2A — THE OBSERVER
Today in
History
Today is Tuesday, March
16, the 75th day of 2021.
There are 290 days left in
the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
IN HISTORY:
On March 16, 1945,
during World War II,
American forces declared
they had secured Iwo
Jima, although pockets
of Japanese resistance
remained.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1802, President
Thomas Jefferson signed
a measure authorizing the
establishment of the U.S.
Military Academy at West
Point, New York.
In 1926, rocket science
pioneer Robert H. God-
dard successfully tested
the first liquid-fueled rock-
et at his Aunt Effie’s farm
in Auburn, Massachusetts.
In 1935, Adolf Hitler de-
cided to break the military
terms set by the Treaty of
Versailles by ordering the
rearming of Germany.
In 1968, the My Lai
massacre took place
during the Vietnam War as
U.S. Army soldiers hunting
for Viet Cong fighters
and sympathizers killed
unarmed villagers in two
hamlets of Son My village;
estimates of the death toll
vary from 347 to 504. Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy of New
York announced his can-
didacy for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
In 1972, in a nation-
ally broadcast address,
President Richard Nixon
called for a moratorium
on court-ordered school
busing to achieve racial
desegregation.
In 1984, William Buck-
ley, the CIA station chief
in Beirut, was kidnapped
by Hezbollah militants (he
was tortured by his cap-
tors and killed in 1985).
In 1987, Massachusetts
Gov. Michael Dukakis an-
nounced his candidacy for
the Democratic presiden-
tial nomination.
In 1991, a plane
carrying seven members
of country singer Reba
McEntire’s band and her
tour manager crashed
into Otay Mountain
in southern California,
killing all on board. U.S.
skaters Kristi Yamaguchi,
Tonya Harding and Nancy
Kerrigan swept the World
Figure Skating Champion-
ships in Munich, Germany.
In 1994, figure skater
Tonya Harding pleaded
guilty in Portland, Oregon,
to conspiracy to hinder
prosecution for covering
up an attack on rival Nan-
cy Kerrigan, avoiding jail
but drawing a $100,000
fine.
In 2003, American activ-
ist Rachel Corrie, 23, was
crushed to death by an
Israeli military bulldozer
while trying to block dem-
olition of a Palestinian
home in the Gaza Strip.
In 2004, China de-
clared victory in its fight
against bird flu, saying it
had “stamped out” all its
known cases.
In 2006, Iraq’s new par-
liament met briefly for the
first time; lawmakers took
the oath but did no busi-
ness and adjourned after
just 40 minutes, unable
to agree on a speaker, let
alone a prime minister.
Ten years ago:
Pakistan abruptly freed
CIA contractor Raymond
Allen Davis, who had shot
and killed two men in a
gunfight in Lahore, after
a deal was reached to pay
$2.34 million to the men’s
families.
Five years ago: Presi-
dent Barack Obama nom-
inated Merrick Garland to
take the seat of Supreme
Court Justice Antonin
Scalia, who had died the
previous month; Repub-
licans pledged to leave
the seat empty until after
the presidential election
and said they wouldn’t
even hold confirmation
hearings. Frank Sinatra Jr.,
72, who carried on his fa-
mous father’s legacy with
his own music career, died
while on tour in Daytona
Beach, Florida.
TuESday, MaRcH 16, 2021
LOCAL/REGION
LG School District renovating modulars
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande School District’s
three modular buildings
at K Avenue and Sunset
Drive, structures dormant
for the past four years, are
about to be revitalized.
The modular units served
as classrooms for Cen-
tral Elementary School for
many years before the dis-
trict tore down the aging
building at 402 K Ave. and
replaced it in 2017 with
one at 701 H Ave. Now the
district is remodeling the
modulars.
Renovation work is
underway that will restore
the south modular for use
as a classroom, convert the
center one into an office
building and the north unit
into a storage space. The
district expects the work to
wrap up by September.
The district later will
lease the structure for
the classroom building to
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
La Grande School District maintenance manager Brad Sunder-
man walks through the three-piece modular buildings near La
Grande High School on Monday, March 15, 2021. The district
is remodeling the modular buildings to accommodate an ex-
pansion of Eastern Oregon University’s Head Start program as
well as district offices.
Eastern Oregon University
Head Start, which will use it
to expand its preschool pro-
gram. The center modular
will provide office space for
La Grande School District
specialists serving students
with mental health and
behavior issues, said Joseph
Waite, the district’s facilities
and bond manager.
Robert Kleng, director
of EOU Head Start, said
the availability of the class-
Long-distance vaccine helper
By LISA BRITTON
For the Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Nick
Cripe found himself with
some extra time between
jobs as a firefighter and
paramedic.
“I was back in Baker,
just killing time,” said
Cripe, 28.
He grew up in Baker
City, and graduated from
Baker High School in 2011.
He asked at nearby hos-
pitals if he could apply for
short-term work, but the
paperwork proved to be an
obstacle.
