Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2018)
Page 12A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Saturday, September 1, 2018 BUEHLER: Need a 180-day school year, the national average Continued from 1A the bottom five to the top five in five years. He pro- poses increasing K-12 fund- ing a minimum of 15 percent in the next two bienniums. But that push only comes if lawmakers deliver mean- ingful, bipartisan PERS and health insurance reforms. “I won’t sign a new spending bill until I have PERS reform on my desk,” Buehler said. His plan would cap the salary to calculate pension benefits at $100,000 a year going forward, require gov- ernment employees to con- tribute to their retirements and enroll new government workers into 401(k)-type accounts. Those and other PERS changes would save $1.2 billion every two years, Buehler said, which he plans to use to help teachers and students. Pushing more dollars into classrooms is only part of the education package. Ore- gon students attend 165 days of school a year. By the time they graduate high school, that adds up to one year less education than a student in Washington state. Oregon needs a 180-day school year, he said, which is the national average. That may be the biggest carrot in the package for the urban voter. Buehler said he WILDFIRE: Since 2011, more large fires Continued from 1A after it has paid for its own training, said Schin Haaken- son, one of Giles’ daughters. But with more fires affecting the West in recent years, the business manages to make ends meet. Expensive fires The last two fire seasons have been arduous for Ore- gon, especially in terms of the amount of fires and the cost to fight them. Accord- ing to data from the North- west Interagency Coordi- nation Center, which serves as logistical support for fire management in Oregon and Washington, last year’s reported totals for large fires in Oregon cost about $447 million. Large fires are classified as greater than or equal to 100 acres in timber and 300 acres in grass and brush. As of Aug. 20, this year’s total comes to about $321 million, and fire sea- son is not yet over, although it appears to be wind- ing down — national and regional preparedness levels went from a level five to a level four. The next highest price tag in the last 10 years was in 2014, which cost a little over $280 million. “There’s definitely an upward trend,” said Tim Keith, who provides over- sight for the Oregon Forest Land Protection Fund. Since 2011, there have been more large fires than previous decades, he said. According to NICC fire analyst Timothy Klukas, a drought in Oregon set off an early fire season this year. Grass and brush received three weeks less moisture than previous years, he said, which made them more sus- ceptible to ignition. “When you think about the native vegetation, it’s drier, it’s more cured out, it’s going to release energy quicker,” said Klukas. He said the drought in Eastern Oregon spread into Washington and contrib- uted to the growing trend of increasing fires. “We had large fires where you don’t normally have large fires,” he said. Oregon State University College of Forestry profes- sor John Bailey calls this the “fire behavior triangle.” A three-part system comprised of topography, weather and fuels. The topography hasn’t changed very much, but increases in temperature and sustained periods of dry- ness have supplied the fuels for longer, drier and hotter fire seasons. The challenge is how to pay for them and what can be done to make them more manageable in the future. “Prevention gets more significant,” said Klukas. The number of acres burned doesn’t necessar- ily correlate to the dollars spent fighting the fires. Klu- doesn’t know a suburban mom who would not wel- come the longer school year. His plan might get a hard look from Eastern Oregon locals because it also calls for five-day school weeks. Pilot Rock, Stanfield and Morrow County schools all have four-day school weeks. Still, with the “R” behind his MATLACK: The trip is funded by FAIR Continued from 1A Photo courtesy of Kari Greer The U.S. Forest Service Silver City Hotshots take a break while conducting back burns on the Taylor Creek and Klondike fires in the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest west of Grants Pass, Oregon. kas said there are many rea- sons that costs may be ris- ing. Of course, longer fire seasons contribute to higher price tags. More people are needed to fight them for lon- ger periods of time. But, he said there is also new equip- ment, more public land use and neighborhood expan- sions into previously unin- habited areas that also con- tribute to costs. According to Klukas, areas with higher human activity have greater potential for new ignitions. “It’s a very