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East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Election: Stanfield passes school bond
there would be no guarantee
the district would win that
lottery again the next time.
Stanfield School District
has an old bond that will be
dropping off of residents’
tax bills in June. The new
bond will replace that one, at
$2.70 per $1,000 of assessed
value.
Burton said she enjoyed
the experience of going out
into the community and
knocking on doors to edu-
cate people about the bond,
and she was grateful to vot-
ers for their support.
“I feel really fortunate to
work in a district where the
community is so support-
ive,” she said.
SCHOOL BOARD RACE TO BE DETERMINED BY WRITE-IN VOTES
Some local races, like Pendleton School Board Position 6, drew no candidates, meaning the elec-
tion will be determined by write-in votes.
Umatilla County Elections Manager Kim Lindell said the county will post a raw total of write-in
votes on election night, but staff won’t start tallying write-in votes until Wednesday.
Lindell said winners in write-in races won’t be determined until the election is certified on June 4.
Each winner will be sent a form in the mail asking them if they will accept the elected position. If
not, the elected body with the vacant seat has the ability to appoint someone to the seat.
EO file photo
Rail cars roll down the hump and into the yard at the Union Pacific Railroad Hinkle
Locomotive Service and Repair Facility and Freight Classification Yard near Stanfield in
May 2012.
Layoffs: Union Pacific announces
layoff of up to 195 employees at Hinkle
Continued from Page A1
of accelerating (Union
Pacific’s)
continuous
improvement plan and
implementing Precision
Scheduled Railroading
principles,” he wrote in
an email.
Union
Pacific
announced its Unified
Plan 2020 last year to
improve efficiency. It
announced record earn-
ings in 2018 of more than
$6 billion, and during
a first quarter earnings
call with shareholders
on April 18 announced
record 2019 first quar-
ter net income and a 15%
increase in earnings per
share compared with
2018, despite the fact that
total volume decreased
by 2% compared with the
previous year.
During the call, Chief
Operating Officer Jim
Vena said UP increased
train length by 7% and
was focused on reduc-
ing “touch points” where
trains are handled. He
said the company had
“stopped humping cars
at Hinkle and Pine Bluff,
Arkansas, and curtailed
yard operations in Salt
Lake City, the Kansas
City complex and But-
ler Yard in Wisconsin, to
name a few.”
State Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, called the
cuts at Hinkle “devastat-
ing” for the area.
“These are good fam-
ily wage jobs with ben-
efits,” Smith said. “That
job loss is going to have
a significant economic
effect throughout the
region.”
State Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, said he found
out about the job cuts on
Tuesday afternoon.
Hansell
questioned
whether
legislation,
such as the recent gross
receipts tax, is making
neighboring states more
attractive to business.
That’s been the talk in
some circles at the Capi-
tol, he said, and perhaps
Union Pacific relocating
operations from Hinkle
to Idaho and Washington
signals that is happening.
However, Hansell cau-
tioned, he does not know
if that’s the case here.
George Murdock, chair
of the Umatilla County
Board of Commission-
ers, said Union Pacific
has long been a “major
employer” in the county.
“These are the kind of
jobs people occupy for an
entire career, so their loss
is particularly acute,” he
said. “I had heard rumors
that it was a possibility,
but had hoped it was only
a rumor.”
Murdock said his
understanding was Union
Pacific would continue to
have a presence at Hin-
The Tribes: CTUIR
agrees to buy Pendleton
Country Club
Continued from Page A1
a business plan and present
it to the board of trustees
within the next six to seven
months.
In an interview, CTUIR
spokesman Chuck Sams
said the tribes are still deter-
mining whether the country
club property will be added
to the tribes’ land trust.
The country club pur-
chase gives the CTUIR two
18-hole golf courses. The
Wildhorse golf course is
already in the midst of ren-
ovations that will include a
new clubhouse that will fea-
ture a restaurant, banquet
room, and bar.
Founded in 1929, the
Pendleton Country Club
was previously operated as
a member-owned nonprofit.
The organization’s 2017
tax forms show that for
that year, the country club
employed 30 people and
took in $664,740 in rev-
enue versus $673,262 in
expenses. The country club
also listed more than $3 mil-
lion in total assets.
In a text message, Sam
Byrnes, the president of the
Pendleton Country Club
Board of Directors, wrote
that he was out of town and
had not seen the CTUIR’s
press release.
When prompted for
comment again, he did not
respond.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Golfers fill the parking lot at the Pendleton Country Club
clubhouse south of Pendleton. Wildhorse Resort and Casino
has already assumed golf course maintenance supervision
and will integrate the property into its daily operations.
kle and the county will
remain a major freight
route. He said it will be
important to work with
the unions and affected
employees in the coming
months.
While the jobs rep-
resent a significant loss
for the area, Hermiston’s
increasingly diversified
economy helps absorb the
blow. Drotzmann pointed
to the closure of the Sim-
plot plant in 2004 and
the closure of Hermiston
Foods in 2017 as an exam-
ple of times that Hermis-
ton lost one of its largest
employers but continued
to grow.
“This community is
really resilient,” he said.
That might be small
comfort to the employees
whose jobs have been cut
in recent months. Locals
took to community Face-
book forums on Tuesday
to share that family mem-
bers had been laid off or
to share condolences with
friends who had lost jobs.
Oregon has designated
CAPECO in Pendleton
as the lead organization
for when major job losses
occur in Hermiston, and
CAPECO will conduct
trainings and job fairs for
former Hinkle employees
in June. In the meantime,
some employees will be
eligible to apply for trans-
fer to one of Union Pacif-
ic’s other rail yards.
