WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL
County commission race: Pullen mostly self-
funded, Givens goes for write-in redemption
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Rick Pullen of Pendleton
reported raising $3,020 and
spending almost $2,800 so
far in his campaign to oust
incumbent George Mur-
dock as Umatilla County
commissioner.
Murdock, also of Pend-
leton, has reported rais-
ing more than $10,000 and
spending almost $7,200 to
win a second full term as
commissioner.
Pullen’s campaign finan-
cials became public this
week on ORESTAR, the
Oregon Secretary of State’s
website
for
campaign
finance activity.
Pullen’s plethora of black
and yellow political signs led
some local political insiders
to question how he was pay-
ing for the campaign.
The answer is, mostly out
of his own pocket, it turns
out. According to the web-
site, Pullen has loaned his
campaign $2,100. Close
family have given $500
to the campaign, and the
rest comes from small cash
contributions.
Pullen paid $384 to Cre-
ative Signs and $450 to DG
Gifts & Screen Printing,
both in Pendleton.
Bridgeview Press of
Cave Junction in Jose-
Rick Pullen
George Murdock
phine County got the big-
gest check — $1,537. Pullen
also spent $262.50 for signs
from a company in Orlando,
Florida.
“We have purchased a lot
of our stuff local,” Pullen
said, and “we’ve gone where
we can” to keep expenses
down.
Pullen also said he has
family in Cave Junction
and listened to their local
recommendation.
Murdock and Pullen are
facing off for the Position
1 seat on the county board
after neither came away
with more than 50 percent of
the vote in the primary.
Murdock came close,
with 45.4 percent, and Pul-
len pulled in 30.6 per-
cent. Tom Bailor of Pendle-
ton came in third with 23.8
percent.
Bailor said he is not
endorsing either candidate.
Pullen and Murdock
aren’t the only race for
Umatilla County commis-
sioner on the ballot — com-
missioner Larry Givens is
not giving up on serving a
fourth term.
“I got some folks that are
supporting a write-in cam-
paign,” Givens said. “They
approached me. This is sup-
porter driven.”
Athena Mayor John Sha-
fer won 52.3 percent of the
vote to defeat Givens in the
race for position 2 on the
Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners.
Nearly 12,000 voters cast
ballots in that race, while
the entire turnout for the
primary was 13,310, or 31
percent.
Givens, commissioner
for 12 years, said Mel
Keely, vice chair of the
county fair board, came to
him a couple of weeks ago
with the idea of running a
write-in campaign for the
Nov. 6 election. A few more
people made the same pitch
soon after; Givens said he
gave his blessing and the
campaign is catching on in
Hermiston, Pendleton and
Milton-Freewater.
“It comes from some
folks who just are not happy
with Mr. Shafer,” Givens
said, but he did not specify
what they might be unhappy
about.
Although Shafer gar-
nered a majority of vot-
ers in the primary, his name
appears on the November
ballot along with a space for
write-ins.
Umatilla County elec-
tions manager Kim Lin-
dell said that’s because the
county charter specifies vot-
ers elect commissioners in
November.
Shafer said he is sur-
prised Givens is going for a
write-in.
“The people spoke in
May,” he said. “Now they’re
going to get the chance to
speak in November.”
BMCC selects interim president
HERMISTON HERALD
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College has picked Dr.
Connie Green as the col-
lege’s interim president.
Green retired as president
of Tillamook Bay Commu-
nity College in 2017.
She will guide BMCC
while its board conducts a
nationwide search to replace
Cam Preus, who is leav-
ing BMCC on Oct. 31 to
become the executive direc-
tor of the Oregon Commu-
nity College Association in
Salem.
BMCC board chair-
man Chris Brown said in a
statement that Green has a
“strong background” as a
college president, leadership
coach and workforce devel-
Dr. Connie Green
opment supporter that will
help maintain continuity at
the college during its search.
“BMCC has maintained
strong relationships over
the years with the 16 other
Oregon community col-
leges, so we are familiar
with Dr. Green’s leadership
and experience,” he said.
