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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Tuesday, October 29, 2019 Passenger trains could come back to Eastern Oregon Meeting conducted to inform on how rail service could be reintroduced By DICK MASON EO Media Group LA GRANDE — Cook Memo- rial Library’s Community Room was probably as crowded late Sat- urday morning as the city’s Union Pacific Railroad Depot was on Sept. 27, 1937, when people gathered for the train carrying then-Presi- dent Franklin Delano Roosevelt to arrive. FDR was asleep when his train stopped in La Grande around 12:30 a.m., but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt did appear and spoke briefly to the crowd. Few if any of the more than 100 people at La Grande’s library Sat- urday were the same ones who saw FDR’s train arrive in 1937, but many lived here when La Grande last had passenger train service. The desire to see passenger rail ser- vice return to Northeast Oregon is what drew the crowd to Satur- day’s Eastern Oregon Rail meet- ing, which was held to inform peo- ple how they could help bring back Amtrak’s passenger service. Those in the audience included an individual who wrote on a dis- play paper asking people why they EO Media Group Photo/Dick Mason Joe Nuxoll, president of the Association of Oregon and Transit Advo- cates, speaks at the start of Saturday’s Eastern Oregon Rail Summit at Cook Memorial Library in La Grande. want passenger train service to return: “I’m 79 — don’t know how much longer I can drive long dis- tances. I need to travel monthly to Boise and Portland.” Others at the meeting learned what steps need to be taken to make this dream become a reality during a program put on by the all-volun- teer nonprofit Association of Ore- gon Rail and Transit Advocates, with help from All Aboard Wash- ington. AORTA is proposing to revive at least the Portland to Boise portion of the old Amtrak Pioneer route, which was discontinued in 1997 because of funding issues. “We need your help if (the return of passenger train service) is going to happen. It will be a longer term effort,” said AORTA President Joe Nuxoll of Eugene. The need for passenger train ser- vice in Northeast Oregon is greater now than it was in 1997, Nuxoll said. A big reason is that Greyhound Bus now provides one westbound and one eastbound bus a day, while 22 years ago at least two westbound and two eastbound buses made Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY WEDNESDAY SATURDAY FRIDAY THURSDAY daily stops in La Grande. Nuxoll would like to see as much of the Pioneer route, which ran from Portland to Salt Lake City, Utah, restored as possible. How- ever, he said it is more realistic to start small by first attempting to restore the Portland to Boise part of the Pioneer route. The AORTA president said when people are speaking up in support of Amtrak, they need to address one of the most common criticism of it — that it’s subsidized with government funding. This is a weak and unfair argument, accord- ing to Nuxoll, because all modern transportation receives substantial government funding. “All transportation is subsi- dized,” he said. He explained that virtually all highway construction and mainte- nance is funded by the government and air travel is possible because of airports, which receive significant levels of government assistance. Nuxoll emphasized that the best way to get members of Congress to begin looking into expanding Amtrak’s routes is for local city councils and county commissions to pass resolutions in support of having local and regional passenger rail service. He said when senators and members of Congress learn of the resolutions, they will know that the people they represent want pas- senger trains to return. Mark Meyer of Portland, an AORTA board member, said he Dems in Congress demand update on Interior wild horse plans By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press Mostly sunny Sunny and cold 37° 14° 42° 19° Plenty of sun, but chilly Sunny to partly cloudy and cold Plenty of sun, but cool PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 47° 24° 46° 23° 51° 27° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 49° 21° 48° 21° 44° 16° 42° 13° OREGON FORECAST 52° 27° ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 47/29 33/14 41/13 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 39/18 Lewiston 48/21 42/12 Astoria 50/30 Pullman Yakima 40/15 49/18 38/18 Portland Hermiston 48/29 The Dalles 42/13 Salem Corvallis 52/19 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 34/9 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 53/21 34/10 37/14 54° 22° 60° 36° 79° (2003) 19° (1948) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 50/21 0.00" 0.46" 0.94" 11.31" 8.02" 9.88" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 30/8 51/24 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 37/14 43/16 50° 27° 58° 37° 80° (1937) 12° (1911) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 49/18 Aberdeen 33/15 38/17 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 49/30 Ontario 43/9 Caldwell Burns WINDS (in mph) 39/11 37/-3 0.00" 0.18" 0.61" 4.94" 6.38" 7.17" Today Boardman Pendleton Medford 57/23 Wed. NNE 6-12 N 4-8 NE 3-6 N 4-8 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 42/11 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 7:30 a.m. 5:47 p.m. 9:12 a.m. 7:09 p.m. First Full Last New Nov 4 Nov 12 Nov 19 Nov 26 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 93° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -18° in Rawlins, Wyo. