REGION
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
Plant sale fundraiser beneits FFA
Hermiston man jailed
after assaulting wife
By JENNIFER COLTON
Staff Writer
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Thousands of plants will
be up for grabs this weekend
for the annual Hermiston
FFA Plant Sale.
Flowers, herbs, vegeta-
bles and even cacti will be
on sale for the fundraiser,
and each plant represents
weeks or months of work
from Hermiston High School
students.
The process begins in
January, when students begin
to start products from seed.
About 60 students — 20 in
each of Hermiston High’s
horticulture and propaga-
tion classes — maintain
the greenhouse, and two
greenhouse managers, also
students, take care of the
weekend watering and fertil-
izing.
“In an average week,
we spend about 70 percent
of our classroom time out
here watering, fertilizing,
pinching, transporting and
just taking care of plants,”
agriculture educator Alyssa
Davies said.
This week, student have
put inishing touches on the
plants and hanging baskets
A Hermiston man faces
felony domestic violence
charges after beating his
wife with a tree branch
while camping.
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson also
said his ofice
arraigned
John
Alexander Brown,
29, on one count
of second-degree
assault, two counts
of fourth-degree
assault and two
counts of felon
in possession of
a irearm. The
assault charges all Brown
relate to domestic
violence.
Brown, his 27-year-old
wife and their daughters,
ages 6 and 7, were camping
in mountains above Blake’s
Ranch south of Heppner,
according to a written
statement from the Morrow
County Sheriff’s Ofice.
The wife called 9-1-1 at
about 8:30 Saturday night
and reported her husband
assaulted her. She also said
he took off on foot and she
did not know where he went.
Nelson said Brown used
a large “branch/stick” to
strike his wife, leaving her
with bruises and cuts, and
their children were present
during the assault. He said
her injuries could have been
worse given the size of the
weapon.
Law enforcement was
concerned with tracking
Brown through the forest
Staff photo by Jennifer Colton
Freshman Ethan Atkinson and junior Ellery Jones pinch yellow leaves off geraniums
Monday in the greenhouse at Hermiston High School. The student-raised plants will
be on sale to the public this Friday and Saturday.
to make sure products are
ready when the sale opens on
Friday.
“Students put in a lot of
hard work and effort for
these plants, and it’s a visual
representation of what we’ve
learned and what we’ve
accomplished,” said Ellery
Jones, a junior. “We’re
learning skills for the future.”
Thirteen different types
of lowers and six different
types of vegetables will be
available in the sale. Most
plants cost about $2, and
hanging baskets cost $30.
“I think our community
takes a lot of pride in the
fact students have grown
these,” Davies said. “This is
a great learning tool for these
students, and the community
supports that.”
All proceeds from the sale
will go toward the Hermiston
FFA program.
The sale runs from 3:30 to
6:30 p.m. on Friday and from
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
HERMISTON
EOTEC added to transient room tax fund
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Money from Hermiston’s
tax on hotel rooms will now
help cover operational costs
for the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center.
The city council voted
Monday to approve adding
EOTEC to the list of approved
uses for the transient room
tax, but left the exact amount
of money lexible. The city
is responsible for splitting
any needed subsidies for
EOTEC’s operations budget
with Umatilla County, but
because the center is not
yet open those costs remain
largely unknown.
The ordinance passed
Monday night adds EOTEC
to the “event center” category,
where the Hermiston Confer-
ence Center has been getting
approximately 28 percent of
the transient room tax reve-
nues.
City Manager Byron
Smith said for many years that
percentage was not enough to
cover the conference center’s
operating costs, and the city
had also been using its general
fund to subsidize its opera-
tion. However, in recent years
substantial growth in room
tax revenue has resulted in
more funds being earmarked
for the conference center than
are needed.
This year the room tax
is expected to generate
$161,000 for the conference
center, while only $90,000 is
needed. The new ordinance
means the extra money can
go to EOTEC instead of into
the general fund, meaning
EOTEC’s operations will be
supported by the out-of-town
visitors the project is meant
to attract, instead of local
property taxes.
“We’re not proposing at
all not to fund the conference
center,” Smith said, clarifying
that the intent wasn’t to
reduce the money put toward
the center.
The
ordinance
also
rounded all of the numbers in
the room tax to lat percent-
ages, adding the leftover frac-
tions of roughly 1.5 percent
into a fund that will put more
than $8,000 a year toward
maintenance of the Hermiston
Family Aquatic Center.
Other
actions
taken
at Monday’s city council
meeting include:
• The council approved
a new stop sign at the
intersection of Joshua Court
and Southwest 10th Street.
Smith said the cost would
be minimal because the sign
could be afixed to a street
sign pole already in place.
• The council adopted a
summary report of a January
goal-setting session they
participated in. City goals
set at that meeting are to
revitalize downtown, develop
more parks and recreation
opportunities, create an
infrastructure master plan,
create a public transportation
plan, perform an assessment
of city facilities, support
economic development, see
EOTEC to completion, create
a capital improvement plan,
perform an assessment of city
service levels and continue
with ongoing projects such as
adopting a new city brand.
• The council received
an update on EOTEC. Rob
Drier of Frew Development
said the event center will be
ready for an open house on
May 13 from 3-7 p.m. with
a ceremony at 4:30 p.m. The
irst event scheduled after that
is a League of Oregon Cities
meeting on May 18.
