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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2016)
CONNIE REGER OF HELIX PENDLETON/3A Visit the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce for a free charm trail starter bracelet POLICE INVESTIGATE FIRES AT SCHOOLS BUCKS BEAT DAWGS VOLLEYBALL/1B 63/50 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016 141st Year, No. 2 WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PENDLETON Quezadas have until January to build new roof Council gives old city hall owners deadline extension By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Ruijun Qin is the new station agronomist at the Hermiston Agricultural Research & Extension Center and was hired to replace longtime employee Don Horneck. New staff join agricultural research stations The Pendleton City Council is giving the owners of old city hall more time to start renovations, but the threat of signifi cant fi nes still looms. After Diana Quezada gave council members assurance that her family would build a new roof over the fi re-damaged building by the end of the year, councilors unanimously voted Tuesday to hold off on enforcing the nuisance ordinance until the fi rst council meeting of 2017. Despite convincing the council that the city shouldn’t start assessing fi nes of up to $500 per day for failing to repair a building more than a year after it exploded, Quezada, a member of the family who owns the building, was not able to convince the Pend- leton Development Commission to fund 25 percent of the $108,911 cost of building a new roof for the historic building. The commission, which is entirely comprised of members of the council and By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian See PENDLETON/6A Oregon State University has added fi ve new staff over the summer at its farm exper- iment stations in Hermiston and Pendleton. Ruijun Qin, Scott Lukas, Anna Browne and Angie Treadwell are the latest additions to the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, while Christina Hagerty was recently hired at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center north of Pendleton. Their jobs may differ, but each member is responsible for helping local farmers prosper and connecting agriculture to the community. For scientists, that means researching techniques and products to grow healthy crops. Extension agents play a role too, highlighting the importance of farming and nutrition to kids and families. Parks fi les for seat on irrigation board By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Ruijun Qin Growing up on a small farm in the rural Shanxi Province of northern China, Ruijun Qin said agriculture is in his nature. Qin remembers the exhausting days harvesting potatoes, soybeans, sorghum, cabbage and three types of millet — all on just eight acres of land. “It was me, my brother and my mom working in the fi eld,” Qin said. “Farm work was quite tough. In general, all the work depended on labor.” The competition for higher education in China was intense, but Qin eventually earned his master’s degree from the Chinese what Ammon Bundy considered to be an unjust sentence for two ranchers convicted of arson. Those are all issues Bundy has raised or tried to raise in his defense. “They decided to pick and choose the rules and laws that apply and take over property that didn’t belong to them,” Knight said. While Knight stood at a lectern to address the jurors, most of the defendants and their lawyers looked straight ahead toward U.S. District Judge Anna Brown. One of the plaintiffs involved in a lawsuit against the Westland Irrigation District is now running for a seat on the district’s board of directors. Cindy Parks will challenge incumbent Phil Sharkey for a three-year term on the fi ve-member board. Parks, along with her husband, Craig, are among those suing the district for allegedly cheating them out of their senior water rights. That case was fi led in federal court, though attorneys for the district have fi led a motion to Parks dismiss based on lack of jurisdiction. Oral argu- ments began Tuesday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Portland. According to the lawsuit, the Westland Irrigation District was involved in a water delivery scheme to benefi t several large Sharkey farms with junior rights, at the expense of smaller farms with senior rights. The plaintiffs are seeking $2.9 million in damages. Parks, who lives in Echo and ranches in Hermiston, said she wants to help mend the relationship between the district and its patrons. “It was obvious there were some prob- lems within the district,” Parks said. “Right now, there are some trust issues.” Elections for irrigation districts in Oregon See TRIAL/2A See IRRIGATION/8A Staff photo by George Plaven Scott Lukas joined the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center in September as an assistant professor of horticulture. His research will include crops such as these wild huckleberries. Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, and a doctorate in agronomy from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Qin arrived in the United States in 2006, beginning his career in California’s Central Valley where he researched alternatives for methyl bromide, a popular fumigant to control pests in soil. The use of methyl bromide had been banned one year earlier after it was found to be highly destructive to the ozone layer. See RESEARCH/8A Prosecutor asks standoff jury to use common sense Both sides give closing arguments, jury may consider case on Thursday By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press PORTLAND — The trial of a man who led a standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge has raised many complicated issues, some of them political. But federal prosecutor Ethan Knight told a jury Tuesday during closing arguments that the case comes down to common sense and one simple fact: “They made a choice to take over someone else’s workplace.” Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants have been charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by seizing the refuge Jan 2 and occupying it for 41 days. Knight reminded jurors the case isn’t about land policy in the U.S. West, a 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch or
