St. Anthony welcomes its first baby of the decade | REGION, A3
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144th year, No. 57
REGONIAN
TUESDAy, JANUARy 7, 2020
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WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Mayor
Turner
files for
re-election
Two councilors also
announce plans for
re-election
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Contributed photo
Brett Jewett poses for a picture at Devil’s Punch Bowl State Natural Area in Otter Rock, Ore., in 2018. Jewett, a sophomore at
Hermiston High School, was killed in a two-vehicle car crash on Jan. 1 along Highway 207 outside of Echo.
Remembering Brett
Hermiston teenager
killed in car crash
remembered fondly
by family, friends
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
H
ERMISTON — A Hermis-
ton teenager was a star stu-
dent, a lover of debates and
one of Lana Del Ray’s big-
gest fans.
Brett Jewett, 16, lost his life on Jan.
1 in a fatal car crash on Highway 207.
But the stories that people who knew
him have to share about their beloved
son, brother and friend are so vivid, his
authentic demeanor lives on.
According to his sister, Maddie, 18,
he just couldn’t wait to get a job after his
16th birthday in November. He wasn’t
the type to wait around for life to hap-
pen, she said.
“He was mad at himself that he
hadn’t gotten one yet,” she said. “He
was excited about customer service
because he can charm the pants off
people.”
It’s a quality that Brett always
seemed to have, his mother, Shannon
Jewett, remembers. When he was a lit-
tle boy, he made a name for himself as a
“cowboy Casanova.”
When a teenaged family friend came
to visit from Chicago, Brett was just an
elementary schooler when he offered
her a keepsake — one of his mother’s
nicest amethyst rings, plucked from her
jewelry box.
See Brett, Page A8
Contributed photo
Brett Jewett, left, and his sister Maddie Jewett take a selfie. Brett Jewett, a soph-
omore at Hermiston High School, was killed in a two-vehicle car crash on Jan. 1
along Highway 207 outside of Echo.
PENDLETON — At
the same time they expect
to sell the public on a gas
tax and other measures
to raise money for street
maintenance,
several
members of the Pendleton
Turner
City Council will also be
managing re-election cam-
paigns, including Mayor
John Turner
Turner announced he
was running for a second
term Monday morning,
about two months ahead
of the March 10 filing
Chalmers
deadline.
“For the past three
years it has been my good
fortune to serve as the
mayor of Pendleton. I am
very encouraged by the
strong support of our cit-
izens and I have enjoyed
working with our city
Fairley
council, an energetic and
cohesive group of hon-
est, hard-working, for-
ward-thinking civic lead-
ers,” he said in an emailed
statement. “The council
has set clear goals for the
city and we are beginning
to see progress on major
Marks
projects such as housing
and street repairs that will
take years to complete. I
want to continue to par-
ticipate in this difficult but
rewarding process.”
Turner didn’t have
any city council experi-
ence when he was elected
mayor in 2016, but he was
Primmer
a familiar face nonetheless.
A former Blue Mountain Community
College president and Port of Umatilla com-
missioner, Turner unsuccessfully sought
the Republican nomination for the open
District 58 seat in 2014.
In recent years, Pendleton mayors have
faced a glide path to re-election. If Turner
draws an opponent, it would be the first con-
tested mayoral election since former Mayor
Phillip Houk won his first term in 2004.
Turner was diagnosed with throat can-
cer in 2018, but later announced that he was
cancer-free after eight months of treatment.
In 2016, Turner was among three other
men who were also elected to their first
full terms — at-large Councilor Paul
See Re-election, Page A8
Memorial on track for April 2021 completion
Pendleton Arts
Committee selects
seven finalists in
national search for
memorial artist
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — A
long-planned service mem-
bers memorial in Pendle-
ton moved a step toward
completion.
The Pendleton Arts Com-
mittee met Friday to narrow
down the list of finalists for
the collaborative art instal-
lation at the site of the dis-
used fountain near the inter-
section of Highway 11 and
Southeast Court Avenue.
The memorial, which will
feature an arrangement of
basalt columns and medal-
lions from the five service
branches, will be anchored
by an artistic work in the
center of the space.
Earlier last year, the
Pendleton Arts Committee
put out a request for quali-
fication on “multiple art-fo-
cused websites” and received
responses from 27 artists for
the memorial artwork. Of
the 27 artists, the committee
has narrowed the list down
to seven, with the aim of
consolidating the list to three
artists at their next meeting
on Jan. 16.
“It’s a learning expe-
rience, we haven’t done
this before,” said Charles
Denight, the volunteer chair
of the Pendleton Arts Com-
mittee. “There’s a lot of good
artists.”
While Denight said that
the Pendleton Arts Commit-
tee is excited to move for-
ward on the art installation,
they are working to navi-
gate the public bidding pro-
cess and find artists that that
best fit the nature of the proj-
ect. The current selection
includes four artists from
Colorado, two from Califor-
nia and one from Washing-
ton, though the committee
See Memorial, Page A8
Photo contributed by Johnny Blagg
A medallion honoring the United States Air Force rests in
position on one of the basalt columns during a ceremony in
honor of Veterans Day on Nov. 9, 2019, at the future site of
the memorial.