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East Oregonian
Dave’s: Landmark in Pendleton
Project: First of its size in North America
Continued from Page A1
equivalent of 340,000 homes. The
solar farm will be one of the larg-
est in Oregon, while the battery
storage facility will not only be the
largest in the state, but one of the
largest in the United States.
GE Renewable Energy Inc. is
producing the 120 wind turbines,
which will go up just north of Lex-
ington. The project has not deter-
mined the specific equipment for
the solar farm and battery stor-
age facility. Corson said the wind
farm will come online by the end
of 2020, then work begins in 2021
on the solar array and the battery
storage. Once complete, he said,
PGE expects half of the power it
produces will be emissions free.
“This is an important milestone
for us, and we’re pleased to be
moving in that direction,” Corson
said, because it will dramatically
reduce the company’s greenhouse
gas emissions while helping meet
Oregon’s climate change goals and
transition to a clean energy future
for customers.
The timing is critical for PGE.
The company is shutting down its
450-megawatt coal-fired plant out-
side Boardman at the end of 2020.
Corson said Wheatridge Renew-
able is not a one-to-one replace-
ment for the coal plant, which
has served as a power generating
workhorse, able to run 24-7. But
the wind farm will help fill the
gap, he said, and PGE last year
signed deals to buy hydropower.
That’s the kind of reliable energy
“we can call on when we need it,”
he said.
The solar farm will charge the
large batteries, which can provide
30 megawatts of continuous power
for 4 hours. Eventually, Corson
said, the wind farm also will con-
tribute to the battery storage. He
explained wind sometimes will
be the primary energy producer at
the site and solar will come to the
fore other times, “and the batteries
help even out the flow.”
PGE also is keeping an eye on
the Oregon Legislature’s move to
produce a carbon cap-and-trade
bill. Corson said Wheatridge
Renewable is not a response to
that possible law.
“We’re down in Salem and
we’re optimistic this could be the
year a well-developed cap-and-
trade program comes through,” he
said. Oregon law even requires the
company to pull out of its share of
the coal-fired power plant in Col-
strip, Montana, by 2035.
Morrow County Commissioner
Don Russell praised the project,
and the significance it will have
for Eastern Oregon residents.
“A lot of those employees live
in Morrow County — others live
in Umatilla and Gilliam,” he said.
“They’re good contributors to the
Thursday, February 14, 2019
county. They’ll retrain people who
worked at the coal-fired plant to
work at the wind and solar facili-
ties — it’ll retain those jobs.”
Russell also said the proj-
ect will give local farmers and
ranchers the opportunity to have
another revenue stream.
“A lot of landowners in Mor-
row County, primarily dryland
wheat farmers, will have wind
towers on their property,” he said.
“They’ll get another source of
income, and not have to rely com-
pletely on Mother Nature.”
Russell said the negotiations for
where wind towers will be located,
and how much farmers will be
reimbursed, are all between indi-
vidual landowners and NextEra.
Russell said the county is work-
ing to finalize a Strategic Invest-
ment Program (SIP) agreement
with the companies, meaning that
in lieu of property taxes, the com-
panies will pay some portion of
their income to local entities, such
as the county and taxing districts.
He said they expect to have the
agreement within the next month.
State law dictates that the first
$25 million of the project goes
on the tax rolls, Russell said, and
the next $500,000 goes toward a
“community service fee” — dis-
tributed between all the taxing
districts in the code area, by the
percentage they would get from
their tax rate.
Continued from Page A1
it remains. Dave retired in 2011,
and Toni took on managing the
business. Dave Walters died sud-
denly in December 2016 while
vacationing in Mesa, Arizona,
where he spent winters. Toni Wal-
ters died in July 2018.
Jerrod “JJ” Spriet of Trustime/
LaSalle St. Securities is the exec-
utor of the Walters’ estate. Spriet
in a written statement explained
one of the reasons McAnally
was interested in Dave’s was its
location between his two other
establishments and their close
proximity.
