REGION
Saturday, May 14, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
Trade and event center takeover First Student
Three employees
ready to join staff
said this puts the center in a
spot similar to where it was
prior to the pandemic. More
events are expected, he said.
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
EOTEC staff OK
with change
HERMISTON — The city
of Hermiston is planning to
take over the management
of the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center at the start
of 2023.
This represents a change
for EOTEC. The city had
awarded a fi ve-year contract
to VenuWorks, an Iowa-based
venue management company,
to manage the center. This
contract is set to expire at the
end of 2022. According to
City Manager Byron Smith,
the contract gives parties
options to renew.
In its most recent meeting,
Monday, May 9, the Herm-
iston City Council decided
7-0 not to renew the contract.
There was one absence.
T he c it y m a n a ge r
presented the case for the city
managing EOTEC.
S m it h p a s s e d o u t
EOTEC’s budget to coun-
cil members at the meet-
ing, showing total expenses
for fi scal year 2022-23 to be
$587,950. He said the city
could run the event center and
roughly break even.
“We’ve been pleased with
a great relationship with the
local staff here from Venu-
Works, but I think our chal-
lenges have been more with
the corporate side, particu-
larly on the fi nancial report-
ing and diff erent things we’ve
wanted from them,” he said.
Looking forward to 2023,
the city of Hermiston is plan-
ning to retain EOTEC’s three
full-time employees. And
those employees on May 11
said they are fi ne with this
arrangement.
Davis said he is not
a long-term VenuWorks
employee, as he started
with the company when he
was hired to be the EOTEC
general manager. He moved
to Hermiston from Kansas
to take the job, and he said
he had not heard of the
company prior to his appli-
cation.
“VenuWorks has been
very good to me and good to
my family,” he said. “I don’t
have any hard feelings about
VenuWorks. I think they’re a
good company to work for.”
He said that Hermiston
may have future dealings
with the company, especially
when it comes to naming
rights and future events.
Davis, operations
manager Brian Rust and
office manager Jennifer
Oswald said they do not have
negative feelings about join-
ing city staff at the end of the
VenuWorks contract.
“I just like working here,
period,” Oswald said. “I
don’t care, really, who runs
it, I guess. It’s really more
of a lifestyle than a job, so I
really like it here.”
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
The staff at Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center, Hermiston,
pose for a photo Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at the nearby rodeo
area. The city of Hermiston plans to make the trio — from left,
offi ce manager Jennifer Oswald, general manager Al Davis and
operations manager Brian Rust — city employees in 2023.
He added there is “poten-
tial that we can go after them
for breach of contract.”
However, he expressed,
the company had under-
standable struggles due to
the pandemic. For its part,
VenuWorks was able to build
a staff , a problem when the
city had tried it previously,
according to Smith.
EOTEC is back
from pandemic
Prior to a vote to not renew
the VenuWorks contract,
Al Davis, EOTEC general
manager, gave an update
about the state of EOTEC.
He said before the coronavi-
rus pandemic, the center had
a full calendar of events. This
soon changed, as only 43 of
173 scheduled events actu-
ally occurred in 2020.
In 2021, he said, EOTEC
obtained grants to help keep
it afl oat and add to the facil-
ity and certain events.
This year, Davis told
the council, EOTEC has
177 event days booked. He
Weather makes seeing lunar eclipse a long shot
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Cloudy
weather looks to get in the
way of Sunday night, May 15,
of a total lunar eclipse over
Northeastern Oregon.
A blood moon occurs
during a total lunar eclipse,
when Earth is positioned
directly between the sun and
the moon, hiding the latter
from sunlight. This month’s
full moon is also a super-
moon, which seems slightly
larger and brighter than usual,
since it is at perigee, its clos-
est point to Earth in its orbit.
Because the moon’s orbit
is not a perfect circle, the
moon is sometimes closer to
the Earth than at other points
during its path. On average,
supermoons appear about 7%
bigger and 15% brighter than
a typical full moon, accord-
ing to NASA.
The full moon in May is
called the “flower” moon.
Other names for May’s full
moon are the corn planting
moon and the milk moon,
according to NASA.
At totality, the moon
will refl ect a faint, reddish
glow, as red wavelengths of
sunlight filter through our
planet’s atmosphere onto the
moon’s surface. During the
eclipse, it also could appear
shades of orange, yellow or
brown.
“When this happens, the
only light that reaches the
moon’s surface is from the
edges of the Earth’s atmo-
sphere,” NASA explained.
“The air molecules from
Earth’s atmosphere scatter
out most of the blue light.
The remaining light refl ects
onto the moon’s surface with
a red glow, making the moon
appear red in the night sky.”
The eclipse begins at
moonrise, 8:13 p.m., reaches
maximum at 9:11 p.m. and
ends at 11:50 p.m., for a dura-
tion of three hours and 38
minutes in Pendleton. The
penumbral eclipse will actu-
ally start at 6:32 p.m., but the
moon will be below the hori-
zon at that time.
The combination of it
being very low on the hori-
zon and the total eclipse
phase will make the moon
dim. Thus, it will be diffi cult
to view until it gets higher
in the sky or the total phase
ends.
