to their corporate office in Phoenix. He moved to Yakima in 2012 to become the director of operations at Haney Truck Line — a business he said had about 500 trucks and employees. Looking to return to his home- town, Neal said he jumped at the opportunity to work at Port of Mor- row Warehousing when the facility opened in 2015. The facility stores frozen vegetables before food pro- cessing companies ship the prod- uct to stores. After working as the opera- tions manager under director Jim Barnes, Neal took over the gen- eral manager position when Barnes retired in late 2016. In that position, Neal said, he oversees about half of the Port of See NEAL/8A “I think I have a lot of structure in my management style” — Ryan Neal, new Port of Morrow manager Umatilla County takes RISE to another level By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Amy Ashton-Williams, director of Umatilla County Human Ser- vices, wrote the application for the grant from Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc., which paid for last year’s launch of the RISE program in the Hermiston schools. Umatilla County next month will offer its school-based mental health program to every school district in the county. Amy Ashton-Williams said the move comes with challenges. Ashton-Williams is the direc- tor of Umatilla County Human Ser- vices. She wrote the application for the grant from Greater Oregon Behav- ioral Health Inc., which paid for last year’s launch of RISE — the Resil- ience, Inspirational, Success Educa- tion program — in Hermiston schools. She applied this year to expand the program county-wide, and the county received $700,000 to take on the task. RISE’s inaugural iteration had a staff of three mental health associ- ates. They worked in small-group sessions with Hermiston’s K-12 stu- dents to help them better cope with a range of emotional and life challenges, from de-escalating anger to learning new resiliency skills to making better social choices. Ashton-Williams said the RISE staff served more than 400 Hermiston students. This school year, RISE swells to a supervisor and six mental health asso- ciates to run the sessions. See RISE/8A
