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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, JuNE 25, 2022
Students build homes in Eastern Oregon
By JANET EASTMAN
The Oregonian
Curt Berger stopped
coaching tennis and wres-
tling a decade ago, but he
never retired his enthusiasm
for teaching high school stu-
dents about teamwork and
goal setting. He just shifted
from sports to homebuilding.
On Tuesday, Berger will
be standing proudly with
his students as people walk
through a two-story dwell-
ing designed, built, deco-
rated and landscaped by
teenagers.
This is the eighth custom
house on SW Angus Court
in Hermiston completed by
members of the Columbia
Basin Student Homebuild-
ers Program.
The group’s logo, drawn
by a student, shows a house
with a graduation cap as
the roof. Students named
the 3.25-acre development
Fieldstone Crossing, which
has 22 homesites on two
streets.
Berger says many high
schools would like to train
future tradespeople and
educate students about
the money-saving bene-
fits of do-it-yourself home
improvements and repairs.
Land to build on and the
funds to start a residential
construction program are the
typical roadblocks, he says.
In Oregon, Forest Grove
High
School’s
annual
Viking House project started
in 1975. Sherwood High
School had a homebuild-
ing project in 1981, but bud-
get cuts shut down the pro-
gram for 30 years before it
was revived. The first of the
new Bowmen Houses sold
in 2013.
The Columbia Basin Stu-
dent Homebuilders Pro-
gram, which is open to high
school students from Herm-
iston, Umatilla and Stan-
field, was launched in 2013
with a $372,674 Career and
Technical Education grant
from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education.
The money was used to
buy equipment and materi-
als to build the first house.
Proceeds from the sale of
each new home fund the
next project.
Coach Berger reminds
his crew of students that the
house they build will stay in
the community for a long
time.
“This is not a term paper
you throw away,” Berger
said. “We’re under pressure.
Winning is completing the
house on time.”
His says the team works
in dust, dirt, cold and heat.
Despite the challenges, they
show up on time, learn how
to do the work and do what
they said they would do.
Caitlin Anderholm, 18,
joined the program as a
freshman. Over four years,
she graduated from con-
struction classes to hands-on
building.
The loud and heavy cir-
cular saw no longer intim-
idates her. And when she
moves into her first apart-
ment this fall to attend Green
River College in Washing-
ton state, majoring in earth
science, she has confidence
she can make repairs.
She says Berger’s encour-
aging teaching style is “Live
and learn. You will make
mistakes but he’ll always
be there to say, ‘Don’t
Columbia Basin Student Homebuilders Program
Students help build a home in Hermiston.
do it again.’ It’s a good
environment.”
Hundreds of high school
students participate in each
build, says Berger. Over
the school year, students
enrolled in computer-as-
sisted design, construction
and landscaping classes visit
the site.
With guidance from
instructors, architects and
engineers, students design
the floor plan to fit the lot.
Then about a dozen seniors
spend two hours each school
day working, from digging
the foundation to sealing air
leaks after the Energy Trust
of Oregon’s final inspection.
The program receives
guidance from craftsmen
and suppliers who are mem-
bers of the Northeast Oregon
Homebuilder’s Association.
Advertising students help
real estate agent Bennett
Christianson of Christian-
son Realty Group market the
property for sale.
None of the original
owners of the seven previ-
ous homes has moved out
and this year’s house sold in
January for $499,000, when
sheet rock was still visible
on the walls.
Demand for housing is
high in Oregon and “our
reputation is good,” says
Berger, 60, who has been an
educator in the Hermiston
School District for 31 years.
Before being named the stu-
dent homebuilder director,
Berger taught vocational
classes. He later earned an
Oregon contractor’s license.
Professionals are hired
to install trusses, electricity
and plumbing. After gradua-
tion, students who help fin-
ish the property before the
open house are paid.
To help out during the
pandemic, Gideon Fritz,
who graduated from Herm-
iston High in 2019, worked
afternoons on the house
after he completed his
online coursework to earn
his degree at Oregon State
University. He now works
as Berger’s assistant.
Pandemic supply chain
issues didn’t delay the proj-
ect, says Berger, but sched-
uling already overworked
tradespeople created gaps.
Instead of taking downtime,
the students built sheds.
