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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2019)
REGION Thursday, June 6, 2019 East Oregonian A3 Wolf kills calf in NE Oregon Rescuers free one from crash By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press ENTERPRISE — As the vote on a new state wolf man- agement plan approaches, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating the depredation of a calf at a Wallowa County ranch. Pat Matthews, district wildlife biologist for ODFW, said the attack likely hap- pened early in the morning of May 26 between the towns of Lostine and Wallowa west of Enterprise. The area is not identifi ed as wolf territory, although Matthews said they did fi nd fresh tracks about 2 miles farther south on May 29. “We still don’t really know much more than that,” Mat- thews said. Without more details, Mat- thews said it is impossible to tell whether the wolf dispersed from another pack, whether it is alone and whether it is pass- ing through or there to stay. The agency has set up a trail camera in hopes of piecing together more clues. Until then, Matthews said the ranchers are trying to check on their cattle every day and have buried the calf car- cass to avoid attracting more predators. “Their cows are starting to be put up on some of their summer range,” Matthews said. “They’re scattered out. If there are wolves staying in the area, they will be potentially vulnerable.” Oregon has at least 137 wolves as of the most recent count in 2018. Most packs are concentrated in the far north- east corner of the state. The Oregon Fish and Wild- life Commission is scheduled to vote on a revised Wolf Con- servation and Management Plan at its monthly meeting on Friday in Salem. Part of the plan regulates how and when ranchers can kill wolves that repeatedly prey on live- stock in Eastern Oregon — a standard known as “chronic depredation.” Wolves east of highways 395, 78 and 95 are managed under Phase III of the current plan, which defi nes “chronic depredation” as two con- fi rmed attacks on livestock over any period of time. The revised plan calls for amend- ing the defi nition to two con- fi rmed attacks in nine months. Western Oregon wolves are still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, though that could change under a delisting proposal now under consideration. Ranchers have long argued they need the ability to kill problem wolves to protect their businesses. Environ- mentalists counter that the species remains vulnerable, occupying a small fraction of its former habitat, and more emphasis should be placed on non-lethal deterrents to pro- tect livestock. Photo contributed by the East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District Emergency personnel work to free an occupant from a crash early Wednesday on Highway 11 near milepost 22. The East Umatilla County Rural Fire Protection District and East Uma- tilla County Area Ambulance Health District responded to the scene a little after midnight Tuesday. Crews braced the vehicle for safety before removing one person. The fi re protec- tion district also reported an ambulance took the victim to a local hospital. Stanfi eld passes 2019-20 budget By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian STANFIELD — The Stanfi eld City Coun- cil passed a new budget on Tuesday that includes money for a road project and new community room at the library. The 2019-20 budget is the last under city manager Blair Larsen, who is leaving June 19 to become the com- munity and economic devel- opment director for the city of Sweet Home. He said he has enjoyed his time at city hall in Stanfi eld and the rela- tionships he has built with area partners. “It’s been a great six years,” he said. The adopted budget includes money for feasibil- ity and design work to add a “community room” to the Stanfi eld Public Library. The city would like to con- nect the library to the adja- cent building and renovate the city council chambers there into new room that could host library and city events, as well as private event rentals. Stanfi eld is also adding $61,000 in city funds to a $100,000 state grant to pave Harding Avenue. Larsen said the project will go from Main Street toward Edwards Avenue, as far as the fund- ing will carry it. EO File Photo The 2019-20 budget for Stanfi eld includes money to make structural repairs to the old water tower downtown. In the public works department, the city cur- rently has 2.75 regular pub- lic works employees and a seasonal worker. Larsen said there are projects not getting done around the city because of insuffi cient staff, which is why the new budget includes funds to hire an additional public works employee. “The workload requires it,” he said. The city is also put- ting aside $5,000 for code enforcement to use in abating some nuisances where the property owner is “unwill- ing or unable to cooperate” with code enforcement and the city deems it better to pay to clean up the problem itself rather than wait for the lien process. At the end of 2018 the city surveyed residents about whether they would rather the city’s landmark former water tower be torn down or repaired and repainted. After two-thirds of resi- dents voted to refurbish the tower, the city will com- plete $62,000 in repair work in 2019-20 and complete the remaining $123,000 of painting and repair the fol- lowing year. The developer of the Pan- oramic Ridge subdivision is donating land for a new park within the subdivision, and the city plans to use dol- lars from the fuel tax fund to start the process of creating the park, which will add new features over time as fund- ing becomes available. During its June 18 coun- cil meeting, the council plans to complete one fi nal supplemental budget for 2018-19. The city recently sold a storefront it owned at 170 E. Main St. and plans to put that money toward the debt payment on its city hall. Umatilla County takes control of school health centers By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian PENDLETON — Uma- tilla County is taking con- trol of the school heath cen- ters in Pendleton. The county operates one center at the high school and the other at the middle school. The county last year contracted with Colum- bia River Health to staff the centers. The Board- man-based health organiza- tion in February notifi ed the county it would