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY believes there is strong bipartisan support in Congress for expanding Amtrak. One of these leaders is Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Portland, who is a supporter of Amtrak, according to Jeff Broderick, a graduate stu- dent at Portland State University who is earning a master’s degree in urban planning. He also noted that Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Eugene, who is chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastrucure, is in a good position to help boost Amtrak’s expansion. Broderick, like other speakers at Saturday’s meeting, emphasized the importance of communicat- ing with legislators about restor- ing Amtrak service in Northeast Oregon. “Your first step should be con- tacting your legislators,” he said. He said part of the problem Amtrak faces is it received a weak mandate from the government when it was created in 1971. This makes it difficult to get large sums of money from Congress. “It is a fight for it to get funding from Congress each year,” Broder- ick said. Many of those attending the meeting Saturday talked of how much they miss passenger train service, and the atmosphere in the library’s community room was one of hope and excitement. “You have priceless enthusi- asm,” said Louis Musso, a member of All Aboard Washington. RENO, Nev. — Con- gressional Democrats are demanding the Interior Department produce an overdue report on plans to manage wild horses roam- ing federal lands in the West after the head of its public lands agency told reporters it will take $5 billion and 15 years to get overpopulated herds under control. William Perry Pend- ley, acting director of the Bureau of Land Manage- ment, said last week he’s increasingly optimistic his agency will eventually be able to reduce the herd sizes through stepped-up round- ups and increased use of fer- tility control on the range. The department out- lined a series of options in an April 2018 report that included those ideas as well as the possibilities of steril- izing horses, paying private parties to adopt them and again reviewing the contro- versial idea of euthanizing some animals. But Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse and six other Dem- ocrats say that report pro- vided few details. They said in a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that an update the department promised by July is three months late and they need it to chart the horses’ future. “Each day, the number of wild horses and burros in the BLM’s care contin- ues to grow both on and off the range,” Neguse wrote Thursday, noting there are an estimated 88,000 ani- mals on the range in 10 western states and nearly 47,000 in government hold- ing pens and pastures. “It is clear the BLM’s current practice of round- ing up wild horses and bur- ros and warehousing them off-the-range is not address- ing the population growth, and we urge BLM to release their plan for congressio- nal review immediately,” he said. Reps. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, Gerald Con- nolly of Virginia, Andy Levin of Michigan, James McGovern of Massachusetts and Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu of California co-signed the letter. BRIEFLY California wildfires: nearly 300 Oregon firefighters to help SALEM — Fifteen wildfire strike teams from Oregon fire departments are on the way to help battle the California wildfires. The Statesman Journal reported the strike teams, made up of nearly 300 fire- fighters who will assist in protecting struc- tures, were sent from Klamath, Douglas, Yamhill, Linn, Columbia, Clatsop, Benton, Multnomah, Marion, Washington, Clack- amas, Lincoln, Jackson, Josephine, and Lane counties. California fire officials requested Ore- gon assistance through a state-to-state mutual aid system Sunday morning. Cal- ifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide emergency as crews battle blazes in Northern California and Southern California. Man killed in Oregon helicopter crash; daughter survives JORDAN VALLEY — Authorities are praising the resilience of a 25-year-old Idaho woman who survived a frigid night in the high desert of southeastern Oregon following a helicopter crash that killed her father. Malheur County Undersheriff Travis Johnson said Monday that despite being injured herself, Jordan Valentine managed to crawl around the side of the wreck to get out of the wind after the helicopter went down in a remote area southeast of Succor Creek State Natural Area on Friday after- noon. She was lightly dressed and the tem- perature was in the 20s. Authorities were notified of the miss- ing helicopter at 2 a.m. Saturday, and radar showed its last contact as being near the park. Search and rescue crews found it at 8:20 that morning. Fifty-two-year-old Jim Valentine, of Eagle, Idaho, was dead, and his daughter was flown to a hospital with undisclosed injuries. Johnson said she remained in the hospital Monday and that she was able to speak. Johnson credited Jordan Valentine, say- ing it took “a very tough and determined person to be able to survive a crash like that and keep her composure through the night.” — Associated Press Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low CORRECTION: In the Page A1 story “Rivoli restoration nears end of first act,” pub- lished Thursday, Oct. 24, a photo with the story misidentified the workers who partic- ipated in a workday at the Rivoli. The name of the worker is Sally Branson. 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