GREB TIES
SCHOOL
3-POINT
RECORD
BASKETBALL/1B
WEEKEND EDITION
UMATILLA TEAM BUILDING
NEW ROBOT LIFESTYLES/1C
BANQUET
HONORS
CITIZENS,
BUSINESS
PENDLETON/3A
JANUARY 23-24, 2016
140th Year, No. 71
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
PNNL signs with drone range
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the range is sustainable.
“We believed that we were
acquiring
a turnkey, federally
By ANTONIO SIERRA
ERRNVKLVFRQ¿GHQFHPD\VRRQEH and a wide variety of terrain and
sanctioned
monopoly,” Chrisman
East Oregonian
climates for customers to choose
rewarded.
said.
The range still has all the poten- from.
In May, the FAA undercut
But the range has had trouble
More than two years in, Steve tial that was advertised by local
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Chrisman remains optimistic RI¿FLDOV ZKHQ LW ZDV GHVLJQDWHG turning that potential into business,
about the Pendleton Unmanned by the Federal Aviation Adminis- jobs and dollars. To date, no paying JUDQWLQJ EODQNHW ÀLJKW DXWKRUL
Aerial Systems Range. And with tration as a drone test site on Dec. WHVW ÀLJKWV KDYH EHHQ FRQGXFWHG zation to any UAS operator who
See DRONE/10A
LWV ¿UVW ELJWLPH FOLHQW RQ WKH 30, 2013: Accessibility, clear skies there, an essential part of ensuring
Farewell to a forest
AgriNorthwest
to buy Boardman
Tree Farm
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The trees are coming
down.
AgriNorthwest, a farm
operator based in the
Tri-Cities, has entered into
an agreement to buy the
Boardman Tree Farm from
GreenWood Resources.
Part of the 25,000-acre tree
farm already sold to a local
dairy that will raise approx-
imately 8,000 cows south of
Homestead Lane. The rest
will now go to AgriNorthwest,
which farms mostly potatoes
and other irrigated crops.
The deal is expected to
close soon. Terms were not
disclosed.
In the meantime, Green-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Wood Resources will continue Rep. Greg Walden, right, listens to swing shift team leader Richard Lewellen talk about the veneer
to harvest what trees are left production line at the Greenwood Resources tree farm Friday near Boardman.
under a leaseback agreement.
The Collins Companies
operates a sawmill at the tree
farm, and Columbia Forest
Products runs a veneer mill
that helps make decorative
plywood.
Logs are also sold for
pulp and biofuel. ZeaChem,
a company located at the
nearby Port of Morrow, used
sawdust from the tree farm to
By JADE MCDOWELL
make ethanol.
East Oregonian
The tree farm has also
hosted “A Very Poplar Run”
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Or-
since 2011, with 5K and
egon, stopped by Hermiston for a
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tour of the Eastern Oregon Trade
Agape House in Hermiston.
and Event Center on Friday during
Don Rice, director of North
his trip across Eastern Oregon.
American operations for
Standing in the mostly-com-
GreenWood Resources, said
pleted
event center building,
the decision to sell the prop-
EOTEC board member Dan Dorran
erty has been met with mixed
told Walden the project represented
emotions.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
a unique partnership between city,
See TREE/10A
county, school district and private EOTEC board member Dan Dorran gives a tour of the event
center to Rep. Greg Walden on Friday in Hermiston.
industry.
“We’re very proud of this Dorran said.
The EOTEC board is planning a
project,” Dorran said.
He told Walden that if he had community open house of the event
Dorran explained the center’s any federal grants or other pockets center facility sometime in March,
history, starting with the purchase of money needing to be spent, the once the building is completed.
of the EOTEC property in 1983, EOTEC project was “shovels in the
Earlier in the day, Walden
when the Umatilla County Fair had ground” ready.
made a stop at the Boardman Tree
12,000 visitors per year. Today the
“We do have our hand out all the Farm with state Sen. Bill Hansell,
same fairgrounds draw in 80,000 time,” Dorran said.
R-Athena, where the two met
people a year and close to as many
Walden didn’t make any prom- behind closed doors with Green-
for the Farm-City Pro Rodeo.
ises that he could conjure up federal :RRG5HVRXUFHVRI¿FLDOV7KHWUHH
He noted that in addition to funding for the project, but he did farm is undergoing a change of
planned events, the project could ask questions and make suggestions ownership, with roughly one-third
also serve as an evacuation point in during a detailed tour of the facility. of the property having been sold to
an emergency, just like the current While discussing the acoustics in Willow Creek Dairy and the rest of
fairgrounds did in 2014 after an the great hall, he told Dorran he was the land to AgriNorthwest.
explosion at the LNG natural gas interested to see a computerized PA
The lawmakers toured both
plant in Plymouth forced residents system at the Readiness Center the Collins Companies’ Upper
across the river.
in The Dalles that automatically Columbia Mill and Columbia
“Our plan is to have everything senses the level of noise in the room Forest Products veneer mill after
in place to be able to do that again,” and adjusts accordingly.
their meeting. Walden said he was
impressed with the operations, and
“We need to get back to the point where is pleased to know the land will
remain under local management
people feel like the government listens to and ownership.
of Walden’s recent focus
them, and they’re getting a fair shake.” has Much
been on the situation in Harney
– U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon
See WALDEN/10A
EOTEC leaders give tour to Walden
Representative
completes busy
two-county tour
Planning
for the
unthinkable
Bus crash, Sandy Hook
topics at Safety Summit
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Disaster can come in seconds.
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A tornado rolls. A mud slide buries
homes. A neighborhood goes up in
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Recovery takes much longer. In
the aftermath, chaos and confusion
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deal with law enforcement, media
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multitude of other details.
As with most everything
else in life, advance planning
and networking can help. That
was the idea behind Thursday’s
Safety Summit at the Pendleton
Convention Center, hosted by Blue
Mountain Community College.
The crowd of about 100 from three
counties included representatives
from law enforcement, education,
health care, government and other
organizations.
Keynote speaker Mary Schoen-
feldt, who has worked in emergency
management and crisis response for
more than 30 years, shared obser-
vations gleaned during multiple
disasters, including the mudslide
in Oso, Washington, and two
school shootings. She served as the
Director of Recovery in her home
town of Marysville, Washington,
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and injured another. She also helped
in Newtown, Connecticut, where a
gunman fatally shot 20 children and
six adults in 2012 at Sandy Hook
See SAFETY/10A
HERMISTON
Man beaten,
in critical
condition
East Oregonian
A Hermiston man is in critical
condition in a Spokane hospital
after a Wednesday assault.
Witnesses told the Umatilla
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Wayne Newton, 53, and Lloyd Allan
Terpening, 54, from Irrigon were
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property at 81252 Highway 395,
just south of the Hermiston Super
Oval racetrack.
Newton
sustained
a
serious
head
injury in the
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taken to Good
Shepherd
Medical Center,
Hermiston, by
his
daughter
and later trans- Terpening
ferred to Sacred
Heart Medical Center in Spokane,
Washington, for treatment.
Newton’s condition remains
“critical,” according to the hospital
as of press time Friday.
Terpening was located by police
Friday afternoon, according to
a release from Umatilla County
Sheriff Terry Rowan. It was not
immediately known if he has been
charged with any crimes.
The assault was not reported
to police until the owner of the
property arrived Thursday morning
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The property owner said Newton
See ASSAULT/10A