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