REGION
Thursday, April 15, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Bailey’s Bill passes Oregon Senate unanimously
Bobby Levy to
shepherd bill
through committee
hearings in House
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
SALEM — The Oregon
Senate voted unanimously
on Monday, April 12, to pass
Bailey’s Bill.
The bill, named for
Weston-McEwen High
School student Bailey
Munck, increases penalties
for criminal sexual contact
with an underage victim if
the off ender was the victim’s
teacher. If approved by the
House and signed by Gov.
Kate Brown, the legislation
fi xes a discrepancy. Currently,
a coach convicted of sexual
abuse in the third degree
receives harsher penalties
than a teacher who commits
the exact same crime.
Munck, now 17, testifi ed
on March 25 to the Oregon
Senate’s judiciary commit-
tee, telling of sexual abuse
in 2019 during a volleyball
road trip by Andrew DeYoe,
an English teacher and also a
scorekeeper for the volleyball
team. DeYoe, 31, after plead-
ing guilty to harassment that
included sexual touching,
spent a night in the Umatilla
County Jail and will serve fi ve
years probation. He wasn’t
required to register as a sex
off ender.
If DeYoe had been a
coach, he might have been
convicted of a Class C felony,
a crime that carries sentences
up to five years in prison
Hansell
Levy
PENDLETON — Pend-
leton’s cut of the $1.9 tril-
lion American Rescue Plan
Act hasn’t dropped into its
account yet, but the city’s
various tourism interests
were already ready with a
presentation.
D ubbed “ Pe nd let on
Comes Alive,” the plan called
for the city to use $250,000
from Pendleton’s federal
stimulus payment to boost
the local tourism industry.
Led by Pendleton Economic
Development Director Steve
Chrisman, including repre-
sentatives from the Pend-
leton Convention Center,
the Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce and the Pendleton
Round-Up Association, the
group thinks it can help the
city’s tourism recover from
the eff ects of the COVID-19
pandemic by creating new
initiatives like horse and
buggy rides and sending
people dressed in Western
garb downtown to interact
with tourists.
Addressing the Pendleton
City Council at a Tuesday,
April 13, meeting, Chris-
man said one of Pendleton’s
shortcomings with tourism is
that it didn’t off er many of the
Western experiences people
are familiar with during
Round-Up week.
“For one week a year we
underpromise and overde-
liver the greatest show on
grass,” Chrisman’s slide-
show states. “For (11 and 3/4)
months per year, we grossly
overpromise and grossly
underdeliver.”
Chrisman and the group’s
solution for this “horrible
injustice” was to expand
Pendleton’s off erings during
high-tourism months in
spring and summer. Besides
the buggies and the Western
actors, some of the ideas that
would be introduced include
adding regular bar hours at
the Pendleton Underground
Tours speakeasy and the
Let’er Buck Room, placing
six covered wagons around
town, and holding guided
tours of the Round-Up
Grounds.
Once these concepts were
put into place, the group
anticipated bringing in
54,000 new visitors to Pend-
leton by Year 5.
Ch r isma n said t he
$250,000 would be a
one-time investment, with
the new concepts funded by
eventually charging for some
of the services and the reve-
nue that would be generated
from new overnight stays via
the city’s lodging taxes.
“This is going to seem
like a tiny sum if it accom-
plishes even a fraction of
what I think it’s capable of
accomplishing,” Chrisman
said.
The council seemed
receptive to the group’s pitch,
but didn’t fully commit to the
project’s price tag.
City Manager Robb
Corbett praised the group’s
efforts while also going
over some of the less fl ashy
options that were on the
table.
Corbett said the general
fund — the pot of money that
funds services like police,
fi re and parks — has shrunk
in recent years, and the city
could use the stimulus to help
shore it up.
Additionally, the city had
millions of dollars worth of
deferred maintenance on city
facilities, including critical
repairs at the Vert Audito-
rium and at the Pendleton
Aquatic Center.
Councilor Dale Primmer
liked the idea of stabilizing
the general fund, pointing
out that the region’s increas-
ingly erratic weather had put
Pendleton through multiple
emergencies.
“We have to sit on some
capital to deal with these
emerging situations,” he said.
Ultimately, the council
liked the idea of investing its
$1.7 million in tourism, infra-
structure and the general
fund, but it didn’t commit
fi rm dollar amounts to these
priorities.
