Pendleton girl featured in commercial | REGION, A3
E O
AST
AS
144th Year, No. 88
REGONIAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
UMATILLA RIVER FLOODING
PENDLETON
Council
makes way
for higher
utility fee
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Jeff Runels, center, Keystone president and CEO, indicates to Gov. Kate Brown the extent of the damage to their McKennon
Road manufacturing facility on Feb. 14.
Flooded businesses plan to restore damaged facilities
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — This month’s
fl ood has done millions of dol-
lars of damage and displaced res-
idents from their homes, but it’s
also touching people who live nowhere
close to the fl ood zone.
Gov. Kate Brown toured Key-
stone RV Co. and Cor-Tek on Friday,
two McKennon Road businesses that
were forced to shut down their manu-
facturing operations once fl oodwaters
breached the nearby levee and fl ooded
their facilities.
Leaders at both businesses vowed to
repair the damage done to their build-
ings and resume production, but the
companies are each devising ways to
protect employees until they can return
to work.
Jeff Runels, Keystone president and
CEO, said the damaged production
facility was a “workhorse,” before it was
fl ooded with mud and debris, responsi-
ble for building three different products
for the travel trailer company.
The area around the facility was bus-
tling on Friday afternoon, but it was
from heavy equipment moving dam-
aged trailers through the mud.
Runels said Keystone will have to
scrap about 150 fl ood-damaged trailers,
but he’s more concerned about what will
happen to employees.
Pendleton’s second largest employer,
the Indiana-based Keystone employs
about 700 people in Oregon and 250
people at the damaged facility.
Runels said 50 employees were
See Work, Page A7
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Cor-Tek plant manager Larry Hughes, left, and Gov. Kate Brown discuss damages
to the Cor-Tek plant as a result of the Feb 6. fl ooding during a tour on Feb. 14.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Mud remains in the Cor-Tek plant more than a week after the Umatilla River fl ood-
ing on Feb. 6. Gov. Kate Brown toured the facility on Feb. 14.
PENDLETON — The Pendleton City
Council followed through with the fi rst
part of their street repair funding plan
Tuesday, approving an ordinance that
will allow for a $3 increase to the street
utility fee.
The fl at fee is assessed to utility bills
and varies by water line size, but the rate
hike will push the fee to $8.50 per month
for customers with three-quarters of an
inch lines. City Attorney Nancy Kerns
told the council that a follow-up resolu-
tion offi cially raising the fee would be
presented for approval at its March 3
meeting.
Back in 2015, the council planned to
raise money for street maintenance by
instituting a street utility fee and a gas
tax. While voters rejected the gas tax,
the city council passed a $5 fee with
annual price-indexed a month after Elec-
tion Day.
The council is pursuing a similar
strategy in 2020, just in reverse: the $3
street utility fee increase will be fol-
lowed by a 4-cent gas tax proposal on
the May ballot.
The other signifi cant change to the
street utility fee is the way it will be
allocated.
The 2015 council dedicated the fund-
ing from the fee to residential streets,
rather than some of the more trav-
eled roads the city calls collectors and
arterials.
Kerns said the city’s pavement man-
agement software indicates the city has
done enough work on neighborhood
streets that it’s time to turn attention to
busier roads.
“To some extent, the goal that was
intended has been achieved or begun to
be achieved,” she said.
To lessen the impact of the fee hike to
low-income residents, several councilors
have supported the idea of an expanded
discount program, but staff recom-
mended the council wait until it can pro-
duce a separate resolution.
The city hopes to combine those two
new revenue sources with a $2 hotel
room tax, which has yet to be passed,
and $110,000 in cuts to the general fund.
All of these moves are expected to
generate more than $1 million annually
for street maintenance, a number the city
estimates will help reverse a deteriorat-
ing road system.
While the council organizes a cam-
paign to support the 4-cent gas tax, local
oil distributors have already voiced their
opposition to the tax and spent money to
defeat the 2015 gas tax proposal.
Pendleton hoteliers and the Ore-
gon Restaurant and Lodging Associa-
tion have also pushed back against the
$2 hotel room tax proposal, and the lat-
ter has organized against similar taxes in
other parts of the state.
Wildfi re bills aimed to reduce impact moving forward
Will budgetary
constraints extinguish
momentum for bills?
By SAM STITES
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Two bills being
considered by Oregon lawmak-
ers this session are expected to be
the one-two punch the state needs
to considerably reduce the impact
of wildfi re on its landscape and
residents.
In recent years, the onslaught
of smoke from major wildfi res
has choked many parts of the state
through the summer months. Fires
threaten homes where forests meet
urban sprawl, and timber owners
are losing precious resources for
Baertschiger
Daugherty
Golden
Smith
Thatcher
“I HAD SOME CONCERN THAT THE
WOUNDS FROM THE TIMBER WARS WERE
GOING TO GET IN THE WAY OF THIS
WILDFIRE WORK”
— Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland
renewable building material and
wood products.
Wildfi re is one of the preeminent
threats to Oregon’s way of life in a
multitude of ways, but the state is
hoping this year it can make headway
in minimizing its effects through an
approach that takes both the short
term and future into account.
The fi rst is a bill — Senate Bill
1514 — creating 15 projects to be
led by the state Forestry Department
that would clear trees, underbrush
and other forest material considered
to be “fuel” for wildfi re. The proj-
ects would take place in locations
across the state determined by the
department within the 5.2 million
acres identifi ed as high-risk areas
by the Governor’s Council on Wild-
fi re Response. The projects would be
funded by a $25 million allocation
laid out within the bill.
The second bill — Senate Bill
1536 — would overhaul the state’s
approach to fi re mitigation and sup-
pression, and help communities
adapt to smoke and fi re.
See Wildfi re, Page A7