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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2016)
Page 10A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian DRONE: Laboratory gathers atmospheric measurements ratory is backed by the U.S. Department of Energy and obtained the administration’s is interested in taking advan- commercial exemption, as tage of Pendleton’s niche. “That (commercial) long as the drone weighed OHVVWKDQSRXQGVDQGÀHZ exemption is great for 99 percent of the population, but under 200 feet. Although that means that that’s not going to work for many UAS companies don’t me,” said Mike Hubbell, the have to go through ranges to ODERUDWRU\¶VGLUHFWRURIÀLJKW test their vehicles, Chrisman operations. Hubbell said the labo- said the Pendleton UAS Range is targeting a niche ratory has been gathering outside the parameters of the atmospheric measurements blanket exemption: Drones with manned aircraft for that can go higher, faster and 30 years, but has taken an carry heavier loads than the interest in using drones for that purposes. It makes average quadcopter. One reason Chrisman WKH WDVN PRUH HI¿FLHQW DQG is optimistic about growth decreases its carbon foot- is that the range recently print. The laboratory has a stable VLJQHGWKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVW National Laboratory as its of four small UAVs and is in the process of acquiring ¿UVWFXVWRPHU The Richland-based labo- a larger vehicle capable of Continued from 1A carrying a larger load. Hubbell said the relation- ship between the test range and the laboratory will be “longterm,” with a crew of 8-10 pilots and scientists for WKH¿UVWURXQGRIWUDLQLQJDQG testing and smaller groups of 2-4 people for subsequent trainings. Hubbell said those train- ings are important for the laboratory’s research, which can taken employees as far away as the North Slope of Alaska to study the effects of climate change. Hubbell said he expects to VWDUW À\LQJ WKH ODERUDWRU\¶V drones in Pendleton soon. While the laboratory needs more space and higher altitudes for its ambitions, others see opportunity with the current rules. OmniFox Aerial, a UAS company specializing in precision agriculture based out of Milton-Freewater, received its commercial exemption late last month. Owner Derrick Westoby said there is a business oppor- tunity available to companies that can provide services such as crop imaging to local farmers. He said he will soon hire a full-time drone pilot. For the purposes of OmniFox, Westoby said he doesn’t intend to test his drones at the Pendleton UAS Range, although he still plans to use it for its drone registra- tion services to keep abreast of FAA regulations. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. SAFETY: Preus helped out in aftermath of Roseburg shooting Continued from 1A Elementary School. As Newtown residents struggled with grief, Schoenfeldt said, they had to contend with swarms of journalists, President Obama, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Phil and even “trauma tourists” who descended on the community. “You couldn’t move in that town for a long time,” she said. The city of 27,000 faced the obvious challenges of FRPPXQLFDWLRQV WUDI¿F control, feeding and housing out-of-towners and meeting the psychological needs of a grieving community. Other challenges came as a surprise. One was the sheer volume of donations, $2.5 million in monetary contri- butions and thousands of gifts such as teddy bears that went into temporary storage. “Sixty thousand teddy EHDUV FDPH ÀRRGLQJ LQWR Newtown, Connecticut,” Schoenfeldt said. Four months after the shooting, the town’s Parks & Recreation director told Schoenfeldt that his crew hadn’t mowed a blade of JUDVV UH¿QLVKHG D ÀRRU RU done anything else on their list since the shooting. They had been busy with crowd control and other tasks. The town also struggled to know what to do with the memorials that sprang up, some of which impeded WUDI¿F7KH\ZRQGHUHGZKDW was a proper length of time to leave a memorial and how should the objects be handled? Schoenfeldt urges communities to face these and other questions before a disaster happens. “It’s easier to do now than when you are in the midst of it,” she said. In the audience, BMCC President Camille Preus listened carefully. Preus had helped out in the aftermath of the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg when a gunman fatally shot a professor and eight students last October. Lessons learned in Roseburg led in part to this week’s safety summit. In Roseburg, Preus had supported Umpqua’s interim college president, Rita Calvin. “I was essentially the chief of staff,” she said. “I helped run interference.” During the nerve-racking ¿YH GD\V 3UHXV VDLG VKH UHDOL]HG ³LW ZDV D GLI¿FXOW time to make the simplest of decisions.” The chal- lenges came in a steady stream. Precious time was lost tracking down phone numbers and organizing partnerships. “I realized we needed deeper conversations about our own partnerships,” she said. “We need stronger partnerships across our community so you can have our back and we can have yours.” BMCC has already made some connections, including becoming a Red Cross sheltering location. “We’re on a hill. We have a gym and restrooms,” said BMCC Vice-President of Public Relations Casey White-Zollman, who intro- duced the speakers. “We have a lot of resources.” During the summit, the attendees learned more about the 2012 bus crash near Deadman Pass that injured 38 and killed nine. Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard and Oregon State Police Sgt. Mark Banks shared lessons learned and partnerships that developed out of chaos. The Mi Joo tour company bus slipped off icy Interstate 84 west of Pendleton, burst through a guardrail and tumbled down a 200-foot ravine. Passengers and luggage littered the steep hillside. Most of the injured didn’t speak English. Emergency workers spent two hours and 38 minutes removing the victims, which eventually were spread among 10 hospitals. The rescue involved eight law enforcement agencies DQG ¿UH DQG DPEXODQFH departments. The crash quickly became one of the nation’s top news stories. “We weren’t prepared to deal with the national media,” Banks said. 263,QIRUPDWLRQ2I¿FHU Lt. Greg Hastings shoul- dered some of that load, as well as Casey White, who then worked as commu- nications director for the InterMountain Education Service District, and Larry Blanc, of St. Anthony Hospital. Communication, however, wasn’t the only challenge. “The biggest issue was identifying passengers,” Banks said. “They didn’t KDYH LGHQWL¿FDWLRQ ² WKHLU ID was in the snow. They didn’t have their wallets.” Worse yet, the bus manifest was inaccurate; the count was uncertain. Calls from worried family members looking for loved ones came in from different parts of the world. “The language barrier was a big issue,” Remillard VDLG ³,W ZDV GH¿QLWHO\ DQ eye-opener for Umatilla County.” Mi Joo wouldn’t return calls or send a bus to retrieve their stranded passengers. Belongings gathered at the scene were placed in a storage locker at the police station. People from the commu- nity and beyond stepped up, Remillard and Banks said. Individuals showed up with food, clothing and offers to volunteer. People who knew Korean interpreted. The Korean Consulate sent people to help sort out iden- tities. The Red Lion Hotel offered rooms and a place for St. Anthony Hospital nurses to change bandages and monitor the conditions of passengers with minor injuries. The Pendleton Convention Center served as headquarters for the Red Cross. Motels offered vans to transport the victims to the storage locker to retrieve belongings. A La Grande car dealership offered to chauf- feur crash victims to Canada or Seattle in six SUVs. “It was amazing how many times people saw a need and stepped up,” Banks said. At the Safety Summit, attendees exchanged busi- ness cards and talked about what resources they could offer each other if disaster occurs. They plan to keep the conversations going, said White-Zollman at the end of the day, and meet again to formalize partner- ship agreements. ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or call 541-966-0810. Saturday, January 23, 2016 TREE: Sold one-third of farm to Willow Creek Dairy fair offer,” he said. Prior to becoming a tree farm, the area was used for “It has become a commu- nity feature,” Rice said. “We agriculture. The trees came have a lot of photographers in 1990, and GreenWood who come out, especially in Resources bought the prop- erty in 2007. But Rice said the fall, to take pictures.” The Boardman Tree they won’t be planting again Farm spans six miles along in spring. Todd Jones, president Interstate 84, and another 13 of AgriNorthwest, said the miles south of the highway. It includes roughly 6 million company has been farming hybrid poplar trees that can in the Columbia Basin for grow to more than 100 feet more than 50 years and is tall. The trees are harvested looking forward to adding the Boardman property to its in 12-year cycles. It could take years operations. In December, Green- WR ¿QLVK PLOOLQJ DOO WKH Wood announced it sold remaining trees, Rice said, depending on the market roughly one-third of the tree conditions. He is hopeful farm — 7,288 acres — to GreenWood Resources can Willow Creek Dairy, which continue to provide trees was established in 2002 on from its other locations land leased by Threemile to keep the local sawmill Canyon Farms located on the and veneer mill operating. other side of the Boardman Together, those businesses Bombing Range. That sale closed for $65 million. employ about 100 people. The dairy will now be The tree farm itself has located along the southern 20 employees, along with another 50-60 contractors. boundary of the tree farm, Rice said they were not near the Finley Buttes Land- actively marketing the ¿OO $JUL1RUWKZHVW¶V ¿HOGV property, but AgriNorthwest will be located more closely approached them about to the highway, which marks the property’s northern acquiring the land. “We believe they made a boundary. Continued from 1A WALDEN: Does not think that Congress will act on militia’s request with no violence.” Walden said he does County and the armed not see Congress acting on occupation of the Malheur the militia’s request to turn National Wildlife Refuge. the federal wildlife reserve +HVDLGWKHQDWLRQLV¿QDOO\ over to the county. Walden getting educated on a long- said the federal government standing problem in the must improve relationships West, where “the federal with local communities, government has been the and part of that is increasing landlord.” active land management to However, Walden said revive the rural economy. he does not agree with the “We need to get back to occupation and said most of the point where people feel the community wants those like the government listens involved to leave. to them, and they’re getting “It’s unfortunate they a fair shake,” he said. resorted to this kind of ——— armed protest. History Reporter George Plaven shows that the longer this contributed to this story. goes, there really are no Contact Jade McDowell at winners,” Walden said. jmcdowell@eastoregonian. “We’re all hoping this ends com or 541-564-4536. Continued from 1A ASSAULT: 6WLOOXQGHULQYHVWLJDWLRQE\VKHULII¶VRI¿FH Continued from 1A and Terpening were living at the site while they worked to clean and clear debris. Almost two years ago, Newton provided key infor- mation that cleared a man of murder in a fatal shooting that also took place north of Hermiston. On Feb. 4, 2014, Newton drove Daniel Dechand to Good Shepherd after he was shot twice in a vehicle on Sunshine Lane. Dechand died from his injuries within an hour of arriving. Timothy Kelly was arrested and charged with murder. Kelly was later cleared by a Umatilla County grand jury, who decided he acted in self defense. Newton told police that Dechand was trying to rob Kelly. 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