OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, August 31, 2019
East Oregonian
A13
McBee: Beloved dentist, community activist passes away
Continued from Page A1
best, was his passion for
Pendleton, his savvy as a
community leader, a strong
sense of ethics, a willing-
ness to take unpopular stands
and his ability to transform a
stranger into a friend in mere
minutes.
McBee
had
staying
power. He was the local
Rotary club’s longest contin-
uous member at 55 years. He
served 43 years on the Pend-
leton Foundation Trust. For-
ty-eight years with the Elks
and longtime member of
the Knights of Pythias and
Main Street Cowboys. He led
the Pendleton School Board
through some tough issues
and when he finally decided
to go off in 1971, 130 teachers
signed a petition imploring
him to stay. For a full account
of McBee’s community ser-
vice, see his obituary.
He led a full and rich life
until congestive heart failure
finally got the best of him this
week.
McBee and his wife, Car-
olyn, met at the University
of Oregon on a blind date.
Carolyn taught in the Chi-
cago school system while
John attended dental school
at Loyola University. After
moving to Pendleton, she
taught at Washington Ele-
mentary School until their
first of five children arrived
in 1959.
Stories of McBee’s soft-
hearted approach to life
abound.
Susie Stuvland, who once
lived around the block from
McBee, remembers the den-
tist soothing her traumatized
daughter. Stuvland’s 8-year-
old daughter Sally had been
brushing her teeth one night
when a tooth broke into mul-
tiple pieces that fell into the
sink. Not knowing what to
do, Susie, her husband Dave
and Sally — all in pajamas —
trooped over to see McBee,
who was a family friend.
“He comes to the door
in his robe,” Stuvland said.
“Sally is hysterically crying.
John sat down and talked
to her. He was so sweet and
kind.”
Turns out nothing was
amiss, the tooth had fallen
out on schedule, albeit a tad
dramatically.
The story, Stuvland said,
“epitomized how and who
he was — he was so gracious
and kind.”
Houk remembered McBee
Contributed photo
John and Carolyn McBee look happily at wellwishers on their
wedding day. Thursday would have been their 66th anniver-
sary.
opening his office to treat a
member of a delegation from
Pendleton’s sister city in
Japan.
“He had a terrible tooth-
ache,” Houk said. “John went
down and fixed his tooth.”
“He was a guy with the
biggest heart,” said daugh-
ter-in-law Debbie McBee.
“He wasn’t a black-and-white
person, but he thought people
shouldn’t cheat the system.
He expected people to have
the same virtuous character
he did. He was a good exam-
ple of how one person could
make a difference.”
More than anything, she
said, “he loved Pendleton. He
was all about making Pendle-
ton a better place.”
Kevin Hale said he sat in
McBee’s dental chair as a
child and later served with
McBee on the Pendleton
Foundation Board. He said
he already misses the man’s
unfiltered leadership.
“He was the diplomatic,
but decisive voice of reason,”
Hale said. “He had strong
opinions, but the majority of
the time, he was spot-on.”
John Jr., a Pendleton sur-
geon, will miss his father’s
ability to strike up conversa-
tions with total strangers,
“My dad was the friendli-
est guy in the world,” McBee
said.
The elder McBee was a
three-sport athlete at Pend-
leton High School, graduat-
ing in 1947. He attended hun-
dreds of PHS sporting events
and loved his Oregon Ducks.
On a recent day, he called
grandson, Patrick McBee,
just to talk about the Seattle
Mariners.
Tom Melton, a local his-
torian of Pendleton athletics,
remembers McBee’s efforts
to keep the OSAA 2A bas-
ketball tournament in town.
“Redmond wanted the
tournament and courted
the heck out of the OSAA,”
Melton said.
McBee, who spearheaded
the effort to retain the lucra-
tive event, pushed back hard.
“They proved to OSAA
that there’s no better place for
the tournament,” he said.
