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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Saturday, October 27, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor WYATT HAUPT JR. News Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW BMCC must keep momentum going C ommunity colleges only work in symbiosis, and the health of the college relies on its partnerships both inside and outside the world of education. It’s remarkable to see how Blue Mountain Community College has cultivated its relationships in Umatilla and Morrow counties to meet the needs not only of its students, but the communities at large. The Port of Morrow has come alongside BMCC to create a data center technician program in Boardman that can hardly keep up with demand in the emerging field. Five other colleges — including Eastern Oregon and Oregon State universities — have degree partnerships with the school. The small business development center has been revitalized and is helping scores of entrepreneurs turn their dreams into viable realities. There are plenty more examples. And of course there’s the big new project, the Blue Mountain Resource Training Center, that has collected a conglomerate of partners including the Pendleton Round-Up Association, city of Pendleton and more. The outlines are still a bit hazy, but the pieces are in place for the college to build a facility near the Round-Up Grounds that offers a veterinarian EO file photo A BMCC graduate gets a high five from Timber, the BMCC school mascot, while walking during the 2015 graduation. and agriculture program and a rodeo arena. It’s the end result of years of work, as the city and Round-Up have both bought up the nearby properties. The city recently agree to turn that property over to the Round-Up, and the Round-Up will in turn lease it to BMCC. One of the big questions, as always, is money. The school has a $5 million promise from the legislature if it can find matching funds, and the entire project is targeted to come in at about $12.5 million. Cam Preus, who is in her final week as president of BMCC, has been integrally involved. She said she expects the rest of the fundraising to take about two-and-a-half years, and has plenty of places to look without going for an additional bond. But Preus will be long gone by then, and it’s important for the college to keep up its momentum in the meantime. Connie Green, who will fill in as the interim president during a wider search, seems to be the perfect person for the job. She’s spent her career in community colleges, most recently in Tillamook, and told our editorial board, without reservation, that “community colleges are the greatest thing in Oregon.” It’s that kind of champion — with both expertise and enthusiasm — that BMCC needs to keep the ball rolling. And in case you’re wondering, Green isn’t interested in the full-time gig because her grandkids won’t hear of it. A search committee has been formed and a six-month time frame has been put into place to find the full-time replacement. The search is nationwide, and we wish them luck knowing it’s going to be a difficult seat to fill. There is work to be done. Enrollment is in a dip after a recession-era spike. Relationships and partnerships must be strengthened so they don’t wither. The community must regularly be included in the college’s planning process. To that end, we’ll leave you with the lesson Preus said she learned from her five years at BMCC: “It doesn’t matter how much somebody likes the college, it matters if the college is doing what people want.” OTHER VIEWS Trump ignoring real ‘emergies’ I YOUR VIEWS BMCC project on Round-Up grounds needs closer look The most recent action by the Pendleton City Council regarding the branded “Farm II” project supposedly being led by Blue Mountain Community College highlights what little information has been provided to the public regarding the project. My discussions with those around the communities beyond Pendleton support that confusion exists as to whose project it really is, what it entails, who is involved, the costs, and, most of all, its benefit to the taxpayers of Umatilla County. And taxpayers need to know when you consider that Blue Mountain Community College, the InterMountain Educational Service District, the Port of Umatilla and Umatilla County all have shingles hanging on the project. The taxpayers of all of Umatilla County can also be a hero of the project but only if there is open and transparent dialogue regarding the project. To date there has not been. No explanation has been provided as to why, if it’s BMCC’s project, the land transfer has been made to the Pendleton Round-Up? Do the taxpayers really want to shell out millions of dollars for project located on what is essentially private land, and if the project does not come to fruition have the same property remain in the hands of the Round-Up? From information provided in the public forum, BMCC first had only secured $5 million for the then-$10 million project. The most recent figures Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. offered now put the project costs at $18 million, of which only $10 million is in hand. While one would conclude, based on funding, that it is Blue Mountain’s project there is then confusion as to why the city of Pendleton, the Pendleton Round-Up Association and the Happy Canyon Company have all conducted property purchases and trades at their own expense in support of the project. Added to this concern is the yet-unveiled costs