REGION
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Sheriff Til Taylor Harley Davidson
East Oregonian
Public divided on
‘road diet’ in Stanfield
ODOT has
proposed taking
Highway 395 from
five lanes to three
through downtown
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office
Pendleton Bike Week founder Eric Folkestad and his crew created this Harley Davidson mo-
torcycle as a tribute to the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Til Taylor. Taylor was
working in his office the morning of July 25, 1920, when inmates at the jail escaped. One of
the offenders, Emmett Bancroft, shot and killed Taylor, who was a lawman with the sher-
iff’s office for 18 years. Bancroft paid for the crime with his life, along with two others who
hung. The other offenders served life sentences. The motorcycle will be on display at the
Pendleton Convention Center until Sunday. Bike Week participants honor Taylor and oth-
er fallen officers every year during the Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony at Til Taylor
Park, Pendleton, where the statue of Taylor on his horse overlooks the park.
EO wins top prize in
state newspaper contest
Awards are for
work done during
2018 calendar year
East Oregonian
GLENEDEN BEACH
— The East Orego-
nian received 10 awards,
including the top prize
— General Excellence —
at the Oregon Newspa-
per Publishers Associa-
tion’s annual competition,
held Thursday and Friday
at the Salishan Resort in
Gleneden Beach.
The awards are for work
done during the 2018 cal-
endar year. The contest
was judged by newspa-
pers from the Kentucky
Press Association and the
EO competed against other
daily Oregon newspapers
with circulations less than
10,000.
Reporter Antonio Sierra
was a multiple winner,
earning a first-place finish
for best education coverage
for his story “Homeless in
high school.” Sierra teamed
with former reporter Jayati
Ramakrishnan in the same
category for the story
“United in protest.”
Ramakrishnan
and
reporter Kathy Aney took
the top two spots in the
personality feature cate-
gory. Aney took first place
for her story “Rural jour-
nal revived.” Ramakrish-
nan took second place for
the story “Shining a light
on sexual abuse.”
Reporter Jade McDow-
ell took a third place for
best lifestyle for her story
“Age of the Millennials.”
Sports writer Annie
Fowler earned a third-
place award in the best
sports story category for
the story “Glory Days.”
The General Excellence
award, which the EO has
won eight of the past nine
years, is judged based on
the overall product, from
news and editorial con-
tent to photos and design to
advertising and reproduc-
tion. The samples are taken
from three random editions
throughout the year.
“It’s a tremendous
honor for any
journalist to win
and be recognized
for their hard work
and diligence”
Chris Rush, Publisher
“It’s a tremendous honor
for any journalist to win
and be recognized for their
hard work and diligence
throughout the year,” East
Oregonian and Hermis-
ton Herald Publisher Chris
Rush said. “Another Gen-
eral Excellence award is
added confirmation that
we are striving to serve our
readers as best we can with
relevant news, features and
information.”
Former photographer
E.J. Harris was a mul-
tiple winner, taking the
The most valuable and
respected source of local news,
advertising and information for
our communities.
www.eomediagroup.com
gon!
For the first time in Eastern Ore
top spots in the best fea-
ture photo category. Har-
ris’ photo “Ferris Wheel
Sunset” took top honors,
while his photo “Speed
and Impact” took second
place. Harris also took
a third place in the best
sports photo category for
his photo “Purple Reign.”
The Hermiston Herald
won five awards, including
a third-place in its division
for General Excellence.
McDowell brought home
a first for best government
coverage.
Ramakrishnan
won
multiple awards, claim-
ing second in the general
feature story category and
third for best educational
coverage. Community Edi-
tor Tammy Malgesini took
second place in best life-
style coverage.
“I couldn’t be prouder
of the staffs in both Pend-
leton and Hermiston — not
only in the newsrooms, but
throughout both buildings
— and the dedication they
show everyday to put out
the absolute best product
they can,” Rush said. “The
awards are the icing on
the cake.”