•The council discussed the
April 9 community recycling
event, which Mayor David
Drotzmann called “an event
the community can be proud
of.” Approximately 270
people brought in 83 tons of
junk to be recycled, up from
200 people and 61 tons in
2016.
BRIEFLY
‘Listen to Her’ will
gauge women’s
experience
PENDLETON — Those
who care about the issues
that affect women and girls
are encouraged to attend
the “Listen to Her” town
hall Wednesday, April 27, at
BMCC.
The event will provide an
opportunity for the Women’s
Foundation of Oregon
to gather the experiences
of women to show the
stories behind the statistics.
Information gathered from
statewide town halls will
appear in a comprehensive
research report to be released
in the fall.
The event is 5:30-7 p.m.,
Wednesday, in BMCC’s
Science & Technology
building, room 200. The
foundation will host a smaller
gathering the next morning
for community leaders.
irrigation agriculture center
on the campus of Oregon
State University’s Hermiston
Agricultural Research and
Extension Center.
The project is one of three
approved by the BMCC bond
measure which voters passed
in 2015. The college will
also build a new workforce
training center in Boardman
and rebuild its facility
for agricultural resource
management later this year.
The precision irrigated
agriculture center will
train students how to use
technology like GPS,
satellites, drones and
smartphones to make
agriculture more eficient.
Precision irrigation focuses
on the idea of using just the
right amount of water and
fertilizer at just the right time
to maximize yields while
conserving resources.
The public is invited to a
groundbreaking ceremony,
which will start at 2 p.m.
HAREC is located at 2121 S.
First St. in Hermiston.
BMCC to hold
groundbreaking for
Family History
bond project
Center holds open
HERMISTON — Blue
house Saturday
Mountain Community
College will break ground
Thursday on its new precision
HERMISTON — An
open house celebrating the
new look of the Family
History Center will be held
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3
p.m. at the center, 850 S.W.
11th St., adjacent to the
Hermiston Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The open house will feature
20-minute presentations
at the top of every hour,
tours of the facility and
refreshments. Visitors also
are encouraged to bring
family photos and a lash
drive for a quick lesson in
scanning.
The Family History
Center is a genealogical
research library that serves
communities in western
Umatilla County and
Morrow County. In addition
to online computers with
access to Ancestry.com,
FamilySearch.org and
Find-A-Grave.com, printers
and scanners are available
to digitize your genealogical
records for no charge. The
center also has microilm
and microiche readers with
more than 6,000 ilm items
on site, and millions more
available to order. And staff
is available for one-on-one
assistance during the center’s
regular hours: Tuesday
and Thursday from 11
a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday
CONCEALED CARRY
PERMIT CLASS
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HERMISTON
from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
Thursday from 6-9 p.m. In
addition, monthly workshops
are offered on the fourth
Saturday of the month from
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. On May
28, the center will host a
workshop on the intricacies
of Ancestry.com
For more information,
call 541-567-6067 during
open hours or 541-561-5137.
at night, Nelson said,
particularly after inding
two irearms at the camp.
Rather than take the unnec-
essary risk, the sheriff’s
ofice protected the wife
and children and got them
to an ambulance bound for
Pioneer Memorial Hospital,
Heppner, which released
them the next day,
Nelson also said
the mother and
her children now
are safe.
Deputies
caught
Brown
on Sunday as he
was leaving with
the pickup and
camp trailer. The
sheriff’s
ofice
reported Brown
did not ight during the
arrest.
Nelson said Brown
did not use the guns in the
assault but instead ired
them in the woods. Still,
Nelson said, Brown has
felony convictions in Cali-
fornia, so it is unlawful for
him to have guns.
Local circuit court
records also show Brown
has four open cases in
Umatilla County — one for
burglary, two for contempt
of court and one for failure
to appear. All involve the
same victim.
Brown pleaded not guilty
on Monday to the initial
charges stemming from the
assault. Nelson said he is
taking the case to a grand
jury this week. Brown
remains in the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton, in
lieu of $150,000 bail.
Inmate dies at TRCI
Fourth inmate
death in 3 months
state prisons.
Next of kin has been
notiied, and no other
details are available at this
East Oregonian
time.
Woodrum is the fourth
An inmate at Two Rivers TRCI inmate to die in three
Correctional
Institution months.
died unexpectedly Monday
On April 3, inmate
morning.
Shawn McMillian, 44,
Avis Woodrum, 60, was incarcerated out of Lane
being treated in
County,
was
TRCI’s Health
transported
to
Services
Unit
a local hospital
when he was
for medical care
pronounced
and died early
deceased at 8:53
on April 4. On
a.m. Monday.
March 20, inmate
Wo o d r u m
Ronald Marcus,
entered Oregon
60, out of Mult-
Department
nomah County,
of
Corrections
was found unre-
custody on Aug. Woodrum
sponsive in his
30, 2011 on one
cell and later died.
count of kidnapping in And on Feb. 27, inmate
the second degree out of Joel Abbot, 60, was found
Marion County. His earliest unresponsive in his cell and
release date was March 25, lown to a Portland hospital,
2017.
where he later died.
The Oregon State Police
TRCI is a multi-custody
Criminal
Investigation prison in Umatilla that
Division is conducting an houses
approximately
investigation, as with all 1,800 male inmates and
unanticipated deaths in opened in 2000.
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