OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
East Oregonian
A7
Bike: Gangster-themed bike steals the show at Bike Week
Continued from Page A1
tions and talk to me about
it,” Dillinger said of his
one-of-a-kind 2013 Har-
ley-Davidson street glide.
“I kept telling them, ‘Just
come into the show!’”
With two large tail bags
on either side of the bike’s
backend and a 30-inch
wheel at the front, it’s easy
to see how it stands out to
onlookers. But what truly
sets Dillinger’s bike apart
from the rest is what cov-
ers the rest of it. With a
black base color, the bike is
expertly designed with por-
traits and art of the Amer-
icas’ most notorious gang-
sters, such as Jesse James,
Pablo Escobar, and most
notably — John Dillinger.
John Dillinger was an
American gangster that
operated during the early
1930s with what was
known as “The Dillinger
Gang.” In total, Dillinger
and his gang were accused
of robbing 24 banks and
four police stations along
with a number of other
crimes.
The aesthetic was an
easy choice for Chad Dil-
linger, who’s always been
associated with and inter-
ested in the stories and leg-
ends of the infamous crimi-
nal thanks to his last name.
Dillinger said it just made
sense for him to purchase
the bike in Florida when he
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
This gangster-themed Harley bike belonging to Chad and Tamber Dillinger was displayed during last week’s Pendleton Bike
Week at the Pendleton Convention Center.
found it at a custom dealer.
Along with the black
and white art of the bike,
there’s a batwing shape
around it’s front light that
Dillinger said is also a one-
of-a-kind piece.
Once he got the bike
placed near the center of
the convention center, the
crowds of people interested
in it didn’t abate. The sixth
bike to be staged yet that
morning, nobody passed it
by whose eyes didn’t wan-
der and make them stop at
least momentarily for a lon-
ger inspection.
None of which is new to
Dillinger.
“I can’t go anywhere
without people stopping
me,” he said, laughing.
Dillinger owns two
other bikes, both of which
have tail bags like his 2013
street glide, though nei-
ther has the 30-inch front
wheel. He and his wife,
Tamber, came to their first
Bike Week from Battle-
ground, Washington, after
he heard of the event on a
motorcycle forum called
cyclefish.com.
While Dillinger said
that he rides the bike all the
time, his prized bike was
seemingly spotless at Sat-
urday’s show.
“It’s a lot of shining and
upkeep in the shop,” he
said. “It takes a lot of elbow
grease.”
Just to properly clean
the 30-inch wheel Dillinger
said it takes about an hour
on each side of it.
When he’s not riding or
caring for his bike, Dil-
linger runs a construction
company in Battleground.
But he and his wife often
climb onto the back of one
of his bikes together and
escape when they can.
“She’s more excited to
ride the bike than I am usu-
ally,” Chad said, laughing.
Though she doesn’t ride
any bikes herself, Tamber
has fully embraced her hus-
band’s hobby and joined in.
“I love everything about
it,” she said. “No cellphone,
the scenery, I just love it.
And I really love the biker
community.”
The Dillingers had
plenty of opportunities to
converse with and experi-
ence the biker community
in Pendleton on Saturday.
Even as more and more
bikes were set up within
the convention center, the
largest crowd could almost
always be found around
Dillinger’s gangster bike.
When they weren’t at the
convention center taking in
Bike Week’s festivities, the
Dillingers enjoyed some
time dining and gambling
at the Wildhorse Casino
& Resort at the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. All in
all, the couples first trip to
Pendleton and Bike Week
left an impression on them.
“We’ll definitely be
back,” Chad said.
Newspaper: EO Media
Housing: Stanfield to break ground on
affordable housing development next spring Group submits high bid
for Bend Bulletin
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
puter lab and recreational
space for private events.
“It was the addition of
the community center with
Headstart that put us over
the top,” Stradley said.
A resident services man-
ager will provide residents
with referrals for child and
health care, as well as work-
force development.
It can be more diffi-
cult, Stradley said, for rural
affordable housing to land
near services like child
care and health care, which
makes a funding application
more likely to pass.
“Other areas get more
points for the availability of
services,” he said.
Originally, the develop-
ment was set to include 53
apartments, rather than the
40 single-family homes. But
because most verified con-
tractors who build apart-
ments come from more
metropolitan areas — Port-
land, Salem and Medford,
for instance — details like
lodging for the contractors
can make building apart-
ments more costly, Stradley
said.
Stradley said the switch
shaved $4 million off the
application for funding.
“We’re able to provide a
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A vacant parcel of land along Highway 395 in Stanfield will soon be home to a 40-home fed-
erally funded housing development called Patriot Heights.
lot to our tenants, but we’ve
worked with a developer to
keep costs low,” Stradley
said.
Stradley said Patriot
Heights will be the first
affordability-focused devel-
opment in Stanfield.
City clerk and interim
city manager of Stanfield
Sandy Endicott said she was
unsure how the development
will compare to previous
developments in Stanfield.
“This will definitely be a
much needed addition to our
housing,” she said.
