REGION
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Umatilla celebrates new Wanapa
Road, six years in the making
Road funded by
$3.5M in lottery
bond money
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
UMATILLA — On June
4, the city celebrated the
opening of the new mile-long
Wanapa Road with a rib-
bon-cutting ceremony.
The road was funded by a
$3.5 million in lottery bond
money in a legislative effort
spearheaded by Rep. Greg
Smith in 2013, and opens up
access to 500 acres of indus-
trial land to governmental
entities.
“If you look at the gov-
ernment to government
appropriation, the number
of parties involved, and the
challenging geology we had
here, this still happened in
a timely fashion,” said Kim
Puzey, general manager of
the Port of Umatilla.
“When I was fi rst elected
to Umatilla City Council sev-
eral years ago, the city was
hard pressed to maintain
existing city streets,” Mayor
Mary Dedrick told the crowd
gathered at the entry of the
road on Tuesday. Dedrick
thanked the landholding enti-
ties for their collaboration.
The city of Umatilla will
own and maintain the road,
which heads east from Beach
Access Road and ends at a
120-acre industrial land site
owned by the CTUIR. The
Port of Umatilla will now
have access to 300 acres of
land.
The Department of Cor-
rections provided the land to
construct Wanapa Road, and
will gain access to 150 acres
of land just east of Two Riv-
ers Correctional Institution.
The industrial parcel could
Staff photo by Jessica Pollard
Umatilla Mayor Mary Dedrick receives assistance at the ribbon ceremony on Wanapa Road.
be used for future growth
of the prison, according to a
recent press release. Two Riv-
ers Correctional Institution is
the largest employer in Uma-
tilla, according to the city’s
website.
The land is eligible for
enterprise zone benefi ts —
tax credits for capital invest-
ments — and other benefi ts
as well, according to Ryan
DeGrofft, economic planner
with the CTUIR.
Duane Dyer worked on
the water line along the road
for the project and looks for-
ward to the possibility of job
growth in Umatilla thanks to
the new industrial land.
“It’s all growing,” he said.
Dyer says that one of the
trickiest parts of construct-
ing the road was blasting the
thick layer of basalt beneath
the few inches of topsoil on
the land.
Holes were drilled every
18 inches along the road
and explosives were used
to excavate utility trenches
for the project, according to
DeGrofft.
“It’s really stable ground
that’s good for some indus-
tries, but it sure makes con-
struction expensive and
time-consuming,” DeGrofft
said.
Many thanks were passed
around during the ceremony,
including to the CTUIR.
“I especially want to thank
our tribal partners for my
education into who each of
you are and what your values
are,” Puzey said.
For Umatilla City Man-
ager Dave Stockdale, Wanapa
Road is more than two lanes
stretching a mile.
“This road symbolizes the
collaboration of Tribal, State,
Port and City governments
working together to enhance
community and economic
development,” Stockdale said
in a press release.
“It’s incredible what we
are seeing today,” Puzey said.
After-school program to trade suds for scholarships
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As a
new Pendleton after-school
program comes into focus,
so too does a beer festival
that will help fund it.
As a part of a fundrais-
ing effort for an elementary
school program that is set to
debut in the fall, the depart-
ment is holding the inaugu-
ral Wild West Beerfest at
Roy Raley Park on June 22.
Featuring live music and
a DJ, Beerfest has already
announced
participation
from breweries around the
northwest in addition to
local favorites like Prodi-
gal Son.
Parks and Recreation
Director Liam Hughes said
organizing has gone well
and the Beerfest’s following
on social media is growing.
“It’s going really great,”
he said.
Although unlikely to hit
its $40,000 goal, Hughes
said he expects the event
to turn a profi t this year, a
benchmark that isn’t always
reached in an event’s fi rst
year.
Eventually, Hughes sees
Beerfest as being a larger
source of revenue for the
after-school program as
the event grows larger and
grant funding starts to fall
off.
A partnership between
Pendleton Parks and Rec,
the Pendleton School Dis-
trict, and the InterMountain
Education Service District,
the trio began discuss-
ing the need for a program
shortly after Hughes came
to Pendleton in early 2018.
The need was made
more apparent when the
city issued a parks and rec-
reation survey and 86 per-
cent of respondents said an
after-school program for
elementary school students
was either “very important”
or “somewhat important.”
As the after-school pro-
gram launch gets closer,
more details are emerging.
The program will be
based out of McKay Creek,
Sherwood Heights, and
Washington
elementary
schools in addition to the
Pendleton Early Learning
Center.
The city is in charge of
staffi ng each site, and the
parks and recreation depart-
ment is currently adver-
tising open positions for
recreational aides and site
supervisors that will run the
program on the ground.
The city is working with
the IMESD to craft a cur-
riculum for the after-school
program, and organizers
recently published a pam-
phlet that provides a daily
itinerary for each day’s
programming.
From 3 p.m. to 3:20, the
children will be given some
free play time to “run off
some of the energy they
have accumulated through
their school day.”
