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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2019)
Inside each of us is a Spartan | SPORTS, B1 E O AST AS 143rd Year, No. 255 REGONIAN REGONIA THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD City mulls starting its own homeless camp Pendleton considering several sites for city-sanctioned camp By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — At one point about two weeks ago, the Pendle- ton Police Department identifi ed 22 active or abandoned homeless camps along the Umatilla River. The increasing visibility of Pendleton’s homeless population has the Pendleton City Council considering a homeless camp of its own. At a workshop Tuesday, most councilors agreed that Pendleton needed some sort of city-sanc- tioned homeless camp, but there was no consensus on specifi cs. The workshop was a follow-up to an August meeting where the Turner Roberts council agreed to ban people from sleeping on public benches or in public buildings. But the council held off on another recommendation that pro- hibits camping in public parks, self-imposing a 90-day deadline to fi nd a solution to the camping issue. Internal discussions over a legal homeless camp has progressed far enough that the city has consid- ered several sites. City Manager Robb Corbett said staff is looking at three city- owned properties: one of the plots on Southwest Byers Avenue west of the Round-Up Grounds, a prop- erty near Airport Park, and a piece of industrial land near the Blue Mountain Community College baseball fi eld. A volunteer at the Neighbor 2 Neighbor Pendleton Day Center, Councilor Carole Innes said she’s spoken with homeless people who are in favor of the proposal. “Court decisions seem to say that you cannot ban people from sleeping in a particular place unless you have provided some other place,” she said. “Therefore, we need a designated place.” Mayor John Turner said he anticipated the homeless camp See Camp, Page A8 LEXINGTON Mayor resigns ahead of recall vote Marcia Kemp said the council had refused to work with her By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Ben Lonergan A Shuknecht onion harvester harvests in one of Alan Cleaver’s fi elds near Umatilla on Tuesday afternoon. By BEN LONERGAN East Oregonian ERMISTON — As farm trucks carrying onions, corn and other produce fi ll highways and heavy equipment plows fi elds throughout rural Oregon, agri- cultural safety becomes a key point of concern for farming operations. Alan Cleaver, who owns Colum- bia Basin Onion and several other agricultural operations in Hermis- ton, said last week he had one of his truck drivers get rear-ended by a car as he was coming up to speed on an on-ramp. Cleaver said the driver of the car was on their cellphone and failed to notice the onion truck com- ing up to speed. While he is thankful that no one was killed, Cleaver was once again reminded of the dangers that face agriculture workers, especially during harvest season. “Safety takes a lot of time to instill Staff photo by Ben Lonergan See Harvest, Page A8 A worker sorts onions as they come in from the trucks at the Columbia Basin Onion processing center on Westland Road in Hermiston on Tuesday. H LEXINGTON — Marcia Kemp is resigning from her position as mayor of Lexington, less than two weeks before an Oct. 22 recall election against her. Kemp said the council had refused to work with her, had stopped letting her sign checks and she suspected they were discuss- ing city business together outside of council chambers to circumvent her. She said she had come to the conclusion that wouldn’t change even if she survived the recall effort. “They have tied my hands,” she said. “My time is done here.” She said she would consider the resignation effective as soon as the letter she wrote announcing her resignation appeared in the East Oregonian. On July 1, the city’s govern- ment was shut down for nine days after three of the four councilors did not show up for a budget hear- ing held two days before the end of the fi scal year. At the time, the three councilors and their support- ers claimed Kemp had not sent them reminders in order to make them look bad, while Kemp and her supporters said they purposely skipped the meeting to make her look bad. The back-and-forth has contin- ued. In phone calls with the East Oregonian on Wednesday, Kemp stated the council had undermined See Mayor, Page A8 Forest seeks input on tree thinning project Plan calls for removal of insect- infested, diseased trees near Heppner By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian HEPPNER — The Hep- pner Ranger District of the Umatilla National Forest seeks public comment on a plan to remove insect-in- fested and diseased trees from as much as 3,000 acres near Heppner. The West End Project lies approximately 28 miles southwest of Heppner. Hep- pner District Ranger Bran- don Houck said several spe- cies of insects — the fi r engraver beetle, the moun- tain pine beetle and others — are the primary culprits, and some insects infest more than one species of tree. Trees in normal condi- tions have mechanisms to fend off insects, he said, but these trees are not in such healthy conditions. “When we get into these situations of trees compet- ing for resources — sun- light, nutrients and mois- ture — the bugs have a better change of killing the trees, especially if there has been drought.” The west end and a few other areas on the Heppner Ranger District have seen a ramp-up in the infestations in the last year or two, with trees showing symptoms of insect attacks, such as bore holes and pine needles turn- ing red, akin to a dried-out Christmas tree, Houck said, and this project would aim to curb the damage from bugs. The work would involve removing tress from up to 3,000 acres through- out 14,000 acres involving commercial thinning, small diameter thinning and even See Trees, Page A8 British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations Photo/Ward Strong Mountain pine beetles like this one and other insects have infested trees in the west end of the Heppner Ranger District of the Umatilla National Forest. The district wants to remove the bug-ridden trees from as much as 3,000 acres in 2020 and is seeking public comment on the proposal.