of operation and maintenance it will take to keep the facility viable over the long term — and who will absorb the operation and maintenance cost? In the end it is glaring to me that for FARM II to be a success Blue Mountain Community College, the city of Pendleton, Umatilla County, the Port of Umatilla, the Pendleton Round-Up Association, the Happy Canyon Company and the InterMountain Educational Service District need the support of the public, the taxpayers, to make the project a success, yet they have left these most important patrons in the dark. The East Oregonian said it best in January of 2018 in advocating for “close examination” of FARM II, and I repeat that call now, as for 10 months such examination has not been provided. I say it is time for a series of public meetings where all the information, plans, needs and expectations of the project are brought to the public eye. Doing so will undoubtedly lead to its success. Carl Culham Former Round-Up director Athena t’s not about immigration. It’s States from infection. Trump also tweeted then that if a about bigotry. New York physician who returned That’s the real story — to from West Africa developed Ebola the extent there is a story at all (as he later did), “then Obama — about the caravan of 5,000 should apologize to the American impoverished Central Americans people & resign.” And a Fox News rampaging toward the United States border at, er, 2 miles an hour. Nicholas contributor, Dr. Keith Ablow, said President Donald Trump, ever Kristof in a radio broadcast that Obama maybe wanted Americans to suffer the champion speller, declares this Comment Ebola because his “affiliations” to be a “National Emergy”! He were with Africa rather than America. may call out the Army! He’s talking about In the 2014 elections, Republican sealing the border! candidates ran hundreds of ads denouncing So, here’s some perspective, by my the Obama administration’s handling of back-of-envelope calculations: Ebola. News organizations chronicled • More than 1.4 million foreigners this “debate,” but in retrospect they were immigrate to the United States each year. manipulated into becoming a channel to If, say, half the caravan reaches the border, spread fear — and win Republican votes. and half of those people actually enter the Politically, this was quite effective, and U.S., they would represent less than one- tenth of 1 percent of this year’s immigrants. Republicans won sweeping gains across the • If the caravan proceeds by foot, during country and seized control of the Senate. the period of its journey 16,800 Americans Yet Ebola, like the Central American caravan, is a reminder of the distinction will die from drugs. • In the period of the caravan’s journey, between grandstanding and governing. Obama’s technocratic Ebola program perhaps 690,000 Americans will become — working with France and Britain, plus homeless, including 267,000 children. • In the period of the caravan’s journey, private aid groups — may have worried voters, but it was effective. Instead of 8,850 Americans will die from guns, careening around the world to kill millions including suicides and murders. • In the period of the caravan’s journey, and devastate the global economy, the Ebola virus was contained and eventually perhaps 9,000 Americans will die from burned out. Good governance often turns lack of health insurance (people die at out to be bad politics, and vice versa. higher rates when they’re uninsured, The same is true of immigration. although there’s disagreement about how Perhaps the approach with the best much higher). record is aid programs to curb gang Maybe the real “National Emergy” is violence in countries like Honduras, to drugs, homelessness, gun deaths and lack reduce the factors that lead people to of health insurance? attempt the dangerous journey to the Trump’s trumpeting isn’t protecting United States. Yet it’s not tangible and America, and the number of people is doesn’t impress voters. So Trump instead is so modest that the issue isn’t really even talking about an expensive wall and about immigration. Rather, it’s fearmongering. Scholars have found that reminding people cutting aid to Central America, even though this would magnify the crisis there and of dangers makes them temporarily more probably lead more people to flee north. conservative, so this kind of manipulation “Cutting off U.S. aid to these can be an effective campaign tactic. Remember the 2014 midterm elections? humanitarian organizations will just push more children into desperation and silence This is a replay. In the run-up to voting, the most persistent voices for reform,” Republicans ratcheted up fears of a said Kevin Ryan, president of Covenant “border crisis” with terrorists sneaking in from Mexico to attack us, plus alarm about House, which assists children in the United States and Central America. “It’s Ebola and the risk that the outbreak in exactly the wrong move.” West Africa could reach America. I fear that we in the media have become “President Obama, you are a complete and total disaster, but you have a chance to Trump’s puppets, letting him manipulate us to project issues like the caravan onto do something great and important: STOP the agenda. THE FLIGHTS!” tweeted Donald Trump ■ at the time. His public health vision: Let Nicholas D. Kristof has been a columnist Ebola destroy Africa and much of the rest for The Times since 2001. of the world, but try to seal off the United The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
