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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2016)
OSHA INVESTIGATING ONION SHED FIRE REGION/3A DALAI LAMA PREACHES SAFETY LA GRANDE ADVANCES TO CHAMPIONSHIP FAITH/8A LITTLE LEAGUE/1B FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2016 140th Year, No. 180 Your Weekend • • • Wiener Dog Races Friday in Pendleton Hermiston Rely for Life at Umatilla Fairgrounds Hodaka Days at Athena City Park For times and places see Coming Events, 5A One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Jailed teen implicated in murder of Milton-Freewater man By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian The man who was shot after exchanging fi re with Milton-Free- water police in April is a suspect in a murder. Robert Gage Sregzinski, 19, of St. John, Washington, does not yet face any charges in Gabriel Ledezma Rodriguez’s death and police could be looking for others connected to the case. The information comes from a May 19 search warrant affi davit Umatilla County sheriff’s detective Kacey Ward wrote to investigate an arson at a Milton-Freewater home. The document states the Walla Walla Police Department identifi ed Sregz- inski as Rodriguez’s killer. On April 28, Milton-Freewater police stopped Sregzinski in a 2007 Ford Focus for a traffi c violation, according to Umatilla County Circuit Court documents. When offi cers spotted guns in the car, he took off. Police pursued and Sregzinski fi red a shotgun at police. One offi cer used his car to stop the Ford, and police shot and wounded Sregzinski. He is in the Umatilla County Jail, Pendleton, on 12 charges stem- ming from the incident, including attempted aggravated murder and unlawful possession of a short-bar- reled shotgun. A search of the Ford turned up See HOMICIDE/12A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 71/48 81/51 90/55 ODF to declare fi re season Tuesday Bridge to somewhere 107-year-old span targeted for multi-million dollar investment East Oregonian Fire season is coming on private forestland in north- east Oregon. The Oregon Department of Forestry will formally declare fi re season on Tuesday, June 28 in the Northeast Oregon District, which spans roughly 2 million acres. Matt Howard, unit forester in Wallowa, said the onset of hotter and drier weather should start curing grasses and fi ne fuels that help fi res spread during the early portion of the summer. “The grass is really tall in some areas,” Howard said. “While the drought condi- tions aren’t as severe as they might have been last year at this time, we are still asking people who work, play and live in the forest to use caution and prevent fi res.” Once fi re season is in effect, burn permits will be required for all open burning except campfi res. Permits are available at local ODF offi ces in Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Wallowa. Campers are reminded to make sure their fi res are dead out before they leave their sites. Loggers must also meet requirements for fi re preven- tion while working on ODF land. Details are available by contacting your local stewardship forester. The ODF Pendleton Offi ce can be reached at 541-276-3491. By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian When asked about the impact of Pendleton’s Eighth Street Bridge, Public Works Director Bob Patterson refers to a 1954 city map. The map shows a pre-Interstate 84 version of Pendleton, an imaginary line dividing the sparsely developed south from the densely populated north. In the ensuing decades, Pendleton has steadily crept south, bringing businesses, schools and housing along with it. With the city now running out of room for southern expansion, key city offi cials think a $7.42 million project to replace the 107-year-old bridge could bring housing develop- ment and expansion to the north. Others see it as Pendleton’s Bridge to Nowhere. A small span on the outskirts of town, it connects Southeast Eighth Street with Lee Street Grade and leads drivers on a gravel road to wheat fi elds and farmland. Before it was built in 1909, Patterson said people used to ford across the Umatilla River. Lee Street Grade was the only major thorough- fare in and out of the northern part of the county. As drivers transitioned from horse and buggy to car, the city replaced the wooden structure with a metal bridge in 1955 and it has remained unchanged since then. The Lee Street Grade relinquished its status as a major thoroughfare long ago and the structure has decayed over the past decades. A 2013 Oregon Department of Trans- portation inspection declared the bridge “structurally defi cient” and See BRIDGE/12A Staff photo by Kathy Aney The Eighth Street Bridge was determined to be structurally defi cient in a 2013 Oregon Department of Transportation inspection. Union Pacifi c blamed for fi ery oil train derailment By MATTHEW BROWN and GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND — Federal inves- tigators on Thursday blamed Union Pacifi c Railroad for a fi ery oil train derailment in the Columbia River Gorge, saying the company failed to properly maintain its track. Preliminary fi ndings on the June 3 derailment in Mosier raise questions about why the company didn’t fi nd the broken bolts that triggered the wreck when it inspected the tracks right before the derailment. Union Pacifi c faces potential penalties for safety violations, offi cials said. The Associated Press obtained the fi ndings ahead of their Thursday release. Advanced electronic brakes proposed by regulators could have made the derailment less severe, Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg said. The brakes could have reduced the number of cars that went off the tracks and prevented the one that fi rst burst into fl ames from being punctured, offi cials said. “We’re talking about upgrading a brake system that is from the Civil War era,” Feinberg said. “It’s not too much to ask these companies to improve their braking systems in the event of an accident so fewer cars are derailing.” The railroad industry, through the See TRAIN/12A
