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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2020)
PREP WRESTLING: Hermiston’s Wagner, Cadenas win Farm City titles | SPORTS, B1 E O AST AS 144th Year, No. 67 REGONIAN TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2020 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Local legislators preparing for session Short session gets underway Feb. 3 By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Addie Peterson tells stories about her Uncle Scott during Sunday’s memorial for Scott Fairley at the Pendleton Convention Center. Saying goodbye Pendleton says farewell to Scott Fairley during emotional memorial By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian P ENDLETON — One could almost hear Scott Fairley’s booming laugh reverberating around the Pendleton Conven- tion Center on Sunday afternoon. Almost. Though anyone who knew the good-natured Pendleton city coun- cilman could hear Fairley’s trademark laugh bouncing around in their heads like a pleasant refrain as the stories fl owed. A fl ood of mourners showed up to honor Fairley, who died on Jan. 7 of an aneurysm while vacationing in Mexico with family. About 800 people fi lled the chairs on the convention center’s main fl oor and more guests overfl owed to the balcony. Before they sat, many gazed at pho- tographs showing Fairley in differ- ent phases of his life. They showed him standing on a mountaintop, pos- ing with his motorcycle, and clown- ing with wife Kimbra as they sat on a pink scooter during a vacation in Italy. In other images he sipped microbrews, walked mountain trails and romped with his dogs. Staff photo by Kathy Aney A display of photos at Sunday’s celebration of life for Scott Fairley included one of Scott and Kimbra Fairley clowning for the camera on a rented scooter during a vacation to Italy. Memorabilia included a couple of cowboy hats, a pipe collection, an “Elect Scott Fairley” sign and his shiny city councilor nameplate. A pack- age of tissues offered a message that Fairley endorsed with his life: “Saisir ce moment,” translated as “seize the moment.” One mourner looking at the display asked another, “Were you a friend of Scott’s?” The answer came quickly. “Was anybody not?” That was the consensus. The 53-year-old councilman had a reputa- tion for being fun-loving, adventurous, kind, spirited and passionately inter- ested in civic and world affairs. One high-profi le mourner was miss- ing during Sunday’s memorial service. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who ordered that fl ags fl y at half-mast in the state on Sunday to honor Fairley, couldn’t come as planned after her plane was can- celled in Portland. Fairley worked as Regional Business See Memorial, Page A8 SALEM — The 2020 Legislative Session starts on Feb. 3, but there are still a lot of unknowns about what the session will look like. The 35-day “short ses- Hansell sion” on even-numbered years, introduced in 2012, was originally meant to allow the Legislature to make budget reconcili- ations and small policy tweaks in their off-years, but some larger, more controversial issues will Smith likely make their way into this year’s session. “There are a lot of moving parts right now,” Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, said. Last week, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee dis- cussed a revised version of the cap-and- trade bill that caused Senate Republicans to walk out on the 2019 session — some- thing they haven’t ruled out yet for 2020. And, while the deadline has not yet passed for legislators to fi le their bills for the session, Hansell said he had heard rumor of legislators working on bills on other major policy topics, such as gun control. “It’s still a little early to know, but it looks like there’s a possibility of having multiple pieces of major legislation,” he said. Hansell, however, said he’s sticking to something that should be less contro- versial for his one bill that senators are allowed to drop in the short session. The bill he plans to fi le would appro- priate money to the Oregon Department of Agriculture for gathering and review- ing research on groundwater in the Uma- tilla Basin and creating an “implemen- tation plan to improve ground water quality and obtain full or partial removal of ground water management area des- ignation from Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.” The project would convene a task force to help coordinate the efforts of stakehold- ers, such as irrigators, the tribes and state department, in lowering the nitrate levels in groundwater. Hansell said the idea came from a policy option package, or POP, from the Department of Agriculture in the last session. POPs are requests that aren’t an actual part of the budget but are a sug- gestion that an agency hopes the legisla- ture will take and fi nd funding for. In this case, Hansell said he attended a meeting on the Lower Umatilla Basin Ground- water Management Area in Hermis- ton where that POP was discussed and See Legislators, Page A8 Helping out down under Joseph fi re management offi cer returns from battling Australian blazes By KATY NESBITT For the East Oregonian JOSEPH — Facing a historic fi re sea- son, American fi re managers are mobiliz- ing for Australia to help quell hundreds of fi res that have blazed across the country since August. Nathan Goodrich, fi re management offi cer for the Wallowa-Whitman North Zone, was one of 20 Americans that teamed with 20 Canadians dispatched to the state of New South Wales in Decem- ber. Goodrich returned home Jan. 12, but several U.S. Forest Service personnel from Northeast Oregon will remain in Australia until the end of February. Goodrich said he served as an operations section chief. Most of the positions fi lled by North Americans were Goodrich similar positions, as much of Australia’s fi re work force is volunteer. Heat waves and drought have fueled bigger and more frequent fi res in parts of Australia, so far this season torching some 40,000 square miles, an area about as big as Ohio. “We were sprinkled into teams already there in New South Wales, so we were anywhere from two to three hours north of Sydney to two to three hours south,” See Fire, Page A8 Singleton Argus Photo/Alex Tigani, File Volunteers with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and mem- bers of the Australian Army Reserve go over a fi re briefi ng in the- control room of the Hunter Valley Rural Fire Service headquarters.
