SNOW ZONE SAFETY
PROJECT TO INCLUDE NEW,
LARGER MESSAGE BOARDS
PREP BASKETBALL:
RIVERSIDE GIRLS
ESCAPE IRRIGON
REGION, A3
SPORTS, B1
E O
AST
144th Year, No. 65
REGONIAN
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2020
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
Helping out
• BINGO FUNDRAISER,
Hermiston Public Library
• CRAFTS FOR ALL AGES,
Pendleton Center for the Arts
• YARN CLUB,
Hermiston Public Library
FOR TIMES AND LOCATIONS
CHECK COMING EVENTS, A5
Weekend Weather
FRI
SAT
SUN
38/33
41/34
42/29
Council still
pondering
housing
incentives
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Neighbors and
businesses
pitch in to help
stranded drivers
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
A
THENA — Tygh Campbell
was just trying to feed the
cows at his Athena ranch
Wednesday night when
he hopped on his tractor to brave the
treacherous winds and whiteout con-
ditions along Highway 334.
Though most of the region’s snow
had fallen the day before, driving con-
ditions only worsened by Wednesday
night as 40 mph winds covered the
already frozen roadways with fl urries
of snow that greatly reduced visibility.
The conditions forced the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation to
keep Interstate 84 between Pendleton
and Ontario and Highway 11 between
Pendleton and Milton-Freewater
closed overnight, leading to many
people opting for alternative routes off
the major roadways.
By Wednesday night, many of
those trying to traverse the county’s
back roads found themselves stuck in
dangerous conditions, where they had
to rely on emergency personnel and
friendly neighbors like Campbell to
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Tygh Campbell, with the company of his dog Shank, uses his tractor to clear a
section of Gerking Flat Road near Athena on Thursday afternoon.
save them from being stranded.
“You always have to make sure
your neighbors are taken care of,”
Campbell said.
While on his way to feed the cows,
Campbell saw a number of vehi-
cles stuck along Highway 334 and
spent the next few hours helping pull
vehicles from ditches and plowing
the roadway with his tractor so that
they could get somewhere out of the
elements.
Campbell said by the end of the
night he had saved at least 10 vehicles.
PENDLETON — The city of
Pendleton has a fi nger in the pots
of nearly all the new, major hous-
ing developments in town, and it’s
contemplating dipping its toe in
another.
At a Pendleton City Coun-
cil workshop Tuesday, members
reviewed a letter from Richland,
Washington, developer Justin Pratt,
who recently acquired the old U.S.
Forest Service offi ce at 2601 S.W.
Hailey Ave. with the intention of
turning it into a 33-unit apartment
complex.
The council granted Pratt’s
request to change the zoning of the
property to allow the project to go
forward, but Pratt’s latest ask is for
a fi ve-year property tax abatement.
In Nov. 18 letter to the council,
Pratt wrote that the estimated $2.1
million cost of renovating the build-
ing was higher than he expected
and he was looking for options to
help make the project feasible.
“We feel this signifi cant invest-
“I don’t need or want any acco-
lades,” he said. “Of course, I don’t
want to be out there at 10 p.m. dig-
ging people out of the snow either. But
the last thing I want is to be going out
there to retrieve a corpse.”
While ODOT crews do what they
can to keep major roadways drivable,
secondary ones like those near Camp-
bell’s ranch are left to the mercy of the
weather.
“When you live out in our neck of
See Help, Page A8
Tygh Campbell plows a section of
Gerking Flat Road with his tractor
on Thursday afternoon near Athena.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
See Housing, Page A8
Republicans: ‘Nothing is off the table’ in climate fi ght
Walkout possible
for Oregon Senate
Republicans over
cap-and-trade bill
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — One question has
lingered in political circles in the
days since Democratic legisla-
tors unveiled their latest plan to
limit the state’s greenhouse gas
emissions.
What do the Republicans think?
The GOP holds a shrinking
share of seats in the Legislature, but
still possesses just enough mem-
bers to halt legislative business.
Baertschiger
Dembrow
Findley
Senate Republicans made
national headlines for tanking
last year’s proposal by fl eeing the
state, a possibility that looms over
the coming session, which begins
Feb 3.
Hence the interest: Are the
slate of changes recently proposed
by Democrats enough to get their
colleagues on the other side of the
aisle to stay in the building?
Sen. Herman Baertschiger,
Roblan
Smith
R-Grants Pass, who leads Repub-
licans in the Senate, was rather
opaque about those odds when
taking questions from reporters
on Wednesday.
“Well, you know, it’s a
very fl uid, dynamic situa-
tion,” Baertschiger said. “It’s
ever-changing. You know, I’m still
having conversations, but noth-
ing is off the table. And I would
not want to speculate one way or
the other at this point because it is
such a dynamic situation.”
On Monday, the interim Sen-
ate Environment and Natu-
ral Resources Committee heard
three hours of testimony on the
revamped proposal from invited
guests, ranging from the chief
operating offi cer of a truck stop
company to a policy adviser at the
Nature Conservancy. Lawmakers
are in Salem this week for a series
of interim meetings.
In what is — depending on
whom you ask — either a break-
down in communication between
the parties, or the rhetoric of
political theater, Republicans con-
vey concern that Democrats won’t
See Climate, Page A8