McBee loved to hunt deer,
ducks, turkeys and upland
game. This spring, he went
on his final turkey hunt with
his son John at their ranch in
Echo.
“I drove him right to a
cottonwood tree and sat him
in a chair,” John said. “He
could barely lift his gun, but
he got ’er done.”
The elder McBee bagged
two turkeys that day.
Jim Krout, a retired PHS
administrator and fellow
Rotarian, visited McBee
shortly before his death. They
talked about hunting and then
McBee grilled Krout about
the most recent Rotary meet-
ing in which the speaker was
Blue Mountain Community
College President Dennis
Bailey-Fougnier.
“He was still interested,”
Krout said.
McBee wasn’t perfect, as
no person is. His son con-
firmed the fact by admitting
that his dad was constantly
losing things.
“He lost his cellphones,
his cameras, his gloves,”
McBee said. “He lost a
brand new hunting hat on
our first outing. He was not
materialistic so he didn’t pay
attention.”
McBee may have lost
many inanimate objects, but
he won’t soon lose the love
and gratitude he garnered
during a lifetime of service.
A funeral mass is sched-
uled for 10:30, Wednesday
at St. Mary’s Church with
private burial following at
Olney Cemetery.
Creek: City working for approval to ready park for spring rains
Continued from Page A1
City Manager Robb Cor-
bett said the state allows that
kind of in-stream work from
Dec. 1-March 31.
“We have a real short time
to get this done,” he said.
But he expressed confi-
dence in getting the permits
during a meeting with McKay
Creek area residents Wednes-
day night and said the city
hired the engineering firm of
Anderson Perry & Associates
Inc. to shoulder that work.
“We feel they give us the
best opportunity to be suc-
cessful,” Corbett said.
Removing the 2,000 cubic
feet of gravel from where the
creek runs through and along
Community Park required an
emergency permit from the
Oregon Department of State
Lands. The agency granted
the permit because the city
owns the park where the
creek continued to flood. Brad
Baird, president of Anderson
Perry, explained getting per-
mits to remove six gravel bars,
including one he described as
“huge,” takes a lot more steps.
His team has to conduct
a biological assessment, a
stream flow assessment, and
come up with strategies to
allow for fish passage. The
typical process, Baird said,
takes 12-15 months. But he
and Corbett are hopeful this
effort will move fast.
That’s based in some
measure on last week’s Kai-
zen meeting, where Corbett,
Baird, other stakeholders
pitched their needs to the the
alphabet soup of controlling
and regulating agencies.
They said those agencies
agreed to review documents
within a couple of weeks
rather than months.
“That was the first time I
heard ‘fast track’ and ‘biolog-
ical assessment’ in the same
sentence,” Baird said.
The city also has key part-
ners in this effort. The Uma-
tilla County Board of Com-
missioners in August set
its goals for the fiscal year,
and addressing the flood-
ing throughout the county
made the list. County Com-
missioner John Shafer also
attended the Wednesday
night meeting.
The Lower McKay Creek
Water Control District also is
on board. Chair Bill Wohl-
ford said much of McKey
Creek needs restoration
work, and that has to start
somewhere. It makes sense,
then, for the city to focus on
the area where the housing
density is higher.
He also said he was about
to walk away from any hope
of obtaining permits this year
until that Kaizen meeting.
Still, he remained cautious
about getting the permits.
City crews surveyed the
six gravel bars Thursday
and Friday. City engineer
Tim Simons said the rough
estimate is the debris totals
4,000-6,000 cubic yards.
Anderson Perry will crunch
the survey numbers to get
a better estimate, he said,
and calculate how deep to
dig so the channel can carry
1,500 cubic feet of water per
second.
“We’re trying to get back
basically to that number,”
Simons said, because that
capacity reduces the risk of
flooding.
The emergency excava-
tion cost about $13,000. Baird
said Anderson Perry’s bill for
this permitting work could
be in the $40,000-$45,000
range. This work would only
deal with removing mate-
rial and not restoration of the
creek, and working outside
the rules would not fly with
state and federal regulators.
