Page 14A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
DATA: Vadata estimates
the complex would add
up to 160 new jobs
Continued from 1A
Umatilla, and two more
at the Port of Morrow in
Boardman.
Thursday’s land use
hearing was sparsely
attended, and no one spoke
in opposition of the project.
1000 Friends of Oregon,
a nonprofit organization
based in Portland, did
submit a letter Wednesday
raising several issues with
the proposal, primarily
about the suitability of
the property for industrial
versus agricultural use.
Though the land does
not currently have a water
right, the group argues it
could be used for farming
in the future. They also
claim that Vadata has not
demonstrated why the data
centers could not be located
at an existing industrial site.
Seth King, an attorney
representing the company,
said the property has not
held a water right in more
than 20 years and data
centers would provide
much greater benefits to the
county. Vadata estimates
the complex would add up
to 160 new jobs.
Liberated L&E, which
is selling the land to Vadata,
says the soils are low
quality for agriculture and,
while there has been some
limited livestock grazing, it
“has not yielded significant
economic returns and is not
conducive to operating a
financially viable farming
enterprise.”
As for location, Jim
Footh, real estate manager
for Vadata, has said the site
is ideal because it is close
to existing infrastructure —
such as high-voltage power
lines — as well as their
other data center campuses,
which need to be connected
by fiber optic cable.
Vadata did consider one
other shovel-ready site
near Hermiston, but would
have required four miles of
infrastructure extension.
Commissioner George
Murdock said he is sensi-
tive to the issue of rezoning
farmland, but as a rural
Eastern Oregon county,
they also need to focus
on bringing in economic
development.
Commis-
sioner
Larry
Givens
agreed, adding the land
does not appear to be suited
for agriculture anyway.
“It’s a very unproduc-
tive piece of ground, and
always has been,” Givens
said.
All three commissioners
voted to approve the zone
change. Stakeholders have
three weeks to appeal the
ruling.
Vadata has also signed
on to be a customer of the
regional water system with
the city of Hermiston and
Port of Umatilla to provide
roughly
400
gallons
per minute of cooling
water. Once the water is
discharged, Vadata says it
is looking into ways it can
be shared with neighboring
farmers who could use the
extra irrigation for growing
crops.
A similar plan is in the
works for Vadata’s McNary
campus near Umatilla, with
a $3 million project to route
water to the West Extension
Irrigation District.
———
Contact George Plaven
at
gplaven@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-966-0825.
Friday, April 14, 2017
CAREERS: Students learned EOCI offers 432 positions
Continued from 1A
Of course, science isn’t the
only field Pendleton students
envision themselves in.
The high school has spent
the past few days holding
discussion panels and taking
students on tours to various
worksites from a wide array
of fields.
On Wednesday, another
group of PHS students
ventured inside the Eastern
Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution to explore the idea of
working at a prison. Each
student clipped on a badge,
checked in with security and
walked through a gate of
steel bars. Inside, they found
denim-clad inmates and the
occasional razor wire and
guard post, a community of
1,700 inmates and all sorts of
professionals from the outside
who make the place tick.
The 17 teens visited the
education department, then
ogled the prison’s massive
garment factory from a
catwalk high above. They
peeked into a cell. They
dropped into behavioral
services, where mentally ill
inmates receive care. They
visited the prison’s medical
clinic.
The students learned that
EOCI offers 432 positions:
correctional officers, of
course, but also teachers,
counselors, medical profes-
sionals, administrative assis-
tants, IT technicians, business
and human resources people
and a host of others.
To provide students with
experience beyond traditional
academics, the Pendleton
School District has expanded
their career technical educa-
tion options in recent years.
The centerpiece of this
initiative is the Pendleton
Technology & Trades Center,
the re-purposed West Hills
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Katelynn Johnson and some of her Pendleton High School classmates look out over
the massive garment factory at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. About
17 students toured EOCI Wednesday to learn about job opportunities at the prison.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Hallie Porter and a couple of her Pendleton High School
classmates listen to inmates describing a dog training
project at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
Intermediate School that
provides classes in culinary
arts, robotics, unmanned
aerial systems, aerospace
engineering and more.