“I told my students,
‘COVID is not going to shut
us down,’” he says. “It’s
like winning the state title,
focus on the goal and put in
the work. The past does not
guarantee success.”
Berger
says
people
attending the first open
house were surprised by the
quality of the construction.
“They thought it would
be a shack built sideways
with crooked doors,” he
says. “Now people know
these are the nicest homes
in town,” with high-end fea-
tures such as a stone entry-
way, illuminated crown
molding and an outdoor liv-
ing space with low-mainte-
nance landscaping.
“These are Street of
Dreams-level homes for
under $500,000,” he says.
The new two-story house
has 2,330 square feet of liv-
ing space under a roof with
four gables. The temperature
of the top floor bonus room
is maintained by an ener-
gy-efficient electric mini-
split system.
On the main level, the
living room has a stone fire-
place wall that rises 22 feet
to the ceiling. The primary
suite has a vaulted ceiling,
walk-in closet and a spa-like
bathroom with a tub, shower
and walls clad in cultured
marble.
There are two more bed-
rooms, another bathroom
and a powder room. A barn
door from Noland Door
Co. conceals the laundry
room, says Berger, adding,
“the doors in the house are
real knotty alder and they’re
just gorgeous. I want to hug
every door.”
Energy efficient features,
built above code standards,
include enhanced insula-
tion, heating, cooling and
ventilation systems, says
Berger. The kitchen has a
five-burner gas stove, quartz
counters and a center island.
There is a convenient
central vacuum system,
SimpliSafe security system
and speakers throughout the
house.
A sliding glass door
opens to the barbecue area
overlooking the lawn, raised
bed planters and a space
plumbed for hot tub in the
fenced backyard.
The three-car garage has
a 10-foot-wide bay door
to park an RV or boat. The
home is ready for a solar sys-
tem and electric car charging
station.
FDA bans Juul e-cigarettes tied to teen vaping surge
By MATTHEW
PERRONE
and TOM MURPHY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S.
health regulators on Thurs-
day ordered Juul to pull its
electronic cigarettes from
the market, the latest blow
to the embattled company
widely blamed for spark-
ing a national surge in teen
vaping.
The action is part of a
sweeping effort by the Food
and Drug Administration to
bring scientific scrutiny to
the multibillion-dollar vap-
ing industry after years of
regulatory delays.
The FDA said Juul must
stop selling its vaping device
and its tobacco and menthol
flavored cartridges. Those
already on the market must
be removed. Consumers
aren’t restricted from having
or using Juul’s products, the
agency said.
To stay on the mar-
ket, companies must show
that their e-cigarettes ben-
efit public health. In prac-
tice, that means proving that
adult smokers who use them
are likely to quit or reduce
their smoking, while teens
are unlikely to get hooked
on them.
The FDA noted that
some of the biggest sell-
ers like Juul may have
played a “disproportionate”
role in the rise in teen vap-
ing. The agency said Thurs-
day that Juul’s application
didn’t have enough evidence
Brynn Anderson/AP Photo
An electronic cigarette from Juul Labs.
to show that marketing its
products “would be appro-
priate for the protection of
the public health.”
Juul said it disagrees with
the FDA’s findings and will
seek to put the ban on hold
while the company consid-
ers its options, including a
possible appeal and talking
with regulators.
In a statement, the FDA
said Juul’s application left
regulators with significant
questions and didn’t include
enough information to eval-
uate any potential risks. The
agency said the company’s
research included “insuffi-
cient and conflicting data”
about things like potentially
harmful chemicals leaching
from Juul’s cartridges.
“Without the data needed
to determine relevant health
risks, the FDA is issu-
ing these marketing denial
orders,” Michele Mital, act-
ing director of the FDA’s
tobacco center, said in the
statement.
Joe Murillo, Juul’s chief
regulatory officer, said in
the company’s statement
that Juul submitted enough
information and data to
address all issues raised by
regulators. He noted that the
company’s application, sub-
mitted more than two years
ago, included comparisons
to combustible cigarettes
and other products.
He said it also included
information on potential
harmful effects of the com-
pany’s products.
Since last fall, the FDA
has given the OK to tobac-
co-flavored
e-cigarettes
from R.J. Reynolds, Logic
and other companies. But
industry players and anti-to-
bacco advocates have com-
plained that those products
account for just a tiny per-
cent of the $6 billion vaping
market in the U.S.