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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2016)
Enjoy a framed art print from Pendleton Art + Frame DON KENNEDY OF ATHENA FEEDING THE WORLD EOU FEELS THE NEED FOR SPEED REGION/3A FOOTBALL/1B 87/52 THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016 140th Year, No. 224 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD HERMISTON STRONG Coba picked as Oregon’s next COO Pendleton native to helm administrative services By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Balloons are prepared to be released during a candlelight vigil for James “JJ” Hurtado and Ken Valdez on Wednesday at McKenzie Park in Hermiston. Community remembers victims during vigil By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Sniffl es and quiet sobs broke the stillness Wednesday night at McKenzie Park as hundreds of people stood in a moment of silence for the victims of a Herm- iston shooting that claimed three lives and left a fourth injured. Community members gath- ered in memory of the victims and in support of their grieving families, casting a glow with candles, glowsticks and fl ash- lights. They were there to honor James “JJ” Hurtado, 14, and Kenneth “Kenny” Valdez, who were killed last Thursday, and to support Andria Bye, Hurtado’s mother who was injured in the shooting, and the family of Jason Huston, who shot the other three before turning the gun on himself. “May we as a city be known as a city that loves,” Pastor Terry Haight of Hermiston Assembly of God declared, before praying for all those affected by the tragedy. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Braelyn Cragun, 10, lights a candle during a vigil for James “JJ” Hurtado and Ken Valdez on Wednesday in Hermiston. See VIGIL/8A MISSION New Yellowhawk clinic entwines health, culture Tribe to break ground on 63,000-square-foot facility By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian If Anna Wannassay could look at archi- tectural renderings of the new Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center, her eyes might go wide. The beloved tribal elder and fi rst woman on the tribe’s Board of Trustees spent years advocating for a tribal health center to serve the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Wannassay died in 1972 just prior to the opening of the fi rst clinic, which bears the name of Wannassay’s family member, Chief Yellowhawk. On Thursday, the tribe will break ground on a new $26.3 million health center that likely would surpass Wannassay’s expecta- tions. The 63,000-square-foot facility will More inside For a look at the design plans for the new Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center see Page 8A provide about triple the square footage of the current clinic, located on land just west of the Tribal Governance Center in Mission. See YELLOWHAWK/8A Growing up on a Pendleton wheat ranch, it’s no surprise Katy Coba says she’s passionate about agriculture. Coba, who has become the longest-serving director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, remembers helping her grandmother cook lunch and dinners for the work crews during summer harvest. Later, she became the fi rst woman on the ranch to drive an 18-wheeler, deliv- ering loads of grain to an export terminal along the Columbia River. But life for Coba was about more than farming. Her Coba father, Mike Thorne, served “Oregon 18 years in the Oregon Senate, agriculture is and her mother, very diverse, Jill Thorne, is a which is a former aide to then-Gov. Neil strength we Goldschmidt. To this day, Coba have, but it keeps a photo on also brings her desk of her father and Robert a lot of F. Kennedy during Kennedy’s 1968 challenges,” presidential run. — Katy Coba, Coba said her Oregon chief parents taught operating offi cer her that public service was just and director of the something you do. Department of Ad- “It’s as ministrative Services ingrained in me as agriculture,” she said. That’s led to a career for Coba span- ning more than three decades at the State Capitol — including the last 13 years with ODA. On Wednesday, Gov. Kate Brown appointed Coba as Oregon’s newest chief operating offi cer and director of the Department of Administrative Services. Coba begins her new job Oct. 1, pending confi rmation from the Senate. The job may be different, but Coba said she will continue to advocate for farms and rural Oregonians across the state. “I still feel very much connected to our natural resources-based industries,” Coba said. “I will be shameless in my advocacy for those things, even in my new job.” Coba graduated from Pendleton High School in 1980, and was named Queen of the Pendleton Round-Up in 1982. She continued to work on the family ranch while attending Whitman College in Walla Walla, where she earned her degree in economics with a minor in See COBA/8A Hermiston man arrested after shooting friend ‘over a girl’ Victim treated, released for gunshot wound to leg East Oregonian A Hermiston man shot a child- hood friend Wednesday morning “over a girl,” according to police, and he now faces a charge of second-degree assault. Eduardo Rodriguez Barriga, 23, was arrested in Umatilla soon after the Hermiston shooting. His victim, Daniel Lemus Carranza, 25, was treated and released at Good Shep- herd Medical Center, Hermiston, with what police described as a superfi cial gunshot wound to the leg. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said offi cers around 8:15 a.m. responded to the area of the 11th Street Market, 425 N.W. 11th St., guez Barriga for driving Hermiston, after a report of while suspended shows a man there with a gunshot that as his home address, wound. Edmiston said the according to state court man was shot in the area records, though Edmiston of Elm Avenue and North- said he now lives in Herm- west Seventh Street, near iston. Butte Park, after a dispute Edmiston stated “over a girl.” Hermiston police, with the After the shooting, assistance of the Umatilla Rodriguez Barriga drove off and the victim tried to Rodriguez Barriga Police Department, took Rodriguez Barriga into keep up with him in his own vehicle through the back streets custody, interviewed him, and later near the butte while calling 9-1-1. booked him into Umatilla County Dispatch told him to stop following Jail, Pendleton. Offi cers served a search warrant the vehicle and he parked at the convenience store where police and at Rodriguez Barriga’s Hermiston medical personnel met up with him. home at 460 E. Pine Ave. later Police around 9:25 a.m. found Wednesday and recovered a Rodriguez Barriga and a female handgun, Edmiston said, and a outside a house at 1745 McFarland stolen shotgun from a Umatilla Ave., Umatilla. A July 9 citation County Sheriff’s Offi ce case. He Oregon State Police gave to Rodri- said the state police crime lab would test the handgun to see if it was from the shooting. Edmiston said this was not Rodri- guez Barriga’s fi rst arrest. “Life is about choices, and the decisions made today by those involved are frustrating,” Edmiston said in a written statement. “At some point, people need to take responsi- bility for what they value. Clearly the values of Mr. Rodriguez differ from the overwhelming majority of people in this community and we are going to ask that he be held account- able for his reckless actions.” The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Offi ce and Oregon State Police are assisting with the investigation. Umatilla County Fire District 1 responded to the market to trans- port the victim, and the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Offi ce is involved.