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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2020)
OFF PAGE ONE Thursday, February 20, 2020 East Oregonian A7 Emergency: Dorothy Bridge could reopen as early as next week Continued from Page A1 oritizes returning the roads to accessible conditions for residents. In total, Shafer said estimated costs for county road and bridge repairs remains at $25 million. “We’ve got roads that are passable now, but you bet- ter have a pickup,” he said, laughing. Shafer said it was initially thought that Dorothy Bridge would need to be replaced completely, but Umatilla County Public Works Direc- tor Tom Fellows said at Wednesday’s meeting that if the project follows the pace already set by Don Jackson Excavation, it could be open and operational again by the end of next week. The company already began work Tuesday on the project, Shafer said, with an understanding between the company and county that a formal contract would even- tually be approved. Don Jackson Excavation founder Don Jackson and his crews, along with Corey Thacker and his own exca- vation company, worked tirelessly for the city of Mil- ton-Freewater during the floods in an effort to pro- tect the levee from the rising waters. “As far as I’m concerned, they saved that levee,” Shafer said. “They absolutely saved Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Drilling equipment operates on a piece of Oregon Department of Transportation property along Highway 335 near Highway 11 on Wednesday afternoon. Ryno Works of McCall, Idaho, was awarded a contract for the removal of 15,000 cubic yards of rock from the ODOT Havana pit along Highway 335. that levee.” Drilling and blasting has been happening in the area for over a week now, and Sha- fer said there were nearly a hundred trucks that left Cen- tral Washington Asphalt near Milton-Freewater on Tues- day to travel down Highway 11 on delivery runs. “It’s incredible. I was on Highway 11 and I kept see- ing them coming and com- ing,” he said. “I was follow- ing one, another one was following me.” However, the contract approved with Ryno Works of McCall, Idaho, will con- tinue additional harvesting at a quarry pit on Highway 335 that belongs to the Ore- gon Department of Trans- portation but has been autho- rized for the county’s project. Extracting from this loca- tion will shorten the distance traveled for deliveries, Sha- fer said, cutting down on fuel and time costs in return. The shorter haul for deliv- eries should help the county’s road department, which has been working on the roads seven days a week alongside a crew of six public works employees from Columbia County. “I’m in awe of our road department right now,” Sha- fer said. “They’ve been work- ing so many hours. Every- body has.” According to Fellows, Ryno Works has handled the drilling and blasting for the last two projects contracted by the county and have been accommodating to its emer- gency construction needs in recent weeks. “They do a superb job and actually pulled off from one of their other projects to come do ours on very short notice,” Fellows said. “Mat- ter of fact, they moved in and started drilling within 24 hours of when I called them.” Wednesday’s amendment to the development code eliminates the requirement for homeowners within an “exclusive farm use/grazing forest zone” to go through the usual process for request- ing an addition, alteration or replacement of a dwelling on their property if they were impacted by the floods. “It would result in, if someone had a dwelling that was destroyed by a natural hazard or fire, they would come to us for a permit and we would simply issue a zon- ing permit over the counter rather than going through the six- to eight-week process of a land use decision,” Waldher said. The amended code works in tandem with the emer- gency waiver of permit fees for dwelling alterations or replacements that the county issued last week. According to Waldher, those permits are usually as much as $250 each. “Things are hard enough for them right now as it is without all these things. If we can just take something as simple as that off their plate and let them not have to worry about paying this or paying that,” Shafer said. “They have to rebuild their homes, and we get that.” These zones are legis- lated by the state, Waldher said, so all homeowner proj- ects within them must still abide by state statutes. Res- idences outside these zones were already exempt from needing a land use decision. Waldher stressed that this only applies to those who live in an unincorporated area of the county, and that those within incorporated city lim- its should reach out to their own municipal planning departments if they have per- mit questions. While the altered devel- opment code should make things easier on those impacted by the floods, Waldher noted that he’s heard a lot of people wondering why any permits are needed during a time like this. “It’s a requirement for us to be able