LOCAL BRIEFING
BMCC sets
timeline for
presidential search
PEN DLETON — If
everything goes accord-
ing to plan, Blue Mountain
Community College will
have a new president by July.
At a Wednesday, April 7,
meeting, the BMCC Board
of Education approved a
timeline to replace former
President Dennis Bailey-
Fougnier. Citing his health,
Bailey-Fougnier resigned in
February after a little less
than two years on the job.
The board subsequently
appointed former Tillamook
Bay Community College
President Connie Green as
the interim president.
BMCC is hiring Gold Hill
Associates for $29,000 to help
conduct the search. Gold Hill,
which has conducted presi-
dential searches for BMCC
in the past, has conducted
more than 150 searches for
community colleges in 26
states, including work for 11
colleges in Oregon.
From April 15 to May 21,
Gold Hill will begin their
recruitment process as the
position is advertised online
and in various publica-
tions. After a BMCC search
committee reviews appli-
cations, the committee will
hold a fi rst round of inter-
views in late May and early
June.
On June 3, the commit-
tee will select fi nalists, who
will travel to Pendleton for
on-campus interviews from
June 7-9. The board is then
expected to spend June and
July selecting a fi nal candi-
date, negotiating a contract
and announcing their deci-
sion to the public.
Jane Hill, the chair of the
board, said BMCC designed
the process to involve as
many diff erent stakeholders
as possible.
“I feel like this is a robust
public process,” she said.
Hill said the search
committee is sending out a
Taylor
and a $125,000 fi ne.
Munck for permission to
John Bartron, retired name the bill after her.
On Apr il 12,
We s t o n M id d le
Bartron watched the
School teacher and
vote on his laptop
athletic director,
from Pendleton. As
convinced Sen. Bill
roll call proceeded,
Hansell, R-Athena,
to consider sponsor-
he watched the lights
ing legislation that
next to each sena-
tor’s name turn green
would close the gap
between coaches and
Munck
one by one and soon
teachers. Hansell
realized the vote was
researched the idea and offi - unanimous.
cially sponsored the bill along
“I was elated and had
with Sen. Kathleen Taylor, goose bumps from head to
D-Milwaukie. Hansell asked toe,” Bartron said.
Pendleton pitched on using
stimulus for Western expansion
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Primus
survey to stakeholders asking
them what kind of qualities
they want to see in the next
president. And once fi nalists
are chosen, she said BMCC
will host a series of public
forums so that locals have a
chance to give their input.
Three seats on the BMCC
board are up for election
in May, and with board
members Heidi Van Kirk
and Tony Turner retiring,
there will be at least two new
members on the board once
they take offi ce in July.
Although the board will
choose a new president
around the same time it’s
onboarding new members,
Hill said she’s confident
BMCC’s process will lead to
a fair outcome and a smooth
transition.
— EO Media Group
A text from Bailey arrived
almost immediately. Three
hearts.
The teen had watched the
vote from Athena while on
a break at the Sugar Shack
where she works. At first
nervous, she started feeling
more confident when Sen.
Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene,
began speaking in favor of the
bill. Prozanski, the chair of the
Senate’s judiciary committee,
had initially shown doubts
during the committee hearing
while questioning Umatilla
District Attorney Dan Primus
about the current law.
“When (Prozanski) got up
there, I started feeling more
confi dent,” Munck said. “The
vote was cool to watch. The
lights lit up green one by one.
I kept waiting for one to be red
and there wasn’t.”
She returned to work
“smiling from ear to ear.”
Hansell praised his
colleagues for their unani-
mous 28-0 vote on Senate
Bill 649. Two senators, Sen.
Dallas Heard and Sen. Chuck
Thomsen, were absent.
“This was huge,” Hansell
said. “This is a common-
sense bill that will protect our
kids. Bailey has courageously
told her story, now it’s time for
us to act so that she can get
justice. Those in positions of
infl uence over our kids need
to be held accountable when
they violate their trust. I urge
my colleagues in the House to
pass this bill.”
Hansell said Rep. Bobby
Levy, R-Echo, will shepherd
the the bill through commit-
tee hearings on the House
side.
Hermiston to take additional time
to mull senior housing proposal
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston city councilors asked
for more time to think over
a proposal for a new senior
living development after the
plan was met with opposition
from existing assisted living
facilities during the council’s
Monday, April 12, meeting.