McAnally was negotiating
with Toni Walters to buy Dave’s
when she became ill, according
to Spriet, but they did not reach
a deal. McAnally is a “great oper-
ator” of Pendleton businesses,
Spriet stated, “and he under-
stands what Dave’s has meant to
this community over the years as
a friendly, convenient spot that is
known for top-notch service.”
McAnally in the announce-
ment said his vision for Dave’s is
similar to when he purchased Big
John’s Pizza.
“Big John’s was a well-known
hometown brand when I pur-
chased the business and the same
is true with Dave’s,” he stated.
“I want to continue building the
brand that Dave and Toni cre-
Love: They suffered together through difficulties
Continued from Page A1
but also unconditional love
and determination.
Broadband: Usage fee
would pay to expand
internet coverage
Continued from Page A1
A difficult start
Franca moved to the
United States from Italy
at age 10. She experienced
abuse as a child and endured
three failed marriages. Over
the years, she worked as
payroll clerk, credit analyst,
bill collector, retail clerk,
bridal veil designer and bar
owner.
Mike grew up in a trou-
bled home and ended up on
the streets as a 10-year-old.
He flirted with drugs and
crime. He had stints in juvie
and lived in multiple foster
homes.
The two connected in
2006, forming a fast friend-
ship that deepened to best
friends and then to love.
Both realized they’d never
really known true love in
their dysfunctional families
and the relationships that
followed. This was some-
thing altogether different
and wonderful.
“I never knew what love
looked like,” Franca said.
“Mike gave me the experi-
ence of being deeply under-
stood, truly supported and
completely and uncondi-
tionally loved.”
Life’s
circumstances
would soon test their rela-
tionship. In 2008, a 17-year-
old driver took a shortcut
through a parking lot and
crashed into Mike and Fran-
ca’s car as the couple waited
to pull out onto a Portland
street.
“My head hit the wind-
shield and ricocheted back
and forth,” she said. “The
fireman that pulled me out
said I should have been
dead.”
A helicopter rushed the
unconscious Franca to the
Oregon Health and Science
University Hospital.
Months of therapy fol-
lowed. Franca had sei-
zures, sometimes 10 a day.
She relearned how to walk
and talk. Mike ferried her
to and from therapy ses-
sions. Sometimes he took
her with him to his job with
a company that refurbished
motorhomes.
Her brain injury meant
she sometimes reverted to
toddlerhood. Franca tells
a story of going to the gro-
cery store with Mike and
demanding candy. When
he said no, she had a full-
fledged tantrum, screaming
and kicking her feet on the
floor. He calmed her down,
checked out and loaded her
into the car.
Later, when Franca
decided to complete her
doctorate in divinity, Mike
served as her study partner
as she studied theology and
struggled with her uncoop-
erative memory.
They married in 2009.
ated, and get Dave’s back to the
customer service standards they
demanded daily.”
McAnally also reported he
plans to introduce self-serve fro-
zen yogurt and new deli items
at Dave’s, offer Big John’s pizza
by the slice and update the cof-
fee bar. He said the goal is to give
customers a reason to visit more
often. He also promised to keep
up the Walters’ tradition of cus-
tomer service.
“The Walters went out of their
way to provide an extra measure
of service at the pumps,” accord-
ing to McAnally, “and that’s what
customers came to expect.”
McAnally with Doug Corey
created the Pendleton Whisky
Music Fest on the Round-Up
Grounds, across the Court Ave-
nue from Dave’s.
The pair in 2018 won the Pend-
leton Chamber of Commerce
President’s Award at the First Cit-
izen’s banquet, and this year the
event won the chamber’s Tourism
Award.
Spriet stated the exact terms
and conditions of the sale were
not available. McAnally owns
the property at the pizza restau-
rant and the sports bar, accord-
ing to Umatilla County property
records. There is no official word
on if he also bought the property
with Dave’s. McAnally is set to
take over the business in March.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Franca Krajeski keeps a locket containing some ashes of her husband, Michael, engraved
with the words “I used to be his angel, now he is mine” around her neck.
