LITTLE LEAGUE/1B
95/61
PENDLETON,
PILOT ROCK
ELIMINATED
Find this medallion,
get an ice cream party
FIRST CLUE/3A
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015
139th Year, No. 204
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Cop cam
rules may
deter use
PENDLETON
By SEAN HART
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rob Markwick and C.J. Flores, with O So Kleen of Hermiston, tear out water-damaged fl oor tiles with crowbars on
Tuesday at Joe’s Fiesta on Main Street in Pendleton.
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Neighbors of old city hall
must deal with damage
By JONATHAN BACH
East Oregonian
Joe Meda kicks a piece of loose debris
with his boot. His Main Street business,
Joe’s Fiesta, is across the alley from the
old city hall that was wrecked by a July
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About a million gallons of water
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course of two-and-a-half hours, causing
damage to surrounding businesses,
including Meda’s Mexican restaurant.
He walks through the space and details
the damage as workers set about their
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tiles started popping up as if they were
“popcorn” because of the warping wood
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Meda said his contractor told him
it would take four to six weeks for his
business to be ready for a reopening. He
said his insurance adjuster estimated the
damage would cost more than $250,000
to repair.
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said.
He said he had to replace plumbing
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restaurant. He said he worries about
gunpowder residue from the explosion,
and wonders if it could pose a threat to
family members who work around open
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“Maybe.”
But Meda said he did not want to take
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body cameras may actually deter some agencies from
implementing the technology.
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their entire shifts became strict
regulations for agencies that
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cameras.
House Bill 2571 requires these
agencies, including Hermiston, to
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the entirety of most interactions
with people and retain the data
for at least 180 days. The bill also
exempts most of the recorded Roberts
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and requires the editing of any
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Roberts said he has considered
using body cameras in his depart-
ment, but the new regulations
make it less likely he will soon
implement the technology.
The cameras and data storage
are costly, Roberts said. And he Edmiston
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worthwhile.
“I just can’t afford them right now, quite frankly,
and I’m just not sure about the practicality of it,” he
said. “I think there’s still some things in (House Bill)
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Roberts questioned the costs of complying with
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new technology.
Roberts said the department has used in-car
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for body cameras are “almost a contradiction” to
established standards, he said.
See CAMERAS/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Martha Olvera, with O So Kleen of Hermiston, uses a toothbrush to clean
smoke damage off of furniture Tuesday at Joe’s Fiesta on Main Street in
Pendleton.
“Thank God I have insurance.”
— Joe Meda, owner of Joe’s Fiesta, facing $250,000 in repairs
chances. In addition, Meda said the sheer
amount and pressure of the water from
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constituting a portion of his roof to shift.
He said the water on his roof at one point
was as deep as a jacuzzi.
Meda said he has owned the retail
space for 13 years. But he said all of the
damage to his restaurant pales against
that of the family who lost 25-year-old
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“Our loss compared to that of my
neighbors is nothing,” he said.
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Garcia, of Out in Action Head Shop at
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their air conditioning unit and there was
minimal water damage on parts of the
store’s carpeting.
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break the shop’s front door to get in and
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the front door could be opened, but he
Elderly man killed in crash
East Oregonian
A 79-year-old man died
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crash on Highway 395
between Pilot Rock and
Ukiah.
The crash happened at
11:16 a.m. near milepost
36 — about 20 miles south
of Pilot Rock and 15 miles
from Ukiah. The out of state
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the highway for unknown
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roughly 200 yards down a
draw and rolled, ejecting
the lone occupant who died
at the scene, according to
Oregon State Police.
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Stuart Roberts said he was
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Roberts was in Pilot Rock to
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city’s new police chief when
the call came about the crash.
Roberts said a pickup
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near Battle Mountain Forest
State Park.
Members of the Umatilla
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Search and Rescue, Pend-
leton Fire and the Department
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speed or intoxicants were
factors in the crash.
The identity of the
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released Wednesday after
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See FLOOD/8A
Marijuana sales
to start Oct. 1
SALEM (AP) — Oregon will allow marijuana
sales to adults on Oct. 1, nearly a year sooner than
originally planned.
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existing medical marijuana dispensaries to tempo-
rarily sell the drug to all adults.
Marijuana possession became legal under state law
on July 1, but state regulators are still about a year
away from being ready to allow licensed recreational
marijuana retail outlets to open. That means the drug
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legally purchased for recreational use.
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a legal place to buy a drug that is legal to possess.
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tities of dried marijuana, seeds and plant starts, but not
See POT SALES/8A
No toxins, just ‘ramblings’ in
suspicious mail sent to 20 sheriffs
Associated Press
The FBI said Tuesday that no toxic
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Sheriffs around the state reported
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rambling, incoherent messages Monday.
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packages contained an unknown substance,
but the FBI said Tuesday that none had a
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and arms, a metallic taste in his mouth, and
numbness and tingling in his lips. Palmer
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and had his wife take him to a hospital.
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didn’t determine a
cause for his symptoms,
Palmer said. He was
back at work Tuesday.
He said he couldn’t
decipher meaning from
the letter.
“I didn’t read that
far into depth,” Palmer
told The Associated
Palmer
Press. “It was some
scribblings and ramblings. I couldn’t tell
you what the context of it was.”
Grant is one of Oregon’s smallest coun-
ties, home to about 7,300 people in rural
eastern Oregon.
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collecting the letters and taking them to
the FBI or the Oregon State Public Health
Laboratory, the FBI said.