REGION
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
City cleanup nets 60 tons of junk
25 tons of tires,
11 tons of concrete
Photo contributed by the city of Hermiston
City crews help unload some of the 25 tons of tires that were dumped as part of the
“Clean Sweep” Saturday in Hermiston.
upholstered furniture and
nearly 1,000 gallons of
paint.
The city’s Faith-Based
Advisory
Committee
recruited volunteers for the
event on April 25 in the
Umatilla Electric Coopera-
tive parking lot.
In preparation, Marcum
handed out warnings and
information about the event
to people whose properties
were not compliant with
city’s
nuisance
codes.
For property owners who
continue to ignore warnings
to clean up their properties,
the city retained Demos
Enterprises to clean up the
land and send the bill to
the noncompliant property
owners.
Fetter told city council
he plans to make the event
an annual one to encourage
people to keep their yards
clean. He said he would
look into providing paper
shredders and disposal of
hazardous chemicals, two
things he heard requests for
this year.
Mayor David Drotzmann
said he hoped word spread
and next year it would be
a “bigger, better attended
event” in the future.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
BRIEFLY
One dead, another
critical after I-84
wreck
agreed to only bill half price
for travel, saving the city
an estimated $60,000 a year
from what it currently pays
.ennedy-enks.
The contract came before
the council during its April
13 meeting but city attorney
Gary Luisi recommended
the council ask city staff to
reopen negotiations after
he spotted a few provisions
that concerned him,
including the stipulation that
engineering drawings of city
projects would be owned by
the ¿rm instead of the city.
On Monday Luisi said
he was satis¿ed with the
updated contract and the
council voted unanimously
to approve it.
MEACHAM — A Cove
man died early Sunday
morning in a single-vehicle
crash on Interstate 84
between Pendleton and La
Grande.
Steven Gardner, 60, was
pronounced dead at the
scene after the 2003 Chevy
Tahoe he was driving in
the eastbound lane went
through the median and
struck a guardrail, then
rolled into the westbound
lane and landed on its top.
His passenger, Bryan
Yeager, 53, of Elgin, was
Àown to .adlec Medical
Center in the Tri-Cities
with critical injuries and
remained in the intensive
care unit on Tuesday.
The wreck occurred
a little after 2 a.m. at
milepost 238, according to
Oregon State Police, and
both men were wearing
seatbelts. Icy conditions
are being investigated as a
contributing factor to the
crash. The highway was
closed for four hours during
the investigation.
contractors.
It is scheduled for
completion by -une 1,
after which the district will
announce a market baseline
price and accept sealed bids,
awarding the home to the
highest bidder. The money
from the sale will be used
to ¿nance construction of
another student-built home
in the Fieldstone subdivision
next to Armand Larive
Middle School next year.
An open house will be
held -une 1 for interested
bidders or members of the
public who want to see the
¿nished 2,050-square-foot
house.
Bid documents and
other information about
the project can be found
at www.columbiabasin
studenthomes.org.
%RQGUH¿QDQFH
to save Umatilla
taxpayers $451,000 Firewood permits
UMATILLA —
go on sale Friday
Hermiston
approves city
engineer contract
HERMISTON — The
city of Hermiston once
again has a city engineer.
City council approved
a contract with Anderson
Perry & Associates Monday
night. The La Grande-based
¿rm has agreed to have
engineer Chas Hutchins
work out of Hermiston
two days a week, allowing
city staff to pop in and
ask questions or have
Hutchins run out and look at
something when necessary.
The council sought
proposals from regional
¿rms after deciding it could
save money by not having
to pay .ennedy-enks
Consultants out of Portland
for a six-hour round trip
every time an engineer
needed to sign off on a
component of a project.
In addition to having
Hutchins in town two days
a week, Anderson Perry also
Craigen gets 2½ years
for having explosives
rent sentence to the life
imprisonment because the
explosive devices were part
Convicted
murderer of the murder case, while
George West Craigen of the state argued they were
Milton-Freewater
will separate and thus required a
spend a bit more time than consecutive sentence.
That was the opposite of
life behind prison walls.
what the state and
He received a
defense argued
two-and-a-half
before Craigen’s
year
sentence
murder trial.
Monday
for
Perkinson said
¿ve counts of
West used Oregon
possessing explo-
law to determine
sives.
the
sentence
A
Umatilla
was consecutive
County
jury
because
the
earlier
this
explosives repre-
month convicted Craigen
sented a different
Craigen of the
level of danger,
charges. The case
sprang from the police particularly to of¿cers that
investigation of Craigen found the devices during
at the end of 2011 for the the search for Craigen.
Craigen’s trial for having
shooting death of Cecil
Carter of Milton-Freewater. a shank in 2013 while
A jury convicted Craigen he was in the Umatilla
in late 2014 for the murder, County -ail, Pendleton, is
and visiting Circuit -udge on hold. Perkinson said he
Russell West of La Grande just received notice there
sentenced Craigen to life in could be a hearing on that
in August. That could mean
that case.