To fill his time, Cripe
went to work for Appliances
& More in Baker City.
“I’d like to do something
medical, but it might be
nice to take a month off,” he
remembers thinking.
That job lasted one day.
When the owner, Jay
Wilson, learned about
Cripe’s medical back-
ground, he suggested Cripe
call Chris Arvidson of
North Powder.
Arvidson runs Med
Transport Inc. and has con-
tracts with the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency and other disaster
relief agencies. Right now,
those contracts need med-
ical professionals to help
at vaccination clinics and
“step down” services at
hospitals across the country.
Cripe called Arvidson,
and the next day Cripe was
on an airplane bound for
New Jersey.
“It was very random,”
Cripe said of how this
opportunity came about.
“Everything just aligned.”
He left Baker City on
Feb. 3, and returned March
6.
Cripe was assigned to
a vaccination clinic set up
in an Atlantic City con-
vention center — one
of several “mega sites”
established to administer
COVID-19 vaccines.
room modular will give his
program a major boost by
expanding the number of
students EOU Head Start
can serve by at least 20. He
noted the school district
will charge EOU Head Start
nothing for the renovation
work and reasonable rent.
“The school district is so
supportive of preschool edu-
cation,’’ Kleng said.
The preschool students
to attend classes at the site
will be 3-5 years old. Head
Start instruction is free for
students if their families
meet income standards. For
example, a family with two
parents and two children
that has an annual income
of $52,000 could send its
children there for no charge.
EOU Head Start hopes
to begin offering classes at
the new site in the fall, after
it obtains grant funding
from the state or federal
government for the oper-
ation of a new site. Kleng
is optimistic this funding
Former prison guard
gets 15-year prison term
for child pornography
By CHRIS COLLINS
Baker City Herald
Nick Cripe/Contributed Photo
Nick Cripe of Baker City worked for a month at a “mega site”
COVID-19 vaccination clinic in New Jersey during most of Feb-
ruary 2021.
“The convention center
is huge. We used maybe a
tenth of it,” he said.
When he arrived, a shift
of 10 nurses were giving
400 to 600 shots a day.
Cripe’s unit of 10 para-
medics began working
12-hour shifts, seven days
a week.
“By the time we left, we
were doing 3,600 shots a
day,” he said. “Their goal
was to get to 4,000 a day.”
Except for about 80
doses, he said they were
giving the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine. A full pharmacy
on site stored the vaccine
until needed.
The experience, he said,
differed greatly from his
career as a firefighter/para-
medic where he never knew
what daily challenges he
would encounter.
At the vaccination
clinic, he had the same rou-
tine every day: he got up
at 5:30 a.m., had breakfast
at 6:30 a.m., arrived at the
convention center at 7 a.m.,
and then gave shots from
8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“It almost seemed like
Groundhog Day,” he said,
referring to the 1993 Bill
Murray film.
It did, however, give him
the chance to meet new
people.
“I had a lot of good
conversations,” he said.
“So many people were
so thankful for me being
there.”
Having a vaccine avail-
able, he said, seemed to
give people new hope.
“A bunch of people cried
— the thought of the world
going back to a sense of
normalcy,” he said.
And he’s glad he had the
chance to help.
“I was honored to do
it. It was a great experi-
ence,” he said. “There are
so many good people in the
world. I made some lifelong
friends.”
He’s planning to stick
around Eastern Oregon and
hopes to take more deploy-
ments such as this one.
“I think there will be
endless opportunities,”
Cripe said.
will come through in part
because Gov. Kate Brown’s
proposed budget for the
2021-23 biennium includes
a large amount of money for
the expansion of Head Start
programs in Oregon.
The new classroom
building at K Avenue and
Sunset Drive will comple-
ment centers EOU Head
Start has in southeast La
Grande, Elgin, Union and
Baker City.
The modular to serve as
a classroom building and
the one that will become
office space are connected
but do not have an interior
entry allowing people to
walk to and from the build-
ings without going outside.
The renovation work will
change this, adding an door
between the two buildings,
Waite said.
The La Grande School
District High Cost Capital
Project fund and its Student
Success Act fund will pay
for the modular renovation.
BAKER CITY — A
former correctional officer
at the Powder River Cor-
rectional Facility, Baker
City, who has spent nearly
a year behind bars at the
Baker County Jail, will
spend the next 15 years
in prison after pleading
guilty to child pornog-
raphy charges Tuesday,
March 9, in Baker County
Circuit Court.
Judge Matt Shirt-
cliff sided with District
Attorney Greg Baxter in
taking the harsher end of a
plea agreement that ranged
from five years to 15 years
in prison in sentencing
David Leon Cernazanu.
As part of the agree-
ment, Cernazanu, 49,
pleaded guilty to three
counts of second-degree
encouraging child sexual
abuse, a Class C felony.
Cernazanu will receive
credit for the time he
served in jail and the
ability to earn good time
toward earlier release
while in prison.
