STUDENTS
PROTEST DEATH
OF GUN BILL
HERMISTON’S COMMUNITY
GARDEN TEACHES SKILLS
AND RESPONSIBILITY
NORTHWEST, A2
LIFESTYLES, C1
BUCKS
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WEEKEND EDITION
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143rd Year, No. 158
REGONIAN
MAY 25-26, 2019
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WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Confl icting
claims linger
over PERS
reform,
education
funding
Pendleton
streets could
get $3 million
shot in the arm
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
at Heppner City Park, waving signs at pass-
ing cars on Main Street.
“Not everyone is thinking about the
problem, and people don’t want to do any-
thing to fi x it,” Amelia Baker said. “Us as
teens, as children, might make them listen.
If they don’t, we might not have a future to
fi ght for.”
Pendleton City Council mem-
bers past and present have long
agreed that the city needs to put
more money toward street main-
tenance, but building a political
consensus around how to do it has
proven to be much more diffi cult.
Acting as the Pendleton Devel-
opment Commission, the council
will get a chance to put its money
where its mouth is when it consid-
ers a proposal to use $3 million
from the urban renewal district
toward maintaining and improving
streets at a special meeting Tuesday.
City Manager Robb Corbett,
who also acts as the commission’s
executive director, said the money
would act as a one-time expendi-
ture for the upcoming 2019-20 fi s-
cal year.
But the jury’s still out as to
how the council will decide.
Councilor Becky Marks has
been a longtime proponent of
focusing the money that goes
toward the urban renewal district,
which spans the downtown Pend-
leton and the surrounding area, on
projects that will boost the prop-
erty tax base.
So when she fi rst heard the
idea that the city was consider-
ing using some of the commis-
sion’s budget for street funding,
she wasn’t on board.
“My gut reaction was ‘No, that
was not what urban renewal was
designated for,’” she said.
Councilor Scott Fairley had a
similar reaction, adding that one
of the urban renewal district’s pri-
mary responsibilities was address-
ing blight, not street maintenance.
Fairley has been one of the
most vocal members of the coun-
cil to advocate for more funding
for streets.
A 2018 pavement assessment
report showed that Pendleton’s
road quality continues to decline,
and will continue to do so unless
the city spends at least $1.6 mil-
lion per year for street mainte-
nance, which would start improv-
ing the overall quality of the street
system.
Using revenue from the street
utility fee and a transfer from the
property tax-funded general fund
on top its share of gas tax revenue,
See Future, Page A14
See Streets, Page A14
By MARK MILLER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM
—
Educators,
stu-
dents and advo-
cates celebrated as
Gov. Kate Brown
signed a sweep-
ing new law that
Hass
could
channel
about $1 billion
per year into Ore-
gon public schools
— money crit-
ics suggest could
end up a casualty
of spiraling retire-
ment costs.
Roblan
Proponents say
they built in safe-
guards to avoid
just such a cir-
cumstance, and
they point to a
PERS reform bill
that passed the
Senate this week
Sordyl
as evidence that
they’re working
to control those
costs.
The confl ict-
ing claims entan-
gle two of the
2019
Legisla-
ture’s most thorny
Baertschiger
issues: taxes and
pensions.
“Until we get a handle on the
PERS problem, we are going
to be faced with this in another
two years,” Senate Minority
Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr.,
R-Grants Pass, warned. “The
PERS issue needs to be addressed,
and it needs to be solved, or we
will not have enough money again
in two years to fund our schools
appropriately.”
The Student Success Act
is jammed with provisions for
nearly every area of need in Ore-
gon’s K-12 schools — from behav-
ioral and mental health support to
career and technical education
and beyond.
About half of the money it
raises from a new tax on busi-
nesses will be given to school
See PERS, Page A14
Mixed results don’t deter Heppner teenagers during climate rally
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Hannah Green holds a sign in view of passing motorists during a climate change rally on
Friday afternoon at Heppner City Park.
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
small town took on a big problem
Friday as teenagers from Hep-
pner staged a protest encouraging
adults to tackle climate change.
They called the event “Fight for
our Future.” They hoped to draw a
crowd of Eastern Oregon residents
who were willing to learn about rising seas
and greenhouse gasses. Instead, eight teens
from sixth through ninth grade stood alone
A
Arrangement nearly done to create fi re authority
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The proposal to provide bet-
ter fi re and ambulance service
across a swath of northern Uma-
tilla County is close to becoming
reality.
The boards for the East Uma-
tilla County Rural Fire Protec-
tion District, Athena Volun-
teer Fire Department and the
East Umatilla County Ambu-
lance Area Health District have
approved plans to band together
as the new East Umatilla Fire
and Rescue. The Helix Rural
Fire District board has yet to vote
to join, but that’s likely coming
when it meets Tuesday.
Dave Baty, East Umatilla
County fi re chief, will step
into the role of chief of the new
authority. He explained Oregon
law allows the districts to band
together under intergovernmen-
tal agreements. Baty said the
proposal will result in better cov-
erage and emergency response
for almost 440 square miles in
northern Umatilla County, from
near Holdman on the west side
to the Blue Mountain on the east.
An eight-person board of two
representatives each from the
Athena City Council, Helix fi re,
East Umatilla fi re and the ambu-
lance district would oversee the
authority.
“An IGA is the most non-inva-
sive way we can present this idea
of joining forces, so to speak,”
Baty said. “This basically puts
everybody under the same roof.”
Getting the four emergency
districts to this point took
See Fire, Page A14
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