“They would shut you
down so fast, it will make
your head spin,” he said.
The city might get per-
mission in February, he said,
which would allow a few
weeks to complete the project
by deadline. However, per-
mits would be good to do the
work the next winter.
The community group
McKay Creek Solutions
Committee also is pushing
for the permits. Mark Mul-
vihill spoke for the group
and urged patience.
“This is going to be a long,
long time of government
work,” he said. “I think we’re
kidding ourselves if this is a
quick fix.”
The larger picture involves
an analysis of the whole
McKay Creek basin.
“We’re starting to pursue
funding for that now,” Corbett
said.
The study would show the
creek’s route post-flood, which
could inform home building
in the area, and establish a list
of priorities. Baird said the
study is the map to funding
for work on the creek.
Corbett said the basin
study would be a long, pub-
lic process, and encour-
aged locals to stay steadfast
throughout.
“The community’s voice,”
he said, “needs to be heard
in that.”
Rail: County working to settle land deal
Continued from Page A1
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Imelda Tejeda, left, and Kristi Brown pose for a portrait following a dress-up competition
they organized for Labor Day at Marlette Homes in Hermiston on Friday.
Rosie: Paying homage
Continued from Page A1
While Marlette’s employ-
ees have been throwing hol-
iday costume contests at
work for years, this was the
first time one was held for
Labor Day and the first time
the contest transformed into
a moment of empowerment.
Originally, the idea was to
hold a regular costume con-
test with a theme of famous
women in history. But as
the workers started to dis-
cuss their costume plans for
Friday, it became clear the
contest would be hard to
judge because almost every-
one wanted to be Rosie the
Riveter.
So it was decided that
everybody would dress up
like Rosie, and Brown and
Tejeda took the initiative to
make sure it happened.
“We believe it’s import-
ant for women to be in the
workforce,” Brown said of
their motivation.
Brown purchased fab-
ric earlier in the week and
Tejeda began turning it into
bandannas. After about two
days of work, Tejeda had
enough for the women who
wanted to participate while
everybody was responsi-
ble for putting together the
remainder of their outfit.
Other than making the
bandannas, the plan went off
without a hitch.
“All it took was commu-
nication,” Tejeda said.
According to David Cam-
pana, Marlette’s training and
hiring manager, the manu-
facturer employs 215 people
between the office and pro-
duction floor, roughly 70 of
whom are women. Many of
those working the floor, such
as Brown and Tejeda, partic-
ipated on Friday.
Tejeda, 34, has built cab-
inets while working on and
off at Marlette for the last
five years. And Brown, 52,
has spent the last six months
wiring main panels but has
worked on the manufactur-
ing floor for five years in
total.
“We’re doing some of the
same work as the women
who were doing the men’s
jobs while they went to war,”
Tejeda said.
Generations later, the idea
that Rosie the Riveter rep-
resented still resonates with
American women who have
progressively filled a greater
portion of the labor force
and continue to integrate
into manufacturing jobs that
had once explicitly excluded
them.
According to the U.S.
Department of Labor, wom-
en’s participation in the
workforce has grown from
32.7% in 1948 to 56.8% in
2016. But while women’s
employment in manufactur-
ing jobs rose constantly until
peaking in 1990 at 33.2%,
a 2016 U.S. Census Bureau
report showed that figure has
fallen to 29% since.
For Tejada and Brown,
however; they’ve found a
place where they feel valued
and respected as women in
manufacturing.
“I love working here and
the way we treat each other,”
Tejada said.
“We get pats on the back
when we deserve them,”
Brown added, laughing.
Wednesday, Aug. 21, to the
board to the Malheur County
Court, and the board of Mal-
heur County Development
Corp., the public company
established to run the project.
Smith is a Republican
state legislator from Heppner.
