REGION
Friday, January 1, 2016
East Oregonian
Hermiston marching band sweeps
awards at Holiday Bowl parade
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
There is going to be a lot
less room in the trophy case
after the Hermiston High
School marching band returns
from their Holiday Bowl trip
on Friday.
The band swept every
award in their division on
Wednesday, beating out nine
other schools for the overall
grand prize at the San Diego
Holiday Bowl Parade in addi-
tion to bringing home the ¿rst
place trophies for best music,
best percussion, best color
guard, best marching, best
drum major and best general
effect.
Shaelynn Boyd, a senior
who plays percussion in the
band, described a scene of
jubilation when the band
found out they had won
everything.
“Everyone was cheering
and laughing and crying,” she
said.
The announcement came
while the band was getting
ready to play at the halftime
show of the Holiday Bowl
Wednesday night, when the
nation watched the Wisconsin
Badgers beat the USC Trojans
23-21.
Boyd said getting ready
for the trip meant a lot of
extra practicing and hard
work fundraising, but in
that moment there were no
regrets.
“It was all worth it,” she
said. “All the time we put in
and the struggles we had, it
was all worth it.”
The awards meant a lot to
the mentors who went along
for the trip, too.
Adrian Rodarte, the band’s
color guard instructor, said
Umatilla Co. could
end outlier status of
emergency manager
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by Danielle Harvey
Hermiston High School took irst place in the AA division for the Holiday Bowl
parade in San Diego on Wednesday.
he was as ecstatic as the
kids about the win. Rodarte
was captain of the color
guard during his senior year
at Hermiston High School
in 1999-2000 and then
watched the band go through
a rebuilding period when it
didn’t take any major trips
again until this year.
“I grew up in Hermiston,
and just to see the band come
back alive and grow ... it has
been just surreal,” he said.
Rodarte said the color
guard didn’t have much time
to learn the routine for the
halftime show after receiving
videos of it, and it was also a
tight schedule choreographing
and learning a routine for the
parade, but the group seemed
to have taken his words to
heart when he pushed them to
give it their all.
“I made sure they knew,
‘You need to take this seri-
ously. You’re representing
your school and your state,’”
he said.
Band
director
Paul
Dunsmoor said he went down
to San Diego con¿dent the
band would measure up well,
but to win ¿rst place in every
category while competing
against nine other similarly
sized bands from around
the country was a “huge
surprise.”
He said he hoped the
students gained a lot of
self-con¿dence from the
experience and also learned
from the other bands they
interacted
with
while
rehearsing for the halftime
show.
After working hard to help
the band shine in San Diego,
Dunsmoor won’t soon forget
the cheering, crying, hugging
and Àurry of sel¿e-taking with
the trophies that happened
after the awards were handed
out.
“They were so excited,” he
said. “It was incredible.”
The band will return to
Hermiston sometime Friday
afternoon, depending on
road conditions. For those
who want to see the band’s
award-winning performance,
a national broadcast of the
Holiday Bowl Parade will air
5 a.m. Paci¿c time on Sunday
on the Universal HD channel.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4536.
Umatilla County could
make
its
emergency
management position full
time.
County
emergency
manager Jack Remillard
plans to retire soon, and
the county’s population
of about 76,000 makes it
the largest of Oregon’s 36
counties without a full-
time emergency manager.
So the county board of
commissioners heard a
presentation during its
Wednesday meeting from
Andrew Phelps, director
of the Oregon Of¿ce of
Emergency Management.
He told the board
Oregon
law
requires
counties to have emergency
managers, who handle a
variety of tasks, from orga-
ni]ing training for local ¿rst
responders to managing
resources and equipment to
taking charge of the scene
during a disaster. But seven
Oregon counties lack a full-
time emergency manager.
Four of those — Lake,
Grant, Hood River and
Klamath counties — plan
to move to full-time posi-
tions in 2016, Phelps said,
leaving Harney, Morrow
and Umatilla as the last
three with part-timers.
There are federal and
state grants that could
help cover the cost for a
full-time position, he said,
including $62,500 from the
Emergency Management
Performance Grant, which
Phelps’ department admin-
isters.
County board chairman
SKI: Base sits at an elevation of about 5,000 feet
Continued from 1A
never had a serious injury or death.
So far, the weather is holding up
its end of the bargain. Snowpack has
taken an about-face to last year’s
record low, and a 50 percent chance
of more of the powdery stuff is in the
forecast early next week.
A smattering of locals turned out
on a bluebird day Thursday to carve
out some runs before the weekend.
Jake Campbell, 18, has been coming
Spout Springs for as long as he can
remember. His father and grandfather
both worked at the resort, and now
Jake has also landed a job for the
season.
