A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, December 12, 2019
State legislators floating ideas for short session
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — While many
Democrats are eager to
tackle big-ticket issues
like climate change in the
approaching legislative ses-
sion, legislators also have
other ideas they want to
push.
During short sessions,
which take place every
even-numbered year and last
no more than 35 days, sena-
tors can introduce one piece
of legislation and represen-
tatives two. Their concepts
are already being submitted
ahead of the session.
State Rep. Cheri Helt, a
Bend Republican, is team-
ing up with state Sen. Lau-
rie Monnes Anderson,
D-Gresham, to ban flavored
vaping products and flavored
e-cigarettes, after a rash of
deaths this year connected to
vaping.
“Oregonians should not
be a laboratory for the vap-
ing industry to determine
the dangers of these prod-
ucts,” Helt said in Septem-
ber, as deaths headlined
national news. “We need to
learn more and have stron-
ger legal protections to pro-
tect the lives and health of
Oregonians.”
In November, the Ore-
gon Court of Appeals struck
down an executive order by
Gov. Kate Brown to tempo-
rarily halt the sale of flavored
vaping products.
The vaping ban is likely
to have some support from
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, File
Short legislative sessions in Oregon take place in even-numbered years. The sessions last no
more than 35 days.
both parties. Rep. Janelle
Bynum, D-Clackamas, and
Rep. Rachel Prusak, D-Tu-
alatin/West Linn, have said
they would join Helt to sup-
port the ban.
Some lawmakers view
the short session as a chance
to resuscitate proposals that
didn’t make it through the
arduous slog of this year’s
long session.
Rep. Chris Gorsek,
D-Troutdale, is reintro-
ducing legislation to stop
the suspension of driver’s
licenses for those who have
unpaid traffic fines. (Rep.
Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, intro-
duced the bill last year).
Gorsek said suspending
licenses makes it harder for
people to get to work and
make enough money to pay
the fine.
He said people can be held
accountable in other ways,
such as garnishing wages or
retaining tax refunds.
“This bill really is just
about saying, let’s use other
mechanisms, but let’s not
make it harder for those folks
… let’s not make it harder
for them to comply with the
law,” Gorsek said.
The legislation passed out
of the House Judiciary com-
mittee on a 10-to-1 vote ear-
lier this year, but it died in
the budget committee.
“Lots of things, unfortu-
nately, end up going there to
die,” Gorsek said.
Rep. Margaret Doherty,
D-Tigard, has two priorities
this session: allowing same-
day alcohol delivery and
expanding access to medi-
cine that can reduce the risk
of getting HIV.
For the alcohol, she envi-
sioned something like a
GrubHub but for beer, wine,
and hard liquor.
“You can get pot deliv-
ered to your house, but you
can’t get alcohol,” Doherty
said.
Deliverers would need
a server’s permit and check
the purchaser’s age, Doherty
said. It would be optional for
liquor stores and grocery
stores to participate. A legis-
lative work group will meet
in January to finalize the
proposal.
“What we’re talking
about is more, I’m having a
Super Bowl party and I ran
out of beer, so I want to order
a case of beer, that kind of
thing,” Doherty said.
Another of Doherty’s
bills would let pharmacists
dispense preventative med-
icine for HIV, known as
PrEP, without a prescription
from a physician — similar
to how patients can now get
birth control directly from a
pharmacist in Oregon.
California Gov. Gavin
Newsom signed a similar
bill in October.
Doherty is working with
the Cascade AIDS Proj-
ect, which tests thousands
of people a year for the dis-
ease, to provide ID cards
that show a patient has tested
negative for HIV before
being prescribed the med-
ication, which can signifi-
cantly reduce the risk of get-
ting HIV, according to the
U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services.
To her, making a preven-
tative medicine more readily
available is common sense.
“I come of the generation
that guys that I knew, and
later on women, that con-
tracted AIDS, they died in
two years,” Doherty said.
“And so to have a preventa-
tive medicine is absolutely
mind-boggling.”
