2025 8:40 p.m.City manager accuses mayor of undermining his authority After taking care of a few standard housekeeping items — approving the meeting calendar appointing community members to various committees — the Umatilla City Council censured its mayor with little fanfare at a meeting this week The censure came amid accusations from City Manager David Stockdale that Mayor Caden Sipe had repeatedly undermined Stockdale’s authority throughout 2024 The council had been discussing the dispute behind closed doors during executive sessions meetings but it spilled into the public’s view in December after Sipe requested they talk about the complaints at an open meeting Umatilla’s mayoral position mostly acts as a figurehead — the person does not have a vote in most situations and leaves day-to-day administration of the city to its manager The council’s censure places further restrictions on Sipe prohibiting him from representing the city at meetings unless authorized by the council or city manager and requiring a third party present when he meets with Stockdale Sipe said the council was trying to censor him in a “disturbing abuse of power.” “I did not forfeit my First Amendment right to free speech when I was elected to public office,” he wrote and advocating for accountability are not just my duties as mayor — they are what I promised voters when I ran for office At the center of the conflict is Stockdale, who the council hired in 2018 after serving as the city administrator for the city of Prosser, Washington. During his tenure, he’s worked on tax incentive deals that brought Amazon data centers to the city and championed Project PATH, a shelter and warming station for unhoused residents in western Umatilla County they affirmed the accusations Stockdale made last year when he accused Sipe of repeatedly interfering with his duties by attempting to influence Stockdale’s analysis of a potential bond to pay for a new police station openly criticizing the city manager for managing the Umatilla’s enterprise funds in “an immoral and unethical manner,” and holding side discussions with a competitor while Stockdale was negotiating with an internet provider Stockdale said these conflicts were sometimes the result of Sipe mixing family and personal interests with his duties as mayor potential clients … and the work that I’m doing is being undercut by discussions that are occurring you’re setting me up for failure,” he told the council last month Sipe grew up in Umatilla and returned to his hometown after a stint working in La Grande as an information technologies worker he was hired to teach robotics by the Umatilla School District Caden Sipe was new to city politics when he ran for mayor in 2022 but won convincingly as he ran on a platform of greater transparency and “better use of technology.” Sipe said in December that the council was retaliating against him for having a contrasting viewpoint to the council and the city manager the conversations he had with people who had business with the city were mere coincidences “Are you honestly claiming that none of you have conversations about the weather life in general with anybody who has business with the city Sipe said the council didn’t allow him to use his own legal counsel to Tuesday’s meeting and claimed he was being denied due process but declined to comment further when asked who in the city he would be suing Sipe also continues to enjoy the support of his family and some community members he read a letter into the record written by Cameron Sipe who chastised the council for pursuing “petty allegations” over more pressing issues in the city Cameron Sipe ended her letter by yielding the rest of her time to former Umatilla Police Chief Darla Huxel, who retired in 2023 after she, several members of the police department and the city were sued for allegedly failing to respond to a sexual assault case although a federal judge later removed Huxel from it She did not speak at the city council meeting Cameron Sipe said her letter was meant to be read at the December meeting and referenced Huxel because the council had cut off the former chief’s public comments at a previous meeting Caden Sipe otherwise stayed mum on the censure approved by the council at the meeting When councilors were given a chance to comment at the end of the meeting many of them took a chance to lower the temperature and look forward to the new year “We’re trying to do the best we can do with what we have and we have to go with that,” Councilor Daren Dufloth I have a lot of admiration for these people up here Tags: City Council, Government, Politics Stand with OPB and protect independent journalism for everyone. Listen to the OPB News live stream (opens new window)Streaming Now 2025 1 p.m.An adult female burrowing owl receives a numbered leg band in a long-term research effort to better understand regional owl populations Most of the owls nesting on the depot overwinter in California Courtesy of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation This time of year, biologists and technicians are doing some spring cleaning of their own at the site of the decommissioned Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon They’re helping burrowing owls get their underground homes ready for the season songbirds and North America’s largest population of burrowing owls an environmental specialist with the Oregon National Guard and the Oregon Military Department there’s a lot of stuff out here that’s been able to be maintained without public disturbance,” Bloom said some of the native plant life and everything (that’s) been maintained.” These burrowing owls can be persnickety about their homes a wildlife habitat ecologist with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation “ (The decorations are) placed very precisely they’ll see that stuff a while away and go that’s like the equivalency of like a fountain in your front