REGION
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
BRIEFLY
Smarter Balanced testing gets spirited start
Woman a suspect
in three Hermiston
cases
East Oregonian
Standardized testing is being
celebrated at Sandstone Middle
School in Hermiston.
On Monday, staff, friends and
family were invited to the school’s
Smarter Balanced Kick Off, an
event with music — by the Sand-
stone Band — enthusiasm and a
“spirit line” where adults cheered
on the middle schoolers at the start
of school.
Each student also received a
personal, handwritten note encour-
aging the student to do their best on
the standardized testing and to be
“greater than yesterday,” the school’s
theme for the 2015-16 school year.
Choir students from Sandstone
also wrote lyrics to the “Sandstone
Middle School Testing Theme
Song” — to the tune of Rachel
Platten’s “Fight Song” — and have
performed the song for the school. A
video of the song is available on the
Sandstone Middle School website at
sms.hermiston.k12.or.us.
HERMISTON —
Hermiston Police arrested
a woman who is a suspect
in three cases. Chief
Jason Edmiston said the
investigations are ongoing.
Police responded to
a report of a car prowl at
Ridgeway Apartments,
725 W. Ridgeway Ave.,
and found Jessica Denise
Pankey, 32, of Pendleton,
who had a warrant for
violating probation. Pankey
is serving 18 months
probation, according
to court records, after
she pleaded guilty in
February to possession of
methamphetamine.
Of¿cers backtracked,
Edmiston said, and
connected Pankey to two
burglaries, a vehicle theft
plus the car prowl. He said
car prowls ticked up the last
two weeks in Hermiston,
but police do not know if
Pankey is connected to that
trend.
Police arrested and
booked Pankey into the
Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton, on two counts
of ¿rst-degree burglary and
one count each of second-
degree theft, third-degree
theft, second-degree
criminal mischief and third-
degree criminal mischief,
as well as on the probation
violation warrant.
Edmiston said he is
hopeful that warrant means
she will be in jail long
enough for police to gather
more evidence in the other
cases.
Staff photo by Jennifer Colton
Staff and parents from Sandstone Middle School make a spirit line for stu-
dents on Monday morning to celebrate the kickoff of the Smarter Balanced
testing this week. The school is working on increasing student pride and mo-
tivation for standardized testing.
Forrester to retire from DA after 28 years
EO Media Group
Steve
Forrester
has
announced his plan to retire
as editor and publisher of
The Daily Astorian.
“While I am retiring from
this job, I will continue to
work as president and CEO
of our family’s company, EO
Media Group,” Forrester told
his managers on Monday
afternoon.
The company is recruiting
for a group publisher to
oversee the Astorian and
four other EO Media Group
publications on the coast.
They include the Seaside
Signal, Cannon Beach
Gazette, Coast River Busi-
ness Journal and Chinook
Observer.
John S. Perry, Chief Oper-
ating Of¿cer for EO Media
Group, said retiring from the
Astorian allows Forrester to
focus more on the company’s
growing business.
“When Steve arrived at
the Astorian in 1987, the
family owned only two
other newspapers: the East
Oregonian in Pendleton and
the Blue Mountain Eagle in
John Day. Today, EO Media
Group owns and operates 11
newspapers in Oregon and
Washington,” said Perry.
magazine. The newspaper
EO Media Group also produced a number of
has invested in digital special series under his lead-
services, including
ership, including
web sites, mobile
three examinations
communications
of child care in
and social media.
Clatsop County,
The
company
three on the Port
publishes
books
of Astoria, another
and magazines as
titled
“Teachers
well. It employs
Talk
About
nearly 200 people
Teaching” as well
in four states.
as others.
Forrester,
The company’s
69, said he will Forrester
newspapers also
conclude his 28
collaborated on a
years at the Astorian at the year-long series on climate
end of August. He and his change, which won one of
wife Brenda will continue to three awards of merit in
live in Astoria.
the Grantham Awards for
Steve Forrester is the environmental journalism in
third member of his family 2007. Another companywide
to serve as publisher of the series covered changing
Astorian. His brother Mike patterns in forest land
was publisher there from ownership. Both efforts were
1971 to 1973, before moving initiated by Forrester.
to the East Oregonian. Their
In the 1990s, Forrester
father, J.W. “Bud” Forrester committed the resources of
was publisher in Astoria The Daily Astorian and his
from 1973 until 1988.
extended family to resto-
As editor and publisher, ration of the Liberty Theater.
