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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.
The Umatilla County
6KHULII¶V RI¿FH FRQWLQXHV
to investigate the assault.
&RQWDFW WKH VKHULII¶V RI¿FH
at 541-966-3601 if you have
any information about this
case.
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January 30, 2016
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30 per person
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541-567-6923
for more information.
Happy 100 th
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Howard Hagen!
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