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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2017)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 NEWS City apologizes for Echo councilor’s comments By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER The city of Echo issued an apology Friday for state- ments made by city council- or Lou Nakapalau on Face- book calling a gay man an anti-gay slur and telling him that when he dies of AIDS he will spit on his grave. “The Echo City Council would like to extend its sin- cerest apology to those who were offended by comments made by a council member in a Facebook dialog report- ed by the East Oregonian,” the statement reads. “Comments of individ- ual council members on their personal social media accounts do not have any endorsement or approval of the council as a whole nor do they represent city poli- cy.” FILE PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Louis Nakapalau talks about his experiences in joining the army at the age of fifteen and serving in Vietnam during a Veterans’ Day ceremony in 2015 at Stanfield Secondary School. The statement goes on to say that the city does not endorse any statement that disparages someone be- cause of their identity and has never taken an action or adopted a policy that was “in any sense prejudicial or biased toward a class or group of people.” The comments in ques- tion happened on Oct. 7 on the Facebook page for “Kumu Hina,” a documen- tary about a transgender Hawaiian woman. Nakapalau argued with filmmaker Joe Wilson about transgender rights, culminating in his com- ment about spitting on Wil- son’s grave. The comment has since been deleted and Facebook shows Nakapa- lau edited another part of the conversation to remove profanity. City councilor Robert Harris proposed issuing the apology during Thursday’s council meeting — the first since Nakapalau made the comments on Oct. 7. “I think that’s the abso- lute least we can do,” Har- ris said. His motion was met with Ranch & Home deadline extended By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER Hermiston residents hoping to hit a new Ranch & Home store for Christ- mas shopping will be out of luck this year after the com- pany told the city it won’t open its doors before its original deadline of Jan. 1. The Hermiston city council voted Monday to extend deadlines until June for the outdoor life- style retailer after owner George Dress asked for a new deadline of March 1 to fulfill requirements needed to be reimbursed for some development costs. The city had previous- ly approved an agreement with Ranch & Home to reimburse system devel- opment charges, building permit fees and some sew- er costs — an incentive package worth an estimated $107,800 — if the store be- ing built on south Highway 395 gained its occupancy permit by Jan. 1, 2018. The agreement also stated that the city would reimburse the company $185,000 in road development costs if the company managed to recruit a grocery store to build next door by Oct. 1, 2018. In the original deal, the company would be reim- bursed 10 percent less — about $11,000 — for each month it missed the dead- line, for up to six months. The company has had difficulty finding electri- cians, however, causing Dress to request that the full reimbursement be extended to March 1. After May- or David Drotzmann ex- pressed concern that March would not be enough time to finish, the council voted unanimously to extend the deal even further, to June. Ranch & Home will also have until Oct. 1, 2019 to recruit a grocery store. Assistant city manag- er Mark Morgan said staff recommended an extension on the agreement because the “major intent” of the money was to get Dress to begin construction on the development, and the Jan- uary deadline was put in place to avoid having an open-ended deal. The city recently had to delay a proj- ect putting traffic signals on NW 11th Street because it received no bids from elec- trical contractors, he said, so “the city can certainly commiserate” with having projects thrown off sched- ule due to a shortage of electricians in the area. He also said there didn’t seem to be a downside to extending the part of the agreement about the gro- cery store, because either no grocery store would come in and the city would not have to pay the road costs, or the city would get a new grocery store. “The city can continue to recruit, but it just doesn’t carry the same weight as another business owner saying ‘I’ve invested mil- lions of dollars here,’” he said. Drotzmann said he agreed that the real intent of the incentives were to get the ball rolling on con- struction of the store, and there didn’t seem to be any reason why Ranch & Home would want to delay open- ing if they had a choice. “I don’t think they’re making this up,” he said. “I don’t think they’re trying to stall by any means.” Councilor John Kir- wan agreed, noting that the company he works for, Union Pacific Railroad, has problems finding electrical contractors in most states where it is located. several seconds of silence from the rest of the coun- cil, prompting an outcry from audience members as it looked like the motion might die from a lack of a second, but it was seconded by councilor Janie Enright and the entire council — in- cluding Nakapalau — vot- ed to approve the motion. Nakapalau did not offer any comment