A8
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Community college issues aired
By DAKOTA CASTETS-
DIDIER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Chal-
lenges facing Oregon’s com-
munity colleges were hot topics
Thursday, Oct. 6, in Pendleton.
Presidents of the colleges
gathered at Blue Mountain
Community College for the
Oregon Community College
President’s Council.
“We meet monthly, some-
times in person, sometimes via
Zoom,” Oregon Coast Com-
munity College President Bir-
gitte Ryslinge said. “There
is a lot of history with the 17
community colleges in Oregon
doing this through the years.
We’re all independent col-
leges, governed by our local
board of directors, but we
really look for the places we
can work together. Every year
we do a retreat and spend some
time looking at goal setting, or
the big issues coming at us in
a year or longer term, touching
base on those. What are those
common issues that are mean-
ingful to all of us?”
Enrollment, workforce edu-
cation and ongoing challenges
with distance learning in a
post-pandemic era were at the
forefront of discussions.
“Enrollment has dropped
during the two years of the
pandemic, and we’re only
really just coming out of that,”
Ryslinge said. “At my col-
lege we’re just 3 or 4% lower
than the pre-pandemic era, but
we’re going to need a cou-
ple more years to see exactly
what’s going on with that
trend.”
Rogue Community Col-
lege President Randy Weber
said enrollment traditionally
Howard
Yera Cronin
gets a boost during periods of
high unemployment as people
enroll in community college to
get job skills and training.
“Right now there’s so much
labor demand that people do
not need to go to a community
college in order to get that job,”
he said. “We’re seeing employ-
ers hire under qualifi ed appli-
cants at record paces.”
One area of education facing
consistent increased demand is
workforce education.
“A big issue for all of us
across the state comes out of
the coronavirus pandemic is
Ryslinge
Weber
workforce education, it’s such
a key part of what we do at
community colleges,” Rys-
linge explained. “This is where
older adult students are com-
ing, oftentimes they haven’t
completed a degree or certifi -
cate. They left high school and
often waited quite awhile,
now they’re back and they’re
interested in the next career
step that’s going to help
them. Those are jobs Ore-
gon needs, whether advanced
manufacturing or health care.
The challenge for us there is
always asking, how do we
make that aff ordable?”
Chemeketa
Community
College President Jessica
Howard said health care edu-
cation has proven to be a big
issue in 2022.
“We’ve known for a long
time that we’d have an incred-
ible pinch in terms of health
care, health care needs and all
the advancements in health
care technology that have been
expensive to keep up with,”
she said. “Then you add the
pandemic in that mix and you
see not only the burnout, but
the whole sense of what it
means to go into health care
has changed.”
While the perception
around what going into health
care has changed, so has the
perception of what it means
to be in a collegiate class-
room with community col-
leges realizing they must play
a balancing act between using
distanced learning to help stu-
dents and encouraging students
to return to the classroom.
“For some students, learn-
ing styles, and life circum-
stances, distant learning is
great,” Weber said. “One of the
things we’ve been fi nding for
years is trying to get students to
progress to a degree in a timely
manner, with these learning
tools it’s going to help some
students. What we’re learning
is that distance learning is just
another tool in our toolbox for
the future.”
Flexibility has become the
No. 1 demand from students,
Ryslinge said.
“It’s gotten more compli-
cated how we serve students
and determine what’s sustain-
able,” she said “It’s an inter-
esting time to be in education
leadership.”
Easterday fraud called staggering
wila, Wash., a real estate devel-
oper that invested in cattle.
After helping sell his farms
YAKIMA, WA — Cody and feedlots in bankruptcy court,
Easterday’s 11-year sentence Easterday returned to court for
for fraud was largely based on sentencing. Oreskovich pleaded
the amount he stole, a sum U.S. for home detention.
attorneys called staggering.
Otherwise
exemplary
But his lawyer said that sum throughout his life, Easterday
refl ected the scale of his
was taken down by an
cattle business.
addiction to gambling
Easterday, 51, was
on the future prices of
given a prison term
commodities, Oreskov-
Oct. 4 in Yakima,
ich said.
Wash., based on stan-
Afterward, he said
dardized sentencing
Judge Stanley Bastian’s
guidelines. Even with-
sentence was harsh.
out prior convictions,
Easterday
walked
Easterday
Easterday was subject
briskly past report-
to a long sentence because the ers, free until he self-reports to
$244 million he stole pushed up prison offi cials. His family and
his off ender score.
friends, who packed the court-
Defense attorney Carl Ore- room in silent support, quietly
skovich did not dispute the Jus- and slowly fi led out.
tice Department’s calculation.
Bastian said it was the larg-
But, seeking leniency, he asked est fraud case he had ever seen,
the court to consider other fac- or hoped to see. He asked John
tors, including the size of East- “Fritz” Scanlon, assistant chief
erday’s transactions with Tyson of the Justice Department’s
Fresh Meats.
fraud division, to compare it to
Over the previous decade, other cases.