to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program,” Waldher said. “If the county doesn’t have per- mits for projects done now, it may impact its ability to receive funding from (Fed- eral Emergency Management Agency) after another natural disaster in the future.” Volunteers: Residents and youth groups step up and help volunteers Continued from Page A1 an antimicrobial substance called Shockwave to inhibit mold growth. The nondenominational Christian disaster relief organization headed by evangelist Franklin Graham responds to disasters around the world. Todd Taylor, U.S. disaster relief manager for Samaritan’s Purse, who is running the Umatilla County operation, said the organiza- tion started responding to disasters in 1998. In recent years, volunteers responded to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, the Australian wildfires, the 2018 Camp Fire in California and others. This is the group’s first West Coast flood response. By the time the team fin- ishes, homes are ready for restoration. Taylor said the services are free to disaster victims, who are never asked for donations. “We are completely funded by private dona- tions,” said Taylor, who hails from North Carolina. Staff photo by Kathy Aney A Samaritan’s Purse volunteer gets suited up on Tuesday to go underneath a Riverview Mo- bile Home Estates home to remove sodden insulation ruined in recent flooding. Also in Pendleton this week is Ray Thompson, a chaplain with the Billy Gra- ham Evangelistic Associa- tion’s Rapid Response Team, which often teams with Samaritan’s Purse. Thomp- son said he and fellow chap- lains respond to tornados, mass shootings, explosions, fires, flooding and snow- storms. Chaplains worked mass shootings in Paris and Newtown, the tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti and other disasters. “The thread that runs through all of these is loss,” Thomas said. “As humans, we insulate ourselves from disaster so when it comes we really don’t know what to do. It’s almost paralyzing.” After 34 years with the Los Angeles Fire Depart- ment and 14 with the rapid response team, Thomas knows disaster. At first, he listens carefully to let vic- tims know he cares. He tells them the despair they are feeling is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. He helps them realize there is a tomorrow. If they are spiri- tual, he goes there. If not, he doesn’t push it. “I don’t get them in a headlock and read tracts to them,” he said, grinning. At the Cregers’ home on Tuesday, six or seven volun- teers worked inside. Others worked on the yard. Nevada volunteer Cal Payton shov- eled soggy leaves and other debris into a wheelbarrow. The retired wildland fire- fighter is a veteran Samar- itan’s Purse volunteer who believes the mission fits his beliefs and brings him in contact with some amazing people. “I meet some of the best people in the United States,” he said, “Beyond that I do it to serve my Lord Jesus Christ. He calls us to help others.” At lunchtime, the group moved to another home in the nearby Riverview Mobile Home Estates, ate sack lunches from the Salva- tion Army, and then circled up for prayer. Then, several of them donned Tyvek suits and wriggled underneath the home to remove waterlogged insulation. Local residents, including youth groups, are helping the regular volunteers. Requests for help, though fewer than anticipated, continue to come in as homeowners learn about the group. Flood victims with little or no insurance can request disaster relief by going to the First Assembly of God or calling 541-215-5861. Taylor said the international non- profit Team Rubicon, also working in the Pendleton area, and Umatilla County Emergency Management are also connecting Samaritan’s Purse with flood victims. Homeowners don’t have to live in Pendleton to receive assistance. “We try to keep (travel distance) within an hour,” Taylor said, “but it depends.” Creger counted his bless- ings as he surveyed the scene at his house. “This has been a great relief.” City Hall: Proposed building would be roughly 22,000 square feet Continued from Page A1 you’re not going to go back on that?” Smith noted that under state law, the city has “zero ability” to raise the property tax rate without going before the voters, similar to the Hermiston School District’s recent election for a bond levy to pay for new schools. The other way the city gets more property tax revenue is when the value of the prop- erty being taxed goes up — such as a piece of bare land being developed into some- thing more valuable — and the city doesn’t control that process. Gomolski also asked why the city couldn’t put its $175,000 insurance payout from the December fire at city hall into fixing the HVAC system, carpeting and other damaged parts of the current building, and wait a few years until developers have built some of the planned subdivi- sions and other developments that have been announced, increasing the property tax revenue the city brings in. Smith said the city could do that, but