during the council meeting and has not returned requests for comment. Two people — Vickie Read of Pendleton and Jen- ny Sullivan of Hermiston — commented during the meeting that Thursday’s meeting asking for the city to take some action. “I’m absolutely disgust- ed and think any self-re- specting council would throw him off,” Sullivan said. On Friday, Echo busi- ness owner Pam Reese said some businesses have post- ed signs on their doors stat- ing that people of all races, religions, countries of ori- gin, sexual orientations and genders are welcome. Reese called Nakapa- lau’s comments “hate speech” and said she was mystified watching “a group of elected officials struggle to understand how to do the right thing.” Harris also proposed that the council put togeth- er some sort of ethics and social media policy for council members, and city administrator Diane Berry said she had some exam- ples from other cities that she could bring forward for discussion at a future coun- cil meeting. Sunset Park celebration set for 4 p.m. Wednesday HERMISTON — Hermiston residents are invited to celebrate win- ning a grant for new play- ground equipment for Sunset Park on Wednes- day at 4 p.m. The grant comes from a contest sponsored by Moda Health and the Portland Trail Blazers. Hermiston won more than $16,000 this summer after beating out Tillamook and Portland in an online vot- ing contest. The celebration Wednesday at Sunset Park, 11 N.E. Fourth St., will include a ribbon-cut- ting ceremony at 4 p.m. and refreshments. Se- nior vice president Robin Richardson will represent Moda Health and vice president of social respon- sibility Christa Stout will represent the Blazers. Hermiston parks and recreation director Larry Fetter said the playground equipment paid for by the grant was ordered in July but has not yet arrived, and he does not have a firm date for when it will. He said it was disap- pointing that the equip- ment wasn’t in place in time for the celebration but it is “beyond our con- trol.” “Regardless of when it arrives, even if it’s the middle of winter, we’ll get it in the ground,” he said. I NTRODUCING P HONAK D IRECT C ONNECTIVITY H EARING A IDS • Direct connectivity to any cell phone * • Hearing aids used as a wireless head- set for hands-free calls • Excellent TV sound quality1 with hearing aids turned into wireless TV headphones Phonak direct connectivity hearing aids offer universal connectivity to any cell phone* regardless of the brand or operating system. With direct connectivity hearing aids, Phonak offers a solution that provides true hands-free functionality just like a Bluetooth® wireless headset. The hearing aids utilize it’s built-in microphones to pick up the clients voice for phone calls. A call can be heard ringing directly in the hearing aids and with a simple push of a button, can be answered or rejected. This can be done at distance from the telephone e.g. while a client is positioned on the other side of a room. Direct connectivity also extends to media playing with automatic connectivity to any TV or stereo system through a new and compact, multimedia hub called TV Connector. It delivers excellent stereo sound quality up to 15m away and does not require any additional streaming device. With Phonak direct connectivity hearing aids, clients can enjoy the freedom of universal connectivity RENATA ANDERSON M.A. 2237 Southwest • Court Place Pendleton, OR 97801 541-276-5053 The Hermiston Junior Academy students, faculty, school board, and Foundation Board of Directors wish to thank the following individuals and businesses for their kind and generous support of Christian Education in our community. Foundation 1300 NW Academy Lane PO Box 403 • Hermiston OR 97838 Ace Hardware Alive & Well Allan Payne Andee’s Boutique Auntie Ida’s Quilt & Sewing Shop Banner Bank Bellinger Farms Big 5 Sporting Goods Big River Golf Course Brian & Kimberlee Moore Brickhouse Coff ee & Bistro Britney Wood, LMT Bruce Heating Buttercreek Equipment C & R Mercantile Camp Mivoden Central Machinery CHS Nutrition Chuckwagon Café Columbia Bank HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY, HERMISTON JUNIOR ACADEMY!!! Columbia Tree Care Country Animal Hospital Dairy Queen Dale & JoAnn Rincker Dawn Eddy Doug & Carleen Flaiz Duane & Tamie Johnson ENT Facial Plastic & Laser Center Family Health Associates Good Shepherd Pharmacy Guy & Paula Oltman Hale’s Restaurant Hermiston Drug Hermiston Parks & Recreation Hi Tek Nails Ixtapa Restaurant Jake Broyles Jason’s Artisan Chocolates Jean Carleton Jerry Ross John Walchli Ken & Joanne Wilson Kim Munar Kopacz Nursery & Florist Larry & Darla Hanson La Palma Restaurant Laura Eddy Les Schwab Tires Mechanix, Inc. Monique Larkin Nelly’s Super Tacos NW Metal Fabricators O So Kleen Obie’s Coff ee Shop Patti Carroll Preferred Property Management Purswell Pump Randy & Rhonda Randall Randy & Tammy Smith RDO Equipment Reesa Leavitt Richard & Claudia Flaiz Rick’s Car Wash Rite Aid Pharmacies Safeway Sanitary Transfer Station Sassafras Flowers Scott’s Cycle & Sports SDA Community Ctr. Shari’s Restaurant Simply Divine SS Equipment Steve Walker Taste of Thai Toni Eddy Top Notch Construction Two Rivers Correctional Institute Umatilla County Fair Offi ce Umpqua Bank Walker’s Farm Kitchen Ye Olde Pizza Shoppe We also want to express our thanks to all who participated in the event.