Behind bars
Things went reasonably
well until Mike fell back
into drugs.
One afternoon in 2012,
police officers banged on the
front door of their Redmond
home. The officers hauled
her husband away. Mike
was charged with robbery
and burglary. When Franca
visited him in the county jail
before he was transported to
EOCI, he urged her to forget
him.
“He looked at me and
said, ‘Ninety months is a
long time. You need to move
on and meet somebody.
You’re still young,’” Franca
recalls him saying.
She didn’t think about it
long.
“I decided I’m going to
stick this one out,” she said.
“Mike was the only person
who had given me uncondi-
tional love.”
She moved to Pendleton,
got a small apartment and
started a cleaning business.
She saw Mike during visit-
ing hours. They exchanged
letters. They spent hours
across from each other in the
visiting room, playing cards
and dominoes and talking.
Spending that much time,
she said, “you get to know
the other person’s soul.”
Mike was set to be
released in August of
2019. They would walk out
EOCI’s front door together,
he often told Franca.
In the meantime, they
continued to commune
daily. They prefaced their
visits with prayer. Mike had
taken to reading the Bible so
they studied it. Franca’s pas-
tor, Marc Mullins of First
Christian Church, visited
him regularly.
Mullins said Mike looked
forward to getting out of
prison and reuniting with
Franca.
“He felt great responsibil-
ity for his wife’s well-being,”
Mullins said. “He longed to
get out and support her as
she had supported him so
long in prison.”
Franca’s friend Marga-
ret Rettig sometimes came
along on visits and the cou-
ple taught her to play Crazy
Eights. She marveled at their
resilience.
“I never saw any blame,”
Rettig said. “Both of them
were wounded in their early
lives. In each other, they
found healing.”
An assault
On Feb. 10, 2014, accord-
ing to legal documents pre-
pared by Mike’s attorney,
one of Mike’s cellmates
assaulted him. According to
the documents, the inmate
“beat Krajeski so savagely
that Krajeski was found in
a pool of blood, a long lac-
eration over his right eye,
his nose was broken and
crushed. The witnesses
observed that the right side
of his face was ‘caved in.’”
Franca’s copy of Ore-
gon Department of Cor-
rection notes from that day
confirm the description.
Surgeons repaired multi-
ple facial fractures. Symp-
toms included memory
loss, vision problems and
confusion and he had trou-
ble speaking and walking.
Soon after, Mike was diag-
nosed with hepatitis C virus
and cirrhosis.
Mike won a lawsuit set-
tlement in June of 2017
against two state physicians
and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections depart-
ment’s then-chief medical
officer for delaying medical
care for his hepatitis infec-
tion. The state agreed to
pay $100,000 and allow him
medical treatment needed
as long as incarcerated,
including a liver transplant
if approved by the OHSU
transplant team.
A transplant never came.
Mike’s condition wors-
ened over the following
months and he soon faced
the grim realization that he
was dying. He eventually
entered the prison’s hospice
and Franca visited every
day.
On the Friday before he
died, “he looked horrible.
He was in pain. He couldn’t
play cards, so we held hands
and prayed.”
On Saturday, Nov. 10,
Franca got a call from
Mike’s doctor that her hus-
band had taken a turn for the
worse and was back in the
infirmary.
“He wants to see you,” he
said.
Once there, she tried to
give him comfort.
“I put my arm around
him and told him, ‘I love
you,’” she remembers. “He
closed his eyes, squeezed
my hand and he was gone.”
She was determined to
walk out of the prison with
Mike, just as he’d said they
would.
“EOCI let me stay for
three hours while the coro-
ner and investigator came,”
she said. “We walked out of
there together.”
Mike’s body, however,
lay on a gurney in a body
bag.
