Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
WRITE-IN: Darth
Vader, Elmer Fudd,
Pedro each earn votes
Continued from 1A
though challenger Barbara
Dickerson will represent
the Independent Party.
Barreto earned 127
write-in votes for the seat,
beating out Union County
Commissioner
Jack
Howard, who received 17
votes.
If voters aren’t happy
with their choices for
a political race, or are
confronted with a race
where no one iled, they
can leave those spaces
blank on their ballot instead
of writing someone in.
Lindell said that makes
it easier for her ofice,
because ballots without
any write-ins can simply
be counted by machine.
Write-in names, however,
must be recorded by hand.
“We would like for
them all to be serious votes,
because it does take time to
count them,” she said.
However, as the number
of write-in votes for a seat
are reported on election
night, some people prefer
to write someone in as a
visible protest against a
candidate. Others dislike
seeing a blank space on
their ballot for a race where
no candidates iled, so they
write in someone who they
believe would do a good
job in that position.
“They just want to put
something,” Lindell said.
She said in order for
a write-in vote to count,
a candidate must notify
the elections ofice before
oficial election results are
released that they would
like to be considered a
write-in candidate. If a
group of voters in Echo
decided they wanted
Beyonce for their mayor,
for example, she wouldn’t
automatically become the
mayor of Echo just because
she got more write-in votes
than anyone else.
Misspelled names are
counted, if they’re clearly
recognizable as an attempt
to vote for an oficial
write-in candidate.
May’s write-in list from
the Secretary of State’s
ofice is a mixed bag.
Statewide, votes for presi-
dent included Darth Vader,
Elmer Fudd, Santa Claus,
Pluto, Britney Spears,
Sherlock Holmes, Clint
Eastwood, Bugs Bunny,
OJ Simpson, Mike Tyson,
The Rock, Justin Timber-
lake, Pedro (presumably of
Napoleon Dynamite fame),
Jesus, Jon Snow, Kanye
West, Donald Duck, Oprah
Winfrey, Judge Judy, the
Lorax, Ellen Degeneres,
Willie Nelson, Bill Murray
and Chris Pratt.
However, voters also
seemed to be attempting
to draft a number of viable
political
candidates,
including Mitt Romney,
John McCain, Paul Ryan,
Ron Wyden and Joe
Biden.
In Umatilla County,
voters who received an
Independent Party ballot
cast 192 write-in votes
for Donald Trump, 79 for
Bernie Sanders and 35 for
Hillary Clinton.
A total of 226 Umatilla
County voters cast a
write-in vote for president,
and 264 left the space
blank.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536
HISPANIC: Idea
has not yet reached
city councilors
Continued from 1A
Milton-Freewater City
Manager Linda Hall said
it’s still too early to deter-
mine whether the city will
start a committee or not,
as the idea still needs to be
discussed at a city council
level.
Hall said the city
has
made
numerous
attempts to broaden its
cultural appeal, including
hosting a Cinco de Mayo
festival, establishing a
valley cultural awareness
committee in the 1990s
and
co-sponsoring
“MILTON,” a bilingual
play with Hispanic actors
that toured through several
Miltons across the country.
Still, Hall said a
Hispanic
advisory
committee is an idea worth
exploring.
“Anybody who says
there’s no room for
improvement in govern-
ment operations is crazy,”
she said.
At 43.1 percent of the
population, Milton-Free-
water is tied with Umatilla
for the highest share
of Latinos in Umatilla
County.
Hermiston’s
Hispanic population is
34.9 percent.
While Hall said the
Milton-Freewater Down-
town Alliance and the
Milton-Freewater Uniied
School District have
had success in engaging
Hispanics, no Latinos
currently serve on the
city council or the school
board.
De la Cruz said Herm-
iston’s Hispanic advisory
committee
succeeds
because it has “110
percent” support from the
city government.
The committee has
been successful in turning
advocacy into policy,
from organizing Cinco
de Mayo events and
soccer tournaments to
establishing the Umatilla
Morrow Hispanic Schol-
arship Foundation.
Additionally, members
have used the committee as
a stepping stone to get more
involved in local politics,
including Clara Beas Fitz-
gerald, who was elected to
the Hermiston City Council
in 2014 and de la Cruz,
who was voted onto the
Blue Mountain Community
College Board of Education
last year.
The Hermiston Hispanic
Advisory
Committee
was exempliied by the
National League of Cities,
which awarded it with the
City Cultural Diversity
Award in 2013.
De la Cruz thinks
Hermiston’s model could
work in Milton-Freewater
and beyond.
“My dream is that we
establish HACs in every
city in Oregon with a high
Latino population,” he
said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
NOW OPEN!
Open 7 days a week- 6:30-11 am and 5-8 pm
Pre-order your flats or pick your own!
541-567-3146
www.kandkblueberries.com
29555 Minnehaha Rd., Hermiston
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
COURT CLUB: No injuries reported
Continued from 1A
Watkinds used the light of
his cellphone to look for
club members and help them
evacuate.