STANFIELD — Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion employees worked hard
on Thursday to convince
Stanfield residents they
would benefit from hav-
ing fewer lanes on High-
way 395 through town, but
there were still skeptics in
the crowd.
One man argued with
engineers for several min-
utes in the middle of the
presentation before storm-
ing out of the meeting.
“If nothing’s broken why
are you trying to fix it?” he
asked before leaving.
During 2021 ODOT
plans to grind the top 2
inches off of Highway 395
from Hermiston through
Stanfield and replace it with
new pavement. As part of
the project, funded through
ODOT’s general fund, they
will be adding bulb-outs
at crosswalks, ADA-com-
pliant wheelchair ramps
and other improvements
through Stanfield.
The department has pro-
posed a “road diet” through
downtown Stanfield as well,
taking Highway 395 down
from five lanes to three. The
curb-to-curb width of the
highway would remain the
same, but the road would
be re-striped to include a
center turn lane and one
travel lane in each direction
instead of two. The extra
space would turn into bike
lanes and wider parking.
Project manager Bryan
Strasser said ultimately the
decision was up to the city
— ODOT wouldn’t force
it on the community if the
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and heavy trucks we’re
going to have some backup.
... Not trying to bring you
down, but I think we have
a different scenario here,”
he said.
Others said much of the
traffic through Stanfield
was commuter traffic, and
they didn’t want to unnec-
essarily delay people on the
way to their jobs. Mayor
Tom McCaan also said he
wasn’t sure two lanes would
actually slow people down,
and referenced his days on
the police force decades
ago when Highway 395 was
only two lanes.
“We’d catch people
going through at 70 miles
per hour in the middle of
the day,” he said.
Haas said the brief road
diet through the center of
Stanfield would be a much
different scenario than the
old two-lane days. The cen-
ter turn lane would keep
people from getting backed
up behind someone trying
to turn, and he said people
should get less impatient
when the three-lane config-
uration was only for about
a mile instead of “making
people wait 20 miles to pass
a truck.”
ODOT is leaving the
choice of a road diet up to
the city of Stanfield — a
decision city councilors
have yet to make. Challis
said he was asking so many
questions because he was
trying to make an informed
decision.
“I want to commend
you guys — the council,
staff and general public —
because you’re asking the
right questions,” Haas said.
He encouraged them to
speak with Milton-Freewa-
ter city officials about how
they liked their new road
diet, and also reminded the
council that the striping
would be relatively easy to
undo if the new configura-
tion didn’t work out.
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city council voted no. But
he said they felt a respon-
sibility to share what the
engineering and research
showed was the best option.
“If we lived here we
would want it done,” he
said.
He and engineer Kevin
Haas described benefits
ODOT had seen in other
road diets, including Mil-
ton-Freewater, Cave Junc-
tion, Port Orford and
Ashland.
Haas said there had been
a 19% to 47% reduction in
crashes where the number
of lanes had been reduced.
People weren’t trying to
make lefthand turns over
so many lanes, they weren’t
sideswiping each other and
pedestrians weren’t in as
much danger of being hit
when one vehicle stopped
for them but another tried to
pass because they didn’t see
the pedestrian.
He said other cities
had been skeptical too,
but found traffic actually
flowed better with the sin-
gle lane in each direction
and now people were thank-
ing ODOT for the change.
A couple of attend-
ees voiced their support of
the proposal, referencing
the safety of their children
walking to school and the
opportunities for drivers to
notice local businesses if
they slow down.
Others, including city
councilors and the mayor,
asked detailed questions
during the two-hour meet-
ing and expressed concerns
that the proposed change
would create a bottleneck
and make it more difficult
for residents pulling out
onto the highway. Coun-
cilor Scott Challis asked
whether the other commu-
nities has as short of city
blocks on their highway as
Stanfield, or as much truck
traffic.
“With the short blocks
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