REGION
Thursday, August 27, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Wordsmith to research Council moves toward
PILOT ROCK
Spelling champ uses
both sides of brain
$4 million sewer project
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Ever
wonder
what
happened to that guy? That
girl?
Take the case of Chris-
topher Barnhart. Twenty
years ago, the Pendleton boy
won both district and state
spelling competitions. Those
who knew the precocious
12-year-old weren’t awfully
surprised.
From toddlerhood, Chris-
topher loved words. One
year, he asked for a dictio-
nary for Christmas. He read
the newspaper when most
children were working their
way through “Green Eggs
and Ham” or “Goodnight
Moon.”
Christopher’s
mother,
Melinda Slatt, said Christo-
pher’s brain was sponge-like
and his pronunciation spot-
on. She remembers asking
her four-year-old son to run
to the backyard one summer
day to get a sprinkler for her.
He returned a few moments
later with a question.
“You mean the oscillating
sprinkler?” he asked.
“I didn’t even know he
knew the word,” Slatt said.
“He had read it somewhere.”
Christopher and his aunt
often went head to head
doing the daily newspaper
crossword puzzle. After
procuring two identical
papers, they raced to see
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often won.
So what happened to
this talented wordsmith,
this lover of etymology,
grammar and spelling?
Surely he carved out a
career as a writer, maybe
an up-and-coming author
whose name will one day
grace the New York Times
bestseller list.
Sit back in your chair and
get ready to glide Google
Earth-style slowly toward
the East Coast, the state of
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Big Apple. The zooming
continues until Yeshiva
University and the Albert
Einstein College of Medi-
cine come into view.
Inside a lab, Barnhart
peers into his microscope
at guinea worms grown in a
petri dish. These nematodes
have a starring role in the
31-year-old’s research about
how an overabundance of
manganese can cause cell
death in certain parts of the
brain.
³:H¶UH WU\LQJ WR ¿JXUH
out the involvement of
certain proteins that might
be involved in preventing
cell death,” he explains.
Barnhart, it seems, has
bolted from one side of the
brain to the other. His love
Contributed photo
Christopher Barnhart, a Pendleton native and state
spelling champ 20 years ago, works in his laboratory
at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he is
researching the brain.
“The experience taught me that
focusing and working hard can
open a lot of doors for you.”
— Christopher Barnhart,
1995 state spelling competition champion
of science clicked in at
Pendleton High School as he
studied biology, chemistry
and physics. He earned a
degree in bioengineering at
Oregon State University and
graduated with a Ph.D. in
bioengineering from Univer-
sity of California Davis last
March. The post-doctoral
fellow now spends his days
in Einstein’s state-of-the-art
laboratory chipping away at
biomedical mysteries of the
brain.
Barnhart doesn’t get
much opportunity for plea-
sure reading these days amid
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papers, but when he does,
the list is eclectic — every-
thing from the Chinese poet
Li Po to “Slaughterhouse
Five,” “Watership Down”
and Stephen King’s “It.”
Barnhart remembers the
district and state spelling
competition with fondness,
though he still winces at a
word he missed during state.
“I only missed one word
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laugh. “That haunted me.”
That day, his mom sat
among parents and other
supporters awaiting the
announcement of who won
the competition, which was
done via paper and pencil
instead of out loud. She
braced herself as the winner
was revealed.
“When they said Chris-
topher’s name, I shot up,”
she said. “I was the only one
in the audience who knew
him.”
Afterwards, the mother
and son celebrated by
visiting an airbrushing
booth at the Oregon State
Fair, the site of the spelling
competition. A short time
later, Barnhart sported a
T-shirt that proclaimed
“State Spelling Champ of
the Year.”
“I still have it,” he said.
Barnhart said he left the
competition with a burst of
FRQ¿GHQFH
“The experience taught
me that focusing and
working hard can open a lot
of doors for you,” Barnhart
said.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
PENDLETON
Hill Meat expansion hits hurdle
Water pipes
not big enough
sometime in September,
then the city would be
able to seek funding from
Pilot Rock City Council state or federal agencies
gave the go-ahead Tuesday that provide grants and
low-interests
night for the creation of a long-term,
draft plan for new waste- loans for these kinds of big
water lagoons. The latest infrastructure projects.
