REGION
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3A
UMATILLA
Homeless residents scattered after cleanup
Hermiston Warming Station opens
doors to help those displaced Friday
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Of¿ce reported
over the weekend that a
cleanup of the homeless
encampment on River Road
was successfully completed.
According to a news
release, after a warning
earlier in the week there
were eight people still on
site when the sheriff’s of¿ce
arrived Friday morning with
a work crew of probationers
to help campers pack up their
remaining belongings and
throw out everything else.
“The operation began and
ended peacefully,´ according
to the statement. “There
were no disturbances, and no
one was arrested during the
event.´
John Jefferies, the agen-
cy’s chaplain, was also on
scene, and the sheriff’s of¿ce
reported that he offered those
being evicted information
about social services and
prayed with several of them.
The
sheriff’s
of¿ce
worked with the Umatilla
Planning Department and
Umatilla County Corrections
to clean up the camp and
trespass the people illegally
camping there over concerns
about safety and sanitation,
including citizens who said
they didn’t feel safe using
the river anymore.
Laurie Love, one of the
people trespassed from the
encampment, said Monday
by phone that she knew of
one camper who had left
the state, one staying with a
relative and a couple that had
found shelter for a few days
in exchange for cleaning a
house. The rest, as far as she
knew, were searching for a
place to unobtrusively camp
on their own.
As for Love, until she
found out that the Hermiston
Warming Station was going
to be open Monday night she
had been planning to spend
another night walking the
streets with her dog.
“I’m 58 years old and I
don’t know what to do but
walk around in circles,´ she
said.
The warming station
usually only stays open when
the temperature drops below
freezing, but volunteer Trish
Rossell said in an email that
the station would be open
every day in March they had
enough volunteers in order
to help those who had been
displaced by the cleanup
effort.
HERMISTON
Love said she wanted
those who were making
efforts to help the communi-
ty’s homeless, including the
warming station volunteers
and those who had stopped
by the river camp with food
and supplies before it was
disbanded, to know that their
kindness had been greatly
appreciated.
Kimberlee Castellanos
said people thought of those
who had been staying in the
encampment as a group, but
they had come to the camp
at different times and for
different reasons.
Some of them became
friends — it was Love who
taught Castellanos how to
build a ¿re and keep warm
Pendleton man
arrested for 31st time
Jody Allen Charged
with $10,000 theft
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
Contributed Photo by Melissa Doherty
Contributed Photo
The Rocky Heights Elementary team — Elizabeth
Doherty, Stephanie Booher, Ashley Treadwell, Katelyn
Wadkins — hold up books read for Oregon Battle of
the Books.
The YMnMs from Sandstone Middle School — Yaloani
Alvarado, from left, Maria Tejeda, Nazly Chavez, Mire-
ly Reyes, Sally Wooster and coach Krista Fisher — will
move on to the state Oregon Battle of the Books.
Students advance to Battle of the Books state ¿nals
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
Battles were waged
and prizes were won this
weekend at Blue Mountain
Community College, and
at the end of the day, two
Hermiston teams took home
championships.
Thirty-¿ve teams from
schools across Eastern
Oregon competed Saturday
in bracketed play in the
Region 6 Oregon Battle
of the Books competition.
Sandstone Middle School
brought home the champi-
onship in the middle school
division, and Rocky Heights
Elementary, also from
Hermiston, brought back
the championship for the
elementary teams.
Both
championship
Hermiston teams, as well
as the second-place teams
from each division — La
*rande Middle School and
McNary Heights Elemen-
tary — will compete in
the state ¿nals, April at
Chemeketa
Community
College in Salem. This is
the ¿rst time since 2008
the Eastern Oregon region
has had enough participa-
Contributed Photo by Melissa Doherty
Numerous Hermiston elementary students and staff
participated in the regional Battle of the Books com-
petition this weekend: Back row, from left: Kristi
Smalley, HSD Elementary Librarian, Desert View Team:
Kira Grigg, Booke Turner, Megan Palzinski, Cidney Es-
tes, Sunset Team: Keyla Martinez, Lyndsay Egerer, An-
drea Sachez, Brooklynn Warburton; middle row, from
left: West Park Team: Helen Rohrman, Renna Gorham,
Sabrina Stoddard, Emily Schwertfeger, Highland Hils:
Claire Owens, Lauren Wilson, McKenna Hillman, Mad-
eleine White; front row, from left: Rocky Heights Team:
Elizabeth Doherty, Stephanie Booher, Ashley Treadwell,
Katelyn Wadkins
tion district-wide to send
the second-place team to
state. This is also the ¿rst
time McNary Heights has
competed at the state level.