Forrester introduced an For about a decade, the Asto-
array of features to the rian absorbed the adminis-
Astorian — such as In One trative costs of the non-pro¿t
Ear, Everyday People and Liberty Restoration, Inc.
Friday Extra — and related
The most recent innova-
publications including Coast tion Forrester pushed is EO
Weekend and Our Coast Media Group’s collaboration
Page 3A
with the Pamplin Media
Group that established a
statehouse news bureau and
Oregon Capital Insider, a
digital newsletter.
“Steve has made an indel-
ible mark on this newspaper
and the greater Astoria
community,” Perry said.
“His community leadership
helped restore the Liberty
Theatre and put Astoria on
the map as a vibrant, historic
city.”
Forrester is one of three
principal owners of EO
Media Group. Others are his
brother Mike and a cousin,
Kathryn Brown, who is
publisher of the East Orego-
nian. Both live in Pendleton,
where Steve graduated from
high school in 1964.
“We know that a hallmark
of healthy family-owned
businesses is that they plan
ahead for the retirements
of key family members,”
Brown said. “Our family
began actively planning
for success more than 20
years ago, and has managed
smooth transitions as Steve’s
parents, my grandmother
and my mother retired over
the years. I’m con¿dent that
we will manage well through
this transition.”
6teeOheaG ¿shing
season extended on
northeast Oregon
rivers
ENTERPRISE —
Anglers will have another
15 days to ¿sh for spring
steelhead on the Grande
Ronde, Wallowa and
Imnaha rivers — including
Big Sheep Creek — under
revised regulations by the
Oregon Department of Fish
& Wildlife.
ODFW extended
spring steelhead season
on the three rivers through
Saturday, April 30. The old
closure date was April 15.
The change was made last
year while the department
worked to simplify its
¿shing rules for 2016.
Jeff <anke, district ¿sh
biologist in Enterprise, said
they heard from people who
felt steelhead ¿shing was
being cut short despite great
catch rates in mid-April.
“The suggestions from
anglers led to changes in
the regulations, resulting
in increased ¿shing
opportunities,” Yanke said.
Not all hatchery
steelhead reach their ¿nal
destination at trapping
facilities before mid-April,
and the extension is meant
to increase harvest of those
¿sh, according to ODFW.
And though April showers
can cause the rivers to rise
and dampen ¿shing success,
Yanke said the extended
season will help increase
steelhead harvest during
years of low snowpack or
late runoff.
Though the ¿shing
season is extended, the
Rondowa area at the
conÀuence of the Wallowa
and Grande Ronde rivers
will still close to ATV access
after April 15. Anglers can
still hike into the area from
Minam or Palmer Junction.
City Council
appoints planning
commissioner
BOARDMAN — For
the ¿rst time in years, the
city of Boardman has a full
seven-member planning
commission.
On Tuesday, April 5,
city councilors appointed
Jacob Cain to ¿nish the
remainder of a three-year
term ending Dec. 31. Cain
works as an engineer at the
Port of Morrow and has
lived in Boardman for about
three years. It was the ¿nal
vacancy left to ¿ll on the
commission.
Planning commission
meetings are held on
the third Wednesday of
every month at 7 p.m. at
Boardman City Hall. The
commission is in charge
of considering land use
and zoning developments
presented by city staff, such
as potential subdivision
projects. Meetings are open
to the public.
COLEMAN: Retired from career as ¿re¿ghterparamedic on March 31
career ¿re¿ghter. In 1993,
Pendleton Fire averaged
1,200 calls a year. In 2015,
that number was closer to
3,500. He has performed
weddings and funerals and
seen both the best and worst
of Pendleton.
“People never call when
they’re having a good day.
