NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Travel plaza set to open at Farewell Bend
By JAYSON JACOBY
EO Media Group
HUNTINGTON
—
A retail void dating back
nearly a decade along a
remote section of Interstate
84 could be filled soon.
A new truck stop, includ-
ing restaurants and a con-
venience store but not a
motel, is nearing comple-
tion at Farewell Bend, along
the Snake River about 50
miles southeast of Baker
City and about 4 miles from
Huntington.
The Huntington Travel
Plaza, part of the national
TravelCenters of America
network, could open as soon
as Oct. 21, according to
Deep Singh of Vancouver,
Washington, whose family,
along with three other busi-
ness partners, plans to buy
the business.
Tina Arundel, direc-
tor of communications for
TravelCenters of America
in Westlake, Ohio, wrote in
an email to the Baker City
Herald that “we look for-
ward to opening a TA travel
center in Huntington, Ore-
gon. We plan to open in late
October.”
Singh said his family,
which owns three gas sta-
tions in the Portland area as
well as convenience stores,
has been aware of the
40-acre property for a cou-
For EO Media Group/Lisa Britton
A travel plaza, part of the TravelCenters of America chain, is slated to open this fall at Farewell Bend.
ple of years.
The former truck stop
at Farewell Bend, which
included a motel, closed in
May 2011 and the buildings
were later removed. The
business had opened in the
1970s.
Huntington offers the
only fuel and food on the
73-mile stretch of freeway
between Baker City and
Ontario.
Singh said he started
talking in late spring this
year with Amin Alibhei
of Atlanta, who manages
the company that owns the
property, which is in Mal-
heur County just south of
the Baker County border.
The property sold in
October 2019 for $775,000,
according to the Malheur
County Assessor’s Office.
It previously sold, in June
2013, for $450,000.
Singh said his family and
partners, which he didn’t
name, will buy the property
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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as soon as the truck stop is
finished, and then operate
the business.
He said the travel plaza
will be his family’s biggest
business venture. Singh
said some of his partners
have experience in running
truck stops.
He said he believes it
will be beneficial to be a
franchise of TravelCenters
of America.
“I think it’s very helpful
to have a brand like TA,”
Congress acknowledges 155-year-old
betrayal of Warm Springs, Wasco Tribes
By EMILY CURETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Pleasant with
some sunshine
Mostly sunny
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Sunny
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
67° 46°
68° 42°
75° 45°
80° 49°
79° 47°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
72° 46°
72° 40°
77° 43°
83° 44°
80° 44°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
63/50
Kennewick Walla Walla
65/48
Lewiston
65/53
72/47
Astoria
64/52
59/40
69/41
Longview
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Pullman
Yakima 69/43
63/49
65/48
Portland
Hermiston
66/54
The Dalles 72/46
Salem
Corvallis
65/48
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
61/44
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
69/49
63/38
64/42
Ontario
71/46
69/45
66/29
0.00"
0.07"
0.35"
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4.76"
6.50"
WINDS (in mph)
Caldwell
Burns
74°
51°
75°
45°
95° (1952) 26° (1934)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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Albany
67/48
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 58/40
66/50
0.07"
0.12"
0.44"
8.73"
10.85"
8.86"
HERMISTON
Enterprise
67/46
69/49
71°
49°
74°
47°
99° (1952) 21° (1926)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
62/48
Aberdeen
60/40
63/45
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
63/53
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
72/48
Sun.
WSW 8-16
W 8-16
NNE 3-6
NW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
67/36
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
6:48 a.m.
6:44 p.m.
4:57 p.m.
1:05 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Oct 1
Oct 9
Oct 16
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 105° in Needles, Calif. Low 25° in Angel Fire, N.M.
Singh said. “That brand will
help bring in customers for
us.”
The Huntington Travel
Plaza will also bring jobs to
the area.
Singh said he hopes to
eventually hire around 50
employees, once the entire
project, including a truck
repair shop, is open. He
hopes that will happen
within a year.
Initially, though, the
12,000-square-foot
busi-
ness will include a
3,000-square-foot conve-
nience store, six fuel pumps
for passenger cars and eight
diesel lanes for commer-
cial trucks, and two take-
out restaurants, Champs
Chicken and Naughty Chile
Taqueria.
