WEEKEND EDITION
PENDLETON
A little bit
WINS SOFTBALL of summer
STATE TITLE
drama
LITTLE LEAGUE/1B
LIFESTYLES 1C
REGION:
Hermiston council will
reconsider taxi rules 3A
PARENTS:
How to talk to your kids
about marijuana 9C
JULY 25-26, 2015
139th Year, No. 202
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
MILTON-FREEWATER
$1.50
PENDLETON
Homemade
fireworks
cause blast
downtown
East Oregonian
The explosion that burned out Pendleton’s former
cit\ hall and claimed one life came from the creation
of homemade ¿ reworks.
An of¿ cial statement on the cause of Tuesda\’s
deadl\ blast and ¿ re came Frida\ afternoon from
Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts, who also is
the cit\’s public safet\ director.
Eduardo Quezada, 25, was in the residence on the
second À oor at the time of the explosion and later died
from inMuries he suffered. Roberts in a statement said
investigators found evidence Quezada was creating
À ash powder, “which he used to build improvised
explosive devices of var\ing size.´
The homemade ¿ reworks, he said, were illegal,
but onl\ for entertainment.
Roberts explained arson investigators from
See EXPLOSION/10A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Marcos Saldana, a senior at Mac-Hi, and two other volunteers team up to build a gabion wall from stones Friday in
Milton-Freewater. The wall is part of a community gathering spot being constructed at the high school.
Volunteers unite in
hyphenated town
Public gathering
space in the works
in front of Mac-Hi
“Milton-Freewater
is going to take
charge of its
destiny.”
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
An
exuberant
team
of volunteers wasted no
time getting to work on
Milton-Freewater’s
newest
public gathering space.
After of¿ ciall\ kicking off
the four-da\ building proMect
in front of McLoughlin High
6chool Thursda\, volunteers
had alread\ laid concrete,
erected columns, made signif-
icant progress on a gabion wall
and were beginning to install a
mosaic b\ Frida\ morning.
“Milton-Freewater is going
— Milenko Matanovic,
founder, executive director
of the Pomegranate Center
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Milenko Matanovic, of the Pomegranate Center, scores
lines in the concrete Friday in Milton-Freewater.
to take charge of its destin\,´
Milenko Matanovic said.
Matanovic is the founder
and executive director of
the Pomegranate Center, an
Issaquah, Washington-based
organization that’s partnered
with the Milton-Freewater
Downtown Alliance to hold a
series of leadership workshops
and facilitate the planning
effort for the gathering space.
The proMect is meant to spur
communit\ bu\-in as a part of
a alliance-coordinated grass-
roots campaign to revitalize
Milton-Freewater.
After several public meet-
ings to solicit input, architects
unveiled a revitalization plan
that incorporated emphases
See COMMUNITY/10A
Wildfire grows
as crews create
a perimeter
Fire increased b\ 10 percent
overnight, containment doubled
By ANDY PORTER
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
The Blue Creek Fire grew slightl\ overnight
Thursda\, but so did the containment lines.
Of¿ cials Frida\ said the ¿ re increased b\ 10
percent overnight to 6,140 acres, or about 9.6 square
miles, but containment doubled to 10 percent.
Approximatel\ 1,000 ¿ re¿ ghters are now battling
the blaze located in rugged terrain nine miles east of
Walla Walla.
Fire¿ ghters continued to work on the southern
and eastern À anks of the Blue Creek Fire to protect
the Mill Creek Watershed. Lines containing the ¿ re’s
northern perimeter “are doing great and we’re feeling
the entire western side of the ¿ re is contained,´ said
Public Information Of¿ cer Nick Cronquist.
Cronquist said the plan Frida\ was to get ground
teams into areas on the ¿ re’s southern and eastern
boundaries to strengthen lines where ¿ re activit\
remains high.
Contingenc\ lines are also being constructed
along the Mill Creek Watershed boundar\, located
about a mile from ¿ re’s perimeter.
The wild¿ re started Monda\ afternoon in the area
See WILDFIRE/10A
Tribes protect First Foods in face of climate change
$150,000 BIA grant used
for adaptation planning
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Against the backdrop of a region-
wide drought, the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are
bracing for the potentiall\ harmful long-
term effects of climate change.
The tribes have secured hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to stud\ climate change in
the Paci¿ c Northwest and come up with
an action plan to protect the reservation’s
natural resources, including traditional
First Foods.
Native salmon and steelhead are
having an especiall\ tough summer, as
intense heat and record-low snowpack
have lowered most rivers to a fraction of
their normal À ows. Wild¿ res, such as the
Blue Creek ¿ re east of Walla Walla, also
threaten tribal lands where members
hunt and gather.
Data suggests the problem is getting
worse, said Patrick Mills with the
CTUIR Department of Science & Engi-
neering. Forecasts show the Northwest
will be getting hotter in the decades to
come.
“Seasons are going to change,´ Mills
said. “*enerall\ speaking, we’ll be
hotter and wetter.´
Mills is proMect manager for the tribes’
climate change vulnerabilit\ assessment,
examining the risks imposed b\ climate
change on the Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion. The report, which will be released
publicl\ before the end of the \ear, was
See TRIBES/10A
EO fi le photo
Donya Fegan and Elizabeth Bratlie-Norris look for huckleberries
while harvesting the fruit with a group of women from the Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in August
2010, north of Elgin.