Mary Marsing, the ofice
manager at the club, was
sitting in her downstairs
ofice when she heard
popping noises coming from
the upper loor. She heard
a bang and smoke began
rolling through the building.
Marsing placed the call to
9-1-1.
“I love my job,” said
Marsing, who has worked at
the club for 26 years. “What
do I do? (The ire) makes me
sick to my stomach.”
According to Fire Chief
Scott Stanton, the cause of
the ire is still under investi-
Staff photo by Alexa Lougee
Steve Watkinds, owner of the Columbia Court Club
(front left in green shirt) watches as crews work to ex-
tinguish the ire.
gation. Stanton said there was
“signiicant ire and smoke
damage as well as water
damage.” He said the front
end of the building as well as
the upstairs had incurred the
most damage and guessed
the cost to be in the hundreds
of thousands of dollars. More
information on damage will
be available after a more
thorough assessment.
There were no reports of
injuries to anyone who was
at the court club when the
ire broke out. One ireighter
working on scene did experi-
ence a heat-related illness.
Crews from the Herm-
iston Fire Department as
well as Echo, Irrigon, Stan-
ield and Boardman were
involved in the ireighting
efforts. Umatilla Electric
Cooperative was brought in
to shut down electric power
to the building.
The ire also closed one
lane of northbound trafic
on Highway 395. Crews
remained on-scene through
the afternoon, but all lanes of
trafic had reopened.
HEAT: Practice blaze kept under control
Continued from 1A
Work GreenCorps program
on the Umatilla National
Forest. VetsWork provides
environmental internships
and hands-on training for
veterans ages 19-35 inter-
ested in pursuing a job in
forest and natural resources
management.
Friday marked the inal
day of Northeast Oregon
Fire School, where irst-year
ireighters from the Forest
Service, Oregon Department
of Forestry and Bureau of
Indian Affairs spent last week
learning the basics in prepa-
ration for the upcoming ire
season. The irst three days
were reserved for classroom
lectures, but Friday gave the
chance to practice on a real
blaze — albeit a small, care-
fully controlled burn, which
was ignited along the Marcus
Whitman Trail off Summit
Road between Pendleton and
La Grande.
About 90 seasonal ire-
ighters took part in the exer-
cise, including the veterans
crew, which hiked off the
gravel road and lanked
their portion of the ire while
the lead sawyer trimmed
low-hanging branches.
Barnett said working
with the crew has been a life
changing experience.
“I was just going to
college by myself,” he said.
“Being a veteran, it’s hard
to ind people who think like
me.”
With the Navy, Barnett
served on the USS Carl
Vinson, launching air strikes
over Afghanistan. Two
months after Barnett was
discharged in 2011, the body
of Osama bin Laden was
buried at sea off the deck of
the ship.
Barnett later earned
his associate degrees in
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
The Umatilla National Forest veterans crew, facilitated by the VetsWork GreenCorps
program, heads to a practice ire Friday near the Marcus Whitman Trail off Summit
Road.
general
education
and
criminal justice from St.
Clair Community College in
Michigan, and said he would
eventually like to work as a
park ranger using what he’s
learned through VetsWork.
In the meantime, ireighting
is another way Barnett said
he can help keep his country
safe.
“I’ve always wanted to
be a public servant,” Barnett
said. “I took the oath to
defend this country from
threats both foreign and
domestic. That’s an oath I
live my life by.”
Wildires certainly posed
a major threat across the West
a year ago. The National
Interagency Fire Center esti-
mates wildires burned more
than 10 million acres in 2015,
which is the most since at
least 1988. Three ireighters
were also killed while trying
to escape the Twisp Fire in
Washington.
State and federal agencies
collaborate every year on
Fire School to show new
ireighters what to expect
and how they can stay safe,
said Jeff Duke, a hand crew
supervisor with the Umatilla
National Forest’s Walla
Walla Ranger District. He
said organizers do what
they can to paint as realistic
a picture as possible, so
ireighters are ready for their
irst real emergency.
“It’s always good to see
them get a live ire expo-
sure,” Duke said. “It seems
to hit home when you relate
your ire school experience
with your irst ires.”
The VetsWork Green-
Corps program launched
in 2014 as a collaboration
between
the
Umatilla
National Forest and Mt.
Adams Institute based in
Trout Lake, Washington.
The goal is to help veterans
transition back to civilian
life through workforce
development
programs,
with a focus on ireighting
and
the
environment.
Paola Gomez, 23, said she
irst heard about the program
online and decided to give
it a try. Gomez served four
years in the U.S. Marine
Corps, including two years
stationed as a radio operator
in Okinawa, Japan. She said
she’s always wanted to be a
ireighter.
“It’s a physical job.
Teamwork is needed. That’s
essentially what the military
is,” she said.
Gomez, who came from
Gresham, said it’s also
healing to get out of the city
and work in the forest. She
said that once the irst ires
start, they will be ready.
“I think we have good
leaders, and a good group of
people who will do a good
job out there,” she said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.