complicated equation,” he said. Plus, fire doesn’t discrim- inate where it burns. It can burn on public lands, pri- vate lands and federal lands, which complicates the bill. Oregon’s plan Keith said Oregon dedi- cates $20 million to fire sup- pression on state lands each year. Half of that comes from the general fund and the other half is matched by the Oregon Forest Land Protection Fund. If that is exceeded, another $30 mil- lion is drawn from the gen- eral fund. If that is also exhausted, Oregon has an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London for $25 million. Oregon is reimbursed for fires it extinguishes on fed- eral lands, and as of July 1, it no longer pays for fires on Bureau of Land Manage- ment lands in Western Ore- gon, said Keith. On the federal level, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act was passed in March that prevents “fire-borrow- ing,” which is when fire- fighting agencies divert funds from other budgets, ones that include fire pre- vention, to suppression costs. And extensive fire sup- pression could contribute to harsher fires in the future by allowing a build-up of fuel. Klukas described an inci- dent he observed at a fire in Wyoming, where a wild- fire made contact with a pre- scribed burn area and went out immediately because there weren’t any fuels to keep it alive. “Last year’s fire is a good place to be now,” said Bailey. He said we could do bet- ter incorporating more fire management. Instead of allowing fuels to accumulate on the forest floor, it could be mechanically removed or burned off, or allowed to burn when a fire starts. Klukas said there have been instances where he has allowed a fire to burn and managed it that way, because it can be beneficial to the landscape. “But it has to be in the right setting and the right location,” he said — mean- ing not in a year suffering from drought. “It’s not realistic to keep fire out of systems,” said Bailey. administration for re-es- tablishing law enforce- ment’s footing to enforce our laws.” Matlack has been open in his opposition to illegal immigration, and has made several trips to the border. He said despite Morrow Coun- ty’s distance, it has expe- rienced many of the prob- lems that he says start at the border. “Mexican cartels make millions of dollars,” he said. “When we got rid of ephed- rine, Umatilla County was the largest producer of meth per capita. When they got rid of it, you couldn’t fill up your cart with ephedrine anymore. When that changed, Mex- icans came in and brought their own product from Mexico.” Matlack said he doesn’t have a specific sense of crime committed by illegal immi- grants in Morrow County, because they don’t track them. Nor, he said, does he feel that illegal immigrants commit crime at a higher rate in the county than legal residents. “I wouldn’t say we have a rampant crime problem,” he said. “The illegal aliens I personally know are some of the hardest working peo- ple I know. They contribute in their life’s work and pro- duce value.” He said he supports find- ing a path to citizenship for them. “However, I’m a law- and-order kind of guy,” he said. “It’s against the law for (illegal immigrants) to be here.” He said he’s also against sanctuary states, and is one of 16 Oregon sheriffs that recently signed a letter ask- ing voters to repeal Oregon’s sanctuary law. Matlack said he is opposed to the idea of an open border. “I don’t think open bor- ders will ever work,” he said. “There’s too many bad peo- ple coming in. I’ve been down to see what they do — rob, rape and murder.” He added that the con- cerns are not just people coming in from Mexico. “There’s literature from Middle Eastern countries, all kinds of people coming in,” he said. Matlack called the cur- rent U.S. immigration sys- tem “broken.” “My belief is that you’re not going to deport 12 mil- lion people,” he said. He said while people who came to the U.S. illegally Continued from 1A Huckabee will help draw conservatives and other people sympathetic to the nonprofit’s cause. Huckabee isn’t coming for free: Even with a 50 per- cent discount, Jensen said Pregnancy Care Services is continuing to raise money toward his $24,000 speak- ing fee. But the nonprofit expects Huckabee’s speech to reap larger rewards. Jensen said Pregnancy Care Service’s goal is to raise $100,000 from the event and use it as a launch pad to raise more money toward their expansion project within the next 3-5 years. Expectations are high for a man who has been in the public eye for more than two decades. A evangelical pastor, Huckabee first won polit- ical office in 1993, when he was elected to Arkansas’ open lieutenant governor seat in a special election. Huckabee ascended to governor after his prede- cessor, Jim Guy Tucker, resigned, and he would go on to win two more terms. He launched a campaign for president in 2007, and even though he won the pivotal Iowa caucus and several other primaries in southeastern states, he dropped out of the race in March 2008 once it became clear that John McCain would win the nomination. Huckabee made another run for president in 2016, but he dropped out again after a ninth place finish in Iowa. A frequent radio and tele- vision host and commen- tator, Huckabee launched a new show with the Trin- ity Broadcasting Network, a Christian TV station, in 2017. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the press secretary for Presi- dent Donald Trump. The Pendleton Con- vention Center seats 500, but Jensen said there are only about 300 free tick- ets left for the event avail- able to the general public. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis through Pregnancy Care Services. The speech and din- ner will be emceed by Marty Campbell, a rodeo announcer and a high school teacher. The dinner will start at 6:30 p.m. and Huckabee’s speech at 7:30 p.m. _____ Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. are at fault, politicians bear some of the blame too. “Who should have done something? Our own gov- ernment,” he said. Matlack’s trip is funded by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). He said he was first approached by the group many years ago. He said there was a confer- ence in Las Vegas for bor- der sheriffs to discuss the problems they were having with illegal immigration. “They called up and tried to find Oregon sher- iffs willing to come to this meeting,” he said. Matlack said the group had trouble finding sheriffs willing to participate. “It’s a political thing,” he said. “FAIR is a conser- vative group.” On its website, FAIR states that it looks to reduce overall immigration to a “more normal level.” It says that it hopes to bring the number of immigrants coming into the U.S. annu- ally from one million to 300,000 a year. The group is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that mon- itors hate and extremist groups in the U.S., as a hate group. Matlack said he disagrees with that designation. “They’re not a hate group,” he said. “They’re much like the people in Texas I worked with on task forces.” Jonathan Shaklee, an immigration attorney in Kennewick, said statisti- cally, undocumented immi- grants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than natural-born citizens. Furthermore, he said, most immigrants want to have a good relationship with law enforcement, especially because those populations are often vic- timized themselves. “Local Latino commu- nities don’t want crimi- nals in their communities either,” he said. “But if they’re afraid to talk to law enforcement, they’ll con- tinue to be victimized.” Shaklee said the fear of going to law enforcement is counterproductive for both groups. “I don’t think that serves the interest of law enforce- ment, and it puts the entire community at further risk.” Matlack’s trip will include a press conference on Capitol Hill, followed by a roundtable discussion at the White House. STANFIELD City to hold hearing on house after animals, children removed East Oregonian HUCKABEE: Goal is to raise $100,000 from event name, Buehler is expected to carry this side of the state. But delivering on schools and PERS reforms will take more than winning in November. Buehler would have to convince the Leg- islature, which looks to remain under Democratic control for the foreseeable future. The city of Stanfield will have a public hear- ing Tuesday on the fate of a house where more than three dozen animals were seized on Aug. 19. If the city council declares the house at 230 S. Lucy St. “dangerous” the city can order the house be demolished or made safe. Richard Tyrone Ruiz, 47, and Martina Gar- cia Ruiz, 48, have been charged with 37 counts of animal neglect stem- ming from an investiga- tion into the house and Michael Ruiz, 26, and his partner, Timi Jean Murray, 24, were arrested for child neglect and endangering the welfare of a minor. Two minors were also removed from the home. Notice of the public hearing states that the city “has received evidence that the interior of the home has dangerous mold, unsani- tary conditions, and that the electrical wiring is in a dangerous state.” “In addition, the sewer connection underneath the home is leaking raw sew- age onto the ground,” the notice states. “These con- ditions make it likely that the building is not safe, and may cause the spread of disease.” The city council will take public testimony on the building during their regular council meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in city council chambers, 150 Coe Ave. Written comments can also be submitted.