The state dismissed 62
other counts against Cer-
nazanu, including charges
of first-degree encour-
aging child sexual abuse,
first-degree invasion of
personal privacy and using
a child in sexually explicit
conduct.
Shirtcliff also ordered
Cernazanu to complete
three years of post-prison
supervision upon release,
including sex offender
treatment. He also must
register as a sex offender.
Baxter and Robert
Moon, a Baker City
attorney the court
appointed to represent
Cernazanu, each called
witnesses to bolster their
case. Baxter argued for
the 15-year sentence, and
Moon called for a shorter
prison term.
An audience of about
30 people, including law
enforcement and mental
health professionals and
victims and their family
members, were in the
courtroom during the two-
hour hearing.
Cernazanu was
arrested April 24, 2020,
at his Baker City home
after an investigation by
the state Department of
Justice and the Oregon
State Police. OSP exe-
cuted a search of Cer-
nazanu’s home on Feb.
19, 2020, and seized evi-
dence, including com-
puters and phones, which
the Oregon Department
of Justice analyzed. What
they found was “an astro-
nomical amount of child
pornography,” Baxter
said during Tuesday’s
proceedings.
Baxter asked the judge
to take into consideration
that among the victims
were eight local children,
four of whom were in the
courtroom. Baxter said
parents had trusted Cer-
nazanu, who had worked
in a position of authority
as a correctional officer
at Powder River since
2017 and had served as
a reserve officer for the
Baker City Police Depart-
ment for a short time. The
girls came to his home as
friends of his daughter,
who also was victimized,
the district attorney said.
The victims have suf-
fered depression, sui-
cidal thoughts, anorexia
and negative feelings
of self-worth as a result
of Cernazanu’s crimes,
Baxter said.
Kathy Oliver to lead Lions’ Eastern Oregon region
By DICK MASON
The Observer
SUMMERVILLE —
Kathy Oliver does not know
what the future holds but
she does know this, her 15th
year as a member of the
Elgin Lions Club promises
to be one of her most mem-
orable — and
busiest.
The Interna-
tional Associ-
ation of Lions
Clubs named
Oliver the next
Oliver
governor for
District 36G,
which encompasses much
of the portion of Oregon
east of the Cascades and
has about 20 clubs. Oliver
said she is honored and
moved by the confidence
the Lions organization has
shown in her.
“People have been so
supportive,” Oliver said.
The Summerville res-
ident will take the reins
of District 36G in June
and serve one year. She
will succeed John Taylor
of Pendleton who is com-
pleting his one-year term as
governor.
Oliver has an upbeat
vision for a district that
is part of an organization
renowned for saving sight.
She said she wants to
help her district rebound
after being rattled by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Oliver noted clubs across
the district are facing
declining membership
due to COVID-19 con-
cerns. The Elgin Lions
Club, which Oliver is pres-
ident of, for example, has
declined nearly 10% over
the past year.
Oliver will travel
throughout Eastern
Oregon to visit chap-
ters to encourage them to
take steps to boost mem-
bership to pre-pandemic
levels, such as inviting
former members back and
to arrange for them to take
part in club projects.
“The key is getting
people involved,” said
Oliver, who was named
first vice president of Dis-
trict 36G in November
2020.
She said heightening
the visibility of Lions clubs
also will boost member-
ship. Oliver noted that
when people see others
in the community volun-
teering, they will be more
likely to want to join.
Oliver also will be
talking with clubs about her
hopes of getting chapters
to continue raising money
to help those in Western
Oregon who still are suf-
fering from the devastating
wildfires that hit in late
summer of 2020.
The future governor
also will be working to
keep programs such as the
Lions’ long-running vision
screening program strong.
The Lions of District
36G, like those in states
throughout the country,
annually screen students
for vision problems. This
is now done with an elec-
tronic screener that quickly
can detect conditions
including blurred vision,
nearsightedness, farsight-
edness and eye misalign-
ment. Each individual
screening takes just a few
seconds and is performed
from a distance of about 3
feet.
Students found to have
vision issues are referred
to optometrists and
ophthalmologists.
Oliver is amazed at how
quickly screenings can now
occur. She said in small
schools districts, including
Elgin and Imbler, club
volunteers complete the
screenings for all students
in less than an hour.
Oliver is following the
lead of her husband of 35
years, Steve Oliver, who
served as District 36G
governor four years ago.
Kathy Oliver said her hus-
band, who is a retired
Union County sheriff,
will be accompanying
her on many of her trips
throughout the district.
She anticipates they will
be on the road a lot, noting
her husband, who is still a
Lion, drove about 20,000
miles making District 36G
business trips during his
year as governor.
Oliver said her husband
will provide valuable sup-
port during her one-year
term.
“He has helped a lot
already,” she said.
Oliver noted that he has
a wellspring of leadership
ability she wants to draw
upon.
“I hope that just a little
bit of his talent will rub off
on me,” she said.