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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2016)
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 OFF PAGE ONE WATER: Elementary school students can EDUCATION: Audience supported participate in challenge via an essay contest expanding career technical education Page 10A East Oregonian second event will also be held at the park on April community and people are 30 to celebrate everyone’s asked to read it and pass it achievements and collect on to a friend. donations. People can also Hughes said after the donate to Hermiston’s committee read the book challenge page online at she began researching what thewaterproject.org and Altrusa could do to help and search for Hermiston under found the Water Project. “Find a fundraising page.” One thing that drew her to Elementary school WKDW SDUWLFXODU QRQSUR¿W LV students in Hermiston its transparency. Donors are are also being given the told what project their dona- opportunity to participate tion went to and can track in the challenge via an its progress online through essay contest about the need SLFWXUHV ¿HOG UHSRUWV DQG for clean water in Africa, Staff photo by E.J. Harris GPS coordinates. The Water due April 22. They can Project also stays after There will be 150 copies get information about the construction is complete of the book “A Long Walk essay prompts and word to train villagers on how to Water” by Linda Sue minimums from their school to maintain the well and Park passed out to the library. practice good hygiene with community. Hermiston School the water. example) they can still give District children’s librarian “They don’t just build PRQH\ RU GR D PRGL¿HG Kristi Smalley said “A Long the well and walk away, challenge. Walk to Water” was an they continue to work with She said it was ironic that Oregon Battle of the Books the community,” Hughes drinking only water would selection this year, so many said. EHDVDFUL¿FHIRU+HUPLVWRQ children in the community Projects to bring water residents, while drinking have already read it. to the Sahara vary in cost that same water would be a “They don’t have to read depending on variables huge blessing for people in the book to do the essay, but like the depth of the well, other parts of the world. we encourage it,” she said. but Hughes said the Water On Monday night the “If anyone really drinks Project spends an average just water for two weeks I Hermiston City Council of $23 for every person a can imagine they will be far helped recognize the project serves. Depending more aware of it,” she said. challenge by reading a on how much Hermiston To kick off the chal- proclamation encouraging raises, the community could lenge, Altrusa International people to join. The council end up sponsoring an entire is hosting an event from also helped kick off the ZHOO RU MXVW KHOSLQJ ¿QLVK noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday fundraising portion after a project that was already at McKenzie Park with councilor Doug Primmer started. refreshments, giveaways challenged everyone on the Hughes said if people and a water-carrying council to donate $25 right aren’t up to giving up obstacle course. Partic- then. their morning coffee or ipants will be given a ——— have a health reason not to Water Project wristband Contact Jade McDowell fully participate (children and a chart to track the at jmcdowell@eastorego- shouldn’t give up milk, for money they are saving. A nian.com or 541-564-4536. Continued from 1A Continued from 1A state’s standardized testing system needs to be exam- ined and said Every Student Succeeds should give the state the power to broaden the scope it uses to analyze student performance. “Instead of basing everything on the test, we can look at different cate- gories,” he said. Many in the audience were supportive of boosting focus on academic subject areas outside math and English, such as history, art and science. Students in the audience, many of them from the Future Farmers of America, spoke in favor of increasing the variety of courses offered at high schools to keep students engaged. Audience members H[HPSOL¿HG FDUHHU WHFK- nical education as a way to offer students a path to success and employment, especially those that are skilled but not academically inclined. Other persistent ideas from the audience for improving schools included reducing class sizes, establishing more rapport between students and teachers and fostering better relationships with parents and the business community. Noor and the department of education will continue to tour the state over the next few months to collect input from the public. The department will use input from the Pendleton forum and elsewhere to create a draft plan, which it expects to publish for public comment in August. The department expects WRSURGXFHD¿QDOVWDWHSODQ pending federal approval, in the fall. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. LAGOON: Moore said some local growers were interested in using the biosolids to enrich their soil paying to store, haul and dump a lot more liquid million upgrade of the plant mixed in with the solids than resulted in a much better it needs to. He said if the liquid handling process, city invested in dewatering churning out clean water equipment and a dump into the Umatilla River and truck, it could cut the cost — once the permits come per ton to $350 and take a through — the West Irriga- couple of loads of sewage to tion District’s main canal. WKHODQG¿OODZHHNLQVWHDGRI The upgrade didn’t storing it outdoors for years. include the solids side of the Moore told councilors plant, however, which still the investment would pay VHQGVHYHU\WKLQJ¿OWHUHGRXW for itself within three to four of the recycled water to be years and the equipment stored in an open-air lagoon would last about 15 years. behind the plant. Not using the lagoon would Moore said that side of also cut down on odors WKH SURFHVV ZRUNV ¿QH DQG coming from the plant. meets all of the government “I think this deserves standards, but the city is some critical attention for Continued from 1A the money it could save the city,” he said. Moore said he had some preliminary discussions with local growers and some of them were interested in using the biosolids to enrich their soil instead of seeing it VHQW WR D ODQG¿OO &XUUHQWO\ WKH ODQG¿OO FKDUJHV WKH FLW\ $16 per ton to dump it. Moore said the city would have to weigh the cost of staff time for going through the DEQ permitting and soil testing processes if it cooperated with growers. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. T H G I N s l Gir ! k c a b t ou 9 2 Y A M TWO SHOWS! 7PM 10PM Tickets available at the Wildhorse Gift Shop or online at wildhorseresort.com Hurry before they are gone! CASINO • HOTEL • GOLF • CINEPLEX • RV • MUSEUM • DINING • TRAVEL PLAZA 800.654.9453 • PENDLETON, OR • I-84, EXIT 216, wildhorseresort.com. Owned and operated by CTUIR Management reserves all rights to alter, suspend or withdraw promotions/offers at any time.
