ST. HELENS,
RAINIER ON ‘HIGH
THREAT’ LIST
LILLARD’S 41
UNRAVELS
MAGIC
NATION/6A
SPORTS/1B
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018
143rd Year, No. 8
Your Weekend
Huckabee makes speech in Pendleton
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
•
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One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
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party near you
Buy a book at Weston
Library sale
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Education Foundation
For times and places visit
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Mike Huckabee’s speech at the
Pendleton Convention Center was
advertised as non-political, and the
former Republican governor of
Arkansas, presidential candidate,
and conservative media personality
stuck to the script.
Mostly.
Huckabee’s speech at the Pendle-
ton Convention Center was delayed
for two weeks when Hur-
who packed into the con-
vention center that to him,
ricane Michael threatened
being “pro-life” was not
his north Florida home,
a political issue, but was
Huckabee came to Pend-
leton on Thursday to head-
instead about respecting
line a fundraiser for Preg-
life at all stages.
nancy Care Services, a
“I’m
not
pro-life
Pendleton nonprofit that
because I got into politics,”
provides counseling, par-
he said. “I got into politics
enting classes, and other Huckabee
because I’m pro-life.”
services for pregnant
Huckabee
regaled
women.
the crowd with stories about his
Huckabee told the 500 people upbringing, his daughter — White
House Press Secretary Sarah Hucka-
bee Sanders — and the time he gave
the Heimlich maneuver to Robert
Pittenger, who went on to become a
North Carolina congressman.
But he always brought it back
to Pregnancy Care Services, which
wants to raise $300,000 toward
upgrading its facility to a clinic,
which would also include hir-
ing a nurse and buying a sonogram
See HUCKABEE/8A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
64/48
63/47
60/43
HERMISTON
Watch a game
Hermiston vs. Kamiakin
Friday, 7 p.m., at Kennison
Field, Hermiston
McLeod-
Skinner
sees some
hope in
new poll
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Democrat
Jamie
McLeod-Skinner,
challenging longtime Con-
gressman Greg Walden,
R-Hood River, in Oregon’s
Second Congressional Dis-
trict, is touting new poll
numbers showing her oppo-
nent with less than 50 per-
cent support among sur-
veyed voters.
But the figures show
she’s still behind. The poll,
commissioned by the cam-
paign, shows 40 percent of
respondents favored her,
and 49 percent favored
Walden. About 5 percent of
those surveyed were unde-
cided and 7 percent favored
the Independent candidate,
Mark Roberts.
Patinkin Research Strat-
egies surveyed about 400
likely voters in the dis-
trict. The poll’s margin of
error is 5 percent. About
25 percent of respondents
See POLL/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Head cook Karen Blair serves peas and carrots to Elaine Lindquist during lunch on Thursday at the Harkenrider Senior Activity
Center in Hermiston. The lunch marked the first meal served to seniors in the new facility.
Lining up for lunch
First meal served at
Harkenrider Center
draws more than 100
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
he first lunch at the new
Harkenrider Senior Activity
Center was a record-break-
ing one.
More than 100 people showed
up for the inaugural meal of
chicken, mashed potatoes, veg-
etables and cake on Thursday.
The senior center opened at the
end of September, but its twice-
weekly meals had remained at
Our Lady of Angels Catholic
Church until all of the equipment
in the new kitchen was installed.
T
Virginia Beebe, the senior
center’s vice president, was
one of the board members run-
ning around Thursday adding
more chairs to tables and help-
ing people with walkers navigate
the line. While the old, smaller
senior center’s lunches had been
numbering 50 to 60, she said she
wasn’t surprised by the large
turnout Thursday.
“We expected this today,” she
said.
Based on a show of hands,
most seniors at the meal had
eaten at the former senior center
on Orchard Avenue at least a few
times before it was torn down in
2017. Since that time, the seniors
have been having lunch at the
See LUNCH/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Senior center vice president Virginia Beebe, third from left,
speaks to Donna Southwell of Umatilla about whether about
the possibility of picking up meals to go while eating lunch
Thursday at the Harkenrider Senior Activity Center in Hermiston.
Preus passes torch with big project on horizon
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
When Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College President Cam Preus
arrived in 2013, her predeces-
sor presented her with a three-ring
binder of documents called “the
turnover book.”
A mix of static facts about the
college and contemporary issues,
Preus is giving her successor an
updated version of the book when
she leaves the college at the end of
October to start her new job as the
executive director of the Oregon
Community College Association.
Preus
Green
Starting Nov. 15, Connie Green
will lead the college as the interim
president for the next six months
while the BMCC Board of Educa-
tion conducts a search for a perma-
nent replacement.
A former president of Tilla-
mook Community College who has
worked with BMCC in the past,
Green will be expected to help
shepherd some of BMCC’s larger
initiatives and projects.
Green occasionally opened a
notebook to take notes as Preus
spoke to the East Oregonian edito-
rial board Thursday about the Blue
Mountain Regional Training Center
and other college issues.
Originally dubbed FARM II,
Preus said BMCC spun off the
rodeo arena/veterinary classroom
space from the 2013 bond proposal
that failed at the ballot box.
The bond passed in 2015 sans
the arena proposal, and the project
received another setback when an
anonymous donor pulled out of a
40-acre land donation for the arena.
But Preus said these develop-
ments were “blessings in disguise”
because pursuing the project inde-
pendently allowed the college to
recruit the city of Pendleton, Uma-
tilla County and other governmental
entities to contribute to the project.
“I think it’s kismet for it to work
out the way that it did,” she said.
With the Pendleton Round-Up
See BMCC/8A