The National Weather
Service, however, is forecast-
ing a 40% chance of showers
and thunderstorms before
11 p.m. over Pendleton. The
night looks to be mostly
cloudy with a low around 50.
starts interviews
for bus drivers
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pend-
leton School District’s new
contractor for bussing plans
to start interviewing driver
applicants next week.
Tammy Thompson is
the regional recruiter for
First Student. She explained
the process to get an inter-
view is all electronic and
starts with applying online
at apply.workatfirst.com/
vacancy/39172/description.
After someone submits
an application, she said, the
systems sends an email with
a time, date and location for
the interview.
First Student, she said, is
“always hiring, always inter-
viewing.”
The work is part time,
and pay starts at $21 an hour.
First Student also offers
hiring bonuses: $500 for a
driver without a commer-
cial driver’s license and
$1,500 for driver’s with a
LOCAL BRIEFING
Local motorcycle
gang members
plead guilty
GRIFFIN, Ga. — Two
Milton-Freewater men have
pleaded guilty to charges
stemming from a brawl in
Georgia.
Dustin Wendelin and
Charles Montgomery also
are members of the Pagan’s
Outlaw Motorcycle Gang,
according to a press release
from the Walla Walla County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce.
Law enforcement in
September 2021 arrested
Wendelin and Montgomery
on assault and gang charges
out of Georgia.
Walla Walla County
sheriff’s deputies arrested
Wendelin the morning
PENDLETON — The
wind damage to homes
and vehicles on May 6 near
Weston came from a pair of
tornadoes.
One twister ripped a roof
from a home and carried it
300 feet.
The fi rst touched down for
six minutes at 1:44 p.m. about
8 miles east of Weston and
traveled up to 1.5 miles. The
second tornado from the same
storm stayed on the ground for
three minutes at 1:52 p.m. It
landed 1 or 2 miles to the east
and traveled less than a mile.
Both tornadoes were
rated F1 on the Fujita Scale
of tornado damage intensity,
according to the National
Weather Service. F1 torna-
does can cause moderate
damage and have 3 second
gusts of 86 to 110 mph.
“Umatilla County doesn’t
get a whole lot of torna-
does,” NWS meteorologist
Cole Evans said. “Count-
ing the two on Friday, only
8 have been reported since
1950. They’re also rare in
Union and Morrow Coun-
ties.”
A large farm building
collapsed and the roof
was lifted off a cabin and
carried away, according to
the weather service. Fallen
trees also blocked roads.
Cole explained that
prolonged southwest fl ow
aloft over enough time, with
heating during the day, can
of Sept. 9, 2021, after he
reported to work at the Wash-
ington State Penitentiary,
Walla Walla. Law enforce-
ment caught up to Montgom-
ery a few hours later at his
home in Milton-Freewater.
They were extradited
to Georgia, where they
remained incarcerated until
recently. The pair on April 25
pleaded guilty in Georgia to
one count each of aggravated
assault and a violation of the
Street Gang Terrorism and
Prevention Act.
Both charges are felonies
in Georgia, according to the
sheriff ’s offi ce, and Wendelin
and Montgomery received a
sentence of credit for approx-
imately fi ve-and-half months
of time in jail and are subject
to up to 12 years of probation.
— EO Media Group
Got a great business idea
for downtown Pendleton?
Join the Path to Success
Grant Challenge!
Two tornadoes tear through Blue Mountains
East Oregonian
CDL. Thompson said the
company also trains drivers
for free so they can obtain a
Class B CDL.
The school district in
February selected the Ohio-
based First Student over
Mid Columbia Bus Co. in
Pendleton. Thompson said
First Student is working to
have drivers ready as soon
as possible, but at the begin-
ning of school in the fall
there is going to be a learn-
ing curve.
Even so, she said, First
Student plans to address and
resolve any issues in short
order. And First Student is
looking at how it integrates
into the community, she said.
In other locations, First
Student operates its Stuff
the Bus event, Thompson
explained, where local resi-
dents can fill a bus with
donations for a food bank or
for children at Christmas.
“We’re hoping to serve
the community in diff erent
ways,” she said.
spawn tornadoes. When
guided over the mountains,
the winds generate suffi cient
rotation to produce twisters.
A tornado touched down
near Stanfi eld on May 24, 2004.
Each winner receives
$20,000
to fund their business.
Apply at pendletonurbanrenewal.com/pts
OR: Print and send/deliver your application to
Pendleton City Hall. Application due by 5 p.m.
May 24.
To qualify for this challenge:
You must have at least $5,000 available to you to
invest in your new business.
LeeAnnOttosen@UmpquaBank.com
UmpquaBank.com/Lee-Ann-Ottosen
Learn more at: pendletonurbanrenewal.com/pts
2022
I
Northeast Oregon
S T . A NTHONY C LINIC
O PEN E ARLY
S AME D AY A PPOINTMENTS
M ONDAY - T HURSDAY 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
F RIDAY 8 AM - 5:00 PM
PHOTO
CONTEST
Visit eastoregonian.com and enter today!
O UR CARING PROVIDERS are
accepting new patients of
ALL AGES , and they will be
glad to help you get back
to feeling your best!
There's no need for you
to be an established
patient to make an
appointment.
For more information, or to schedule, call 541-966-0535, Option 4.