STANFIELD
SCHOOL BOARD
BOARDMAN RURAL FIRE PROTECTION
DISTRICT
Cecili Longhorn is win-
ning the open seat on the
Stanfield School Board,
defeating Jim Griffin with
201 votes to 182 votes.
Loren Dieter and David Boor are winning the at-large seats
on the Boardman Rural Fire Protection District. Five candi-
dates filed for the two seats, and Dieter has the most votes,
238, and Boor is in second place with 173.
Bill Hancock was in third with 136 votes. Morrow County
Clerk Bobbi Childers said the outcome was unlikely to
change, but she has some ballots yet to count.
MORROW
COUNTY HEALTH
DISTRICT
MORROW
COUNTY
TURNOUT
PORT OF
MORROW
COMMISSION
Voters renewed the
5-year local option tax
79.9 percent to 20.1
percent. The 39-cent levy
funds {span}Pioneer Me-
morial Hospital,{/span}
Heppner, three clinics
across the county and
county-wide ambulance
services.
Morrow County voters
returned 33 percent of
ballots.
The county sent out
6,282 ballots and re-
ceived 2,071, as of 8 p.m.,
when polls closed. All
election results remain
unofficial.
John Murray won Posi-
tion 5 on the Port of Mor-
row with 1,157 votes over
807 for Debbie Radie.
ECHO SCHOOL BOARD
Emily Spike is headed to take Position 2 on the Echo School
Board. She defeated incumbent Connie Caplinger with 105
votes to 18 votes.
ATHENA-
WESTON
SCHOOL BOARD
Incumbent Jennifer
McClure-Spurgeon won
another term on the
Athena-Weston School
Board, defeating chal-
lenger Shannon Hoehna
with 190 votes to 126.
UMATILLA COUNTY TURNOUT
Umatilla County shows 5,861 out of 43,686 voters cast ballots for a turnout of 13.4 percent.
The Oregon Secretary of State reported the statewide average was 19 percent as of 8:30 p.m.
All elections results are unofficial.
Umatilla County elections manager Kim Lindell said her office is awaiting for ballots from the
several drop boxes, but she expected to post final results as early as 9:30 p.m.
UMATILLA
SCHOOL BOARD
UMATILLA FIRE
DISTRICT
Umatilla School Board
member Toby Cranston
retains his seat with 254
votes over challenger
Jennifer Armstrong’s 178
votes.
Incumbent Fred Sheely
won another term on the
Umatilla Fire District, tak-
ing 268 votes to 149 for
challenger Kelly Payan.
UMATILLA
COUNTY FIRE
DISTRICT
Incumbent Spike Piersol
heads back to serve on
the Umatilla County Fire
District No. 1 with 1,441
votes to defeat challeng-
er Sebastian Sanchez
with 490 votes.
Democratic impeachment calls swell
as McGahn defies subpoena
By MARY CLARE
JALONICK AND LISA
MASCARO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
More Democrats are call-
ing — and more loudly
— for impeachment pro-
ceedings against Presi-
dent Donald Trump after
his latest defiance of Con-
gress by blocking his for-
mer White House law-
yer from testifying on
Tuesday.
A growing number of
rank-and-file House Dem-
ocrats, incensed by former
counsel Don McGahn’s
empty chair in the Judi-
ciary Committee hear-
ing room, are confront-
ing House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and pushing her and
other leaders to act. Their
impatience is running up
against the speaker’s pref-
erence for a more method-
ical approach, including
already-unfolding court
battles.
Pelosi summoned some
of them — still a small
fraction of the House
Democratic caucus — to
a meeting of investiga-
tors Wednesday to assess
strategy.
Some other Demo-
cratic leaders, while back-
ing Pelosi, signaled that
a march to impeachment
may at some point become
inevitable.
“We are confronting
what might be the larg-
est, broadest cover-up
in American history,”
Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer told reporters. If a
House inquiry “leads to
other avenues including
impeachment,” the Mary-
land Democrat said, “so
be it.”
Reps. Joaquin Castro of
Texas and Diana DeGette
of Colorado added their
voices to the impeachment
inquiry chorus.
“There is political risk
in doing so, but there’s a
greater risk to our country
in doing nothing,” Castro
said on Twitter. “This is a
fight for our democracy.”
Tweeted
DeGette:
“The facts laid out in the
Mueller report, coupled
with this administration’s
ongoing attempts to stone-
wall Congress, leave us no
other choice.”
One Republican con-
gressman, Justin Amash
of Michigan, has called
for impeachment proceed-
ings. He said Tuesday he
thinks other GOP law-
makers should join him
— but only after reading
special counsel Robert
Mueller’s report carefully.
Republican
House
leader Kevin McCarthy
dismissed Amash as out
of step with House Repub-
licans and “out of step
with America.” And Sen.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., right, listens as
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., left,
speaks at a House Judiciary Committee hearing without
former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who was a key
figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, on
Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday.
Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina said wryly of
Amash’s position, “I don’t
think it’s going to be a
trend-setting move.”
As Democrats weigh
their options, Trump is
almost taunting them
by testing the bounds of
executive power in ways
few other administrations
have. The White House
contends that even former
employees like McGahn
do not have to abide by
subpoenas from Congress.
A short time later House
Judiciary Chairman Jer-
rold Nadler issued sub-
poenas for more Trump
administration officials
— former White House
communications
direc-
tor Hope Hicks and Annie
Donaldson, a former aide
in the White House coun-
sel’s office — for docu-
ments and testimony.
Trump’s former White
House counsel is the most-
cited witness in Mueller’s
Trump-Russia investiga-
tion report, recounting
the president’s attempts to
interfere with the probe.
And that makes his silence
all the more infuriating for
Democrats.
Nadler gaveled open
Tuesday’s hearing with
a stern warning that
McGahn will be held in
contempt for failing to
appear.