To qualify, though, the
report from the engineering
¿UP RI $QGHUVRQ 3HUU\ city needs to raise its sewer
Associates shows the total rate to $40.36 a month.
cost of the project is about The residential rate is $28
$4 million, an increase of a month after a $10 bump
about $200,000 since esti- went into effect in July.
The city plans to increase
mates in July.
The council voted 5-0 the rate during the next
on an option that includes few years until it meets the
building new two lagoons mark.
Construction could begin
— one 23 acres and one
seven acres in size — on the in spring 2017, according to
north and south sides of the Anderson Perry’s project
existing lagoon, which is a schedule, and wrap up in
little north of the city and 2018. The new system
on the west side of Birch would last at least 20 years.
The lagoon project also
Creek. Pilot Rock’s sewer
treatment lagoon is 57 years requires the city to acquire
old. In late 2013 the city about 30 acres of land from
exceeded its groundwater private owners. Public
bacteria limit. The Oregon works director Steve Draper
Department of Environ- in the work session said the
mental Quality in 2014 asking price is $125,000,
warned Pilot Rock it needs but negotiations continue.
to upgrade the lagoon to Baird suggested the city buy
cease harming groundwater the land now. The $125,000
and avoid penalties and price, he said, is not much
in the scope of the whole
other actions.
The council discussed project.
The council in other
the project during a work
session before the meeting. business took no action on
Anderson Perry president a request from city recorder
and senior engineer Brad Teri Porter to address people
Baird said at the session the on Facebook or other social
draft plan would be ready media. She told the council
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
industrial park, its location development charges, a fee
places it just outside the assessed to developers based
boundaries of more robust on how much of an impact
water lines.
the development would have
Patterson said east of on the surrounding infra-
By ANTONIO SIERRA
Northwest
49th
Street structure.
East Oregonian
is serviced by modern,
The Pendleton City
The expansion of Hill industrial grade eight- and Council has discussed imple-
Meat Co., a bright spot 10-inch lines, while the land menting such charges for
for Pendleton’s business west of 49th Street has water water, sewer and stormwater,
community, has dealt with a infrastructure composed of although an actual date for
implementation hasn’t been
hiccup in its planning stages. four- and six-inch pipes.
Those
lines
were formally considered.
According to Pendleton
Hill Meat CEO Jim
Public Works Director originally installed in the
Bob Patterson, Hill Meat’s 1940s, when the airport Cheney said he felt as though
southward expansion isn’t was used primarily as an the issue was resolved and
currently serviced by the Army base without the same thanked the city for working
city’s water utility. Addition- ¿UH VXSSUHVVLRQ VWDQGDUGV with the company.
He added that the city’s
ally, the four- and six-inch required for a modern devel-
focus on attracting new
lines that provide Hill Meat’s opment.
Patterson said the needed businesses to the airport
current water supply are not
ODUJH HQRXJK WR VXSSO\ ¿UH improvements to the Hill industrial park would have
suppression to the growing Meat expansion could have made utility upgrades an
been paid for by system eventuality.
business.
While city staff is looking
into state grants that could
P ENDLETON R OUND -U P &
cover the cost of upgrading
these utilities, Patterson said
H APPY C ANYON G IFT S HOP
Hill Meat would need to
cover the costs if the state
NEW!
doesn’t come through.
H ATS , T-S HIRTS , S WEATSHIRTS
The city could know the
V OGT , M ONTANA , & ZPT J EWELRY
total cost of the project later
F LAGS , C AR F LAGS , G IFTS , & M ORE !
this week.
Beat the Crowds! Shop Early for Best Selection!
In addition to adding
20,000 square feet to its
TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
current Northwest 50th
• Kids Day - Thursday $1 - 17 under
Street facility, Hill Meat
• Senior Day - Wednesday $37 - RUP, HC, BBQ
plans to add as many as 30
• 4 Pack - Thursday $44 - 4 RUP, 4 hotdogs, 4 sodas
jobs to its workforce as its
Inside Hall of Fame Building
business continues to grow.
