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.
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Normal month to date
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Last year to date
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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
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New
Nov 4
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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.
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