After a half-hour snack
period, most of the program
is centered around an activ-
ity that’s connected to a
daily theme, like sports, sci-
ence, arts and crafts, music
and theater, or world news.
Students will be pro-
vided with an elective activ-
ity from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
as the program wraps up.
The program will charge
$8 per day plus an annual
$10 supply fee, but given
that more than half of the
Pendleton School District’s
students qualify for free
or reduced lunch, the city
wants to launch a scholar-
ship to fund to cover tui-
tion for students with fam-
ilies who wouldn’t be able
to afford the program
otherwise.
That’s where the Wild
West Beerfest comes in,
and Hughes is hopeful that
both the after-school pro-
gram and the beer festival
will be around for years
to come.
East Oregonian
A3
LOCAL BRIEFING
Foster child
citizen review
seeks volunteers
PENDLETON — The
two foster child citizen
review boards for Umatilla
County seek volunteers.
The Citizen Review
Board is a program under
Oregon’s state court system
that reviews the cases of
children in foster care. The
boards consists of three to
seven community members
and meet one day a month
to ensure foster children
receive adequate care.
John Nichols, regional
fi eld manager for the pro-
gram, said there are two
boards in Umatilla County:
Pendleton (east Umatilla
County) and Hermiston
(west Umatilla County/
Morrow County).
“We need volunteers
from each community,” he
stressed.
The board members
receive case fi les 10 days
in advance of the meeting
and review foster care cases
with everyone involved in
the case, including state
social workers, foster par-
ents and often the children.
For more information,
contact Nichols at 541-233-
8142 or at john.a.nichols@
ojd.state.or.us. You also
can fi nd information about
the program at https://
www.courts.oregon.gov/
programs/crb/.
Pilot Rock
celebrates sewer
groundbreaking
PILOT ROCK — The
city of Pilot Rock is about
to break ground for its new
wastewater system.
Silver Creek Contracting
of Heppner won the bid on
the $4.3 million project to
build treatment and evapo-
ration lagoons for the small
town south of Pendleton.
The work includes excavat-
ing approximately 130,000
cubic yards of earth, install-
ing about 3,000 linear feet
of 8-inch PVC pipe, and
building a new wastewater
lift station and standby gen-
erator building.
The city announced it
is holding a groundbreak-
ing ceremony Thursday at
11 a.m. To get there, take
Highway 395 to Pilot Rock,
then follow the signs and
balloons to The Bike Pit,
the city’s off-highway vehi-
cle park. The city promised
plenty of parking.
The Pilot Rock City
Council during its meeting
Tuesday night will adopt
the city’s 2019-20 bud-
get exceeding $9.3 mil-
lion. The budget anticipates
a 3% pay increase to the
city’s nine full-time equiv-
alent employees as well as
increases for medical and
property insurance and the
Public Employee Retire-
ment System.
Crash near Vale
injures six, kills
one
VALE — A South Car-
olina man died Monday
near Vale in a three-vehicle
crash.
Oregon State Police
reported the crash occurred
at about 1:50 p.m. on High-
way 20 near milepost 244.
Timothy Eviston, 57, of
Winnsboro, South Caro-
lina, was driving a Nissan
Rogue east on the two-lane
highway when he attempted
to pass a motor home and
struck a westbound Ford
F350 pickup.
The Ford then col-
lided with a Ford Expedi-
tion pulling a travel trailer,
according to state police,
and both vehicles and the
trailer caught fi re.
Eviston died from inju-
ries in the crash.
Jacob Price, 30, of
Ontario, was driving the
Ford F350, and Guillermo
Fonseca, 33, of Eagle, Idaho,
was driving the Expedition.
Both suffered injuries and
ambulances rushed them
from the scene.
Amy Dancer, 40, of
Eagle, Idaho, and three
juveniles also were in the
Expedition. Ground ambu-
lances took Dancer and two
juveniles, and an air ambu-
lance fl ew the third youth.
The Malheur County
Sheriff’s Offi ce and other
agencies also responded to
the crash.
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Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
Make a
difference in a
foster child’s life.
HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY
KYNLEE!
You are loved, blessed and
destined to be incredible.
Celebrating all you are
today and every day.
Become a CASA
Have a wonderful birthday.
Love, Grandpa & Grandma
Our Earn While You Learn Program
Is Available in June & July Only!
Pays $1.00 into an open Youth Savings Account for every
top grade that our 1st-12th grade students receive on
their end-of-the-year report cards. Up to $50.00 annually.
Learn all the details online or stop by your local branch.
Powell
Info & Training Sessions
Starting June 10th, 2019
Call a local CASA Coordinator
for details!
Hermiston: (541) 667-6169
Pendleton: (541) 278-6292
Court Appointed Special Advocate
umchs.org/CASA
Harrison Family Medicine Welcomes
Andrea Carrasco, M.D.
• Accepting patients
• Accepting all
insurances
• Schedule an
appointment today!
Starting
July 1, 2019
www.communitybanknet.com
Member FDIC
Harrison Family Medicine
1100 Southgate, Suite 2
Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone: 541-215-1564
Fax: 541-215-1567
Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM