LOCAL & STATE
BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, ApRIL 30, 2022 A3
BMCC faculty implore board not to accept budget proposal
BY PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Faculty of
Blue Mountain Community
College took a unified stance
Monday, April 25, against the
budget proposal calling for nu-
merous layoffs and program
cuts at the college.
The budget committee,
though, held off on making any
decision after meeting for the
better part of three hours.
BMCC instructors gathered
at the Pendleton campus before
the committee discussed the
college administration’s pro-
posal to eliminate 10 full-time
teaching positions, several part-
time positions in multiple dis-
ciplines and eliminating crim-
inal justice, college prep and
industrial systems technology
programs. They had prepared
statements to deliver to the
committee, the rest of the col-
lege board and the administra-
tion. The East Oregonian ob-
tained several of the statements.
Just getting into the board-
room took some effort. The
college was not going to let
instructors into the meet-
ing. BMCC President Mark
Browning, standing in the
hallway outside the room,
agreed faculty could go in one
at a time to address the board.
Math instructor Bob Hillen-
brand went first.
He told the committee and
Browning that a similar sce-
nario played out in 2002-03,
when Travis Kirkland was pres-
ident of the college.
“Just like then, we’re hearing
now claims of the imminent
demise of the college,” Hillen-
brand said, “a false pretext for
radical action from someone
who just arrived primed with
an anti-faculty agenda.”
But 20 years later, Blue
Mountain continues operating.
He warned this fight will end
up in arbitration and the out-
come will be the same at it was
then. The college spent nearly
$500,000 dollars fighting legal
challenges during Kirkland’s
tenure, Hillenbrand said, and
lost all of them.
“Don’t waste precious college
funds on lawyers,” he urged.
Hillenbrand also said Brown-
ing was deceptive in his use of
figures and obscured facts, such
as the 39 classified and admin-
istration positions the college
cut in recent years. Those were
“paper people that existed only
on the pages of the budget,” he
said, and had no effect on the
actual ending fund balance nor
on students served.
“Most of the real cuts were
classified,” he continued. “I
know of 14. By grouping clas-
sified together with admin-
istration he obscures the fact
that only a small number of FT
administrators were actually re-
Shooting
ger during evening practices at
the Baker Trap Club, just east
Continued from Page A1
of Highway 30 about a mile
north of town.
The team started in 2020, the
“I just saw it at the school
and I thought it looked inter-
first year of the pandemic.
esting,” said Ethan Morgan, a
As luck had it, maintaining
a safe distance is a principal of three-year team member and
a sport involving rapidly firing current captain.
On bad weather days, stu-
shotguns.
dents study techniques for tak-
About 15 students signed
up for the first year of compe- ing out right and left angle tar-
gets, and other subjects.
tition.
Students clean and prep the
Eleven stayed on from the
first year and, together with as- Trap Club for the next session,
sistant coach Wayne Paxton, 10 stock the targets and wire up
students competed at the Ore- the clay pigeon-throwing ma-
gon state tournament in 2021. chine. It resembles the rotating
chambers of a revolver, and
Riley Hurliman, an eighth
stacks hundreds of the clay
grader and team captain, was
disks in its racks.
state champion in the novice
Kimball is excited about how
division and third in the JV di-
rapidly the team members have
vision.
progressed.
This spring, coach Zack
Kimball said a grant from
Kimball’s squad, totaling about
the National Rifle Association
30 students, has been annihi-
supplied clay pigeons as well as
lating clay targets for the past
five shotguns that team mem-
month or so despite air cold
enough to cramp a trigger fin- bers can use.
the wind didn’t help.”
Browning didn’t specify what
“information,” but the East Or-
Blue Mountain Community
egonian in recent weeks has
College’s budget document
reported the college was clos-
is available online at www.
ing the industrial systems tech-
bluecc.edu/about/adminis-
nology program, and Morrow
tration/finance.
County Commissioner Me-
lissa Lindsay during the county
board’s meeting last week said
video showing the board room BMCC is not going to fund its
and remainder of the meeting. part of the Workforce Training
For about the next two hours Center in Boardman, so the
the budget committee, rest of
county could direct the money
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian the college board, Browning
to the center.
and several administrators dis-
Sara Reyburn, who teaches psychology at Blue Mountain Commu-
The college president said
nity College, Pendleton, speaks to the college budget committee and cussed the budget proposal and he wasn’t giving up on receiv-
ing the funds, but he wasn’t not
board of educators Monday, April 25, 2022, imploring them not to cut kicked its tires, including its
$17.2 million general fund.
counting on it, either.
10 full-time faculty positions.
During the course of the dis-
Board member Kent Madison
Gary Parker, Blue Mountain cussion, the board asked about said it comes down to the college
lieved of their positions. I know
math and computer science
roughly $627,000 in money
having too many tools — teach-
of only two.”
coach, told the board, “Many of from Amazon the college
ers — in its tool box for the work
Science instructor Sascha
McKeon provided the board
the programs scheduled to be
was to receive from Morrow
it has to do. He said it’s import-
with a “broad compilation of
cut have low overhead and gen- County. The board of commis- ant the college remain flexible in
the beginning year revenues
erate excess revenue,” including sioners there, however, decided its educational mission.
and top five expenditures for
math, English and adult basic
not to send the money to Blue
Browning near the end of
the last five years.” She said
education. And if Blue Moun- Mountain. Board member
meeting said it was his impres-
there has been a drastic reduc- tain doesn’t have what students Chris Brown, who represents
sion the board needed more
tion in faculty and questioned
want, they will not come here.
Morrow County, asked the ad- time to digest all the infor-
why faculty should “shoulder
A number of other faculty
ministration to explain what
mation they received, and the
the burden of low enrollment?” also spoke, and the board did
happened.
board agreed, deciding to meet
She told the committee the
not respond. For the public tun-
Browning said Morrow
again May 10.
projected revenue for next year ing in via the streaming plat-
County commissioners on a 2-1
Before that, the college board
is down 6%, yet the administra- form Zoom, this portion of the vote pulled the plug on provid- of education meets May 2 to
tion is seeking to cut 33% of the meeting was difficult to follow. ing the funds to the college be- take action on notifying faculty
faculty.
The audio was poor in quality
cause they wanted to keep the
on May 3 about layoffs.
“That does not track, when
and there was no video. After
money in Morrow County.
If the budget committee still
revenue is projected to be up
instructors made their presen-
“I think there was some pol- needs more time after that, it
next year by $300,000,” McK-
tations, the college restarted the itics in play with some of this,” can meet again May 12 to vote
eon said.
Zoom meeting, which then had he said, “and the information in on the budget.
BMCC 2022-23 budget
“It took about 15 hours to
write out an NRA grant,” Kim-
ball said. “They really pulled
through.”
On the firing line
During practices, students
one at a time call “pull!” and
the machine whips the clay pi-
geon out to the range with an
intentionally random skew.
Most of them don’t touch the
ground intact.
“They’re gonna shoot about
20,000 clay targets,” Kimball
said, talking about the entire
2022 season.
At competitions, athletes
generally shoot 25 targets for
each of two days, for a total of
50.
During the Shamrock
Shoot event on March 12 at La
Grande, Hurliman placed first
in the JV division, and Paxton,
the assistant coach, was first in
the coaches division.
Both Kimball and Paxton
are competitive trap shooters.
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Assistant Coach Wayne Paxton calibrates the target thrower at Baker
Trap Club on April 27, 2022.
On Wednesday, May 4, Bak-
Oregon state’s tournament
er’s team will travel to La Grande is set for June 25-26 at Hill-
for one of the larger trapshoot- sboro, with as many as 600
competitors expected. The
ing competitions in the state.
national competition is July
6-10 in Michigan, with more
than 3,000 students compet-
ing.
The sport has demanding
prerequisites — eye and ear
protection to start, and all
firearms are inspected before
competition and must meet
competitive minimums.
