LOCAL/REGION
2A — THE OBSERVER
Today in
History
TuESday, MaRcH 30, 2021
Blaze erupts at ODOT sign building
LG Police:
intoxicated
driver hit
pole, tree
Today is Tuesday, March 30, the
89th day of 2021. There are 276
days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On March 30, 1981, President
Ronald Reagan was shot and seri-
ously injured outside a Washington,
d.c., hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr.;
also wounded were White House
press secretary James Brady, Secret
Service agent Timothy Mccarthy
and a district of columbia police
officer, Thomas delahanty.
The Observer
ON THIS DATE:
In 1822, Florida became a united
States territory.
In 1842, dr. crawford W. Long
of Jefferson, Georgia, first used
ether as an anesthetic during an
operation to remove a patient’s
neck tumor.
In 1867, u.S. Secretary of State
William H. Seward reached agree-
ment with Russia to purchase the
territory of alaska for $7.2 million, a
deal ridiculed by critics as “Seward’s
Folly.”
In 1870, the 15th amendment
to the u.S. constitution, which pro-
hibited denying citizens the right
to vote and hold office on the basis
of race, was declared in effect by
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish.
In 1987, at the 59th academy
awards, “Platoon” was named best
picture; Marlee Matlin received best
actress for “children of a Lesser God”
and Paul Newman was honored as
best actor for “The color of Money.”
In 1999, yugoslav leader
Slobodan Milosevic insisted that
NaTO attacks stop before he moved
toward peace, declaring his forces
ready to fight “to the very end.”
NaTO answered with new resolve to
wreck his military with a relentless
air assault.
In 2004, in a reversal, President
George W. Bush agreed to let Na-
tional Security adviser condoleezza
Rice testify publicly and under oath
before an independent panel inves-
tigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In 2006, american reporter Jill
carroll, a freelancer for The christian
Science Monitor, was released after
82 days as a hostage in Iraq.
In 2009, President Barack Obama
asserted unprecedented govern-
ment control over the auto industry,
rejecting plans from General
Motors and chrysler and raising the
prospect of controlled bankruptcy
for either ailing auto giant.
In 2010, President Barack Obama
signed a single measure sealing his
health care overhaul and making
the government the primary lender
to students by cutting banks out of
the process.
In 2015, German officials con-
firmed that Germanwings co-pilot
andreas Lubitz was once diagnosed
with suicidal tendencies and
received lengthy psychotherapy
before receiving his pilot’s license;
they believed Lubitz deliberately
smashed his airbus a320 into the
French alps, killing 150 people.
alex Wittwer/The Observer
Firefighters with the La Grande Fire department respond to a blaze the morning of Monday, March 29, 2021, at the Oregon department of Trans-
portation sign shop in Island city. crews still were on the scene in the afternoon. There were no reports of injuries. The Observer will have a fuller
report online and in Thursday’s edition of the paper.
Cove Cherry Fair to return in August
By DICK MASON
The Observer
COVE — The Cove
Cherry Fair is being
revived again, this time
after a break of just one
year, not 83.
The annual Cove
Cherry Fair, which was
essentially canceled in
2020 because of the pan-
demic, is set to be cele-
brated this year on Aug.
21 because of declining
COVID-19 infection rates
in Union County.
The fair again will be
conducted at the Ascen-
sion School Camp and
Conference Center. Plan-
ning for the event began
after it received the green
light from leaders of the
Cove facility, said Cindy
Edwards, the director of
the Cove Cherry Fair.
Events scheduled at
the fair include its annual
parade, which will start at
10 a.m. and kicks off the
2021 event. The parade
will follow Highway 237
from Ash Street to Church
Street. The parade will be
The Observer, File
children compete in a cherry pie eating contest at cove’s cherry Fair
in august 2016. The pandemic led to the fair’s cancellation in 2020,
but the event returns this year due to the improving situation with the
coronavirus.
open to anyone but polit-
ical floats will not be
allowed. The Cove Cherry
Fair Parade also was con-
ducted in 2020 but all
other fair events were
canceled.
“It was the only fun
thing that happened in
Union County last year,”
said Edwards, noting she
believes all other Union
County parades were can-
celed in 2020.
This year’s parade again
will end at the Ascension
School Camp and Confer-
ence Center, where fami-
lies and residents will be
able to play games, go on
rides and eat fair food.
The Cherry Fair is wel-
coming all types of ven-
dors — artists/artisans,
crafters, entrepreneurs and
community groups. Infor-
mation on signing up for
the festival is available on
the website of the Cove
Cherry Fair, www.cov-
echerryfair.com.