Over in the Senate —
which earlier this year saw
existential tumult when
Republicans decided to
leave town to avoid tak-
ing votes — two propos-
als are turning inward,
aiming to change how the
Legislature functions.
Sen. Kim Thatcher,
R-Keizer, wants to do away
with the “short session” alto-
gether. It’s a proposal that
would require approval from
voters.
The short sessions were
initiated via ballot measure
in 2010 to deal with bud-
get issues that arise between
the Legislature’s longer ses-
sions, which take place in
odd-numbered years. That
measure also limited the
length of each session.
Thatcher said lawmakers
have drifted away from that
initial intention, and that as
a result, Oregonians get what
she described as hasty policy
making every other year.
It’s hard for legislators to
keep up during the 35-day
session and more so for the
public, Thatcher said.
“Which makes it a very
nontransparent
process
because there’s just so much
happening in such a short
window of time, and very
quickly,” Thatcher said.
Thatcher is not optimis-
tic her proposal will pass, or
even get a committee hear-
ing. But she’s ardent enough
that she’s willing to use her
one bill this session to push
the idea.
“I think this is some-
thing that the people need to
think about and realize that
this short session was, as it
was sold to us, not what they
were supporting when they
passed it,” Thatcher said.
“And maybe shining a light
on this whole issue. That’s
all I’m looking to do.”
Trees: ‘If I get close to running out, I can just go harvest a few more’
Continued from Page A1
“The community is so
supportive of us,” he said.
“We work really hard to
keep our costs down so that
as much as possible can go
back into the community.”
Funds from the tree sale
help to pay for a variety of
Kiwanis programs, includ-
ing college scholarships,
dental screenings and com-
munity improvement proj-
ects, such as the new light-
ing at Kiwanis Park in
Umatilla this year.
Despite running into
issues procuring trees in
previous years, the Herm-
iston Kiwanis Club found
a steady supplier several
years ago that has helped
them maintain their sales
numbers.
“About four or five years
ago we had to scramble to
find enough trees,” Barak
said. “Since then, we have
been relatively consis-
tent and our customer base
seems used to the type of
trees we’ve had.”
The Hermiston Kiwanis
Club expects to end sales on
Sunday evening. Barak said
he expects the club will sell
its entire order of 400 trees,
having sold roughly 300 of
them in their first week of
operation.
“It’s just a great fund-
raiser for us, and a great
family experience to go and
find the perfect tree,” he
said.
At Hepler’s Christ-
mas Trees, on the corner
of Southwest Frazer Ave-
nue and 12th Street, broth-
ers Tom and Jeff Hepler
have been selling Christmas
trees for the last eight years
in Pendleton. Tom Hepler
began selling Christmas
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Josiah Bork, left, spins a Christmas tree as Phil Richerson inspects it on Tuesday night. Richerson, a former scoutmaster,
looked through several trees before purchasing one.
trees nearly 30 years ago as
a way of raising money to
buy Christmas presents for
his wife and five children.
Tom Hepler said that
although he sells trees to
make a profit, he tries to
keep his prices as low as
possible, something that
has become more difficult
in recent years. The Heplers
are one of many Christmas
tree sellers that use farm-
raised trees, making them
reliant on farms that set
wholesale tree prices. While
the Heplers said they hav-
en’t had any issues getting
the number of trees they
need by using family and
friends’ farms, they have
run into increased prices.
“The prices have gone
up nearly double,” said Jeff
Hepler. “They went from $3
a foot to nearly $8 a foot for
wholesale.”
The Heplers said the
Great Recession in the
late 2000s led to a drop in
demand for trees, caus-
ing many farmers to go
out of business or tear out
tree operations in favor of
other crops, a change that
led to fewer available trees.
Despite this, the Heplers
feel as though the tree glut
is improving.
“As far as getting trees,
it’s going to get better,” said
Tom Hepler. “The larger
trees have been an issue
though, so if you want a big
tree, you better come early.”
