SOFTBALL: Bucks ready for state playoffs | SPORTS, PAGE A9
E O
AST
143rd Year, No. 155
Stanfi eld
passes
school
bond
INSIDE
REGONIAN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2019
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
UNION PACIFIC
ANNOUNCES HINKLE LAYOFFS — AGAIN
Unoffi cial election results
on page A8
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Stanfi eld schools are getting
an upgrade.
Voters appeared to have
approved an $18 million school
bond on Tuesday night, with
65% voting in favor of the bond
as of 8 p.m. Passage of the bond
will also secure a $4 million
matching grant from Oregon
School Capital Improvement
Fund.
“It’s really exciting,” Stan-
fi eld School District Superinten-
dent Beth Burton said. “I think
this will be good for our whole
community, but it will be really
good for our students.”
The bond will pay for a
number of projects, most nota-
bly a new middle school wing
to be built on to Stanfi eld Sec-
ondary School. Currently, mid-
dle school grades are hosted in
a modular not attached to the
main building.
“The new middle school is
defi nitely the focus, and the
largest cost, of the bond,” Bur-
ton said.
Having the new middle
school wing will improve safety,
she said, as it will force visitors
to come past the main offi ce
before accessing classrooms.
The bond will also help pay for
other safety upgrades, including
a remodel of the entryway and
front offi ce of both the second-
ary and elementary schools to
improve safety. External safety
cameras monitoring the parking
lot and grounds will be added,
and internal surveillance sys-
tems will be upgraded.
Windows will be added to
the secondary school, which has
no natural lighting in its class-
rooms. The parking lot for the
elementary school will be recon-
fi gured, kitchens will be reno-
vated, asbestos will be removed,
the career and technical educa-
tion spaces will be expanded,
and the school district plans to
purchase the land the elemen-
tary school is built on, which it
is currently leasing from Union
Pacifi c.
Burton said she is excited that
the district gets to take advan-
tage of the $4 million state grant,
which Stanfi eld was eligible for
after winning a lottery draw for
it. If the bond had not passed
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Union Pacifi c locomotive sits idling on a rail line east of the Hinkle Rail Yard on Tuesday outside of Stanfi eld. Union Pacifi c announced a
new round of layoff s at the rail yard.
After fall, winter layoff s, UP
announces 195 permanent
layoff s by July 19
By JADE MCDOWELL AND PHIL
WRIGHT
East Oregonian
he railroad looms large in Herm-
iston’s past, but it will likely play
a much smaller role in the city’s
future.
Union Pacifi c Railroad fi led
notice with the state on Tuesday that
it will lay off up to 195 employees at the
Hinkle Rail Yard in Hermiston and close
the yard’s supply warehouse and mechan-
ical shop. It stated the 195 layoffs would be
completed by July 19 and are expected to
be permanent. The bulk layoff is an escala-
T
tion of the scores of layoffs that have hap-
pened incrementally at the rail yard since
October 2018.
Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann
said his conversation on Tuesday with UP
spokesman Aaron Hunt was a diffi cult one.
The city of Hermiston’s June 2018 fi nan-
cial report listed Union Pacifi c as one of the
city’s largest employers at the time, esti-
mating the company employed about 500
people at Hinkle. Drotzmann said it was his
understanding the latest layoffs will leave
between 40 and 45 employees.
“It was both a conversation of frustra-
tion and sadness to realize an organization
that has made such an impact on the com-
munity over the last 25 years is reducing to
one-eighth of what it was,” he said.
He said the loss of so many jobs in the
community will have an economic impact
as families move away or cut back their
spending signifi cantly while facing unem-
ployment. But he said he was more con-
cerned about the effects on the individuals
who lost their jobs.
“Those were good-paying jobs with
great benefi ts,” he said.
After Union Pacifi c laid off more than
80 employees during the fall of 2018 and
winter 2019, UP spokesman Tim McMahan
declined to share how many employees Hin-
kle had, but said UP had 1,506 employees
throughout Oregon. On Tuesday, he again
declined to answer most questions submit-
ted by the East Oregonian about the num-
ber of employees who will remain at Hinkle
or what operations will continue there, but
stated the company would move some of
Hinkle’s operations to yards in Portland,
Spokane, Ogden, Utah, Pocatello, Idaho
and Nampa, Idaho.
“The workforce reduction is the result
See Layoffs, Page A8
“Those were good-paying jobs with great benefits”
David Drotzman — Mayor of Hemiston
See Election, Page A8
CTUIR agrees to buy Pendleton Country Club
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
In the near future, any game
of golf in the Pendleton area will
be played on a course owned by
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The tribes announced Tues-
day that the CTUIR Board of
Trustees had approved the pur-
chase of the Pendleton Country
Club, which is more than 8 miles
south of town on Highway 395.
In a press release, the tribes
state that the members of the
country club approved selling
the property after the CTUIR
made an offer in March.
The 248-acre property is
aboriginal territory for the
CTUIR and the Birch Creek
Valley land was also appealing
to the tribes for conservation and
water rights purposes.
Wildhorse Resort and Casino,
which has operated its own golf
course on the Umatilla Indian
Reservation since 1997, has
already assumed maintenance
supervision over the coun-
try club’s 18-hole golf course.
The country club property also
includes a dining room, bar,
pro shop, fi tness center, outdoor
pool, and recreational vehicle
parking spaces.
Wildhorse intends to inte-
grate the country club golf
course into its daily operations,
and a team led by Wildhorse
CEO Gary George will develop
See The Tribes, Page A8
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A golf cart drives down a fairway recently at the Pendleton Country Club
south of Pendleton. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Res-
ervation announced Tuesday that it was buying the 248-acre property
south of Pendleton.