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143rd year, no. 194
REGONIAN
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
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WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Pendleton OKs urban renewal funds for street repairs
OREGON
Republicans
begin efforts
to recall
Gov. Kate
Brown
By DIRK VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
saleM — In response to the
recent legislative session, Oregon
democrats have cheered a wide
array of policy proposals they
were able to muscle through with
supermajorities in the state House
and senate.
Republicans, meanwhile, want
to recall the governor.
The head of the Oregon Repub-
lican Party on Monday took a first
step toward forcing a recall elec-
tion of Gov. Kate Brown, whose
term expires at the end of 2022.
In a prospective petition fil-
ing with the Oregon secretary
of state, Oregon GOP Chair Bill
Currier listed Brown’s support for
a cap-and-trade program to curb
greenhouse gas emissions and a
bill granting undocumented immi-
grants driving privileges among
his reasons for beginning a recall.
Oregon voters overturned a law
to give undocumented immigrants
driver’s cards in 2014.
“The people or Oregon deserve
and expect a Governor that honors
the will of the voters and works
for the good of all citizens, not
just special interests and politi-
cally-motivated agendas,” Currier
wrote.
The document is one of two
recall efforts filed with elections
officials Monday — the first pos-
sible day to file a recall petition
against Brown. The other was
made by Michael Cross, a salem
resident who is behind a web-
site dedicated to recalling the
governor.
In his filing, Cross suggests
Brown “raised taxes mercilessly
and spends OuR money reck-
lessly.” like Currier, he cites driv-
ing privileges for undocumented
immigrants and concerns about
the public employees retirement
system as reasons for a recall.
Forcing a recall election is not
easy in Oregon. To do so, sup-
porters of the two efforts would
need to collect 280,050 valid sig-
natures from Oregon voters —
nearly twice the amount required
to force a vote on amending the
state constitution.
under Oregon rules, the two
groups have 90 days to collect
those signatures, assuming doc-
uments initiating a petition are
“complete and correct.”
“I would describe it as a tall
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PendleTOn — deteriorat-
ing roads in Pendleton’s urban
renewal district are getting a boost
in funding for repairs.
The Pendleton development
Commission, which consists of
the city council, voted 6-2 Tues-
day night to use almost $1.5 mil-
lion in urban renewal funds for
roads in the district.
The district will receive $5.9
million through august 2023,
when the urban renewal program
expires. The development com-
mission’s advisory committee at a
June 25 workshop recommended
using 25 percent of the money
— or $1.475 million — for public
projects and the rest for privately
owned projects.
streets in the urban renewal
district need about $6 million for
repairs, according to the memo
from Charles denight, the com-
mission’s associate director, and
$1.9 million of that would go to
“severely deteriorated” streets.
Byers avenue is the top project
for street repair in the district. The
city estimated that project alone
would cost $1.7 million out of the
total.
Councilor Paul Chalmers, who
presides over the PdC, asked
before the vote if the city would
See Renewal, Page A6
Brothers lose lives in plane crash
Contributed photo
Bennett, left, Ike and Mel Riffel pose together at Mel’s wedding in Redding, California.
Two major u.s. airlines
announce plans to keep
their Boeing Max planes
grounded until november
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
P
endleTOn — Mary ann
Tangney smiles when she thinks
of her two nephews, then feels
deep sadness wash over her. It’s
an emotional tug-of-war that happens
often when the brothers come to mind.
sometimes the emotions intertwine.
Melvin and Bennett Riffel died in
March when ethiopian airlines Flight
302 crashed minutes after takeoff. The
crash, which left 157 dead, marked the
second Boeing 737 Max to go down in
five months. In October, 189 people died
on lion air Flight 610 when it nose-
Contributed photo
See Crash, Page A7
Melvin, left, and Bennett Riffel pose with their dog Tank in this undated photo.
See Recall, Page A6
GoFundMe passes goal for local family facing medical emergency
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
PendleTOn — last saturday
was going to be the first relaxing one
in a long while for longtime Pendle-
ton resident Kathy Barkley. she and
her husband, lloyd Barkley, were
ready to unwind after the previous
weekend’s Wildhorse Pow Wow,
where she is the head judge and he is
the arena director.
But something was not right. Bar-
kley had mentioned to her daugh-
ter, Tucelia Barkley, that she had an
intense headache a few days prior.
Tylenol was not helping. By satur-
day morning, the headache became
so painful, Barkley woke her sleep-
ing husband and they rushed to the
st.anthony Hospital emergency
room.
A CT Scan confirmed that
Barkely, 60, was suffering an aneu-
rysm. She was life-flighted to Port-
land’s Oregon Health & science
university, where she underwent
emergency surgery on sunday
morning.
“everything was very quick,”
said Barkley’s daughter, Tucelia,
who joined her parents in Portland.
“There weren’t any complications,
she didn’t bleed out very much, she
maintained full body functions.
she’s very aware of what’s going
on.”
she said that while the sur-
gery went well, doctors are con-
cerned over her mother’s low blood
pressure.
as of now, Tucelia Barkley and
her father remain by Kathy’s side in
Portland, where she’ll be staying for
See Emergency, Page A6
Photo courtesy of the Barkley family
Kathy Barkley, right, suffered an aneurysm last Saturday that led to her be-
ing life-flighted to Portland’s Oregon Health & Science University for emer-
gency surgery. Since then, a GoFundMe page has been established to help
her husband Lloyd, left, to visit her while she is in the hospital.