said that construc- tion costs have been inflating by about 3.5% per year, and interest rates are unusually low right now, so the price tag would go up. On another theme, resi- dents asked questions around why the city couldn’t use the Hermiston Community Cen- ter. Smith had answers for that, too, stating that it would cost millions of dollars to ren- ovate a 60-year-old build- ing, originally built as a gro- cery store, with a large open space, into a city hall. He also expressed concern about the old city hall becoming a ious events, both public and private, held in the commu- nity center would need moved elsewhere. When someone asked whether the city was still con- sidering selling the commu- “WE NEVER PUT OUT A SIGN SAYING THE COMMUNITY CENTER WAS FOR SALE.” — Byron Smith, Hemiston city manager blight on downtown. “Is there a market for the current city hall? The chal- lenges we have would be passed onto the next owner,” he said, referring to the cur- rent building’s lack of accessi- bility and other problems. He also noted that the var- nity center, Smith said a pri- vate buyer had previously approached the city about selling the property, and had been told that the city would be willing to consider a for- mal offer if one was made. That finalized proposal, he said, the city was still waiting on, and “at this point it looks like it’s probably not on its way.” “We never put out a sign saying the community center was for sale,” he said. Several other questions revolved around parking for the project. Smith said the owner of the Lanham build- ing to the east of city hall had expressed a willingness to sell, which would open up more space for parking directly on the property, in addition to street parking and the municipal lots across the street to the west and behind the library. Smith also answered ques- tions about space. The pro- posed new building would be a total of about 22,000 square feet — 15,000 if the city did not add the basement to lease. The current city hall is about 9,000 square feet, he said, with the building department taking up about 1,500 square feet in the Carnegie Library and the municipal court tak- ing up roughly 2,000 square feet in the public safety building. He said the police depart- ment is “bursting at the seams” and has officers with offices in a separate build- ing because they don’t all fit inside the safety center, so the current municipal court space could easily be used by the department. As for the cen- tury-old Carnegie Library, he said the community has in the past expressed an interest in using the space for a museum or other downtown attraction. Republicans: ‘Eastern Oregon is feeling like we’re under the gun’ Continued from Page A1 friend and remains such, and he will assist Marsh in any way he can. “I met with Rep. Marsh this morning, and shook her hand and told her to let me know whatever I could do to help,” he said on Wednesday. “I want to be a resource.” Despite being removed as a co-chair of the Joint Com- mittee On Ways and Means Subcommittee On General Government, Smith remains on the committee, and retains his other committee posi- tions, including vice chair of Ways and Means. Smith said one of the biggest opportuni- ties that the co-chair position had offered was that the gov- ernor’s budget goes through General Government, allow- ing him opportunities to work closely with the gover- nor and her staff on that. Smith stressed the no-show was not about dis- respecting his colleagues on the other side of the political aisle, but about trying to cre- ate some space and look at how proposals will affect dis- tricts, such as his in Eastern Oregon. The cap-and-trade bill to limit the state’s greenhouse gas emissions is the legisla- tion receiving the most atten- tion this session. Smith said the bill has residents of the eastern part of the state feel- ing sincere concern about their livelihoods. Then Gov. Kate Brown came out in sup- port of the removal of four dams on the Snake River, which could harm the ports of Umatilla and Morrow, along with power providers, such as Oregon Trail Electric Coop- erative and Umatilla Electric Cooperative. But the topper, Smith said, came Tuesday when the House voted 42-16 in favor of House Bill 4075, which would make it against the law to conduct or participate in competitions that give cash or prizes for killing coyotes. Smith and fellow Republican Rep. Greg Barreto of Cove voted against. The coyote hunting bill was a small matter, Smith said, and it likely has merit, but it was one more proposal that affects the residents of Oregon’s east side. “Eastern Oregon is feel- ing like we’re under the gun,” Smith said. Opting to delay the ses- sion was not a choice Smith said he took lightly, but was the way to grant more time to take a longer look at the scope of big legislation. “I felt it was appropri- ate for us to push pause, step back and take a deep breath,” he said. ——— EO Media Group edi- tors Phil Wright and Jade McDowell contributed to this report.
