CATTLE TRUCK
CRASH KILLS
DRIVER
BUCKS FALL
IN MUST-WIN
HOME MATCH
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2018
143nd Year, No. 1
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Round-Up
land deal
makes way
for BMCC
project
Council approves giving
land to rodeo association
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
Inmates are processed in the intake area on the Umatilla County Jail on Tuesday in Pendleton.
Umatilla County sheriff
explores jail detox possibilities
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
S
taff at the Umatilla County Jail
deal with addicts every day. Sheriff
Terry Rowan said he wants to find a
way to change that.
“Essentially what we’re trying to do is
to make the people that come out of the
jail in better shape than when they came
in,” Rowan said.
The sheriff participated in Friday’s
discussion in Pendleton with Rep. Greg
Walden on fighting the opioid epidemic.
Rowan said the treatment providers there
led him to consider if the county jail could
do some intervention. He said his inter-
est piqued after reading an email from
the National Sheriff’s Association on jails
using “medication-assisted treatment,” or
MAT — pharmacotherapy to treat inmates
for recovery from substance abuse.
Only a handful of jails are trying this,
he said, and the nearest is the Snohom-
ish County Jail in Everett, Washington,
which started a medically assisted detox-
ification program for inmates in January.
Rowan said he met Monday with Dr. Dan
Marier to look into the matter further.
Marier recently retired from his Pendle-
ton practice but now works in detoxifi-
cation with Dr. Joel Rice of La Grande.
Both doctors participated in the meeting
with Walden, where Rice said jail can
help people get clean, but staying clean
requires diligent follow-through from
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mynde Lee monitors the inmate pop-
ulation from the control room Tuesday at Umatilla County Jail in Pendleton.
service providers.
Jail commander Capt. Stewart Harp
said the jail operates a small medical
detoxification process now for inmates
coming in high or drunk, and that can cre-
ate a bottleneck at intake.
“You can’t put someone who is high
on meth in the same room with someone
who is clean and about to get out,” Harp
said. “Can you see how counter-produc-
tive that is?”
And the opioid epidemic requires staff
to adhere to strict procedures to stay safe
from dangerous street drugs, particularly
fentanyl.
“Just getting exposure to the skin can
kill you,” he said.
Beyond gloves, deputies at times
don goggles during strip searches. Cor-
rections staff also no longer pass along
See JAIL/8A
The city of Pendleton is divesting
itself from the Southwest Byers Avenue
real estate market.
The Pendleton City Council unan-
imously agreed Tuesday to give the
Round-Up Association 11 properties the
city owns west of the rodeo grounds. The
move paves the way for the Round-Up
to lease the land to Blue Mountain Com-
munity College for its Blue Mountain
Regional Training Center project, which
includes an indoor arena and classroom
space for its agriculture program.
“We acquired these properties on the
expectation that the (Round-Up) campus
would expand in the future,” City Man-
ager Robb Corbett said. “This day has
come.”
Although no money will change
hands in the deal, Pendleton isn’t leaving
empty-handed.
The deal is contingent on Happy Can-
yon giving the city 60,337 square feet of
land it owns west of the Pendleton Con-
vention Center for future development.
After the meeting, Corbett said the city is
still engaged in negotiations with Happy
Canyon about acquiring the property.
BMCC also needs to fully fund the
training center to activate the agreement.
The state has already promised $5 mil-
lion toward the project’s estimated $12.5
million cost, and Pendleton joined the
Port of Umatilla and Umatilla County in
donating $150,000 each.
BMCC hopes to cover the differ-
ence by applying for more money from
the state and possibly a local fundraising
effort.
The city’s interest in the parking lot
west of the convention center is tied to
the belief that the additional space would
enable the city to develop a hotel at the
convention center.
The city has gone as far as commis-
sioning a rendering of what a convention
center hotel would look like. At an Oct.
9 city council workshop, Mayor John
Turner said a hotelier has looked into
developing a facility.
Councilor Paul Chalmers said the con-
vention center has missed out on host-
ing events because the potential customer
preferred having a hotel on or near the
site.
See DEAL/8A
Race for governor
again coming down
to Clackamas County
By AUBREY WIEBER
and PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Knute
Buehler
Gov. Kate Brown and Rep.
Knute Buehler have traversed the
state in search of swing voters to
court. They have debated public
pension reform, health care, edu-
cation and gun rights. They have
coined catch phrases to distill
their messages.
In the final days of the cam-
paign, the race is likely to be won
or lost in Clackamas County,
according to pollsters, campaign
officials and political consul-
tants. The county, which includes
Oregon City, Lake Oswego and
Tualatin, has gotten more liberal
over the past few years, and local
Democrats have ramped up voter
outreach this year.
While Portland is likely far too
blue for Buehler to swing his way,
analysts say the greater metro area
remains the main battleground.
“There’s no doubt Kate
See GOVERNOR/8A
Governor
Kate
Brown
AP file photos