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East Oregonian
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Safety: First rule of fireworks fun
Continued from Page A1
money for the family farm.
She said safety is “key” to
having fun with any type of
fireworks product.
She suggested people
buy a hollow concrete block
— available for about a dol-
lar from Home Depot — to
set fountain-type fireworks
inside before lighting them
off.
“That way they won’t tip
over in the wind,” she said.
Other safety tips include
mowing and weed-whack-
ing your yard right before
the holiday, having a hose
at the ready, immediately
placing all sparklers into a
bucket of water and keeping
fireworks clear of flamma-
ble items.
“It’s lots of common
sense, is basically what it
is,” she said.
Phillips said one of the
most common types of fire-
works injuries was young
children grabbing the hot
end of a sparkler once it goes
out. When parents bring
their children in to pick out
fireworks she tries to talk to
them about safety.
Pendleton residents look-
ing to support a local cause
while collecting a variety of
fun and colorful fireworks
for the Fourth of July have
two options in town.
The Pendleton Light-
house Church is operat-
ing two tents across the
street from each other along
Southwest Court Avenue,
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Fireworks are arranged for sale at the Pendleton Lighthouse
Church fireworks stands. The church sells fireworks as a
fundraiser to support their school and expansion programs.
one in the parking lot of
Rite-Aid and the other in
the Walmart lot, in hopes
of raising funds for separate
projects. Both tents are open
daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
through July 4.
Cami Satterwhite, a
member of the church, is
coordinating this year’s
sales and helping run the
TNT Firework tent in the
Walmart lot. She said she
has been doing fireworks
sales for 10 years but the
objective remains the same
each time.
“The goal is to not have
to pack any of it up,” she
said, laughing.
Each tent is connected
to different firework com-
panies that supply the prod-
ucts. The group is respon-
sible for setting up and
running the tents. When
business closes on the night
of July 4, the church ships
the remain inventory back
to each respective company
for them to calculate profits
and send back the church’s
share.
Due to this process,
any stolen fireworks from
the tent ultimately cost the
church group.
“If people steal, we
eat that,” said Shannon
Schuette, a church member
volunteering in the Western
Fireworks tent at Rite-Aid.
To avoid this problem
and be in accordance with
Oregon law, each tent must
have somebody present at all
times. That includes over-
night, meaning volunteers
from the church and school
must take shifts sleeping in
the tents.
Schuette said the most
popular items are the assort-
ment packs, two-for-one
deals and those with a green
sticker indicating a mark-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Shannon Schuette monitors the Western Fireworks stand in the Rite-Aid parking lot in Pend-
leton. The stand is run by the Pendleton Lighthouse Church.
down in price. Whether
the fireworks are sparklers,
fountains, wheels or pop-
pers, the presentation mat-
ters most.
“It’s all about the packag-
ing,” Schuette said, pointing
to a container with a unicorn
and another named the “cat
selfie.”
Schuette has been assist-
ing in selling fireworks
on-and-off for the past 20
years and said her personal
favorite this year is the
assortment backpack, which
carries a variety of smaller
fireworks in a transparent
bag.
“They’re just so cute,”
she said.
Sales from the Rite-Aid
lot have been slow since the
tent’s opening on Wednes-
day, Schuette said, while Sat-
terwhite said the sales from
Walmart, which opened on
Tuesday, have been good so
far. Both added sales often
pick up and become steady
by July 2.
Phillips also raised cau-
tions against crossing state
lines to secure mortars and
other types of fireworks that
are illegal in Oregon. Those
pyrotechnics can leave peo-
ple open to legal liability
and large fines if they light
them off in Oregon.
Penninger
suggested
rather than going out of state
to buy “more extravagant”
fireworks, locals can take in
a Fourth of July fireworks
displays.
For more information
on fireworks safety, visit:
https://www.oregon.gov/
osp/programs/sfm/Pages/
Fireworks.aspx
Walkout: Republican senators to provide a quorum
Continued from Page A1
fiery, was not at a loss for
words.
