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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Chief: No major changes planned yet
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A statue of Sheriff Til Taylor looks over an empty wading pool at Til Taylor Park in Pendleton
on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020.
Park: ‘The mechanism isn’t really there’
Continued from Page A1
was no longer in line with
child safety standards, and
a set of trees in the park that
constantly shed branches.
The centerpiece of the
revamped park would be a
splash pad, an outdoor area
with various water spray-
ing equipment. Planned to
replace the footprint of the
wading pool, Hughes said the
splash pad would be cheaper
to operate because the main-
tenance costs were lower and
the facility wouldn’t require
staffing to monitor it. Like
the wading pool, the splash
pad would be free and open
to the public.
The splash pad will be
flanked on either side by new
playgrounds. Brown said the
playgrounds would be geared
toward different age groups,
while Hughes added that the
layout of the playgrounds and
splash pad would have a sim-
ilar footprint to the reflecting
pools that originally accom-
panied the park’s Til Taylor
statue.
Hughes said the play-
grounds would replace the
park’s existing structure,
which has areas where a
child’s head could get lodged
and cause serious injury.
In a 2018 survey, Pend-
leton residents said a splash
pad should be one of park and
recreation’s top priorities.
One of the other top priorities
was a dog park, which the
revamped park would feature
on its south side. Brown said
many residents have used the
field at the old Lincoln School
as an unofficial dog park, but
the Til Taylor dog park would
offer the only official gated
place in town where dogs
could roam unleashed.
Brown said the parks and
recreation department would
also collaborate with the
city’s tree commission to fig-
ure out a way to deal with its
fallen branches.
Some councilors were
surprised at the project’s
$575,000 price tag, but they
didn’t balk at it.
Councilor Carole Innes
said she thinks the pub-
lic would be receptive to a
splash pad.
“I think, in general, the
population would be very
supportive of doing it,” she
said.
Although the commission
hasn’t used urban renewal
money for parks projects in
recent years, City Manager
Robb Corbett said the usual
source for park upgrade rev-
enue — system development
charges — isn’t large enough
to sustain Til Taylor 101.
“The mechanism isn’t
really there,” he said.
The commission unani-
mously approved the Til Tay-
lor upgrades, which would
fall in line with its new focus
on public projects.
Earlier in the meeting,
the commission approved
extending the lifespan of
the urban renewal district.
Instead of the prior 2023
deadline, the urban renewal
district will continue to
function until it reaches its
$33.5 million spending limit.
Including borrowing costs,
the commission is planning
to spend more than 70% of
the money on public projects,
including parks, street repair,
Main Street improvements
and parking.
Although the urban
renewal district is being
extended, Councilor Paul
Chalmers, the outgoing chair
of the commission, said resi-
dents’ tax bills should not rise
or fall as a result.
Police Department, which
he says is the only depart-
ment he’s ever wanted to
work for in the commu-
nity he’s always wanted to
serve.
“It’s one of those places
where everyone knows
everybody else, especially
if you’ve grown up here,”
Byram says of Pendleton.
The “buy in,” as Byram
refers to it, from himself
and the rest of the depart-
ment is what’s sustained
a consistent culture under
Roberts’ leadership.
“We’ve been able to
keep a core group of peo-
ple together that all have
the same vision, the same
drive and have bought into
this culture that we’re going
to do the right thing for the
right reason,” Byram says.
“He was the catalyst for it
all. He wrote the playbook.
Now all we have to do is
perfect it.”
While “humbled” to be
the one tasked with sus-
taining that culture, Byram
knows there’s some natu-
ral uncertainty within the
department about what
it will look like after his
departure. So, he’s spent
the last few weeks stopping
by and talking individually
with the department’s staff
to alleviate any of their
concerns.
“I like to think of myself
as coming from the Stu-
art Roberts coaching tree
of leadership,” he says. “I
hold myself and the peo-
ple that work here to a high
standard.”
Byram doesn’t plan on
instituting any significant
changes right away, which
he says would be the “worst
thing” he could do, but will
be ready to adjust and adapt
the department to what-
ever future changes may
be awaiting policing from
state lawmakers.
While
acknowledg-
ing that just about every-
one has an opinion on law
enforcement following a
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Future Pendleton Police Chief Chuck Byram poses for a
portrait in front of the Pendleton Police Department sign
in Pendleton on Oct. 19, 2020.
“I LIKE TO THINK OF MYSELF
AS COMING FROM THE STUART
ROBERTS COACHING TREE OF
LEADERSHIP.”
— Chuck Byram, future Pendleton police chief
summer of national unrest
in response to the dispro-
portionate police shootings
and killing of Black Amer-
icans, Byram said even-
tually communities need
to come to a consensus on
what they want their police
forces to look like.
“Our police forces
should be a reflection of
the societies in which we
serve,” he says.
Local residents have
staged a number of protests
against police violence and
systemic racism in recent
months, but Byram says
one reason the Pendleton
Police Department hasn’t
run into the same issues
of deteriorating public
trust is local officers’ abil-
ity to stay connected to the
community.
“You can’t be anony-
mous,” he says. “You have
to look these people in
the eye and know you’ve
done right by them, even
if you’ve had to take them
to jail you’ve still done it
with the most dignity and
respect that you were able
to muster in that situation.”
Though he’s walking
away from law enforce-
ment, Roberts will be stay-
ing in the Pendleton area as
he transitions into a consul-
tant role with Citycounty
Insurance Services. After
Byram was selected as his
successor, Roberts said
he’ll keep himself from
interfering with the depart-
ment’s next steps but will
keep himself available as a
resource, too.
“If and when it’s needed,
I know that he will be
there,” Byram says of Rob-
erts. “Not only for me but
for this department and for
this community.”
More than a month out
from assuming his new role,
Byram knows there’s big
shoes to fill. But he’s push-
ing any of those thoughts
away, and he’s confident
that Roberts selected him
as his No. 2 back in 2016
and City Manager Robb
Corbett selected him as the
next police chief because
they saw something in him.
Now he just wants to
go and show the rest of the
community what it was.
“I’m ready to go to
work,” he says.
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