REGION
Saturday, December 11, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Hansell honored for community college support
East Oregonian
SALEM — State Sen. Bill
Hansell is being honored for his
support for community colleges.
T he O regon
Community
College Associ-
ation announced
Tuesday Dec. 7,
it was giving the
Athena Republican
one of its Howard
Hansell
Cherry Awards, a prize awarded
to advocates, administrators and
board members who contribute
toward community colleges.
In a press release, the associa-
tion highlighted Hansell’s support
for community college funding, his
regular attendance at “Workforce
Wednesday” events last Febru-
ary and his work in 2020 and 2021
to preserve community college
education in Oregon’s prisons.
“He is known for bringing his
colleagues from around the state
to Eastern Oregon and driving to
other legislative districts in his
pickup truck to encourage work-
ing across party lines to collaborate
and better serve Oregonians,” the
press release states. “While Blue
Mountain Community College is
in his home district, Sen. Hansell is
a strong, passionate and supportive
voice for all community colleges
across the state.”
In his own press release, Hansell
thanked the association for its
recognition.
“Oregon’s community colleges
are vital to our communities, from
career and technical education to
support our local economies,”
he said in a statement. “I will
always be a strong supporter of
our community colleges, and I am
thankful for the work that OCCA
does to ensure legislators like me
are aware of the challenges they
face. Without them, we couldn’t
Pendlton’s BackFire Station looks
for more money from commission
make the educated decisions we
do.”
Hansell and three other honor-
ees will receive their awards at
the association’s annual confer-
ence in Sunriver on April 14. At
the conference, the association also
will present the Cam Preus Award
for Extraordinary Commitment to
Community Colleges, an award
named after a former BMCC pres-
ident, who now is the association’s
executive director.
Nurse steps away
from profession to
open thrift shop
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The members of the
Pendleton City Council handpicked the
owners of the business that became Back-
Fire Station and then granted them nearly a
half-million dollars to help turn the old Fire
Station No. 1 into a restaurant and motorcy-
cle shop. Now those owners are returning to
council chambers to ask for more money to
complete the project.
The council will hold a special meeting
Tuesday, Dec. 14, as the Pendleton Develop-
ment Commission to consider more funding
for BackFire Station. As of Dec. 10, details in
the agenda were light. How much the owners
were asking for or the specifi cs of what they
would be spending the money on weren’t
included.
The meeting Dec. 14 will mark the latest
chapter in a relationship that goes back to
April 2020.
When the fi re department moved to a
new headquarters in 2019, the city of Pend-
leton was left with an empty property at 911
S.W. Court Ave., just a block away from the
Round-Up Grounds. The council balked at
simply selling the property to the highest
bidder and instead created a proposal submis-
sion process to determine the best use for the
property as it transferred into private hands.
The city received two proposals. One
was from La Grande developer Gust Tsiat-
sos would turn the property into a boutique
hotel, while the other was from Moto Stuff , a
Hillsboro motorcycle parts company owned
by Scott Hart and Erin Bennett.
The couple was looking to expand their
business to include a more front-facing
component, and after the council selected
Moto Stuff and sold the property to the busi-
BOARDMAN — Boardman resident
Shannon Karl said she would see people
walking long distances to visit stores. To
help solve that problem, she said, she opened
Daisy Lily Thrift Boutique. The shop at 117
S.E. Front St., Boardman, opened Dec. 1.
Karl, a former nurse with Columbia River
Health, said she felt her greatest sympathy
for mothers and their children. They do not
have access to cars in many cases, or they
have access but only when another family
member returns home from work. This
leaves them walking as many as 30 miles to
Hermiston for a store.
A closer store was necessary, she said,
and a secondhand store was ideal because
there are poorer people in the area.
Daisy Lily Thrift sells a wide variety of
donated items, from toys to clothing, books
and more.
She named the store after her daughters’
birth fl owers, the daisy and the lily.
Makenzie Karl, born in April, has the
daisy as a birth fl ower. Jasmine Karl, born
in May, has the lily of the valley as a birth
fl ower. The fl ower names come together to
form Daisy Lily, which their mother used as
the name of an earlier business, Daisy Lily
Design. She then started making crafts to
sell at local events.
Rather than off ering her goods elsewhere,
she said she will sell her coasters, dresses,
picture frames and other goods exclusively
at her new store. Karl also said she is ready
for Christmas.
This new career as a small business
owner is exciting to her, she said. And while
she intends to keep her nursing license and
possibly look into online nursing work, she
said she wants to see if she likes her new
work more.
“The medical fi eld is not getting easier,”
she said.
She added that burnout is high in the
profession. After 25 years in the fi eld, she
said she feels it is “a lot” and she wants a rest.
Karl said she wants to be a value to the
community through the thrift store, which
provides a place for local people to donate
perfectly good items they otherwise would
toss in the garbage and that she can sell at
aff ordable prices.
“That’s the main thing,” she said. “I want
people to have some place near to go that is
budget friendly.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Scott Hart, left, and Erin Bennett, owners of BackFire Station, string up Christmas lights
Dec. 4, 2021, at the eatery in Pendleton. The Pendleton Development Commission meets
Tuesday, Dec. 14, to consider a request to give the business more funding.
ness for $350,000, Hart and Bennett returned
to the council last November for an urban
development grant.
