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SPORTS/1B
NATION/6A
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2018
143rd Year, No. 23
Your Weekend
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One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
A look back at the 1977 Buckaroos
Truss
move
delays
bridge
project
Altrusa Bazaar, Pendle-
ton Convention Center
“Robin Hood,” Hermis-
ton Conference Center
Hermiston Mudfest at
EOTEC
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Weekend Weather
Fri
48/32
Sat
42/26
Sun
Removal is
complicated by
size of structures
43/26
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Watch a game
been back since then,” former wide
receiver Steve Nirschl said. “We
had great fans back then. Going to
football games on a Friday night
was the thing to do. I still go to the
More than a year into
the construction of Pendle-
ton’s Eighth Street Bridge
replacement project, large
remains of the old bridge are
still at the site.
The project’s contrac-
tor — OBEC Consulting
Engineers — has torn down
the 109-year-old trusses
and placed them flat on the
bridge service, but they hav-
en’t been moved off the
location yet.
The trusses were origi-
nally slated to be moved to
a nearby city storage yard in
the last week of September
or the first week of October,
but Public Works Director
Bob Patterson now expects
the trusses will be trans-
ported in early December.
Patterson said the delays
have been the result of the
project’s timing.
OBEC was initially
focused on doing some
work in the Umatilla River
before the water work win-
dow ended in October, Pat-
terson said. The contractor
has used the ensuing time
after October ended consid-
ering the logistics of how to
move the structures.
Patterson said current
plans involve moving the
trusses in two halves from
Eighth Street to the city’s
yard at 1501 S.E. Byers
Ave. The most direct route
would only span a half
mile, but Patterson said the
trusses’ 24-foot by 60-foot
size means crews will have
to transport the structures
along the much wider Court
Avenue and Court Place
before bringing them to the
yard.
OBEC has incentive to
move the old trusses sooner
rather than later. Patterson
said the contractor wants
to install the bridge’s new
trusses over the winter, but
it won’t have the space to
position the cranes to install
the structures until the old
trusses are removed.
While the old trusses
haven’t been moved, Pat-
terson said bridge work-
ers have done work around
them, constructing tempo-
rary scaffolding towers that
will support the beams as
they’re being installed and
doing concrete work around
the bridge.
Patterson said the con-
tractor hasn’t commit-
ted to a firm date on mov-
ing the trusses, but it will be
required to give the city a
one-week notice and obtain
a permit from the Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation before starting the
See 1977/8A
See BRIDGE/8A
Pendleton vs. Thurston
Saturday, 5:30 p.m., at Hill-
sboro Stadium, Hillsboro
Additional
$1 billion
expected in
state budget
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Taxpayers
and lottery patrons are pour-
ing millions of extra dollars
into state coffers.
By the end of the current
budget cycle, state econo-
mists say, the state will tuck
$1 billion more into its trea-
sury than forecast 18 months
ago. That comes on top of
the $21 billion the state
already expected to collect.
While it’s not clear what
lawmakers may do with that
extra sum, it’s likely that
a large share will go back
to taxpayers in the form of
“kicker” payments.
Oregon law requires
the state to give some per-
sonal income tax money
back when state economists
underestimate
personal
income tax collections by
more than 2 percent.
If current predictions
hold, the median taxpayer
would get $174 back when
filing personal income taxes
in 2020. Collectively, Ore-
See DOLLARS/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Members of the Pendleton Buckaroos’ semifinals team in the 1977 state football playoffs (top) Steve
Nirschl, left, Dave Stuvland, (middle) David James, left, Mark Temple, (bottom) Craig Christianson, left,
and Jon Peterson pose for a photo with the Don Requa statue in Brownfield Park in Pendleton.
GLORY DAYS
Players from Pendleton’s last semifinal team
relive playoffs
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
T
he last time the Pendleton
High School football team
was still playing this late in
the season, “Star Wars” was domi-
nating movie screens. The first one.
“Roots” had transformed the TV
miniseries, Atari was the latest rage,
and a Corvette Stingray would run
you $10,000 or less.
It’s been 41 years since Pend-
leton last played in the state semi-
finals. A time when Coach Don
Requa walked the sidelines, and his
Bucks were looking to reach their
first state championship game.
There were 5,500 fans in the
stands at the Pendleton Round-Up
Grounds on Nov. 18, 1977, and
the temperature was in the 20s at
kickoff.
Pendleton dropped a 13-7 game
to Medford that night as the Black
Tornado scored eight unanswered
points in the second half to advance
to the Class AAA state title game
against Churchill, which ended in a
7-7 tie.
The Bucks are back in the state
EO file photo
Running back Mark Temple is helped off the field after spraining his
ankle in the Buckaroos’ loss to Medford in their 1977 semifinal foot-
ball game.
semifinals for the first time since
that night 41 years ago. Pendleton
will play Thurston at 5:30 p.m. Sat-
urday at Hillsboro Stadium. The
game falls one day shy of being
exactly 41 years.
“I’m surprised they haven’t