The fair’s history,
like a cherry cracked by
heavy rain, is split. The
fair started in 1911 and
ran each summer through
1917. It was then discon-
tinued for 83 years before
being revived in 2000.
The fair’s first run was
an experience for orga-
nizers. So popular was the
event it sometimes drew
a reported 3,000 people,
according to a 2000 story
in The Observer. The event
was so big that another
local newspaper reported
Union was virtually vacant
one weekend because
so many had ventured
to Cove for the cherry
festival.
Edwards has been the
director of the fair since
2013 but will step down
after this year’s fair.
“It has been very ful-
filling,” said Edwards, who
said she will continue to
participate in the fair after
this year as a volunteer.
Yellowhawk to hold Future of John Day police in question
more vaccine clinics
By RUDY DIAZ
Blue Mountain Eagle
East Oregonian
MISSION — Yellow-
hawk Tribal Health Center
will be holding another
set of mass vaccination
clinics at Wildhorse Resort
& Casino at the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation,
this time with more groups
eligible, according to the
health center’s website.
Those eligible for the
vaccine include CTUIR
tribal members, people
living on the reserva-
tion, Yellowhawk eligible
patients, employees of any
CTUIR entity and their
families, students over the
age of 16 and teachers and
employees from Pendleton,
Athena, Pilot Rock, Helix
and Nixyaawii schools,
and staff at Blue Mountain
Community College.
Workers from all Pend-
leton area restaurants, food
trucks, fast food chains and
grocery stores are also eli-
gible to get a shot.
First doses will be
administered at the Wild-
horse clinic on April 12
and April 13 from 8 a.m. to
4 p.m. Second doses will be
administered on May 3 and
May 4 at the same times.
People interested in
getting a vaccine can
call 541-240-8733 to
schedule an appointment
or use the registration
link https://airtable.com/
shrb74wCvlR6fnNJR.
Yellowhawk officials
ask that, on the day of
the appointment, patients
bring their current class
schedules or student iden-
tification, employee pay-
stub or employee identifi-
cation and plan to spend 15
to 20 minutes onsite after
the vaccination to be moni-
tored for any potential side
effects.
People who wantto get a
vaccine can learn more at
Yellowhawk.org.
JOHN DAY — The
future of the John Day
Police Department
remains uncertain as
questions on funding
persist.
The John Day City
Council discussed on
Wednesday, March 23,
two possible routes the
city could pursue for
policing in John Day:
entering a law enforce-
ment services agreement
with the Grant County
Sheriff’s Office or seeking
a local levy to fund the
department.
City Manager Nick
Green said if the city
wants to recruit a new
chief after Chief Mike
Durr retires this year,
the city would need to
request a five-year local
option levy — between
10 and 15 cents per
$1,000 of assessed value
— to fund the depart-
ment. Durr was not
present at the city council
meeting for comments.
Green said the levy is
necessary because the city
lacks the money to sus-
tain the department unless
it comes up with another
revenue source or makes
cuts to personnel.
Police department
expenditures have grown
in the past 20 years, far
outpacing the sources
of revenue funding the
department, according
to graphs presented by
Green.
Green said future costs
— an incoming collective
bargaining agreement,
aging vehicles in need of
replacement over the next
five years, hiring a new
police chief and legislation
in Oregon — all present
cost increases in the next
fiscal year, which con-
cerns him.
“What we have seen
over the past two decades
(in expenditures) is pretty
consistent price escalation
that significantly outpaces
our revenue,” he said.
“The gap that we’re trying
to close from 20 years
ago, which was just a
little over $100,000, today
has grown to a little over
$400,000. All the while,
we lost 300 residents.”
It would be up to voters
in John Day to approve a
local tax.
Green said he spoke
with Grant County Sheriff
Todd McKinley to see
what a law enforcement
services agreement would
look like. The city would
be required to cover the
costs of the staff mem-
bers that would be repo-
sitioned, two full-time
officers and a full-time
sergeant, for the first year,
he said, and the county
would expect the city
to pay for four full-time
positions.
The council made
no decision but said it
would be important to
continue talking with
members of the commu-
nity to see how they feel
about both options.
Illegally dumped radioactive fracking waste to stay in the ground
By BRADLEY W. PARKS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
ARLINGTON — A
state agency has opted to
leave millions of pounds
of illegally dumped, radio-
active fracking waste right
where it is: in an Eastern
Oregon landfill.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Energy’s deci-
sion on Wednesday, March
24, comes a little over a
year after it issued a notice
of violation to Chem-
ical Waste Management,
or CWM, which operates
Oregon’s only hazardous
waste landfill, outside the
Columbia River town of
Arlington. An investigation
found CWM had dumped
1,284 tons of radioactive
waste — about 2.5 mil-
lion pounds — in the land-
fill over the course of three
years.
