SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
Hermiston
Herald
HermistonHerald.com
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
WHO’S WHO
IN THE
Columbia River Basin
BUSINESS & MEDICAL DIRECTORY
$1.00
INSIDE
HISTORY
SOME 75 STICKS OF DYNAMITE
FOUND ON CRAIG ROAD IN 1967
PAGE A2
WATER HIKE
HERMISTON RAISES RATES TO
INSTALL NEW SMART METERS
PAGE A3
CONNECTED
CLOTHING, HEALTH CARE, JOB
AND HOUSING INFORMATION
FOR THOSE IN NEED
PAGE A4
BIG YIELD
STANFIELD FARMER WINS
CONTEST FOR CORN, WHEAT
PAGE A6
NORTHBOUND?
HERMISTON HOPES TO JOIN
TRI-CITIES ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
PAGE A8
Student-made
mosaic of Hermiston
landmark up for bid
BRIEFLY
Spoo picked
as top admin
By TAMMY MALGESINI
Community Editor
or three years, groups of
fi fth graders from High-
land Hills Elementary
School pounded away
on a mosaic art project
depicting a local land-
mark.
Art teacher Patrick
Temple said students
particularly enjoyed “break-
ing days” while working on
“A Portrait of the Hermiston
Butte.”
“Students used hammers and
lots of enthusiasm in smashing
plates, tiles and cups to be used
in the mosaic,” he said.
The approximately 3-foot
by 5-foot piece will go to the
highest bidder during the Feb.
4 Hermiston Education Foun-
dation Beach & Beef Dinner
and Auction. Temple called the
mosaic an “heirloom” piece.
“We’re pretty excited to have
that as one of the major auction
items — it’s beautiful,” said
Tori Espinosa, treasurer of the
Hermiston Education Founda-
tion. “It’s neat that he’s getting
these students more involved in
the arts at an earlier age.”
In his 13th year in the Herm-
iston School District, Temple
has worked on two other mo-
STAFF PHOTOS BY TAMMY MALGESINI
Above: A close-up of the mosaic project shows pieces of plates and glass used to create the sky
above the Hermiston Butte.
Top: A three-year mosaic project created by groups of Highland Hills fi fth grade students will be
up for bid during the Feb. 4 Hermiston Education Foundation Beach & Beef Dinner and Auction.
A fundraiser for the Hermiston Education
Foundation, the Beach & Beef Dinner and
Auction is Saturday, Feb. 4.
The doors open at 5 p.m. at the Hermiston
Conference Center, 415 S. Highway 395. Peo-
ple can view silent auction items and socialize
with others. A no-host bar will be available.
The dinner of beef and crab will be served at
6:15 p.m. The live auction will follow.
Money raised from the event is used for
grants awarded each fall and spring to staff
of the Hermiston School District. The group
funds projects to enhance the educational ex-
perience of students in the district. Over the
years, projects have funded the purchase of
musical instruments, fi eld trips, technology
equipment, special curriculum and books.
Tickets are $35 each and are available
in advance at the conference center, the
district offi ce, 305 S.W. 11th St., or at
www.squareup.com/store/hef.
For more information, call 541-567-5215.
See BUTTE, A14
The Hermiston School
District revealed its “Ad-
ministrator of the Year”
award at Monday’s meeting.
Hermiston High School
Principal Tom Spoo was
surprised
when his fam-
ily stepped out
from behind
a door to help
him celebrate
his win.
Tom Spoo
Spoo, who
has been with
the Hermiston School Dis-
trict for 23 years, spent
13 years teaching agricul-
ture at the high school and
has served as an assistant
principal and principal at
the high school, as well as
principal of Armand Larive
Middle School.
Superintendent
Fred
Maiocco praised Spoo’s
ability to support and en-
courage his staff.
“People would apply
to work there just to be a
part of his team,” Maioc-
co said. He also laud-
ed Spoo’s collaborative
skills, and his develop-
ment of the Career Tech-
nical Education program
at the high school.
Crime trending down, with two exceptions
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Staff Writer
Crime’s downward trend in
Hermiston continued in 2016, ac-
cording to statistics released by the
police department, despite a couple
of upticks in violent crime.
Police Chief Jason Edmiston
said the two categories of crime that
increased were rape and aggravated
assault — the number of rapes in-
creased from four in 2015 to seven
in 2016. Aggravated assault num-
bers increased from 12 in 2015 to
20 in 2016. Edmiston said because
numbers of both have been fairly
low in Hermiston, a few instances
can skew percentages.
“Obviously one rape is one
rape too many,” he said. “With the
rapes last year, all participants were
known to one another, and there
was no random crime. Three of
them were consensual but age was
a factor.”
With aggravated assaults tracked
last year, Edmiston said 57 percent
of the incidents were domestic-re-
lated, 43 percent involved the use
of a controlled substance, and only
one incident was defi nitively identi-
fi ed as gang-related.
There are statistics provided for
eight types of crime on the annual
report: homicide, rape, robbery, ag-
gravated assault, burglary, larceny,
auto theft and arson.
Edmiston said the department
prefers to look at crime over a lon-
ger period of time.
“Crime can be very cyclical,” he
said. “When it comes to identifying
trends, we feel it’s more appropriate
to look at 10-year periods.”
Overall, he said, crime rates
have been comparable to last year,
decreasing 2 percent overall from
2015. “There have been some un-
fortunate incidents, like the mur-
der-suicide last year, but it’s rela-
tively fl at.”
He said over the past 10 years,
total crime is down 32 percent, even
though the population of Hermiston
has increased 15 percent during that
period.
Edmiston said offi cers have sev-
eral strategies for addressing crime
in Hermiston. They look at statistics
throughout the year, posting quar-
terly reports, looking for trends, and
redirecting funds if one area needs
more attention.
“If we see trends causing us con-
cern, we can and we have in the past
adjusted our resource allocation,”
he said.
While the department has al-
ready undergone restructuring this
year, and will not make any chang-
es directly related to the 2016 statis-
tics, Edmiston said he hopes some
of the impending changes‚ includ-
ing the addition of another detective
— will help address overall crime.
“We hope that extra person will
also provide our detective a lit-
tle more time to be proactive, and
spend a little more time investigat-
ing,” he said.
He said while it’s hard to be pro-
active with personal crimes, like
rape, offi cers try to prevent crime
by focusing on repeat offenders.
“Most criminals don’t become
criminals overnight,” he said.
See CRIME, A14