The team bracket featured
schools from across Eastern
Oregon: Adrian, Arlington,
Baker, Boardman, Echo,
Ione,
Helix,
Heppner,
Hermiston, La *rande and
Pendleton.
In the elementary divi-
sion, the ¿nals came down
to the battle of the heights as
Hermiston’s Rocky Heights
Elementary
faced
off
against Umatilla’s McNary
Heights Elementary. The
¿fth-graders from Rocky
Heights squeezed past the
third-grade
“Bookcraft´
team from McNary Heights
48 to 43, according to
Kristi Smalley, elementary
librarian for the Hermiston
School District. Both teams
will compete in Salem in
April.
As champions, both
Sandstone
and
Rocky
Heights received a set of 12
titles for the 2017 Oregon
Battle of the Books program.
“Upon receiving the
books, Rocky Heights team
member Ashley Treadwell
immediately asked, ‘Can
we read them?’ and them
enthusiastically picked out
the title she wanted to read
¿rst,´ Smalley said.
Oregon Battle of the
Books is a volunteer-run
program sponsored by
the Oregon Association
of School Libraries. For
more information, visit
oboblsta.pbworks.com/
———
Contact Jennifer Colton
at jcolton@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4534
Conditions ripe for wheat fungal disease
“Once an infection gets
started in a small number
of plants, it can explode
proliically if the weather
conditions permit.
Growers ought to be
monitoring the ields.”
Stripe rust could cut into yields
by as much as 53 percent
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Northwest wheat farmers face a
potentially severe epidemic of stripe
rust this growing season, as mild
winter weather has allowed the disease
to develop much earlier than normal.
Forecasts indicate stripe rust could
cut into wheat yields by as much as 53
percent in some varieties, according to
a report by Xianming Chen, research
plant pathologist with Washington
State University. Other more resistant
varieties might suffer losses between
zero and 26 percent.
Stripe rust is caused by a fungus that
grows on the leaves of wheat plants
in cool, rainy conditions. The disease
attacks the plant’s enamel, which
causes leaves to lose water and even-
tually produce less grain. Once stripe
rust develops, it spreads by spores that
are picked up in the wind.
Oregon State University scientists
have already identi¿ed stripe rust in
an irrigated wheat ¿eld near Herm-
iston. Stripe rust has also turned up
in a number of ¿elds across southeast
Washington.
Richard Smiley, a professor
emeritus of plant pathology at OSU’s
Columbia Basin Agricultural Research
Center in Pendleton, said ¿elds can
become infested if farmers don’t deal
with the problem quickly.
“Once an infection gets started in a
small number of plants, it can explode
— Richard Smiley, professor emeritus
of plant pathology at OSU’s Columbia
Basin Agricultural Research Center
Submitted photo
This sample of winter wheat infect-
ed with stripe rust was taken from
a field near Hazelton, Idaho in 2014.
proli¿cally if the weather conditions
permit,´ Smiley said. “*rowers ought
to be monitoring the ¿elds.´
Smiley said it’s been four or ¿ve
years since the last major stripe rust
infection. But with recurring rainfall
and generally overcast weather, that
looks like it will change this year.
“There are many winters where
the winter kill is substantial. That
obviously didn’t happen this winter,´
Smiley said.
Northeast Oregon and southeast
Washington are part of the same
agricultural system when it comes
to dryland wheat, Smiley added.
Therefore, if Washington is predicting
without
giving
herself
carbon monoxide poisoning
— but others just happened
to live on the same riverbank
for a while and had now
gone their separate ways.
The
sheriff’s
of¿ce
reported that a large dump-
ster from Sanitary Disposal
Services in Hermiston that
was full of debris had been
removed from the site on
Friday. Castellanos and
Love said many of the items,
including old appliances,
had been dumped there by
people other than the resi-
dents of the encampment.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
an explosion of stripe rust, Oregon
farmers can expect the same.