In 2018, Oregon Hous-
ing and Community Ser-
vices released a five-year
plan looking to improve
housing prospects for Ore-
gonians. One of the goals is
to increase OHCS-funded
housing developments in
rural areas by 75%.
The plan states that small
towns and rural commu-
nities face unique hous-
ing challenges, including
low house and rental prices
failing to cover construc-
tion costs, lack of fund-
ing for small-scale projects
and lack of suitable land for
development.
According to the Ore-
gon Housing Alliance,
one in six renters in Uma-
tilla County pay over half
of their income to rent. For
every 100 families with
“extremely low” incomes,
there are only 32 affordable
housing units available.
District Court.
“We would be foolish to
think we’re the only party
that can be successful next
week,” Wright said.
One other company,
Adams Publishing Group,
also bid on the Central
Oregon newspapers.
“We think it’s a good
product and a good com-
munity with a great repu-
tation,” said Eric Johnson,
western division president
for Adams, which owns the
Herald & News in Klam-
ath Falls and Lake County
Examiner in Lakeview.
“We think it fits well with
the Adams footprint.”
Adams owns 27 daily
and 100 non-daily news-
papers across the country.
CEO Mark Adams started
the publishing company
in 2013 and began acquir-
ing newspapers the fol-
lowing year. Members of
the Adams family also
own billboard, radio, wine
and recreational vehicle
businesses.
EO Media Group has
been publishing newspa-
pers since 1905. The com-
pany recently bought two
other Western Commu-
nications newspapers, the
Baker City Herald and The
Observer in La Grande,
out of bankruptcy.
“There are a lot of rea-
sons this makes sense for
our company,” Wright said
of acquiring the Bulletin.
EO Media Group’s
offer includes the Bend
printing press at 1777
S.W. Chandler Ave. The
press would be removed
from the building within
90 days, according to a
proposed lease agree-
ment filed with the court.
Wright said she doesn’t
know yet where the press
would move.
Rhode Island Subur-
ban Newspapers has also
acquired a former West-
ern Communications pub-
lication, the Union Demo-
crat in Sonora, California,
out of bankruptcy. RISN
offered $1.15 million for
the newspaper and its
downtown office building.
EO Media Group would
deliver offers of employ-
ment to identified employ-
ees no later than five busi-
ness days before the deal
closes, according to an
asset purchase agreement
filed in court. The closing
date will be no later than
five days after the court
enters an order of sale.
Security: Unlike last year’s fight Bike Week wrapped up with no major incidents
Continued from Page A1
fizzled out.
“By the time we got the
call and got down there,
they already left,” Roberts
said.
Folkestad said secu-
rity was tighter this year,
and other changes also
benefited an event that is
becoming a summer sta-
ple in Pendleton. One of
the more significant differ-
ences, he said, was mov-
ing the Saturday night clos-
ing concert from the Happy
Canyon arena to a park-
ing area on the west side of
the Pendleton Convention
Center.
“You could roam around
and see the vendors while
the concert was going on,”
he said. “So more of a fes-
tival feel. We thought we’d
try that, and I think it went
pretty well.”
Folkestad said he didn’t
have registration or atten-
dance figures available off-
hand but perhaps 2,000
people attended the con-
cert, and Bike Week reve-
nue looked to be up 5% over
last year. The new Ride
with the Raiders memorial
ceremony for the Doolittle
Raiders also proved a suc-
cess, with hundreds of bik-
ers turning out.
“That was more motor-
cycles than we’ve ever had
on the first day,” he said.
And 97 out of 106 par-
ticipants finished the Rat-
tlesnake 400, the 400-mile
ride through Oregon, Idaho
and Washington. Folkestad
said he ran the math, and in
the span of 12 hours the 106
Rattlesnake riders racked
up 42,400 miles, about 1.7
times the circumference of
the earth.
Folkestad is among the
finishers. He said Monday
he was recuperating from
another invigorating Bike
Week.
Local law enforcement
are are getting a bit of down
time as July’s three big-
gest events — The Fourth
of July, Pendleton Music
Whisky Fest and Bike
Week — are done. Roberts
said some of his officers are
going to take some vaca-
tion but the department is
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A biker roars onto the tarmac at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport during Wednesday’s
"Ride with the Raiders” event that was part of Pendleton Bike Week.
in full-on planning mode
for Round-Up.
But the department
also is feeling the pinch
from losing two officers in
recent months.
JD Lambert was a
member of the SWAT
team and and left in May
to work for the Umatilla
County Community Jus-
tice Department, which
handles parole, probation
and related programs. And
Sgt. Paul Wolverton moved
over to the fill an opening
with the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office.
Lambert left for a job
that allows him to spend
more time with his family,
Roberts said, and Wolver-
ton will work out of Herm-
iston, where he lives. The
police chief said the moves
make good sense for both
men. And now the depart-
ment is working to find
their replacements.
Roberts said back in the
1990s and 2000s, a depart-
ment opening might result
in as many as a 100 appli-
cants, and certainly 60-70
was par.
“But when you’re get-
ting 10 or 11,” he said, “then
finding qualified applicants
is tougher.”
He added this is not just
a problem for Pendleton
but a problem affecting law
enforcement agencies from
the small to the large.