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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2016)
WEEKEND EDITION MORE GOLD FOR U.S.A. SPEND A NIGHT IN FOGERTY’S BILL SAYS HILLARY’S EMAIL OLD OREGON HOME 3C OLYMPICS/1B SERVER ‘A MISTAKE’ 10A AUGUST 13-14, 2016 140th Year, No. 216 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD In this together Lehnert demoted in 2009, calls it a ‘blessing’ Pendleton corporal running for Umatilla County sheriff By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Dan, who was familiar with bipolar mood swings, hadn’t witnessed his wife of nine years in such a state, but ZDVFRQ¿GHQWRIKDQGOLQJ the crisis and getting back to safe psychological ground. Dan and his mother-in-law convinced Vanessa to go to the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center the next morning to try and get a counseling appointment, and she agreed to go. Vanessa texted him from the clinic waiting room about 10 a.m. Later, he learned she hadn’t been able to schedule an Umatilla County sheriff’s candidate Ryan Lehnert lost his sergeant rank with the Pendleton Police Department in June 2009 for not doing his job. Lehnert, who is chal- lenging incumbent Terry Rowan for sheriff, explained the drop in rank came when he was strug- gling with the transition from living in a combat zone in Iraq to life back in Eastern Oregon. The Lehnert demotion, he said, turned out to be better for the citizens of Pendleton, better for the police depart- ment and better for him and his children. “Yeah, it was a demo- tion,” he said, “but I call it a blessing.” The East Oregonian requested and received a copy RIWKHFLW\¶VSHUVRQQHO¿OHRQ Lehnert. The 98 pages include his ranks and pay over his 15 years with Pendleton police and several evaluations. It also revealed the department disci- plined him in 2009 for insub- ordination, unsatisfactory performance, unbecoming conduct, inattention to duty and improper radio use. Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said that See LOGMAN/14A See LEHNERT/14A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Vanessa Logman, top left, and her husband, Dan, with their four children, bottom from left, Cam’ron, 11, Curtis, 5, Craig, 5, and Christopher, 10, at their home in Pendleton. Family, friends show support after delusional woman attacks good Samaritan By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian T wo months ago, Vanessa Logman’s mind jumped the tracks. The Pendleton woman has bipolar disorder. Until everything blew up on that day in June, Vanessa (with the help of doctors) had controlled her symptoms with medications. Dan Logman describes his wife as a private person and a kind and loving mother to their four young sons. Except for running a stop sign four years ago, he said, she had never run afoul of the law. Then, on June 4, she cut a man’s throat. PAT DAVIS OF STANFIELD Visit the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce for a free charm trail starter bracelet 7KH¿UVWLQGLFDWLRQWKDW Vanessa was in trouble came a couple of days earlier. “I knew something was wrong,” she said. “Things were not clear. There were gaps in time.” On June 3, she awoke in the wee hours of the morning certain that someone had broken into the family’s apartment and was under the bed. Frightened, she dialed 9-1-1 as her husband slept, then shook Dan awake. “She woke me up and told me to get dressed and that the police needed to search the apartment,” Dan recalled. Dan, 44, said he and the SROLFHRI¿FHUVUHDOL]HGE\ her unstable behavior that his 31-year-old wife was having GHOXVLRQV:KHQWKHRI¿FHUV left, Vanessa pleaded with Dan to believe her. “When you have a delusion, you totally believe it,” she said recently. “I was mad at him.” Luxury lodge rising deep in the wilderness More inside Supplies that were once carried in by PXOHVQRZÀRZQ in by helicopter How do you get to the Minam Lodge? You can hoof it, or fl y in on a bush plane. Page 1C By TIM TRAINOR East Oregonian When the Minam River Lodge was built in 1950, livestock hauled in most of the equipment. A sawmill was constructed on site to build the lodge and cabins, but mules provided the muscle when a 400-pound refrigerator needed to travel up and down the mountains to its new home deep in the woods. Now, 56 years later, as the crumbling lodge and old refrigerator are being replaced, some things have changed but many have not. The helicopters are new. Construction manager Ben Gates, of UP Architecture in Portland, conscripted copters to make 97 supply drops into the 127-acre inholding that is surrounded entirely by the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Crews work on rebuilding the Minam River Lodge in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area east of La Grande. Everything from timber to glass touched down at a small DLU¿HOG ZLWKLQ VLJKW RI WKH main lodge. At a cost of more than $2,000 an hour to rent a helicopter, just bringing in VXSSOLHV FRVW ³VL[ ¿JXUHV´ said lodge owner Barnes Ellis. Ellis is a former reporter for The Oregonian turned investment banker who lives in Portland. He vacationed at the property growing up and purchased the property at auction in 2011. “There is no forgetting this place,” he said. But it needed work. Lots of it. Decades of erosion had rendered the main lodge unsalvageable, and a smat- tering of cabins and outbuild- ings needed major renovation or outright replacement. )RUWKHSDVW¿YH\HDUVWKDW work has slowly progressed. But this spring, after the slow melted, it hit high gear. The business has been closed for all of 2016 as the main lodge was destroyed and a new one erected. “This has grown into a major, major project. If I knew when I started how much work it would take I’m not sure I would have started,” joked Ellis. “But now we’re into it and we’re going for it.” The plan is to build a 4,000-square-foot luxury lodge in the middle of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, where visitors can enjoy high- quality food, running water, showers, electricity and numerous amenities. Elec- tricity is currently supplied by a combination of solar power and gas generators, though Gates said when construction is complete, solar could supply nearly all See MINAM/12A