The two regions harvested a
combined 72.6 million bushels of
spring and winter wheat in 2015.
It was Larry Lutcher, soil scientist
with OSU Extension Service in
Morrow County, who ¿rst found stripe
rust near Hermiston. Lutcher said he
hasn’t heard of any other reports, but
plans to survey ¿elds again on Friday.
Don Wysocki, with OSU Extension
Service in Umatilla County, said he
plans to do the same.
“If we continue to get rain and be
moist and humid, those are conditions
where stripe rust can be more of a
problem,´ Wysocki said.
Farmers are advised to check their
¿elds before applying fungicides. They
should also consider planting more
resistant varieties of spring wheat to
avoid a possible infestation.
———
Contact George Plaven at gplaven@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.
A Pendleton man went
to jail for the 31st time
over the weekend, thanks
to two police departments,
$10,000 in theft and a long
record.
Hermiston
Police
arrested
Jody Jack Allen,
47,
of
810
S.W. Court St.,
Pendleton,
on
Saturday and he
was charged with
felony aggravated
theft,
unautho-
rized entry into Allen
a motor vehicle
and second-degree crim-
inal mischief. Saturday’s
events also marked Allen’s
71st criminal charge.
According to Herm-
iston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston, between 10 p.m.
Friday and 5 a.m. Saturday
a suspect took items valued
at more than $10,000
from a vehicle in the back
parking lot of the Herm-
iston Best Western Inn. The
stolen items included more
than $6,400 worth of tools
and farrier equipment as
well as a generator valued
at $1,300. A toolbox was
also damaged.
The vehicle was parked
within view of the hotel’s
security cameras, and a
suspect and his vehicle
were captured on video.
While the theft was
under investigation, a
Hermiston police of¿cer
overheard Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Deputy Parsons
responding to a call on
Highway 334 that matched
the vehicle in the video.
Parsons was contacted with
a description of the stolen
property, and photographs
from the scene
matched items in
the theft report.
Law enforce-
ment
arrested
Allen on three
outstanding
c o n t e m p t
warrants
from
Hermiston
Municipal
Court, and a
search warrant
was obtained for the
vehicle. The vehicle was
impounded and searched
for other stolen items
related to the case.
The aggregate value of
items taken was more than
$10,000, which elevated
the incident to aggravated
theft, a felony.
“We are appreciative of
the support offered to us
by the sheriff’s of¿ce with
the traf¿c stop and iden-
ti¿cation of Mr. Allen,´
Edmiston said.
Allen is in custody at the
Umatilla County Jail on a
total bail of $56,000.
———
Contact Jennifer Colton
at jcolton@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4534
UMATILLA
Former city manager
wins Man of the Year
East Oregonian
Bob Ward may no longer work for
the city of Umatilla, but he’s still near
and dear to many citizens’ hearts.
The former city manager was
honored with the Man of the Year
award at the Umatilla Chamber of
Commerce Distinguished Citizens
Award Banquet Saturday.
The chamber praised Ward’s
honesty and integrity in helping city
hall become a place people want to Ward
visit.
Vicky Borden was named Woman
of the Year.
Her highlights include contributing
to local schools and the chamber
of commerce and was singled out
in collecting the signatures for the
chamber awards’ silent auction.
Taking home Business of the Year
was Carlson’s Umatilla Drug Store
and its owner, Catherine Putnam.
Putnam
The chamber honored Putnam
because of her strong customer
service, helping ¿ll orders for resi-
dents who can’t leave their home
and then helping them administer
injections before she leaves.
In the community, she serves in
the Umatilla/Irrigon Lions Club,
Two Rivers Correctional Institution’s
Prison Advisory Committee, the
Agape House and the chamber of Borden
commerce.
When they say “Signs Of Spring!”
and you say “You Bought Me A Ring?!
It’s time to call us!
541-567-4063
405 N. 1st St., Suite #107,
Hermiston
Ric Jones,
BC-HIS
Verna Taylor,
HAS
Forrest Cahill,
HAS
541-215-1888
246 SW Dorion, Pendleton