Easterday and Tyson had done
Finding a comparable case
$2 billion worth of business. On is hard, said Scanlon, who
one day alone, Easterday billed referred to a crime he prose-
Tyson $5.3 million to care for cuted this year involving an
6,312 head of “phantom” cattle.
ex-pro football player.
Easterday wasn’t greedy or
The frauds were similar, he
living lavishly; he was in a hole said, but the losses weren’t. The
and trying to gamble his way ex-pro submitted fraudulent
out, Oreskovich said. “It’s easy medical claims totaling $2.9
to understand why the loss was million. The Easterday fraud
as large as it was.”
was “massive,” Scanlon said.
Easterday pleaded guilty last “Your honor, this is a serious,
year to taking $233 million from serious crime.”
Tyson and another $11 million
Bastian said he was puz-
from Segale Properties of Tuk- zled. Easterday took over a
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
MyEagleNews.com
AWS payment deal reached
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners approved a deal
for Amazon Web Services Inc. to make pay-
ments in lieu of taxes on the four new data
centers it’s building in the county.
The board signed off on the four enter-
prise zone agreements at its meeting Wednes-
day, Oct. 5, joining the Hermiston City Coun-
cil and Umatilla City Council in approving
the plan.
Hermiston and Umatilla are slated for two
server farm campuses each. AWS is to make
various payments in lieu of property taxes for
15 years.
“It’s a big deal,” board Chair John Shafer
said. “We’re pretty excited. Amazon knew
the public was looking closely at the deal.
They stepped up their off er, and the three
entities were pleased with it. They were really
wanting to be a good partner. It was very
impressive.”
The agreements include an annual
improvement payment of $5 per square foot
of the buildings, as long as they cover at least
180,000 square feet, Shafer explained.
“They’re 210,000 square feet,” he said.
That works out to $4.2 million per year.
Hermiston and Umatilla should each receive
at least $1.05 million annually and the county
$2.1 million.
A further $25 million base payment for
each of the four campuses goes to special
taxing districts, such as schools and public
safety. This payment is scheduled to grow by
3% each year.
In 15 years, when AWS goes onto the tax
rolls, the county estimates its tax rate should
double.
AWS submitted applications for develop-
ment of two new campuses within the Greater
Hermiston Enterprise Zone, requesting a
long-term rural abatement for approximately
204 and 118 acres. The board reviewed and
approved terms for the abatements. As a
co-sponsor of the zone, the county agreed to
the terms of the agreements.
The Hermiston City Council approved the
requests at its Sept. 26 meeting, and Umatilla
City Council approved AWS’ requests at its
meeting Tuesday, Oct. 4.
The parcels in the Greater Umatilla Enter-
prise Zone cover 234 and 212 acres. The
agreements for Long-Term Rural Enterprise
Zone Abatement require AWS to invest at
least $200 million per campus, hire at least 10
new full-time employees, pay average wages
equal to the Umatilla County average wage,
provide additional compensation benefi ts
equal to 130% of the county average wage
and pay the required fees to the zone over the
term of the agreement.
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139101
Blue Mountain Eagle
James Thomas/Contributed Photo, File
The Amazon data center in Umatilla is one of four sites in Umatilla and Morrow counties that
have been completed since 2010. Umatilla, Hermiston and Umatilla County have approved a
plan for Amazon to make payments in lieu of taxes on the four new data centers it’s building in
the county.
S286526-1
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
family farm of 1,000 acres in
southeast Washington and built
it into 22,000 acres of pota-
toes, onions, corn and wheat.
After building an empire, he
destroyed it, the judge said.
Easterday also fed cattle and
Tyson was his biggest customer.
Easterday reported in November
2020 that his feedlots and grow
yards held 296,535 head of cattle
belonging to the company.
Tyson was curious about its
cattle investment, according to
court records. The company fl ew
drones over Easterday’s lots and
saw far fewer cattle than in East-
erday’s inventory report.
When confronted, Easterday
said he had lost the money from
his scheme — “pissed it away on
the merc,” according to a Tyson
executive, a reference to the Chi-
cago Mercantile Exchange.
“I’m truly sorry to Tyson,”
Easterday said during the sen-
tencing hearing.
Easterday still faces charges
by the Commodity Futures Trad-
ing Commission that he submit-
ted false cattle inventory reports
to increase the amount he could
bet on commodity futures.
The case, also pending in
U.S. District Court for Eastern
Washington before Judge Bas-
tian, has been on hold until the
fraud case was settled.
U.S. attorneys portrayed
Easterday as a sire of “extreme
privilege,”
a
well-heeled
white-collar criminal who
shouldn’t get less time than a
street-level crack cocaine dealer.
Oreskovich disputed the
characterization. He said East-
erday was a farmer who bought
animals at the fair raised by 4-H
kids and paid for immigration
lawyers to help employees.
“He didn’t enjoy extreme
privilege. He built an empire,”
Oreskovich said.
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