Campbell, who lives 20 minutes
away in Summerville, said he is
excited to get back to snowboarding
after two subpar winters kept the area
from opening for a full season.
“I was just completely thrilled
when I heard it was reopening this
year,” Campbell said. “I think the
snow’s pretty good.”
Offyears are not unheard of and
tend to happen in cycles at Spout
Springs, Murray said. The hill’s base
sits at an elevation of approximately
5,000 feet and it sports 780 feet of
vertical.
Spout
Springs
has
two
double-chairlifts, including the Echo
Chair for beginners. Frances Knop, 18,
of Ione, took a lesson from Waggoner
on Thursday. She said she appreciated
having one-on-one instruction as
opposed to snowboarding with a
larger group of students.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Tyler Knight, 7, of Pilot Rock rides the Echo chair with ski instructor Kyle McFarley of Weston on Thursday
at the Spout Springs Ski Area in Tollgate.
“Being able to ask for help is nice,”
Knop said.
Waggoner said boarding is hard
at ¿rst, but quickly becomes fun
and relaxing. She coached Knop on
getting to her feet, turning with her
heels and, together, they glided down
to the chair.
“This is a great place to come
learn,” Waggoner said. “Everyone
here is welcoming and friendly.
They’ll help you out if you need it.”
Spout Springs is open from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
as well as holidays. It is also the only
local resort to offer night skiing on
Fridays and Saturdays, from 5-9 p.m.
The hill will be open for night
skiing for the ¿rst time this season on
New Year’s Day.
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0825.
NEIGHBOR: Rystrom and her family are avid hikers, campers
Continued from 1A
hospital.”
Rystrom’s four children
(three boys and a girl) are
all grown and out of the
house, although her youngest
son Randall Rystrom is
coincidentally completing
an internship with Hermiston
Fire & Emergency Services.
She said neither of them had
any idea the other was also
applying for a position in
Hermiston at the same time.
Rystrom and her family
are avid hikers and campers,
and she said the children
were raised “kind of off the
grid” during their summers
off school. Another bene¿t to
Hermiston is that it is not a
very far drive for a weekend
in the Wallowas, she said.
She said the family is also
very military-oriented. Her
husband served in the Navy,
and all four of her children
have some degree of experi-
ence in the various branches
of the military. Her oldest
son Jason Walker lost his leg
two years ago in Afghanistan
while serving his third tour
Lorena Sanchez
Auto
Health
Home
Life
Lorena Sanchez
541/289-3300 • 800/225-2521
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Family Insurance Agent
of duty in the Middle East
with the Army.
Rystrom said she is
excited to be in Hermiston
heading into the New Year
and is looking forward to
the opportunities for profes-
sional growth that her new
job will provide.
“My job is to oversee that
we’re following the rules and
regulations to provide good-
quality care, that’s the bottom
line,” she said. “But my goal
is to provide outstanding care
and not just meet the basics.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Page 3A
George Murdock said it
was distressing the county
did not have a full-time
manager and this is an
issue the county needs to
explore. And Commis-
sioner Larry Givens said
he is promoting emergency
readiness for the Cascadia
earthquake in his role as
president of the Association
of Oregon Counties. The
board then voted 3-0 to
have staff research making
the position full time.
The board also reelected
Murdock as the chairman
for 2016. That role usually
changes each year, but
Givens’ role with the Asso-
ciation of Oregon Counties
means traveling to Salem
and even Washington, D.C.,
and Commissioner Bill
Elfering serves on other
bodies as well, including
the Columbia Development
Authority, the local organi-
zation aiming to take charge
of the lands at the former
site of the Army’s chemical
depot near Hermiston.
And during the public
comment period, the board
heard from Pendleton
resident Rick Rohde, who
said he and some of his
friends are concerned that
county taxpayers are going
to be “stuck holding the
bag” on the Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center,
Hermiston.
The county board will
discuss the center during
a meeting Tuesday, Jan.
19, at the Umatilla County
Courthouse, Pendleton.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Pendleton couple
‘shaken’ from
home robbery
PENDLETON
—
Pendleton police are
looking for clues to two
people who robbed a
Pendleton couple’s home
Wednesday.
Pendleton
police
detective Howard Bowen
said the couple were
“understandably shaken”
from the ordeal.
Bowen said the crime
occurred a little after
5 p.m. at a home on
Tutuilla Creek Road.
After eating dinner, the
homeowner walked into
his den and encountered
two ¿gures.
“The suspects were
hooded,” Bowen said.
“So we don’t have a
description.”
One of them may have
brandished a gun or other
weapon, he added. The
intruders made it out
of the house with some
items of little value.
Bowen said no one
was injured in the crime,
and a check with other
local agencies for similar
robberies has not turned
up anything. He also
said police are checking
the neighborhood for
witnesses or surveillance
recordings to help solve
the case.