1114
SW Court Ave • Pendleton, OR
While Hill Meat may be
541-276-2553
one of the most prominent
www.pendletonroundup.com
business at the Eastern
Hours: 8:30 -5 Mon- Fri Sat 10-4
Oregon Regional Airport
she deleted comments
she made on Facebook in
response to misinformation
about police schedules.
Councilman
Deacon
Perkins said he was OK with
letting go of this, which was
fraught with public records
and meetings issues.
“I don’t think the city
should get entangled in
social media, so I appreciate
you backing up on that,” he
said.
The council also heard a
pitch from Sheri and Jason
Lybrand of Pendleton to
open a marijuana dispen-
sary in Pilot Rock to take
advantage of Measure 91,
the new law Oregon voters
passed to allow recreational
marijuana. Jason Lybrand
is the owner of Wicked
.LWW\ 7DWWRR 3LHUFLQJ
in downtown Pendleton,
which in addition to body
art also sells lingerie and
other items. A dispensary
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said, and would bring more
tax revenue to the city.
Council members did
not seem too stoked on the
idea, and at the end of the
meeting Perkins said he felt
misled — the agenda only
noted Sheri Lybrand would
GLVFXVV WKH EHQH¿WV RI WKH
law. He and Councilman
Jim Hinkle also noted
Pilot Rock voters opposed
Measure 91.
HERMISTON
Aquatic center in need of repairs
its budget.
Instead of replacing
the boiler Fetter proposed
The Hermiston Family putting solar panels on the
Aquatic Center is beginning picnic shelter roof to heat
water for the showers. The
to show its age.
Parks and Recreation panels would cost $50,000
director Larry Fetter gave instead of the $8,500 to
city councilors a tour of replace the boiler, but they
the facility Monday night, would save $18,000 a year
pointing out areas in need in natural gas, allowing the
city to recoup its investment
RIVLJQL¿FDQWUHSDLU
The
pool’s
most in three years.
The downside would
noticeable defect was the
boiler that heats water for be that the hot showers
showers. After the boiler would be dependent on the
began leaking, the city was weather, but Fetter pointed
QRWDEOHWRJHWLWUHFHUWL¿HG out that the pool only
for municipal pool use, operates during the sunniest
causing swimmers to put up months of the year.
“We get a ton of UV,”
with cold showers or skip
them altogether for most of he said. “Especially this
summer, we wouldn’t have
the summer.
Fetter said the pool, had a problem at all.”
Fetter pointed out a
ZKLFK¿UVWRSHQHGLQ
is no longer brand new and second repair he hopes the
it is time that the city started city will pay for before the
thinking about creating 2016 swim season. The tiles
a reserve fund for large around the gutter system
repairs that will inevitably for the multi-use pool are
covered in rust because
start cropping up.
“If we had had a reserve the water has made its way
we would have had showers through the tile to the rebar
holding up the pool walls,
this summer,” Fetter said.
Fortunately, the pool causing internal damage
can survive without hot that Fetter compared to
showers, he said. But if a a cavity in a tooth. He
maintenance problem ends proposed spending $40,000
up shutting down the pool to grind out the damage
for a long period of its inside the pool lip and
three-month season, that’s replace it with something
going to be a major blow to that will hold up better and
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
be easier to clean than the
tile.
“There really is no
part of this gutter system
that isn’t affected to some
degree,” he said.
The work would take
about two weeks to do
and could be performed in
the spring, in time for the
pool to open for the next
summer.
Fetter also pointed out a
smaller repair that will cost
less than $5,000 and will
be completed this fall. A
VLJQL¿FDQWZDWHUOHDNXQGHU
the pool deck near the water
slides has been draining
water from the pool and
needs to be dug up and
patched.
“We’ve lost a lot of
water, and it’s expensive
water because it’s heated
and chlorinated,” he said.
Fetter urged the city
council to consider creating
a reserve fund to cover pool
maintenance above and
beyond routine things like
new paint. He said if the
city pulled $20,000 a year
aside from the Transient
Room Tax fund it could still
meet its bond obligation,
which the city will not pay
off until 2033.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.