West also presided Craigen will return to Snake
over the explosives trial River Correctional Institu-
and sentencing. Craigen’s tion, Ontario, rather than
attorney, Will Perkinson stay in the county lockup
of Pendleton, explained where he has been for the
Oregon
law
required latest trial and sentencing.
Umatilla County District
merging the ¿ve counts
into a single conviction and Attorney Dan Primus did
sentence. Perkinson said not return a call Tuesday
he argued for a concur- before deadline.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston did its share
of spring cleaning this
weekend, helping residents
haul away more than 60 tons
of junk during the city’s ¿rst
Clean Sweep event.
The recycling event cost
the city $4,000, but city
codes enforcement of¿cer
Mike Marcum said that it
was worth it.
“That’s a lot of junk that
isn’t going to stay stacked
up in people’s yards, garages
and driveways,” he said. “I
couldn’t be happier with the
turnout.”
Parks and Recreation
director Larry Fetter, who
helped
spearhead
the
event, told the city council
Monday that about 200
people took advantage of
the opportunity to drop off
hard-to-get-rid-of items for
free.
The most popular item
dropped off for recycling
was tires. Residents brought
in 25 tons of tires, 11 tons of
concrete, eight tons of scrap
metal, four tons of wood,
four tons of electronics, two
tons of plastic, two tons of
Page 3A
Taxpayers in Umatilla will
save about $451,000 after
the Umatilla School District
re¿nanced its general
obligation bond.
The bond, approved
by voters in 1998 to build
Umatilla High School, will
be paid off in 2022.
-odi Durfey, business
manager for the school
district, said in a news
release that the district
started the process last fall
to re¿nance the debt, giving
the district a lower interest
rate that will save taxpayers
money over the life of the
bond.
“We want to show
taxpayers we are doing
everything we can to be
¿scally responsible with
their money,” Durfey said.
District prepares
to sell student-built
home
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston School District
board of education approved
a plan Monday to sell the
district¶s ¿rst student-built
home.
The three-bedroom home
at 895 West Angus Avenue
is being constructed by
high school students in the
Columbia Basin Student
Homebuilding program,
supervised by professional
PENDLETON —
Firewood permits will go on
sale Friday, May 1 on the
Umatilla National Forest.
Permits are available
for $5 per cord, with a
minimum purchase of four
cords. The maximum limit
for personal-use ¿rewood
from the forest is 12 cords
per household.
Vendors include the
Southgate Mini-Mart in
Pendleton; Smitty’s Ace
Hardware in Hermiston;
Ment]er & Elliot and -&D’s
Food Mart in Pilot Rock;
Athena Grocery; Heppner
Shell Station; and Rhode’s
Supply in Ukiah.
Firewood cutters will be
required to keep track of the
date, time and quantity of
wood they remove from the
forest. A chart on the front
of the permit, called the
“Produce Quantity Removal
Record,” is provided to
record the information.
Cutters must also carry
an ax, shovel, 8-ounce
capacity ¿re extinguisher
and have their chainsaws
equipped with an approved
spark arrester when out
collecting ¿rewood.
Public use restrictions
may be in place over the
summer months that would
limit or prohibit ¿rewood
cutting for the day. Updated
restrictions will be posted
CONCEALED CARRY
PERMIT CLASS
on a recorded message
at 1-877-958-9663, or
online at www.fs.usda.gov
umatilla.
Firewood season ends
Nov. 30.
%D]DDUEHQH¿WV
Relay for Life
PENDLETON — A
spring bazaar will raise
money for Pendleton Relay
for Life.
The event is Saturday
from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
Mc.ay Creek Estates, 1601
Southgate Place, Pendleton.
Vendors include home
business products as well as
craft products.
For more information,
call Gert Hawthorne at
541-215-9767.
———
Briefs are compiled
from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email
press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
John
Sm ith
07 /08/7 2
05/02/12
You w ill forever b e in
ou r hearts.
M om & D ad
A ctu al size of ad (1x2)
Mushrooms arrive
in Blue Mountains
East Oregonian
Spring mushrooms have
arrived in the Blue Moun-
tains, along with a growing
number of commercial and
recreational
mushroom
hunters to the area’s
national forests.
Anyone can pick up
to one gallon of wild
mushrooms for personal
consumption in Oregon.
Otherwise, a commercial
mushroom
permit
is
required to harvest more
than a gallon of mushrooms
for sale.
Commercial
mush-
roomers must also buy an
industrial camping permit
if they plan to camp over-
night on Forest Service
lands, and are not allowed
to camp in developed
campgrounds.
Commercial mushroom
picking is also prohibited
in wilderness areas.
Mushroomers in the
Umatilla and Wallowa-
Whitman national forests
must display a recreation
pass in their vehicle
windshields when using a
designated fee trailhead.
Passes are $5 for the day
or $30 for the year, and
can be bought at any
Forest Service of¿ce. The
Malheur National Forest
does not require a pass.
It is up to the individual
hunter to recognize the
difference between edible
and poisonous mushrooms.
Guide books are available
at the Umatilla National
Forest headquarters, 72510
Coyote Road in Pendleton.
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