not renew that contract. Alisha Southwick, dep- uty director of Umatilla County Public Health Department, told the board during its meeting Wednes- day in Pendleton the new plan is for the county to staff the centers directly. She said the health department met with school district offi cials and representative from St. Anthony Hospital, Pend- leton, and they wanted the county to employ the health offi cials who work in the centers. “The reasoning behind that is to help promote some stability in the cen- ter,” Southwick told the board. “When we were con- tracting … we had a lot of turnover through that, which made it an unreliable service for the students in the schools.” Making the positions county employees, she continued, would give the schools more confi dence in the service and lead to more students using it. Each center saw 150-200 stu- dents a year, she said, but that dipped with staffi ng vacancies the last two years. She also said providing mental health services was a big part of the work at the centers. The health department asked the county to approve hiring a nurse practitioner and two mental health spe- cialists. Southwick said they would work full time when school was in ses- sion. State funding, insur- ance payments and some grants cover all the program costs, she added. The board approved the positions. ! ED R IT FFE LIM E O M TI SAVE $100 off new termite protection* SAVE $50 off initial pest service with annual contract* *Offer expires 06/30/2019. Offer available to residential customers who purchase a new pestfree365 plan on or after 02/15/2019 This offer does not apply to commercial pest plans. The $50 discount will be deducted from the initial service. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Offer details subject to change. CALL TODAY! 877-234-2178 And the county’s $91 mil- lion budget for the upcom- ing fi scal year received the stamp of approval. The county board of commissioners voted Wednesday morning in Pendleton to adopt the 2019-20 budget, which goes into effect July 1 with a gen- eral fund of $32.4 million, about $3.7 million more than the current budget.The county in the upcoming fi s- cal year also boosts its num- ber of full- time equivalent employees from 311 to 324. Commissioner George Murdock said while it took only a few moments to adopt the fi scal docu- ment, county staff put in two full days of work in April to parse through it all. The total budget document spans 280 pages. The county board also gave the public works department the OK to buy a new tractor-trailer for almost $125,000, a new dump truck with a snow plow for $162,000 and a new dump truck with a snow plow and sander for about $183,000. Tom Fel- lows, public works director, explained the vehicles were on the equipment replace- ment list for 2019-20 and the county road depart- ment receives all of its money from the state high- way fund. Harrison Family Medicine Welcomes Andrea Carrasco, M.D. LOCAL BRIEFING UC Fair Board chair pleads guilty to elk poaching IRRIGON — Gay Newman, chair of the Umatilla County Fair Board, pleaded guilty to poaching an elk. Oregon State Police game troopers in Novem- ber 2018 responded to a complaint about hunt- ers trespassing and kill- ing a fi ve-point bull elk on private property off Gurdane Road, Morrow County. Troopers found Newman, of Hermiston, shot two elk and validated his wife’s second-sea- son spike tag for the fi ve- point. However, accord- ing to state police, that tag was valid for a differ- ent hunting unit. The Morrow County Justice Court, Irrigon, heard the case, accord- ing to court records, and Newman in May pleaded guilty to taking a bull elk without a tag. The court fi ned him $1,005, gave him a year of bench pro- bation and prohibited him from applying for a hunt- ing license for three years. The court also ordered police to return New- man’s hunting rifl e to him. development program in the spring of 2014. The program includes lead- ership development, succession planning and employee engage- ment, and it encourages employees to focus on their personal profes- sional growth. Commissioner George Murdock was instrumen- tal in implementing the program. He said strong professional develop- ment is foundational to building an exceptional organization. “Helping staff mem- bers build their skills is not only an important contribution to their cur- rent job, but also helps prepare them to take on additional responsibili- ties as our organization moves forward,” he said. NACO gives the achievement award in 18 categories, from children and youth to criminal jus- tice to civic engagement. The association will rec- ognize award-winning counties at its 2019 annual conference in July 2019 in Las Vegas. Umatilla County Com- missioner John Shafer and program consultant Susan Bower of Eastern Oregon Business Source will represent the county at an awards luncheon. UC professional development program earns national award WA S H I N G T O N , D.C. — Umatilla County received national recog- nition for its professional development program. The National Associa- tion of Counties selected Umatilla County from 616 entries across 32 states for the Achievement Award. According to NACO, the award honors “innova- tive, effective county gov- ernment programs that enhance services for res- idents and the internal organizational culture of the county itself as an employer.” The county imple- mented its professional 6/6 Cineplex Show Times $5 Classic Movie Showing Wednesday at 12PM WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF Godzilla: King of the Monsters (PG13) 2D 3:40p* 6:50 9:50p Rocketman (R) 4:20p 7:00p 9:40p Aladdin (PG) 3:50p* 6:40p 9:30p John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum (R) 3:20p* 10:00p Avengers: Endgame (PG13) 3:30p* 6:10p 9:50p The Secret Life of Pets 2 (PG) 7:10p * Matinee Pricing wildhorseresort.com • 541-966-1850 Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216 Umatilla County Historical Society Presents: 16 TH ANNUAL OLD IRON SHOW • Accepting patients • Accepting all June 7th - 9th insurances • Schedule an appointment today! in Roy Raley Park Starting July 1, 2019 Harrison Family Medicine 1100 Southgate, Suite 2 Pendleton, OR 97801 Phone: 541-215-1564 Fax: 541-215-1567 Admission is FREE and open to the public Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM www.heritagestationmuseum.org