“Send bachelors and
come heavily armed,” he
said he’d advised the state
police.
Baertschiger refused to
condemn Boquist’s words.
“I don’t know what
threats you’re talking
about,” he said when a
reporter asked about the
comments. “I know what
Senator Boquist said. You
got to remember, at that
time, there was — a lot of
tempers were flaring. Obvi-
ously, his statement was not
helpful.
“I’m going to say it was
definitely not helpful. There
has been a lot of things said
by a lot of senators on both
sides of the aisle when the
tempers were flaring. So it
definitely was not helpful.”
Courtney gave an inter-
view to reporters for the
first time in over a week,
but refused to answer sub-
stantive questions about
the negotiations of the last
week.
“The situation is so frag-
ile and delicate that I can’t
take a chance that anything
appears in print, or on TV
or radio ... could in some
ways disrupt a situation that
is just hanging on,” Court-
ney said. “I am just hang-
ing on by my fingernails.”
Courtney said there is a
limited amount of time to
get about 120 bills through.
“It’s been a very difficult
time,” Courtney said. “And
it’s been very, very diffi-
cult. And there’s no trust,
lack of trust, there is feel-
ings of betrayal, etc., etc.,
all of these things are at
work with human beings,
and that is a tough situation
to be in.”
Walking out a sec-
ond time, severing a deal
secured to end a May walk-
out, was the nuclear option
for Senate Republicans.
Baertschiger said he at first
was against the idea, but he
was the only one. He said
he had to be talked into
walking out by his fellow
Republicans.
“My fear is that it could
be abused very easily, that
every time you don’t get
your way, you just walk
out,” Baertschiger said of
the tactic to deny the Sen-
ate a quorum to meet and
hold votes. “I think that
would be abuse of that. I
think our caucus carefully
looked at these situations
and said our districts had
said adamantly they could
not survive cap and trade.
Staff photo by Jessica Pollard
The Boardman Industry Learning Center is located on 240
N.E. Boardman Ave. in Boardman.
Oregon Capital Bureau Photo/Clarie Withycombe
Senate President Peter Courtney addressing reporters Friday on the expected return Sat-
urday of Republican senators.
They were very adamant,
and I think you’ve seen that
yesterday. So I think that is
why the caucus made that
decision.”
Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario, said it’s a bit more
complicated than that. In
the weeks leading up to
the walkout, no one was in
favor, he said.
“It’s absolutely fake to
say everyone wanted to
walk out,” he said.
But, once HB 2020 came
closer to a vote, it became
clear Republicans had to do
something. Once the bill
was “second read” and a
third reading and vote was
scheduled, it forced their
hand, Bentz said.
“At that point, we really
had no choice,” he said.
The caucus was united,
Bentz said, but Baertsch-
iger was “not enthusiastic”
about giving the nod to a
second walkout. He even-
tually came around, and
Republicans got the desired
result, though Democrats
say it’s not because they
left the building. During
the walkout, Senate Presi-
dent Peter Courtney, D-Sa-
lem, announced that he
didn’t even have the 16
votes of from the 18 Dem-
ocratic senators needed to
pass the bill.
Baertschiger declared
victory anyway.
“Our mission of walking
out of this building was to
kill cap and trade,” he said.
“That’s what our constit-
uents said yesterday. And
that’s what we did.”
However,
Courtney
declared the bill dead Tues-
day, and Republicans won’t
be back on the Senate floor
until Saturday. They said
they didn’t trust that the bill
was dead, and they were
concerned over some other
policy bills.
Baertschiger said he
trusts Courtney will play
the final two days straight,
so Brown doesn’t have
to call a special session
during the summer to pass
budgets.
“We have a constitu-
tional duty to pass all the
budget bills, and I hope that
the Senate president brings
them forth first so we can
get that done,” Baertsch-
iger said. “After the bud-
get bills, we have some pol-
icy bills left. Some of those
are good. I would say most
of them are good bills, to
be honest with you. There
are a handful of bills that
we are having a conversa-
tion about, but I think a lot
of those need an up-and-
down vote. I’m confident
that we can pass the bud-
get, all the budgets, and
we can work through all
those policy bills and be
out of here by midnight
on Sunday. My caucus has
told me they are dedicated
(to) working through that
agenda and having those
conversations.”