Baker team members are
waiting on their first official
team gear, arriving hopefully
before they attend the meet in
La Grande, on special order
by designer Jason Ritter.
The Baker trapshoot-
ing team will host an open
event on May 22, starting at
7:30 a.m. at the Trap Club, to
raise money for expenses to
travel to the state tournament.
For more information, or
if you’re interested in joining
the team, call Kimball at 541-
910-8446.
Training
Continued from Page A1
The regional training sites
rotate among the counties,
Ash said. Last year’s exercise
took place at Salt Creek Sum-
mit in Wallowa County. Baker
County most recently hosted
the event in 2015.
Union Creek campground,
which is not open to the public
for the season, is an ideal base
for the training, Ash said.
Many of the search and res-
cue members will be camping
for the weekend, and Union
Creek, rare among Forest Ser-
vice facilities, has campsites
with full hookups for trailers
and RVs.
There’s also cell service in
the area, he said, so partici-
pants can be reached if a work
or family issue arises over the
weekend.
Ash said officials at the
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
have been designing the sce-
narios since January.
The focus, he said, will be
on honing skills needed for a
multi-day search involving two
command teams.
On Friday evening, April
29, the first team was briefed
about the situation, which in-
volves a missing person or,
potentially, more than one,
Ash said.
The command team will
then devise a strategy for a
search that commenced Satur-
day morning.
The exercise is designed
to keep searchers busy at
least through the afternoon,
Ash said.
If they happen to find the
“victim” relatively soon, there
are alternatives to extend the
exercise, he said.
The command team will be
given the sorts of information
typically available at the out-
set of a search, such as the last
point at which the person or
people were seen.
The search area will be
limited to about 3,000 acres,
Ash said.
“We’ll have some clues
throughout the scenario for
them to find,” he said — a
piece of clothing, for instance.
“We’re not setting them up
Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo
A search and rescue training took place in 2019 near Phillips Reservoir.
for failure, but it is a real sce-
nario where they will have to
use their skills to find the per-
son,” Ash said.
He said the scenarios are in-
tended to be challenging. Ash,
who has participated in many
searches during his law en-
forcement career, said almost
every incident involves some
unexpected twist.
Earlier this month, for in-
stance, when volunteers from
the Baker County Sheriff’s Of-
fice Search and Rescue team
were summoned to look for a
Pendleton couple overdue on a
turkey hunting trip near Balm
Creek Reservoir, northeast of
Baker City, they were initially
searching for a Dodge Dakota
pickup truck.
But the couple, who spent
the night in their vehicle
and were found safe the next
morning, were actually driving
a Subaru.
Later on Saturday, following
the search, participants will
gather near Union Creek for a
technical rope rescue exercise
at a cliff.
The “victim” in this case will
be a mannequin, Ash said.
On Saturday evening, re-
sponsibility for the search will
be transferred to the second
command team — in effect a
continuation of the exercise
earlier in the day.
The new command team
will oversee another search on
Sunday morning.
This task will have an addi-
tional challenge, Ash said.
The subject of the search
is a person who, in real life,
has a prosthetic leg. In the ex-
ercise scenario, that person
will not have the prosthetic
attached to simulate a vic-
tim who had a limb severed
during an accident.
That will require searchers
not only to find the person,
but to “treat” the patient for
severe injuries before load-
ing the person on a litter
for transport.
Other activities
In addition to the training
exercises, Ash said a Life-
Flight helicopter is scheduled
to land Friday afternoon at
Union Creek for a program
about working safely around
helicopters.
Also, FirstNet, an AT&T
service designed to supply
wireless communications to
public safety agencies in the
field, will have a mobile com-
munications truck participat-
ing in this weekend’s training,
Ash said.
He said the Baker County
Sheriff ’s Office is consider-
ing joining the FirstNet net-
work. The service supplies
mobile trucks to provide
wireless communications in
places that lack reliable cell
coverage — a frequent issue
in search and rescue mis-
sions in remote Eastern Or-
egon. The service also allows
command teams to track the
movements of all searchers
through their cellphones.
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