While cast as a new man-
date, records and interviews
show that county officials
were warned six months
ago that the state would only
fund what was immediately
needed to get a rail center
built and operating.
Smith acknowledged that
in an email to the Enterprise
last week.
“This has been part of the
discussion with the state,”
Smith said.
He said he expects negoti-
ations with the state to make
the case that all of the land
sought by the county is key to
the project.
But if the state doesn’t
relent, the county faces
challenges.
The Malheur County
Court a year ago approved
deals to buy two parcels for
a total of $3.3 million. One is
featured as the prime site for
the shipping center — a 293-
acre lot owned by the Farmer
family — and the other is a
76-acre lot owned by Nyssa
Industries. Both are situated
along Union Pacific tracks
north of Nyssa.
Smith said the state told
him last week that money
would be provided for only 55
acres.
That means Malheur
County could have to come
up with millions to cover
the balance or convince the
Farmer family to break up the
lot to sell a smaller portion for
the rail center.
Jim Farmer, president of
Fort Boise Produce, didn’t
respond to a telephone mes-
sage seeking comment.
“There are many ways
to acquire real estate” with-
out the state funding, Smith
wrote to the Enterprise.
He said that “negotiations
continue with the owners of
the Nyssa Industries prop-
erty” — priced at $394,650
under the existing contract.
But Larry Wilson, a
county commissioner and
minor stockholder in Nyssa
Industries, said the county
doesn’t have the money.
“The county can’t jump
in on it, even if we had the
money. That’s out of the ques-
tion,” said Wilson.
In an Aug. 9 worksheet
submitted to the state, Smith
allocated $3.2 million in state
money to buy all that land,
representing the Farmer and
Nyssa Industries ground.
“It is the position of the
Malheur County Develop-
ment Corporation that the
parcel known as the Farmer
property is the minimum
amount of real estate needed
to operate efficiently,” Smith
wrote.
Smith said he was aware
since last year the state
wanted to fund real estate for
the project only under very
specific conditions.
In September 2018, the
county reported to the state
it needed approximately 100
acres to build the rail center,
create enough parking and
build a staging area.
“This leaves an additional
approximately 190 acres for
future development,” the
county said, not accounting
for the additional 76 acres
under contract nearby.
Smith said last week that
officials wanted to buy all 366
acres at the site to “ensure
the best opportunity for the
county.”
State
transportation
department officials in Feb-
ruary told Smith’s team there
would be no blank check
regarding land purchases for
the facility.
A Feb. 22 fact sheet given
to Smith emphasized that the
land purchases for the project
are a “reimbursable expense
when it is reasonable, nec-
essary and directly related
to the project. Additional
land would not be an eligible
expense.”
State officials presented
the form to Smith the day
after he appeared before
the Oregon Transportation
Commission with a presen-
tation that covered the land
purchases.
“It’s the land needed for
the reload facility and the sup-
porting infrastructure around
it, such as the access roads,
not for developing an indus-
trial park or other supplemen-
tary uses. It is for the reload
facility,” said Erik Havig,
transportation department
planning section manager.
Havig said the state “went
through all that with the proj-
ect sponsors, that the land
needs to fit the size and scope
of your facility.”
“We didn’t put any acre-
age on it because we are not
in final design, but it is not to
be land speculation or any-
thing,” said Havig.
Wilson said last week he
was surprised to learn of the
restriction.
“I think, once again, they
(the state) approved our proj-
ect and then kind of changed
it after the fact. But we are
trying to set up a meeting
with the state to iron out the
problems,” said Wilson.
Grant Kitamura, president
of the Malheur Economic
Development Corp., declined
to go into detail about the
issue.
“We are working on it,”
said Kitamura.
The dispute over real
estate may have long-term
implications for the facility
and isn’t the first challenge for
the project.
The project has faced
intense state scrutiny since
January when its operating
plan — including queries
about rail car availability —
were questioned.