NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
USFWS to
review 7
endangered,
threatened
species
Smith’s contract with
Baker County to end
Officials say
decision due
to money, not
performance
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice will review the status of
seven threatened or endan-
gered species in Washington
state, including four types of
pocket gophers found in only
two westside counties.
USFWS also solicited new
information Tuesday about
the Oregon spotted frog,
Taylor’s checkerspot butter-
fly and streaked horned lark.
The three are found in Ore-
gon, as well as Washington.
Washington Farm Bureau
CEO John Stuhlmiller said
producers should welcome
the reviews. “I view this as a
very positive thing,” he said.
“The review doesn’t make
anything tougher on you.”
The Endangered Species
Act calls for USFWS to look
at a listed species every five
years. All the species up for
review were granted federal
protection in 2013 or 2014.
USFWS has not proposed
any changes in status.
Endangered species are
populations that are on the
BAKER CITY — Baker
County Commission Chair-
man Bill Harvey and Com-
missioner Bruce Nichols say
their decision to not extend
the county’s contract with
economic developer Greg
Smith is based on declin-
ing revenue, not on Smith’s
performance as the county’s
contractor over the past sev-
eral years.
Both
commissioners
also said they were not con-
cerned about potential con-
flicts of interests based on
Smith’s contracts as an eco-
nomic developer with adja-
cent counties, or his service
as a state legislator.
The Baker County Eco-
nomic Development Coun-
cil, which advises Har-
vey, Nichols and the third
commissioner, Mark Ben-
nett, voted Thursday not to
renew Smith’s $96,000-per-
year contract when the new
fiscal year starts July 1.
The reason, both Harvey
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Photo
The Yelm pocket gopher is a threatened species found in
Thurston County, Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is reviewing the status of it and six other federally
protected species in Washington.
brink of extinction. Threat-
ened species are heading
that way. The Taylor’s check-
erspot butterfly is endan-
gered, while the other six are
threatened.
The
Olympia,
Ten-
ino, Yelm and Roy Prai-
rie pocket gophers are sub-
species of Mazama pocket
gophers. They live primar-
ily underground, and there
is no practical way to count
them or document whether
the population is increasing
or decreasing, according to
USFWS.
USFWS considers them
threatened because their
prairie habitat has been
reduced in Thurston and
Pierce counties. The sup-
pression of fires has allowed
forests to expand, and
development has brought
dogs and cats, predators
to the gophers, according
to USFWS.
SATURDAY
Sunshine
Sunshine
83° 51°
85° 55°
88° 57°
90° 58°
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Partly sunny
TUESDAY
Sunshine and
delightful
Sunshine, breezy
and nice
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
90° 58°
82° 48°
87° 59°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
95° 64°
87° 52°
92° 63°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
62/52
76/50
87/51
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
83/57
Lewiston
69/50
89/55
Astoria
63/52
Pullman
Yakima 89/55
72/47
85/58
Portland
Hermiston
76/55
Salem
The Dalles 88/57
79/54
75/48
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
79/47
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Bend
78/47
81/45
81/52
Ontario
91/56
Caldwell
Burns
99°
62°
79°
53°
99° (2019) 41° (1952)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
Eugene
0.00"
Trace
0.31"
4.42"
5.00"
5.42"
WINDS (in mph)
87/55
82/42
0.00"
0.05"
0.67"
9.33"
6.33"
7.18"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
83/51
76/49
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
Pendleton 76/44
77/48
Corvallis
93°
66°
77°
52°
98° (1974) 35° (1910)
Motorcyclist killed in crash
in Gresham
GRESHAM (AP) — A 19-year-old
motorcyclist has died and the driver of an
SUV was injured in a crash in Gresham.
KOIN reports the crash happened
Wednesday afternoon.
The 81-year-old driver of the Hyundai
SUV involved in the crash was cooperating.
No arrests or citations have been issued.
Gresham police officers said the SUV
driver was turning into a shopping center
and then crashed with the motorcycle.
The motorcyclist was later identified as
Henry Sweeney of Gresham.
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
72/49
Aberdeen
82/56
87/59
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
73/56
and Nich-
ols
said
on Mon-
day, is that
revenue
Smith
from a tax
collected
from guests at motels and
other lodging establish-
ments has dropped substan-
tially over the past fiscal
year.
That lodging tax revenue
is the source of the money
for Smith’s contract.
The contract, which took
effect July 1, 2018, was
slated to continue through
June 30, 2022. The contract
includes a clause allow-
ing either party to cancel
the agreement with 60 days
written notice. That clause
also allows the county to
end the deal if “funding
from federal, state or other
sources is not obtained and
continued at levels sufficient
to allow for the purchase of
the indicated quantity of
services.”
Harvey said Smith “did
very good work for us for
many years.”
The county has con-
tracted with Smith, a long-
time Republican state leg-
islator from Heppner, since
2011.
The likelihood that Smith
won’t remain as the county’s
economic developer is “just
economics,” Harvey said.
He said the situation is
not related to a story by The
Malheur Enterprise news-
paper in Vale, that exam-
ined Smith’s multiple con-
tracts to oversee economic
development in other coun-
ties besides Baker, includ-
ing Malheur and Harney.
Both
Harvey,
who
was elected as commis-
sion chairman in 2014, and
Nichols, who was elected
in 2016, said they don’t
believe Smith’s simultane-
ous holding of contracts for
economic development in
those counties constituted
a conflict of interest, or that
Smith’s company failed to
do the work for which it was
hired.
“We just can’t afford that
position,” Harvey said.
Baker County’s lodg-
ing tax revenue dropped
from $625,000 in the 2016-
17 fiscal year to $538,129
in 2017-18. The majority of
that money is paid by guests
at lodging establishments in
Baker City.
The county is projecting
a further drop in the lodging
tax revenue, to $420,000,
for the fiscal year that
starts July 1.
BRIEFLY
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
Friday, June 14, 2019
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
91/55
Sat.
WSW 7-14
W 8-16
W 4-8
WNW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
85/44
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Man fatally shot at Portland
beach
PORTLAND (AP) — Police say a man
was fatally shot during a fight at a Northeast
Portland beach.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports
the shooter and other people at Brough-
ton Beach fled the area after the Wednes-
day night shooting, according to Portland
police.
No arrests have been announced.
Officers responded about 9:25 p.m. to the
beach, which is on Northeast Marine Drive
near Portland International Airport. Police
say they tried to save the man but he died
at the scene.
Police said a large group of people had
gathered at the beach and that someone fired
a gun during a fight and hit the man who
was killed.
Police are investigating.
Lawsuit: Oregon woman
punched in eye sues her
ex-boyfriend
PORTLAND (AP) — A Bend woman is
suing the man she says was her boyfriend
for allegedly punching her in the eye and
shattering multiple bones.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports
Gina Bevill says Shawn McCloud should
pay for the reconstructive facial surgery she
says she will need.
She seeks medical costs plus $975,000
for pain and suffering, in the suit filed May
31 in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
McCloud hasn’t been charged with a
crime and the accusations have been made
solely in the civil suit.
He says he did not assault Bevill and that
“if the facts in this lawsuit were true” he
would have been charged with a crime.
Bevill’s lawyer Greg Kafoury says
McCloud called police after the April 28
incident though Bevill was the one seriously
hurt. Kafoury says police took no action.
A Bend police spokeswoman didn’t
respond to a request for information.
5:05 a.m.
8:46 p.m.
6:05 p.m.
3:36 a.m.
Full
Last
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 113° in Needles, Calif. Low 27° in Brimson, Minn.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
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