Representatives of Guard-
ian Angel Homes and Sun
Terrace Hermiston told the
council they are struggling
to fill rooms and staffing
positions at their facilities,
and questioned why the city
would give away land to
incentivize building more
facilities.
“I don’t think there’s a
need,” said Matt Frantz,
whose family owns Guard-
ian Angel Homes.
The idea was first
presented to the city coun-
cil in August 2020, when the
council gave staff the green
light to put out a request for
proposals for a senior living
project on a piece of property
on Northwest 11th Street.
The city purchased the
20-acre parcel, known as
the Green Property, in 2005
for $420,000. The plan was
to use the property, which is
adjacent to the city’s recy-
cled water treatment plant,
to detour recycled water
through the property before
returning it to the Umatilla
River, in order to lower the
water’s temperature fi rst. But
tests of the idea didn’t work
as well as expected and the
idea was abandoned.
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan told the coun-
cil that given a number of
challenges with the prop-
East
Oregonian
erty,
and the fact the city
had demolished
5.167
x 7 - color a home and
outbuilding after purchas-
ing it, it was unlikely the
city could recoup its entire
investment if it put the land
up for auction. If some-
one did buy it at auction, he
said, they would likely build
a single home on it, which
would not add much to the
tax base.
Morgan’s proposal, then,
was to give away approxi-
mately 8 acres of the prop-
erty, on the far side from
the treatment plant, to a
developer who promised to
build some sort of housing
for seniors on the property.
He calculated that if such a
development went in, the
city would gain more than
$3 million in property taxes
and utility revenue over the
next 20 years.
He said additional senior
living would make sure there
was space for aging Baby
Boomers as they needed it,
and allow local professionals
with aging relatives needing
care to stay in the area. He
said the development would
also create jobs, both directly
and through increased need
for services, such as dental
care.
Any agreement would
have a “clawback” clause
in which the city could take
back the property if the
development wasn’t built in
the specifi ed time frame or
wasn’t used for senior living
for at least 25 years.
The city put out a request
for proposals for such a devel-
opment, and a committee of
two city councilors, staff
and a planning commission
member selected a proposal
from Paradigm Compass
LLC, a partnership between
two Oregon investment fi rms
that both have a history of
building and managing
senior living projects in
Oregon.
One of the recent projects
the partnership completed
together is Juniper Springs,
completed in Redmond in
2018. The 7-acre site includes
60 assisted living units, 24
memory care units and 12
independent living cottages.
Pa r a d ig m Compa ss’s
proposal for the Hermiston
site includes the same mix
of units on the same size
of property, and would be
staff ed by 50 full-time posi-
tions.
“This was very, very simi-
lar to our site,” Morgan said.
Christopher Looney, one
of the partners in Paradigm
Compass, said the company
hires a third-party fi rm with
expertise in the senior living
market to conduct a market
study before building any
project. The analysis helps
the company decide whether
the project will be profi table,
and is used to acquire the
required certifi cate of need
from Oregon Department of
Human Services.
“We did have a market
study conducted for Herm-
iston. It was conducted in
October of last year, and it
did show adequate demand
in the market,” he said.
After councilors had time
to listen to all of the presen-
tations and comments and
to ask questions, Coun-
cilor Nancy Peterson said
she wanted time to absorb
the information and further
consider the data shared
from both sides about the
need for senior living in
Hermiston.
Other councilors agreed,
and voted 6-1 to table the
decision to declare 7.18 acres
of the Green Property surplus
until their April 26 meeting.
4/16-4/22
Cineplex Show Times
Theater seating will adhere to social distancing protocols
Every showing $7.50 per person (ages 0-3 still free)
Voyagers (PG13)
1:40p 4:40p 7:40p
Godzilla vs. Kong (PG13)
1:20p 2:00p 4:20p
5:00p 7:20p 8:00p
Former PGG Corporate Complex with 41,985± square foot
building and excess land
Reuse opportunity with retail showroom, offices, service center
and warehouse
2± acres of excess land. Potential for business park
Raya and the
Last Dragon (PG)
1:00p 4:00p 7:00p
Nobody (R)
12:40p 3:40p 6:40p
wildhorseresort.com • 541-966-1850
Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
2310 NW Everett St. Suite 250 – Portland, Oregon 97210