KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUeSDAy, DeCeMBeR 7, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Public has right
to know how
government
spends money
A
ny time a voter hears the words
“economic development” linked to
“general fund” they should sit up
and take notice.
And there is not better case in point
than the recent brush up with the Umatilla
County Board of Commissioners and a
vote to furnish Pendleton with $2 million
to trigger a new road connecting Highway
11 to Highway 30 on the city’s south hill.
Pendleton city officials believe the new
road will spark a new single family hous-
ing development on bare land in the area.
The yet unnamed, unbuilt develop-
ment will be a “huge economic booster to
our community,” according to Pendleton
Mayor John Turner.
Recently, the commissioners voted twice
to provide the city with the $2 million. The
first time the commissioners did so was
in November. Then, your elected lead-
ers approved the deal but did so without
releasing a written agreement to the public
before, or during, their regular meeting. At
the time, Commissioner Dan Dorran voted
“no” on the measure because he did not
feel he could cast a vote without seeing the
agreement.
Commission Chair George Murdock, at
the time, said the written agreement wasn’t
available because county counsel Doug
Olsen was out of the office. But Murdock
apparently did provide information about
the agreement in a weekly email he sends
out to specific people. None of what
Murdock explained in the email about the
deal was accessible to voters on the county
board’s online meeting agenda.
By the Dec. 1 meeting, though, the
contract was publicly available and all
three commissioners — for the second
time — approved the deal. Following
the vote, Murdock said the first time the
commissioners voted on the issue it was
as a “concept.” The second time they
approved it was the actual deal.
The $2 million that will go to Pendleton
isn’t a grant, but structured as a revolving
fund, which means the city is expected to
reinvest money back into the fund after
withdrawing from it.
The money, though, will come from
the county’s general fund. That’s public
dollars. In other words, if you are a voter or
resident in Hermiston, Weston, Pilot Rock
or Stanfield, the general fund cash is your
money.
In the end, the entire incident is unfor-
tunate because of how badly the run-up to
the initial vote was bungled. There never
should have been a vote before an actual
agreement was accessible to the other two
commissioners and the public. As hard as it
may be to visualize for some, the public has
a right to know anytime its money is going
to be used for any endeavor.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily
that of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
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of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
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Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
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or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Culture grows and changes with the population
DANIEL
WATTENBURGER
HOMEGROWN
W
hen I moved to Hermiston
in the early 1990s, the most
recent census had the town’s
population as 10,366. Thirty years later
in April 2020, the census counted 19,354
people in town, and 20 months later in
July 2021, Portland State University’s
estimate put the city at 19,696. If we’re
not at 20,000 by next summer, we’ll be
darn close.
So in my time as a Hermistonian, the
city has essentially doubled in popula-
tion. But that doesn’t mean there are just
10,000 new people in town. That number
includes the regular inflow and outflow
of people who come and go, who move
in and move away, who are born and die
here.
The number of “new” people — those
who weren’t counted in the 1990 census
but were here for the 2020 edition — is
much higher. I won’t hazard a specific
guess, but these newcomers certainly
outnumber us old-timers by a fair margin.
And if you’ll allow me to move the
“old-timer” status to people who have
been here since, say, 1980, that balance
tips drastically in favor of us newcomers.
This has a large impact on the culture
of a community. Of course every town
adds and subtracts over the years, slowly
altering its identity as leadership and
employment opportunities and civic
activities change. And some of these
new faces are the children and extended
families of people who have been here
longer, carrying on cultural identity
from one generation to the next. But the
constant infusion of new blood speeds
up the evolution process as people bring
with it pieces of culture from elsewhere.
Think of how many of the business
owners, teachers, pastors, elected offi-
cials and nonprofit leaders who have
an outsized impact on our community
aren’t “from here,” and have moved here
in the past 30 years. Think about the
huge impact they are having every day
on who we are. And imagine what kind
of place we would be if we were afraid of
this kind of change.
Hermiston strives to be an inclu-
sive community, and this includes
“outsiders.” Having a welcoming atti-
tude prevents culture from stagnating.
People who move here get involved with
the churches, clubs, committees and
programs that set the direction of a town.
They feel empowered to add their voice
to the collective conversation.
I’ve known a lot of people who
have moved on from Hermiston. My
graduating class of 2001 held a virtual
reunion on Facebook this summer and
shared updates on what we’re doing
and where we’re living now. About 9
in 10 who posted moved after gradua-
tion and haven’t come back. I was one
of the few whose life took them away
from Hermiston and then back again.
