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.