Oregon law prohibits the
establishment of a radioac-
tive waste disposal facility
in the state.
After the violation,
CWM had to come up with
a plan for what to do with
the waste. The company
offered to either dig it up
and ship it to another state
where it’s legal, or to just
leave it in the ground and
monitor the effects. The
company preferred to leave
it in place.
“This is exactly where
you want potentially dan-
gerous materials and dan-
gerous materials,” CWM
spokesperson Jackie Lang
said.
The state Department of
Energy agreed to that plan,
with amendments. The
agency said in a fact sheet
explaining its decision that
removing the waste “would
pose a greater risk to land-
fill workers than leaving
the waste in place.”
“It is a hazardous waste
landfill, of which there
are not that many in the
nation,” said Jeff Burright,
a nuclear waste remedi-
ation specialist with the
Department of Energy.
“And they do have spe-
cific design features that
are meant to contain waste
for long periods of time,
despite the fact that radio-
active waste is not per-
mitted in the facility.”
CWM will be subject
to more stringent water
quality monitoring under
the agreement. The Depart-
ment of Energy has also
directed CWM to install
a portal to scan shipments
of waste for radioactivity
before that waste goes in
the ground.
Lang said the land-
fill has been conducting
additional monitoring out-
lined by the Department of
Energy for several months
and that the company will
install the portal in April.
The agency will require
CWM to review current
and recent waste streams
as well to ensure the
company hasn’t accepted
any other radioactive
material in the past.
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande Police Depart-
ment reported a man faces
charges after he crashed
through a light pole near
downtown La Grande and
into a tree.
Officers from the La
Grande Police Depart-
ment responded to a single
vehicle crash Friday, March
26, at 11:43 p.m. on Adams
Avenue near Third Street.
At the scene of the crash
officers found a 1999 Ford
Escort crashed into a tree in
front of the Grande Ronde
Hospital Pavilion.
The preliminary investi-
gation indicated the vehicle
was traveling west on
Adams Avenue, jumped the
curb on the north side of the
road near the Cook Memo-
rial Library, stuck a light
pole, shearing it off at the
base, traveled 165 feet on
the sidewalk and grass and
finally crashed into a tree
and stopped.
La Grande police
reported the driver, Taft
Rengchol Kazuyuki, 40, of
La Grande, fled the scene
before officers arrived.
They found him soon after
a short distance from the
crash. He had minor inju-
ries and received medical
treatment at Grande Ronde
Hospital, La Grande.
Police cited Kazuyuki
for driving under the influ-
ence of intoxicants, reckless
driving and hit-and-run to
property.
Oregon State Police,
the Union County Sher-
iff’s Office and the Union
County District Attorney’s
Office assisted with the
investigation, La Grande
police reported. The inves-
tigation is ongoing and
Kazuyuki could face addi-
tional charges.
Man gets
prison for
thefts from
church
By CHRIS COLLINS
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — A
Baker City man will spend
the next two years and
four months in prison for
taking liturgical objects
valued at nearly $11,000
from the Catholic Church
and for stealing miscel-
laneous items during car
prowls in the Kirkway
Drive area in Baker City
last month.
Judge Matt Shirtcliff
sentenced Joshua Milton
Thomas, 31, on March 9
in Baker County Circuit
Court.
Thomas was charged
with one count of aggra-
vated first-degree theft, a
Class B felony; six counts
of unauthorized entry into
a motor vehicle, a Class
A misdemeanor; and 13
counts of attempted unau-
thorized entry into a motor
vehicle, a Class B misde-
meanor. He also was cited
on a charge of unlawful
possession of heroin when
he was taken into custody
the night of Feb. 18.
At the March sentencing
hearing, Thomas pleaded
guilty to the first-de-
gree aggravated theft
charge involving the Cath-
olic Church at 2235 First
St., and to two counts of
entering motor vehicles on
Kirkway Drive and taking
items from the vehicles as
well.
Thomas will serve the
28-month prison term for
taking two chalices, three
gold plates and a silver
and gold crucifix from the
church.
The estimated value of
all the items is $10,615.
Thomas will be eligible
to be placed in an alter-
native incarceration pro-
gram only after serving
16 months of his sentence,
court document state.