While access to trees
appears to be improving,
the brothers said the short-
ened holiday season and
rise in artificial tree sales
will keep their sales lower
than last year. This year,
the brothers expect to sell
roughly 500 trees, down
from a record 540 sold
last year.
“Financially, artificial
trees are taking over,” said
Jeff Hepler. “But it’s the
smell, and the ambiance and
the whole Christmas tree
atmosphere that keeps our
customers coming back.”
While most Christmas
tree vendors in Pendleton
get their trees from com-
mercial tree farms on the
west side of the state, Ward
Walker harvests all of his
trees by hand from nearby
forest land. Walker, who
runs Walker’s Christmas
Trees on Southgate in Pend-
leton, said the only thing
that could hurt his tree sales
would be a widespread tree
disease.
“I’m not reliant on the
tree farms,” he said.
Unlike farm-raised trees,
the trees on Walker’s lot
vary greatly in height and
width and are less “full”
than many are used to, he
said. Walker said his trees
are exactly what his clients
want.
“My clientele is people
that grew up and went to the
forest to get their own tree,”
he said. “My biggest com-
petition is people who can
make it to the mountains to
get their own tree.”
Walker sells trees to fill
the winter lull in his land-
scaping business and says
he can sell anywhere from
300 to 450 trees depend-
ing on the year, though,
he says that sales fluctuate
more than he’d like. Walker
said sales have been good in
recent years, and he is pre-
pared to keep selling trees
right up to the end of the
week before Christmas.
“If I get close to running
out, I can just go harvest a
few more,” he said. “I really
love what I do.”
Enrollment: District down 76 students from last year Nomination: Bylenga is
on track to graduate in June
Continued from Page A1
into what houses did sell There’s a new Parks & Rec
“I don’t know if it is
mostly staffed by younger
workers, many of whom
had children enrolled in
local schools, Duff said.
But housing — lack of
and who’s buying — is
probably the bigger of the
two issues, he said.
Even with fewer jobs
available, the city does not
have enough housing to go
around, Duff told the board.
“I have teachers who
can’t find a house to live
in.”
When Duff checked
over the summer, he found
almost all were bought by
people without school-age
children.
He and others have dis-
cussed avenues of action,
including
collaborating
with city officials to make
sure Milton-Freewater has
enough affordable housing,
Duff said.
Otherwise, there’s a lot
of good going on, he noted
Monday night.
“We have amazing stu-
dents. We have 22 kids in
a classroom instead of 30.
district in Milton-Freewa-
ter. There are new homes
going in on the hill.”
The district is respond-
ing to fewer student dollars
from the state by directing
resources “where resources
need to be,” the superin-
tendent said, adding he
doesn’t anticipate making
staff cuts but that a dip into
the savings account will be
necessary.
For now, enrollment in
this district has plateaued
after an autumn of weekly
ebbs and flows, Duff said.
going to take years to gain
those students back or if
this is our new norm.”
Duff is once again sleep-
ing at night, except in the
last two weeks — baby goat
season has started in his
herd, he said at the end of
Monday’s board meeting,
and a set of triplets was just
born.
Those kid numbers, at
least, are increasing.
———
Sheila Hagar can be
reached at sheilahagar@
wwub.com or 509-526-8322.
Continued from Page A1
his father has experience run-
ning the campaign for former
Washington state Rep. Doug
Sayan.
If Bylenga advances past
the May 19 Democratic pri-
mary, he faces a steep uphill
climb to win the seat.
The Pendleton area hasn’t
been represented by a Dem-
ocrat in the Oregon House
since former state Rep. Bob
Jenson won his first race in
1996. After a brief stint as an
independent, Jenson switched
over to the GOP in 2000.
Democrats haven’t fielded
a candidate in the 58th Dis-
trict primary since 2014,
when state Rep. Greg Bar-
reto, R-Cove, won his first
term.
Barreto declined to seek a
fourth term, opening up a seat
that covers Union County,
Wallowa County and a part
of Umatilla County.
The filing deadline to file
for either party primary is
March 10.