But I’ve also met a lot of people who
are new to town. In the past month I’ve
met new Hermistonians from Molalla,
John Day and Bakersfield, California.
They’ve come for a job opportunity or to
be closer to family but were also drawn
by the culture.
We are now in a state of rapid change
as hundreds of new homes are built each
year, neighborhoods are expanding in
every part of town and new jobs come on
the market seemingly every week.
People are coming from all over and
for all kinds of reasons. They are often
looking for a place to settle down and
Hermiston checks the boxes. They bring
a refreshing outsider’s perspective, able
to see the benefits of a town that’s small
but not too small, a community that has
some traditions but is more than will-
ing to make new ones. They want good
schools for their kids, safe neighbor-
hoods and access to health care, but no
rush hour traffic jams.
They’re a constant reminder for
those of us who have been here a few
years to keep introducing ourselves
and our community to new faces.
Because, ultimately, they are us, and
we are Hermiston.
———
Daniel Wattenburger is the former
managing editor of the East Oregonian.
He lives in Hermiston with his wife and
children and is an account manager for
Pac/West Lobby Group. Contact him at
danielwattenburger@gmail.com.
States. The only borders you have to
worry about are ones to the north called
Canada and to the south called Mexico.
Canadians, being descendants of British
loyalists, don’t like handguns, but if you
want to spend some big bucks hunt-
ing moose, you can go in with a rifle.
Mexico doesn’t allow private citizens
to own firearms unless you belong to a
cartel.
There is one exception that hinders
transporting a firearm. If I go to the
Veterans Affais hospital I can’t have a
firearm, even in my car. Guess they are
afraid of those who preserved their free-
dom with a gun. A class action lawsuit is
overdue, especially in light of a Supreme
Court decision that said a homeless man
could have a gun in his tent.
The left is having a meltdown after
Rittenhouse. you have a right to defend
your life. What’s next? The right to
defend your home or property?
Space limits a lot more of what I have
to say. I could cover the 1934 Federal
Firearms Act that unconstitutionally
banned fully automatics. Since then the
rate of fire on any gun is one projectile
per trigger pull. Full autos only exist in
Hollywood. An exception to this is the
smooth bore shotgun, which can hold
anywhere from nine to a dozen or so
peewee marble sized shot to more than
a hundred BB sized shot to many more
smaller shot. No rifling in the barrel,
untraceable.
So Democrats better get some check-
points in place and ban the shotgun.
Move on. Send some men with guns
to confront men with guns. It’s time to
really understand gun violence.
Steve Culley
La Grande
YOUR VIEWS
Time to really understand
gun violence
In my younger days I spent a lot of
time hunting, everything from elk and
deer to game birds.
Now, thanks to COVID-19 and age,
I have to watch hunting shows like
“Meat eater.” What a life. This guy
travels all over the United states hunt-
ing. One week he might be in Colorado
hunting elk and the next few weeks he
might chase giant mule deer bucks in
Montana or maybe pheasants in South
Dakota.
I have a nephew who went to
Wyoming hunting antelope. Others have
gone to the Dakotas to hunt pheasants.
My son is a horn hunter and has gone to
Nevada to hunt mule deer. One time on
a cast and blast in the Snake River, while
fishing and watching for chukars, he
spotted a nice Idaho buck and traded the
shotgun for a rifle and headed up after
him.
One common theme from the ballis-
tics-impaired on CNN and other left-
wing media after the Kyle Rittenhouse
verdict was “he crossed state lines with a
gun.” All those I mentioned above cross
state lines with a gun.
Got an out-of-state tag? Load up
the gear and the guns and get going.
No checkpoints at the border, because
there are no laws about transporting
firearms across state lines in the United
Let’s learn from
our ancestors
Supply chain problems. Rising
inflation. Agricultural concentration.
Climate change.
My fellow citizens of Umatilla
County, we have a solution: regional
self-reliance, something our ances-
tors knew well. We need to develop our
regional and local economies. Our food
can travel, on average, 2,000 miles. Our
farmers and ranchers are at the mercy of
the national and global food system.
All that stuff moving around takes
a lot of energy, which contributes to
climate change. We need to produce,
manufacture and buy more local. Good
for the environment, good for our econ-
omy. Get some chickens this spring.
Plant a garden. Support your local cattle
rancher and get a side of beef. Shop at
the farmers market. Go solar. Buy less
stuff from China.
Our ancestors knew how to do it.
Maybe it’s time to relearn from the past.
Don Hartley
Pendleton