“Therefore, the board is very
comfortable bringing Dr.
Green in to assist us through
this transition.”
BMCC has hired Gold
Hill Associates, a consult-
ing firm that specializes in
college executive searches,
to assist in recruiting and
selecting candidates. The
same firm assisted the col-
lege in hiring Preus in 2013.
The board expects to hire a
new president before July 1,
2019.
According to a news
release from BMCC, Green
has stated she is not inter-
ested in applying for the per-
manent position. She has
worked with BMCC in the
past after being contracted to
facilitate the college’s strate-
gic planning in 2014.
Green has a doctorate
degree in education, pol-
icy and planning from Uni-
versity of Oregon. She was
president of Tillamook Bay
Community College for six
and a half years and spent 30
years before that in various
leadership roles at Cheme-
keta Community College in
Salem.
She also spent two years
as a policy advisory on com-
munity college and work-
force development for the
state.
Green will begin on Nov.
15, with vice president of
student affairs Diane Dre-
bin named acting presi-
dent for the two weeks in
between.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
A shipping container is offloaded from a railcar at one of
the railroad spurs in May 2015 at the Port of Morrow.
POM gets statewide
business benefit
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
As the Port of Morrow
grows, it will recoup some
of the money it has spent to
ready its property for new
business.
Business Oregon, the
state’s economic devel-
opment agency, recently
named the Port’s East
Beach Industrial Site as
a “Regionally Significant
Industrial Site.” The des-
ignation is given to enti-
ties that are developing
sites for industrial use, and
offers them tax reimburse-
ment for money they spend
on preparing a site.
To qualify for the pro-
gram, the port had to des-
ignate a site and identify
reasons the site was not
yet “shovel-ready.” Those
issues became the port’s
development plan. They
include providing fresh
and potable water, nat-
ural gas, rail and sewer
improvements.
Once the port has imple-
mented its capital improve-
ment plan and has tenants
on the property, half the
taxes tenants pay on their
employees will be reim-
bursed to the port, who can
then use that money to pay
for up to 100 percent of the
cost to ready that site. That
cost does not include ver-
tical construction, or any
work on buildings — only
on the lot.
“It could be anything
from grade issues, deal-
ing with access, providing
utilities,” said Daniel Hol-
brook, an industrial lands
specialist for Business
Oregon. “Once the issues
are addressed, that site will
be regionally significant
for industry.”
Port Director Ryan Neal
said the port had to iden-
tify a site that met some
requirements before they
could apply for the pro-
gram. The site had to be
vacant, slated for indus-
trial use, and had to pro-
vide a minimum of 25 jobs.
The East Beach Indus-
trial Site, which the port
has identified for develop-
ment, is about 982 acres,
and could provide about
800 jobs, Neal said. He
said the site improvements
have to be completed by
2023. According to the
program, rural sites must
also pay employees wages
higher than the county or
state average, whichever is
lower.
The Port of Morrow
was the second site in the
state to receive the RSIS
designation, after the
Port of Portland’s Trout-
dale-Reynolds Industrial
Park. It is the first to qual-
ify for the program.
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BMCC to open resource center
to help student veterans
HERMISTON HERALD
Student veterans will
soon have a place at Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege to study, meet other vet-
erans, and find resources.
The
BMCC
Veteran’s
Resource Center will open
in Morrow Hall, 2411 NW
Carden Ave., Pendleton, on
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The Veteran’s Resource
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gon Department of Veter-
an’s Affairs that the college
received last year. Student
veterans will speak at the
center’s grand opening, as
well as officers from the
state veteran’s affairs office.
“Opening the Veteran’s
Resource Center is an excit-
ing opportunity for BMCC
to better connect with and
provide resources to our stu-
dents who are veterans,”
BMCC President Cam Preus
said. “We are so thankful for
their service to our coun-
try, so providing a place for
them to gather, study and
gain resources is one way
we can show our gratitude
and help them toward their
educational goals.”
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