On Dec. 8, Pastor Mull-
ins conducted a memorial
service at First Christian
Church for Mike. Franca
expected only she and a
few friends and family
would attend. Instead, doz-
ens showed up. Most hadn’t
known Mike.
At the service, Franca let
her tears flow as she spoke.
“I have no words to
describe how much I will
miss the love of my life, my
best friend who was my hus-
band,” she said. “There can
never be, for me, an expla-
nation as to why I had to
lose the love of my life when
we still have so much life to
live.”
She paused.
“He always told me that
I was his angel. And now he
is mine.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
About 15 years ago, businesses, schools and local gov-
ernment in Tillamook County were clamoring for faster
internet, according to David Yamamoto, a Tillamook
County commissioner, who testified at a legislative
hearing this week.
They didn’t want to wait for a commercial company
to decide the county of about 26,000 people was a via-
ble market.
Locals created Tillamook Lightwave, a partnership
between the Port of Tillamook Bay, Tillamook County
and the Tillamook People’s Utility District, to provide
affordable broadband service.
“We have more cows than we do people in the
county,” Yamamoto said. “Cows, fortunately, don’t use
the internet, but our schools, and hospitals and busi-
nesses absolutely do.”
While businesses and government agencies have
access now, many homes in the county still don’t have
high-speed internet, said Yamamoto. He also serves on
the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council.
Under House Bill 2184, legislation championed
by state Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, a partnership
like Tillamook Lightwave could apply to the state for
money raised by the cellphone surcharge.
The proposal is one effort by state officials to bridge
the so-called “digital divide” between rural and urban
communities.
Gov. Kate Brown set aside $1.1 million in her rec-
ommended budget to pay for a new Broadband Office
at Business Oregon, the state’s economic development
department.
Marsh has also introduced legislation codifying that
office in law and defining its responsibilities. A new
state office could also make federal money more avail-
able to support the internet projects.
“Despite the fact that broadband availability is really
central to the economic development of our small com-
munities, at this point, no one in the state of Oregon is
in charge,” Marsh said.
Last week, the Oregon Senate passed a bill to bump
up discounts on broadband service for low-income
people.
The surcharge proposal, HB 2184, says areas with
no or minimal service should be prioritized.
The Taxpayers Association of Oregon and the Ore-
gon Small Business Association oppose the proposal.
“We shouldn’t be taxing one service, cellphones, for
another service, internet,” said Tootie Smith of the Tax-
payers Association of Oregon.
John Cmelak, a tax policy director for Verizon Wire-
less, said money to support broadband should come
from the state’s general fund, not cellphone customers.
“You shouldn’t have wireless customers paying for
something they don’t benefit at all from,” Cmelak told
lawmakers. He contended the surcharge was regres-
sive, and said many poor people rely on voice calls and
don’t have landlines.
But if Monday’s hearing was any indication, there is
some confusion among legislators about what the bill
would do, and how it would affect the cost of cellphone
service and video call services like Skype.
State Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, voiced frus-
tration about what he felt was conflicting information
presented by advocates and opponents of the bill on
Monday.
“I don’t know what I can trust here in the testimony
I’m hearing today,” Witt said. “I’m trying to make a
decision here based on what I’m hearing, and I’m hear-
ing very conflicting information.”
Marsh told her colleagues that the telecom indus-
try is pushing for expansion of faster cellular service,
known as 5G, mostly in urban areas.
“If we continue down the path toward bigger and
faster technology without bringing rural Oregon along
with us, we are going to exacerbate those rural Ore-
gon technology divides,” Marsh said. “We are going to
clearly identify the haves from the have-nots.”
———
Reporter Claire Withycombe: cwithycombe@eomedi-
agroup.com or 971-304-4148. Withycombe is a reporter
for the East Oregonian working for the Oregon Capital
Bureau, a collaboration of EO Media Group, Pamplin
Media Group, and Salem Reporter.