REGION
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Teen injured in
Hermiston shooting
Schools asked to
go into secure
room protocol
during the incident
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Demond Lofton, of Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, demonstrates a visual fault locator Thursday, March 3, 2022, during a fi ber optic splicing
course off ered by Blue Mountain Community College and Amazon Web Service in Hermiston.
Amazon splices its way into BMCC
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
HERMISTON —
Amazon Web Service
attempted inconspicuous-
ness when it fi rst came
to Umatilla and Morrow
counties by operating
under a pseudonym. Now
the web giant is openly
trying to build goodwill in
the Columbia Basin, and in
its latest endeavor has part-
nered with Blue Mountain
Community College on a
fi ber optic splicing course.
On the afternoon
of Thursday, March 3,
Demond Lofton, of Sum-
itomo Electric Lightwave,
was demonstrating an
optical time domain refl ec-
tometer — a device that
tests fi ber cables. As Lofton
joined two fi ber lines, a
red light glowed from the
center.
A student asked the
instructors what would
happen if they looked
directly at the lasers being
emitted by the lines. While
the human eye is supposed
to naturally avert its gaze,
trying to intentionally
stare at the light was not
encouraged.
“Again, don’t look into
the eye of the laser,” Lofton
said to laughs from the
class.
In an interview, Michael
Punke, vice president of
public policy for Amazon
Web Services, compared
fi ber optic splicing to a
middle school project
where students worked
with copper wires to con-
duct electricity. As the
world becomes increas-
ingly reliant on the cloud
to store digital data, Punke
said skills such as splicing
together fi ber optic lines
are coming into higher
demand.
The reasons behind why
a group of students from
the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation wanted to take the
course varied.
Colton Star said he’d
worked in sales and con-
struction but was interested
in the course as a way to
explore a new career path.
Mollee Minthorn had expe-
rience in programming
and coding and thought
fi ber optic splicing could
be another asset to her
skill set. Vivan DeMary is
semi-retired and self-identi-
fi ed as a tribal elder but still
liked the idea of picking up
new skills she could bring
back home to the tribes.
“I feel like this is the
future,” Star said.
It was a sentiment
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Students watch as Demond Lofton, of Sumitomo Electric Lightwave,
teaches a fi ber optic splicing class at Blue Mountain Community
College in Hermiston on Thursday, March 3, 2022.
shared by Punke, who said
Amazon intends to estab-
lish itself in the community
in part by off ering training
that could land them jobs in
the tech industry.
“This is a 21st century
industry,” he said. “It’s
going to be a 22nd century
industry. We very much
hope to be long-term mem-
bers of the community.”
Large tech companies
for the most part are asso-
ciated with urban areas,
such as the San Francisco
Bay and Seattle. But these
companies have sought
rural communities for their
data centers, where they
can fi nd large quantities of
water to keep their servers
cool and local government
offi cials willing to trade
tax breaks for jobs. Google
built a data center in The
Dalles while Facebook and
Apple targeted Prineville
for their own facilities.
When Amazon Web
Services established a
presence in Boardman in
2010 and Umatilla in 2012,
it often operated under
the name of a subsidiary:
Vadata Inc. When Amazon
planned its expansion into
Hermiston in 2019, the
city council and Umatilla
County Board of Com-
missioners agreed to abate
15 years of property taxes
in exchange for a fl at $40
million.
In recent years, Amazon
has shed some of its
secrecy and upped its
public investments.
In 2021, Amazon
announced more than
half a million in dona-
tions to community orga-
nizations across Uma-
tilla and Morrow counties.
Later that year, AWS cut
the ribbon on its Think
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Is like a four
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Boardman.
Nayeli Contreras, the
director of Blue Mountain’s
Hermiston Center, said the
collaboration between Blue
Mountain and Amazon has
been in the works for years
but the coronavirus pan-
demic delayed an in-person
class. She said the class
aligns with BMCC Presi-
dent Mark Browning’s goal
of having the college work
more with the region’s
employers on job training.
Contreras said she hopes
Blue Mountain will col-
laborate with Amazon on
future classes, even if they
are in areas other than
fi ber optic splicing. She
added she’s kept a list of
students who registered
for the class but weren’t
able to attend so she can
reach out to them for future
opportunities.
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston police are investing a
shooting Monday, March
7, that put three rounds
into an unmarked police
vehicle and sent a teen to
the hospital.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston in a press
release also reported his
department asked the
middle schools and high
school to go into a secure
room protocol during the
incident.
Hermiston police at
about 1:30 p.m. responded
to the area of West
Madrona Avenue and
Northwest 13th Street
on a report of gunshots.
According to the press
release, an on-duty detec-
tive in an unmarked police
vehicle was in the area on
an unrelated matter and
called in the gunfi re.
“As the detective fol-
lowed one of the involved
vehicles to call out the
description and direction of
travel for patrol offi cers, he
began receiving fi re from
an unknown location,”
Edmitson reported.
The detective observed a
second vehicle and reported
its description. According
to the press release, the
detective’s vehicle sus-
tained damage from three
rounds but the detective
was unharmed.
After receiving the
vehicle descriptions, offi -
cers located a red Nissan
Altima on the 1000 block
of West Orchard Avenue.
Police stopped the car,
detained the driver, who
was 17, and took the
person to the Hermiston
Police Department for
questioning.
Police seized the car
pursuant to the execution of
a search warrant, according
to the press release, which
did not reveal any more
information about the iden-
tity of the driver.
Offi cers learned a person
with a gunshot wound to
the leg had been dropped
off at Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center, Hermiston.
According to the press
release, police questioned
the “uncooperative 18-year
old from Umatilla” who did
not suff er life-threatening
injuries.
“This investigation is
ongoing,” according to
Edmiston. “However, it
appears to be an isolated
incident revolving around a
fi ght that escalated.”
The police chief also
explained the request to
have some local schools
use secure room protocol
“was not instantaneous as
we were trying to assess
exactly what we had (to
include whether our offi cer
was injured or not) while
dispatch was receiving
numerous additional calls
regarding the unidentifi ed
vehicle speeding around
town. The elementary
schools were released as
normal, 40 minutes before
this incident began.”
This is at least the third
shooting in Eastern Oregon
involving teens since
March 4.
The Grant County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce arrested a
16-year-old male in Prairie
City after a teen girl was
shot in the face and suf-
fered signifi cant trauma to
her head.
And Manuel Adam Per-
alez Jr., 19, of Walla Walla,
faces a murder charge
stemming from a shooting
March 5 in Milton-Free-
water that killed Jason
Samuel Warner, 18, of
Milton-Freewater.
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