yard.” they put it all back — or else the owls will With the team’s help, the burrowing owl populations have soared the owls had fallen to four nesting pairs on the entire site they counted nearly 82 pairs of breeding owls and 550 fledglings “Every year we capture (and leg band) every adult owl that nests on the depot And then we also capture all of the fledglings and put (numbered) bands on them so that we can track where they go from year to year,” Chiono said examines the remains of a burrowing owl found March 24 in one of the artificial nesting structures at the site which partners with CTUIR on the recovery project a couple of birds born at the site overwintered in western Oregon Burrowing owls in South America have also taught biologists new things “We’re learning things like they use different dialects over there than they do here,” he said The area of the depot they’re working at today is called Coyote Coulee It’s a historic property of religious and cultural significance This place is also a traditionally used travel corridor hunting and traditional plant gathering area for the CTUIR It’s a place where the tribes have carried out their traditions and cultural practices important in maintaining their identity since time immemorial cultural resources protection program manager with the CTUIR a portion of the northern Oregon Trail runs through the area “Everyone traveled through here,” Chiono said Even with a general upward trend in numbers they’d build their burrows out of old badger holes CTUIR staff photographed a badger peering out of a burrow “ We don’t know if we have more than one,” she said That single badger created at least four natural burrows that owls nested in last year Badgers disappeared from the site when the U.S which it believed were killing pronghorn calves Fencing prevented badgers from moving back onto the depot until 2023 A badger is pictured at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in this file photo Burrowing owls nest in burrows dug by badgers To help create spaces for the owls, biologists began installing artificial burrows across the site. David Johnson, founder of the Global Owl Project expanded the network and improved the burrow design over time There are now 180 burrows on the former depot “ The burrow chambers themselves are made out of Tree Top apple juice barrels,” she said So now they use light-blocking blue barrels the barrels get filled up with blowing sand “The tunnel will get clogged up and they won’t even be able to access the chamber,” she said Extra artificial nesting structures made from blue repurposed Tree Top juice drums and 5-gallon buckets sit outside a concrete storage bunker Chiono poked an 8-foot long PVC pipe with a grapefruit-sized ball made of car washing sponges She pushed the plunger through the black tubes that serve as tunnels moving the sand and debris into the owl’s main caverns The pair dug out above the burrows until they reached a pickle bucket that lifted out That allowed them to see inside the burrow they find that nature has taken its course there’s a dead owl,” Chiono said with a grimace “ We’ll write down this band number so we know the fate of this poor bird.” The owls don’t have a high survival rate from year to year trapping and shooting of burrowing animals like badgers who create the burrows in which the owls live The owls’ rodent prey has seen a population decline owls evolved with predators like harriers and coyotes — it’s large-scale habitat loss that threatens the species,” Chiono said Federally, burrowing owls are considered a “bird of conservation need.” In Oregon, they’re listed as a “sensitive species,” and in Washington they’re considered a “candidate species for listing.” the pair dug weeds off the birds’ “front porches” by the tunnel entrances “We sort of do a little weeding and rough up the surface so it looks like a badger has just dug it so they can recognize that there’s a burrow here,” Chiono said A burrowing owl stands near its nest along a road leading to the concrete bunker or “igloo,” where CTUIR staff store supplies for the burrowing owl recovery project at the former Umatilla Chemical Depot Chiono has each burrow marked on a GPS map She spends a lot of time helping these birds “You can’t help but really care about them,” she said There’s still so much to learn about these birds researchers have ample opportunities to ask and answer those questions They’re interesting creatures,” Bloom said They said the research is just getting started “Our hope for the future is that we won’t need to maintain this big network of artificial burrows because we’ll actually have the natural creators of those boroughs back on the site.” 00:00 / Courtney Flatt is a reporter with Northwest Public Broadcasting This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page Tags: Oregon, Native Americans, Conservation 2025 9:42 p.m.Whooping cough is resurgent across the Northwest The Umatilla County Public Health Building in Pendleton Pertussis is on the rise in Eastern Oregon’s most populated county Umatilla County first reported an outbreak of the bacterial disease earlier this month Public health officials said the respiratory illness has now spread in multiple schools Umatilla County Public Health reported 21 cases Public health director Joe Fiumara said his department suspects there are likely more undocumented infections The county is facing this outbreak at a time when pertussis is resurgent across Oregon. Last year the state recorded the highest number of cases since 1950 but with a cough that becomes more intense over time “That’s one of the problems with stemming the spread of this,” Fiumara said There’s a lot of other diseases circulating this time of year — flu the common cold — that look very similar.” Pendleton High School reported a case of pertussis last month Fiumara said it’s already spread to other schools in the county He’s