Hermiston
Herald
HermistonHerald.com
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015
$1.00
GOING FOR THE GOAL
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Blue Mountain Community College President Cam Preus (right) poses with BMCC board member and Hispanic Advisory Committee
(HAC) President Eddie De La Cruz outside of the Hermiston branch of BMCC. After a recommendation from De La Cruz last month,
Preus and BMCC approved a measure to start a soccer program at the college.
BMCC soccer to give more opportunities
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
Eddie De La Cruz couldn’t believe it.
Not only did Blue Mountain Community
College consider his proposal and recom-
mendation, it was received welcomely and
approved unanimously last month.
With support from college President
Cam Preus, BMCC approved De La Cruz’s
recommendation to bring soccer to campus
starting with the women’s program next fall
and the men’s program the following au-
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in taking BMCC “to the next level.”
“BMCC has been here a long time, but it
wasn’t there to move to the next level,” he
said. “But from two years ago when Presi-
dent Cam took over, she had an open mind,
a lot of great ideas.”
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for the college .
“We wanted to reach out to the
Hispanic community and offer pro-
grams and sports, or athletics, that
appeal to them,” Preus said.
So De La Cruz, who now
sits on BMCC’s Board of Ed-
ucation in addition to presid-
ing over the city of Hermiston’s
Hispanic Advisory Committee, ap-
proached Preus and the college seeking
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lege. As a bilingual Hispanic, he knew how
demographics have changed. According to
the United States Census Bureau, Hermis-
ton’s population was 32.7 percent Hispanic
in 2013, and, according to SuburbanStats.
See SOCCER, A18
TOUGH
SEASON
Bulldogs seek fi rst
win this weekend
against Sandy
Page A10
ABOUT TOWN
Look for road
work on
Highway 395
Oregon Department
of Transportation crews
will begin preparing for
permanent improvements
to U.S. Highway 395 in
Hermiston Wednesday,
Oct. 14.
The crews will place
delineators on the road-
way marking where cen-
ter median barriers will
be added next year at
the busy U.S. 395 and
Elm Avenue intersection,
according to an ODOT
press release. The mark-
ers will be installed on
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highway on both the
north and south sides at
the intersection with Elm
Avenue (Oregon High-
way 207). There will be
minimal interruptions to
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place.
During the 2016 con-
struction season, ODOT
will install center median
barriers on U.S. 395 at
Oregon 207 that will pre-
vent left turn movements
exiting and entering the
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umes have increased
over the past several
years, turning and rear-
end crashes have become
more common in the
area, according to the re-
lease, and the center me-
dian barrier is designed to
improve safety and keep
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For more information
about ODOT Region 5
projects, visitoregon.gov/
ODOT/HWY/REGION5.
Paroled gang
member
back in jail
STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE
Though it was De La Cruz’s
recommendation that was the catalyst to start
the program, Preus said BMCC was investigating
ways to attract more Latino students, and a soccer
program was one of those ideas.
“We wanted to reach out to the Hispanic community and
off er programs and sports, or athletics, that appeal to them.”
Giver gets a gift of her own
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
After helping provide a
little extra warmth for hun-
dreds of families in need,
Bonnie Engle of Hermis-
ton got a gift in return.
Hermiston Police Capt.
Travis Enyon presented
Engle with a $250 gift cer-
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85th birthday, recognizing
the hundreds of handmade
quilts she has had a hand
in donating to the depart-
ment’s Christmas Express
program over the years.
“This is a huge part
of the Christmas Express
package we do, and I can’t
See GIFT, A18
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Police Capt. Travis Enyon stops for a picture with Bonnie Engle, center, and Geri
Nunnenkamp in front of the quilts they plan to donate to the Christmas Express this year.
A Umatilla gang mem-
ber who beat a man to
death in 2011 was back
on the streets this sum-
mer after Circuit Court
Judge Eva Temple deter-
mined he had turned his
life around.
Just months after his
release, Teodoro “Teddy”
Parra Mendoza, 21, is in
the Umatilla County Jail
for a gun crime.
Umatilla County Dis-
trict Attorney Dan Primus
and the state had argued
Mendoza was a risk for
release because he had
not broken his gang ties
while incarcerated.
Umatilla city police
arrested Mendoza on
Sept. 29 at about 5:45
p.m. at the Marina Apart-
ments, 1600 Second St.,
Umatilla, and booked
him into the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton,
for felon in possession of
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ny, and misdemeanors of
menacing and disorderly
conduct. Primus said res-
idents at the apartments
were concerned about a
man with a gun and how
he was behaving.
The Umatilla County
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arraigned Mendoza on
Wednesday in Hermiston
on the gun charge and
disorderly conduct. Court
records show he was liv-
ing at 1650 W. Sunland
Ave., Apt. 7, Hermiston .
The charges could vio-
late the conditions of his
early release from the Or-
egon Youth Authority, the
state agency that incar-
cerates young offenders.