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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2020)
Umatilla County welcomes decade’s fi rst baby | REGION, A3 E O AST REGONIAN THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2020 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD 144th Year, No. 54 $1.50 Inspections crucial to ODOT’s plan for future State wants zero deaths on its roads by 2035, but an increasing number of trucks is taxing inspectors No day off Local workers keep the region running during the holidays Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Jacob Boling reads off an order at Hal’s Hamburgers on Southeast Court Avenue in Pendleton on Wednesday afternoon. Hal’s Hamburgers is open on most holidays, closing only for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. By ALEX CASTLE East Oregonian U MATILLA COUNTY — While the holidays are a time for many to get a break from work and enjoy quality time with their family, not everybody gets that luxury. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, of workers who received paid holidays, 97% were given Christmas Day off and 90% were given New Year’s Day off in 2018. When the East Oregonian went to social media asking to hear from those who will be working in the region this holiday season, the responses show that from Eastern Oregon’s emer- gency medical services to its emer- gency septic services, the region keeps on running thanks to the sacrifi ce of its residents. Unfortunately for many this year, the fl u season has coincided with the holiday season. Sabrina Gibson is a respiratory therapist at Good Shepherd Hospi- tal in Hermiston and wrote on social media that she worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, and will be working on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, too. “I don’t have kids so I also don’t mind working holidays for the pay, most of the time they get their mon- ey’s worth out of ya,” she wrote. For Milton-Freewater’s Valerie Cleveland-Scott and her family, it was a relief to have reliable health care workers over the holiday season when her father had to be hospitalized just days before Christmas. On Dec. 22, Cleveland-Scott’s father, who is a resident of an assisted Staff photo by Kathy Aney See Workers, Page A7 South County Construction foreman Lance Barfuss uses a nail gun New Year’s Day in a new house in the Pendleton Sunridge Estates neighborhood. Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a two- part series on crashes involving trucks and the inspections completed by the Oregon Department of Transportation to prevent them. By SAM STITES Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Truck inspections are the primary tool for preventing accidents that disrupt Oregon’s highways, hos- pitalize thousands and leave hundreds dead each year. The Oregon Department of Trans- portation raised the bar for safety in adopting a new action plan in 2016. The agency envisions a future with no deaths from traffi c accidents on Oregon’s roads. While crashes involving commercial trucks only account for a small portion of the state’s annual death toll — only 58 of the 502 fatalities in 2018 involved a truck — ODOT’s Motor Carrier Divi- sion takes seriously the inspection of trucks as a means of prevention. The number of vehicle miles traveled by trucks in Oregon has increased by 181 million miles the past decade. With an increasing number of trucks on the road, state truck inspectors have become smarter about how they carry out their work, using data to target repeat offenders and keep both trucks and driv- ers with chronic issues off the road. In 2018, state specialists completed 18,549 inspections and issued more than 3,500 citations and warnings. Through November, there have been more than 16,500 inspections and 2,900 warnings or citations issued to driv- ers or trucking companies this year. A majority of those inspections are done at ports of entry at Woodburn, Klamath Falls, Huntington, Ashland and Cascade Locks. Hundreds of thousands of cars pass the Woodburn truck scales on Inter- state 5. It’s here that inspectors, called compliance specialists, complete ran- dom checks on a variety of criteria from the physical equipment to a driver’s documentation. The process starts with the 75 weigh- masters across the state at roadside scales like Woodburn. Weighmasters use an automated sys- tem that electronically collects data from each truck that passes under a detector located about a mile up the freeway. Tom Avila is one of the weighmas- ters at the Woodburn scales. After 14 years, he’s adept at reading dozens of data points on several trucks at once as See Inspections, Page A7 OUR NEW NEIGHBORS Recreation supervisor fi nds his fi t in Pendleton Jon Bullard spent parts of his youth in Virginia, Florida Editor’s Note: This story is part of an annual series by the East Oregonian called “Our New Neighbors,” which introduces the community to people who have moved here in the past year. By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — Jon Bullard’s resume reads like a mash-up of several different career paths — after-school aide, commer- cial fi sherman, youth sports director, blue- berry farm manager. It’s been a winding road to Eastern Ore- gon, but Bullard maintains that his cur- rent role as the recreation supervisor for the Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department is the right fi t he’s been looking for. Bullard’s offi ce is at the Pendleton Recre- ation Center, overlooking the historic Helen McCune Gymnasium, where students from the Homestead Youth Lodge are playing basketball as a part of their PE period. “I was joking when I moved here, I called my dad and I was like, ‘Dad, you gotta see this gym, it’s an old, great gym,’” he said, the thud, thud, thud of basketball striking hardwood soundtracking the fi rst parts of his story. “I was like, ‘I keep waiting for Gene Hackman to walk out like in “Hoosiers.’” Bullard, 36, was a Navy kid growing up, and after spending parts of his youth in Vir- ginia and Florida, his family settled in Mt. Vernon, Washington, about an hour north of Seattle. See Neighbor, Page A7 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Jon Bullard, recreation supervisor for the Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department, interacts with kids during an after-school program at McKay Creek Elementary School in Pendleton on Dec. 20, 2019.