The policy — House
Bill 2020 — will still need
action. Because it’s on the
“third read” calendar, it has
to come up when the Sen-
ate reconvenes, either for a
direct vote or on decision to
return it to a committee to
die.
The tension now will be
over what remaining leg-
islation get consideration
first. Republicans would
like to take up budget bills
as they are not controver-
sial and bring money back
to their districts.
But Democrats know
if they stack the calendar
with budget bills, Republi-
cans could walk out before
policy bills are taken up.
There are several contro-
versial items in the queue.
Chief among them is Sen-
ate Bill 116.
That proposal would
push a potential referen-
dum on a business tax
package to fund education
to a special election in Jan-
uary, rather than the regu-
lar election in November
2020.
Republicans think the
tax package on the bal-
lot would energize their
base, boosting their candi-
dates up for re-election in
November.
Baertschiger said he
hopes the Senate can agree
to take up budget bills first,
and then work through pol-
icy bills.
To rearrange the order
of bills, the Senate needs
Republican support to sus-
pend the rules.
A spokesman for House
Speaker
Tina
Kotek,
D-Portland, said Friday
that he wasn’t sure if the
House would suspend the
rules to quickly vote on
bills that the Senate sends
over or bounces back with
amendments.
Baertschiger said Friday
that Senate Republicans
will allow rule suspension
on some bills, but not all.
Once the clock strikes
9 Saturday morning, Sen-
ators will have 39 hours
to pass as much policy as
they can.
Child care: Workplace
retention and preschool
go hand in hand
Continued from Page A1
in its pilot class of up to 20
preschool students in the 3-
to 5-year age range. The care
provided is year-round and
10 hours a day, at a rate of
$400 a month.
The current maximum
monthly state rate for pre-
school care is $680.
The BILC is able to keep
the costs low with support
from the involved busi-
nesses, and from the school
district.
”It’s the only reason we
can provide this high quality
at a rate that is affordable to
parents,” McGrath said.
In recent years, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce has
held conferences and road-
shows across the nation,
declaring child care and
early education to be indus-
try issues. In 2017, a report
released by the U.S. Cham-
ber of Commerce Founda-
tion cited a study revealing
that 70% of the nonworking
poor with children under age
5 cited “taking care of home/
family” as their reason for
not working.
And while some com-
panies have child care or
assistance available to their
employees, like Nike, Intel
and Microsoft, others don’t.
This spring, Bloomberg
reported hundreds of work-
ing moms at Amazon began
advocating for their work-
place to provide backup
day care by collecting anec-
dotal evidence to show that
lack of care has caused some
women to miss out on high-
level jobs. Some women,
advocates stated, are even
moving on to companies
MORE
INFORMATION
Parents who are interest-
ed in the BILC can go to
www.umchs.com/BILC/
to learn more.
with more parent-friendly
policies.
Ryan Neal, manager at
the Port of Morrow, said he
has noticed an increase of
dual-income families in the
Boardman area.
“It’s all about employee
retention and recruitment
for industries and making
sure we are able to provide
the workforce needed with
continuous growth,” Neal
said, “We’re just here to help
support that effort and try to
make it as best as possible.”
Parents enrolling their
children in BILC can expect
an emphasis on social,
emotional, and academic
skill-building through activ-
ities like family-style eating,
play, counting, and vocabu-
lary building.
“A day in the life of a
preschooler is a little bit
what you see at home,” said
Suellen Whitlock, family
engagement dDirector at
UMCHS. “Being kindergar-
ten ready is not just being
able to write your name.”
The BILC pilot will last
three years, and organiz-
ers hope to eventually see it
expand.
”There is quality learn-
ing from the moment they
step through the doors,”
Whitlock said.“It’s such a
cool opportunity. I really
think Boardman is doing
something special.”