He said the conve-
nience store, in addition to
the usual fare of packaged
foods and beverages, will
have a frozen food section
with ice cream.
The sign at the truck stop
also lists Huntington Bar
and Grill, but Singh said
that the dine-in restaurant
and bar with video poker,
won’t open immediately due
to COVID-19 restrictions.
The truck stop will
include a lounge and the-
ater for commercial driv-
ers, a barber shop, as well
as showers and a laundry
facility, Singh said.
He plans to add propane
tanks as well, to cater to
people with camp trailers
staying at Farewell Bend
State Park, less than a mile
away.
Jennifer Peterson, city
recorder in Huntington,
population 445, said the
potential for new jobs is
exciting.
“It would be good if they
could provide some jobs for
people in town,” Peterson
said.
WARM SPRINGS —
Their compromise created
the state of Oregon.
Faced with the threat of
forced removal or worse, in
1855 leaders of the Warm
Springs and Wasco Tribes
forfeited their claim to
roughly 10 million acres,
and moved to a reservation.
In exchange for land to offer
white settlers, brokers for
the United States govern-
ment made promises. Among
those: Tribal members would
not be stopped from traveling
off the reservation to hunt,
fish and forage, as they had
done for millennia.
But just 10 years later, in
1865, a U.S. official betrayed
the agreement, drawing up
a so-called “supplemen-
tal treaty” that prohibited
Tribal members from leav-
ing the reservation without
permission.
This week, Congress voted
by unanimous consent to nul-
lify that 155-year-old docu-
ment, in an acknowledgment
that Tribal leaders and elected
officials from Oregon have
sought for decades. The 1865
Treaty Nullification Act now
heads to President Trump’s
desk for his signature.
Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs Director of
Governmental Affairs Louie
Pitt said the bill is righting
a historical wrong, but also
protecting against future
injustices.
“The ability to live as
Indian people off of the cre-
ator’s gifts to us — the fish,
wildlife, roots and berries —
that is as important to us as
“IT WAS NOT
SOMETHING WE
LOST. IT WAS
SOMETHING
THAT WAS
TAKEN.”
— Louie Pitt, Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs director
of governmental affairs
the air we breathe,” Pitt said,
adding that: “It was not some-
thing we lost. It was some-
thing that was taken.”
Oregon has long had a pol-
icy of not enforcing the 1865
supplemental treaty. Demo-
cratic Gov. Kate Brown dis-
avowed it last year, and efforts
to formally nullify the docu-
ment trace back to one of the
state’s most powerful Repub-
licans, Sen. Mark Hatfield,
who left office in 1997. Pitt
said nonetheless, it matters
what is written down because
political winds will shift.
“Things can change in the
state of Oregon, and things
could change in the United
States,” he said.
“I look forward to Pres-
ident Trump signing this
bill into law so that we can
fully right this long-standing
wrong,” Rep. Greg Walden,
R-The Dalles, who sponsored
the House version, said in a
press release Tuesday, Sept.
22.
The press release also
quotes Democratic sponsors,
Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron
Wyden of Oregon.
Through U.S. policies,
three distinct tribes were set-
tled on one reservation, in
what is now known as Cen-
tral Oregon. In 1937, the
Warm Springs, Wasco and
Paiute Tribes formed a con-
federacy and adopted a con-
stitution for self-governance.
Pitt said he’s worked 20
years to get rid of the 1865
supplemental treaty, and that
now, he’s waiting to celebrate
until the President signs it
into law. Even then, he said:
“There’s a lot of work to do,
yet.”
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Union County mini mart
rejects mask ordinance
UNION — Falk’s Mini Mart in Union
posted a sign Sept. 15 stating the store will
not enforce mask mandates. The two-page
sign stayed up for about a week before
someone reported it to Oregon’s Occupa-
tional Health and Safety Administration.
Dennis Falk, the store’s owner, said the
state agency told him to take down the sign
or face a fine.
“I guess there is no being a free Ameri-
can anymore,” Falk said.
The sign in the store’s front window said:
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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showers t-storms
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