especially worried that this trend will lead to the disease hitting a vulnerable population we want to protect the infants and the small kids,” he said “Those are really the highest risk individuals for this disease and we want to make sure those folks have the information to take proper precautions.” The most effective tool against pertussis is vaccination both for reducing the spread of the disease and making the symptoms milder Oregon requires children to get the pertussis vaccine to attend public schools Fiumara said he previously hoped Umatilla County’s high compliance rate would spare it from an outbreak 96% of the county’s K-12 students are vaccinated against pertussis Some 84% of Umatilla children aged 5 or younger also have the vaccine Fiumara said vaccination rates have dropped in recent years He said anti-vaccine sentiment grew during the COVID-19 pandemic some confusion and a lot of misinformation All of that kind of combines with some folks making some different decisions.” breaking a record for the highest number of cases recorded since 1950 pertussis cases exploded from 51 cases in November 2023 Cases of pertussis in Idaho rose 20 times higher in that period As the superintendent of InterMountain Education Service District Mark Mulvihill has helped coordinate the pertussis response of schools across Umatilla County Mulvihill said COVID-19 has helped sharpen schools’ readiness for illness outbreaks improving how they report them and keeping affected students out of schools Mulvihill doesn’t anticipate any school shutdowns mask requirements or supplying staff with personal protective equipment But he said preventing illness in schools is a safety issue and vaccinations are an important part of that “Vaccines aren’t just for an individual.” he said Fiumara said Umatilla County Public Health has pivoted from trying to identify and contact individual cases to focusing on public outreach and working with health care providers Umatilla County is a “health care desert,” he said meaning there aren’t enough providers for all the people who need care so he wants to avoid current providers from being overwhelmed with pertussis cases Tags: Eastern Oregon, Disease, Health 2025 12:08 a.m.Bill would allow the county to pilot a small modular nuclear reactor project The Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton Oregon lawmakers are considering softening a 45-year-old statewide ban to allow nuclear power in Umatilla County. The legislation has the backing of the county government House Bill 2410 received its first public hearing in front of the House Committee on Climate Oregon voters effectively banned all new nuclear energy facilities in 1980 but the bill would create a carve out so that Umatilla County could start a small modular nuclear reactor pilot project and although the legislation is mostly backed by Republicans it’s picked up a couple of Democratic supporters told the committee why she was backing the bill that consumes an incredible amount of energy,” she said “We need to make sure we have a clean way to address these long term energy needs.” Testimony poured in from across Oregon and the Northwest with both supporters and detractors making familiar arguments Opponents of the bill said nuclear waste remains a real threat to public health and the environment still doesn’t have a national repository for spent nuclear material They added that SMRs are more wishful thinking than a proven technology with previous projects coming in over budget and underperforming The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is one the bill’s opponents Board of Trustees member Lisa Ganuelas pointed to the Hanford Site in southeast Washington a former plutonium manufacturing facility that remains heavily polluted decades later “CTUIR knows from previous experience that nuclear waste is a burden that will be with us for millennia and unless and until a specific repository is selected that it is almost certain that any newly generated nuclear waste will stay in Umatilla County and within CTUIR ceded lands indefinitely,” she said a CTUIR member and a longtime critic of nuclear energy brought historical pictures of the tribes and said there was a long history of the tribal government not being involved in the decision making process “We hear the talk behind closed doors that do not consult us – tribes treaties and the trust responsibilities,” she said Other locals from Eastern Oregon wrote testimony opposing the bill over environmental and quality of life concerns Pendleton resident Jennifer Abney name-checked Amazon in her opposition “I don’t want a nuclear plant in my backyard nor Amazon using more of our water … Please listen to the voters,” she wrote “An oligarch should not be able to bypass the law Tags: Nuclear, Eastern Oregon, Tribes, Oregon Legislature Stand with OPB and protect independent journalism for everyone Leesburg-News.com A Umatilla juvenile was arrested after getting into a physical altercation with another student at Umatilla Middle School.  A deputy was informed by school administration at Umatilla Middle School, located at 305 E. Lake St., that a fight occurred in the elective hallway during school dismissal around 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.  The deputy met with the school administration who advised that both the juvenile suspect and the other student were separated and held in different rooms. While reviewing camera footage, the deputy observed both students mutually engage in a physical altercation. They struck each other with closed fists, the report said.  The juvenile suspect was seen punching the other student in the face, which caused him to bleed excessively out of his nose. Despite this, they both continued to fight. Multiple students circled around, taking out their cellphones, yelling and running around to get assistance from an adult, the report said.  