It’s the worst day of their
life, and we are there to try
and bring a sense of calm to
a chaotic situation,” he said.
“The thing that really drew
me in was the camaraderie,
the family atmosphere, and
making a difference in some-
one’s life. ... Plus, you get
to drive fast with lights and
sirens. Who wouldn’t want
to do that?”
On March 31, Coleman
retired from his career as
a
¿re¿ghterparamedic.
Although he said he will not
miss the sleepless nights and
3 a.m. runs to Tri-Cities or
Walla Walla, he will miss the
relationships with his fellow
¿re¿ghters and the ability to
help people every day.
“It’s been a great career.
My only regret is not getting
into it sooner,” he said. “The
¿re side is getting tougher
for me. It’s a young man’s
game.”
Coleman will continue
as a reserve ¿re¿ghter
and medical responder.
He also plans to continue
playing basketball and golf,
riding his motorcycle, and
spending more time with
his ¿ve grandchildren. He
will continue as an adjunct
instructor for the emergency
medical technician program
and plans to remain a chap-
lain as long as Pendleton Fire
will have him.
“We’ve had some pretty
traumatic motor vehicle acci-
dents where the patient was
being loaded into the back
of an ambulance and it was
hit by a truck,” he recalled.
“The patient perished, and
our guys were in the back of
the ambulance and watched
that happen.”
A chaplain provides
critical
incident
stress
debrie¿ng, checks in with the
troops daily, offers counsel
and watches for signs of
emotional or mental strain
and struggle in an attempt to
keep emergency responders
emotionally and mentally
healthy.
“These guys are my
family, and I care about what
happens to them,” he said.
“When you have a passion
about something, it’s hard to
walk away. I still have some-
thing to offer the younger
generations.”
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struggle with mental illness.
Born in Umatilla and
raised on the west end of
Umatilla County, Coleman
has called Pendleton home
for 38 years. During most of
those years, he has offered his
calming presence to Pend-
leton’s residents through
mental care services, as a
minister, as a chaplain and as
a ¿re¿ghterparamedic.
While some children
dreamed of being ¿re-
¿ghters, when Coleman was
growing up he set his eyes
toward a career in juvenile
counseling. After majoring
in psychology in college,
Coleman took a position
as a patient advocate with
the Eastern Oregon State
Hospital,
which
later
became the Eastern Oregon
Psychiatric Center and Blue
Mountain Recovery Center.
He worked with mental
illness daily, and in his spare
time he and his wife, Robbin,
raised a family and helped
out with the church where
her father was a minister.
They taught classes, ran
the music and eventually
became associate pastors.
When work at the state
hospital began to take a toll,
Coleman took a break from
his career, taking on a phys-
ically demanding job with
Pendleton Grain Growers.
During his year at the
McKennon Station, Cole-
man’s supervisor became
a volunteer ¿re¿ghter and
convinced Coleman to do
so as well, inadvertently
changing the course of Cole-
man’s life.
In 1989, Coleman became
a volunteer ¿re¿ghter. In
1990, when his colleagues
discovered he was an
ordained minister, he became
the lone chaplain for the
Pendleton Fire Department.
Although the department
had chaplains previously,
Coleman said it had been a
number of years since the
department had a chaplain
active in its ranks. Although
the department brought in
counselors and psychologists
after traumatic events, the
¿re¿ghters and paramedics
kept a wall between them.
“As a working ¿re¿ghter,
paramedic and chaplain,
there’s a trust level because
they know I’ve walked the
walk,” he said. “I’m not a
professional trying to get in
their heads. I know what it’s
like.”
Scott
Stanton,
now
the Hermiston Fire and
Emergency Services chief,
got to know Coleman as
the two commuted twice a
week to paramedic school in
Wilsonville for 13 months in
the mid-1990s. Stanton said
Coleman touched many lives
and is always a pleasure to
be around.
“He is such a great guy,”
Stanton said. “I couldn’t
have had a better traveling
partner and friend as we
attended paramedic school
together.”
When he retired, Coleman
had claimed 26 years as a
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