The pitch Hart and Bennett made to the
council, acting as the development commis-
sion, was to turn the old fi re station into a
draw for locals and tourists alike. Their plans
not only would move some of their Moto
Stuff operations to Pendleton but also turn the
front of the business into a restaurant, lounge
and retail space. The next phase of develop-
ment would create a rooftop townhome and
turn the former fi refi ghter living quarters into
“microsuites.” The last phase of the project
was slated to turn the training tower into a
vacation rental and complete the main part
of the building by adding a service shop and
a motorcycle rental center.
The commission agreed to grant the $1.3
million project $494,819, and since then, Hart
and Bennett opened BackFire Station to the
public. According to the Dec. 14 agenda, the
owners will make a presentation on the status
of the renovation before requesting additional
funds.
The development meeting will be at
6:30 p.m. at the council chambers in Pend-
leton City Hall, 500 S.W. Dorion Ave. The
commission meeting will be immediately
followed by a city council workshop at 7 p.m.
Both meetings can also be accessed virtually
via Zoom at bit.ly/3jKiFQy.
LOCAL BRIEF
Matilla gets more than
nine years in plea deal
PENDLETON — John
McKenzie Mattila’s return to
Eastern Oregon for a retrial in his
drunk driving and manslaughter
case ended with a plea deal to a
serve nine years, two months in
state prison.
That’s a little less than a year
off his original sentence in 2020.
Mattila, 26, of Weston, took a
plea deal Wednesday, Dec. 9, the
result of a settlement conference,
according to state court docu-
ments. Mattila pleaded guilty
to second-degree manslaughter
and driving under the infl uence
of intoxicants, and admitted he
was responsible for the death of
Adelaida Solis Torres.
Mattila on Feb. 22, 2019, was
driving on Highway 11 near
Weston when he crashed into
Solis Torres, a 26-year veteran
of the Oregon Department of
Human Services. Solis Torres
died in the crash, and Mattila
f led the scene. Police later
arrested him.
A jury in March 2020
convicted Mattila after three
hours of deliberation, of fi rst-
and second-degree manslaugh-
ter, DUII and hit-and-run
involving a person. But only the
verdict on the hit-and-run charge
was unanimous. The non-unan-
imous verdicts pushed the case
back to the Umatilla County
Circuit Court in the wake of
the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling banning non-unanimous
verdicts.
Mattila was in the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton, since
Sept. 29, awaiting retrial. He
now is back in the custody of the
Oregon Department of Correc-
tions.
—EO Media Group
Hermiston High grad named Schwarzman Scholar for Chinese studies
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
HER MISTON — For mer
Hermiston resident Salma Angui-
ano claimed to be in good spir-
its after being named one of 152
Schwarzman Scholars for 2022.
The Whitman College senior is
one of 60 awardees from the United
States who will join a one-year
fully-funded master’s program in
global aff airs at Tsinghua Univer-
sity in Beijing, China, according to a
recent press release from Whitman.
Anguiano, a 2018 Hermiston
High School graduate, is a double
major in politics and Chinese
language, with a concentration in
global studies.
“Now that I’m a senior, I’ve been
thinking about what’s next after
Whitman,” Anguiano said Thurs-
day, Dec. 9.
So she she applied to
Schwarzman Scholars. The
program’s website details its
mission statement: “Designed to
prepare young leaders to serve as a
bridge between China and the rest
of the world, Schwarzman Scholars
is the most signifi cant program of
its kind since the Rhodes Trust was
founded in 1902.”
The website states students work
toward a master’s degree at Beijing’s
Tsinghua University, which is one
of China’s most prestigious univer-
sities.
Anguiano said she departs
for Beijing in August, after she
completes her studies at Whit-
man. Her degree in China will be in
global aff airs.
“I’m really passionate about
public policy issues,” she said.
She added that her specific
interests are in higher education,
as well as the workers compensa-
tion system in the U.S. and issues
related to undocumented and
migrant populations. She said she
hopes to better understand work-
ing conditions globally and advo-
Elkhorn Barn Co.
Custom Barns and Storage
Salma Anguiano/Contributed Photo
Salma Anguiano (center) poses for a photo outside of a Buddhist temple
in Yunnan Province, June 2019. The Hermiston resident is one of the 152
Schwarzman Scholars for 2022 and leaving in August for Beijing, China.
cate for workers around the world.
“I’m excited to be surrounded by
global leaders,” she said.
Her cohort is made up of 151
scholars from diff erent countries.
Communicating with, and taking
classes alongside, people with
diff erent backgrounds should be
educational, she said.
Anguiano has previous study
abroad experience, having stud-
ied in Kunming, China, during the
summer of her fi rst year at Whit-
man. Kunming, she explained, is in
Yunnan province in southern China.
There, she studied conversational
Chinese and cultural anthropology
at Yunnan University. Her studies in
Yunnan also included a two-week
learning tour of rural villages and
cities.
This was an eye-opening expe-
rience, she said, and she reported
being glad for the opportunity to
see a country so far away from her
hometown.
“I think having that expo-
sure opens up my worldview on a
number of diff erent issues and chal-
lenge my preconceived notions of
China and the East,” she said. “If I
were president, or very rich, I would
set up a program to allow students to
get that cultural immersion.”
In addition to learning about
government, she said she also
will study Mandarin Chinese. She
said her Chinese language skills
are “not terrible but not the best.”
Total immersion, living in China
and speaking a lot of Chinese,
should help her language skills a
lot, she said.
Tobias Unruh, owner • 600 David Eccles Rd • Baker City, Oregon
Sales
541-519 -2968 • Elkhornbarns@gmail.com • 509-331-4558