The deputy then observed two staff members trying to separate the two students. After a few moments, they were separated and discontinued the physical altercation, the report said.  The report noted that during the incident, multiple students had to be redirected and physically placed on the school bus or escorted to their designated dismissal area as multiple students began to become verbally combative in retaliation for the other student’s injury.  Additionally, the juvenile suspect was previously issued Work in Lieu of Arrest, a civilian program that affords nonviolent juvenile misdemeanor offenders an alternative to arrest, the report said.  The juvenile suspect was arrested on charge of affray and transported to Lake County Jail. He was processed and ultimately released.  2024 1 p.m.County commissioners think draft legislation could “thread the needle” past state’s nuclear energy restrictions The Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton An Eastern Oregon county is trying to introduce nuclear power to the region through a concept that’s taken some hits in recent years the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners enthusiastically approved a $30,000 contract with Portland law firm Tonkon Torp to help the county draft legislation that would allow it to site small modular nuclear reactors The commissioners believe the reactors could provide low-carbon energy to county residents but the move comes after one of SMRs’ biggest backers scuttled a high-profile project Commissioner Dan Dorran said the county sees nuclear as a low-carbon energy source preferable to other alternatives like wind or solar energy “We think that it’s worth the effort and time to see if we can’t find an alternative to what’s already on the horizon and see if we can’t expand our zero-carbon footprint and still take care of industry that’s knocking on our door,” he said While the concept is still in its early stages, Dorran anticipates the SMRs would come in the form of a pilot project targeting a specific area or project. The proposed reactor would be on a microgrid, meaning it would be a part of a small network independent of a larger grid. The U.S. Department of Energy believes SMRs can cost less than traditional reactors and offer more safeguards Dorran said details like an exact location for the reactors or a business partner to build and install the reactors have yet to be identified This isn’t the first time SMRs have popped up in Oregon In 2015, the Portland-based NuScale Power announced it was planning a partnership with a Utah electrical utility to build a 720-megawatt nuclear power plant in Idaho powered by a dozen of its reactors. NuScale had the only SMR design with approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Eight years later, NuScale scrapped the project pointing to rising inflation and interest rates in addition to dwindling commitments from energy buyers NuScale declined to comment on a potential SMR pilot project in Umatilla County and SMRs would need to clear a number of regulatory hurdles before they could operate One of the chief blocks of SMRs is Measure 7. In a pro-nuclear energy editorial, the libertarian think tank Cascade Policy Institute wrote that Oregon voters approved the measure in 1980 in the wake of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania The measure prevents the state from siting any nuclear power plants until the federal government licenses a waste depository nuclear power plants are effectively prohibited in Oregon Dorran thinks the county’s draft legislation could potentially “thread the needle” in overcoming the state’s nuclear energy restrictions Umatilla County is just across the Columbia River from the Hanford Site in southeast Washington, the most nuclear waste-polluted area in the Western Hemisphere A one-time site of plutonium manufacturing during World War II government’s clean-up efforts at Hanford are more than a decade behind schedule Dorran said SMRs won’t be built at the same scale as the reactors in Hanford “It’s going to be a years-long project,” he said “The first step is to find a path to being a pilot project.” Tags: Eastern Oregon, Nuclear, Energy, Science & Environment Fla.—A report of a gunshot victim Tuesday night in Umatilla was a false alarm according to a Umatilla Police Department report 391 North Central Avenue to meet the purported victim Waltrip arrived at the gas station shortly after a UPD officer and appeared “unsteady” and had a bloodstain on the right shoulder area of his shirt Waltrip said he did not know what had happened to him and the officer asked him if he had been shot Waltrip showed the officer the back of his head and the officer observed a “round wound with blood and unidentified matter protruding out,” according to the report Waltrip did not answer the officer’s questions he was at “the Altoona store” and was headed to the hospital when he stopped at the Southside Plaza on the south end of Umatilla and then traveled to Circle K where he met UPD Waltrip was “reluctant” be transported for his wound but agreed after the wound was explained to him He was transported to a field near Umatilla Fire Department and was again “reluctant “to be transported for treatment EMS believed the wound was from a gunshot and convinced Waltrip to get treatment and Waltrip was airlifted to an area hospital Altoona to gather information but was unsuccessful while Lake County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigations detectives and a K9 unit responded to Southside Plaza to search for evidence LCSO supervisors advised UPD hospital staff called and said Waltrip was not shot and had only suffered a small abrasion and a CT scan confirmed there was not a bullet in Waltrip’s head Waltrip refused to speak with detectives about the incident UPD was unable to confirm if a crime had been committed Copyright © 2025 Inside Lake | Powered by Compass Creative Group