After leading a tour of
the center during an open
house Thursday, CTE coor-
dinator Curt Thompson said
the district isn’t currently
equipped to track how students
are doing academically and
professionally after they leave
high school, so officials don’t
yet know how effective the
district has been since ramping
up their CTE efforts.
But he has seen individual
successes, like the student who
took aerospace engineering
coursework in high school
and was able to translate it
to a $64,000 scholarship to
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University, a Florida college
that specializes in flight engi-
neering.
Thompson said CTE is as
much about students figuring
out what kind of fields they
don’t like as finding out which
ones they do. Rather than
spending considerable time
and resources in a college
or program before deciding
that career path is not for
them, Thompson said high
school officials can identify a
student’s proclivities early and
reorient them toward a path
they like better.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836. Reporter
Kathy Aney contributed to this
story.
RESCUE: The job can demand time away from work, family
DEPORT: Washington and
California already made the
change in the last several years
Continued from 1A
The change would have
no effect on illegal immi-
grants.
“This is an equity
issue,” said House Speaker
Tina Kotek, D-Portland.
“People should not be
torn from their families
and their communities
because of an arbitrary
difference between state
and federal sentencing law
for low-level, nonviolent
misdemeanors.”
If adopted, the law
would
make
Oregon
uniform with Washington
and California, which
already made the change in
the last several years.
It would serve to
strengthen the three states’
governors’ efforts to create
“a zone of inclusivity”
along the West Coast,
Manning said.
Gov. Kate Brown has
been defiant in the face of
President Donald Trump’s
executive orders limiting
immigration and banning
refugees, which also have
been halted by the courts.
In February, Brown
issued her own executive
order barring the use of
state resources to enforce
federal immigration policy.
Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum subsequently
sought to join Washing-
ton’s lawsuit against the
Trump
administration’s
immigration orders.
“Governor
Brown
supports the amendment
and looks forward to
signing the racial profiling
bill into law to better
protect all Oregonians,”
said Press Secretary Bryan
Hockaday.
House Speaker Kotek
requested the sentencing
change to be added to an
amendment to a bill that
requires police to collect
data on race when they
pull over drivers or pedes-
trians. The bill is meant to
discourage racial profiling
by law enforcement.
Kotek made the request
after receiving feedback
from community groups,
law enforcement, immigra-
tion attorneys and others
working on the racial
profiling bill, said Lindsey
O’Brien, a spokeswoman
in the Speaker’s Office.
Felonies, certain violent
crimes and 365-day or
greater sentences for gross
misdemeanors can trigger
mandatory
deportation
under federal law. Class A
misdemeanors in Oregon
can range from falsifying
information and writing a
bad check to fourth-degree
assault.
“Shifting to 364 days
means our fellow Orego-
nians are not subject to
that very drastic penalty,”
Manning said.
As an immigration
attorney, Manning said
he sees legal immigrants
deported for misdemeanor
crimes all of the time.
“I couldn’t even count
for you how many times,”
he said. “It’s extremely
painful and sad … and is
a form of stigmatization
against noncitizens.”
The House Judiciary
Committee adopted the
amendment and approved
the overarching bill March
30. No one addressed
the significance of the
sentencing change at that
time.
Reps. Sal Esquivel
of Medford, and Mike
Nearman of Independence
said they oppose the
change because they see it
as an attempt to circumvent
federal law.
“To me that is a way to
dodge the federal law,” said
Esquivel, who is the son of
a legal Mexican immigrant.
“You’re on probation when
you come here on a green
card.”
The two Republican
lawmakers co-sponsored
legislation this session to
outlaw “sanctuary city”
designation and to make
English the state’s official
language.
Several Oregon cities,
including Portland, have
declared themselves sanc-
tuary cities for immigrants,
and the Trump administra-
tion has threatened to pull
federal grants and other
funding from those juris-
dictions.
The bill is now before
the Joint Committee on
Ways and Means but won’t
have another hearing until
May, said Rep. Duane
Stark, R-Grants Pass,
chairman of the Subcom-
mittee on Public Safety.
Continued from 1A
“You could start with a
missing person,” he said.
“You find the person hurt
down a cliff. Now it’s a ropes
situation. Carrying them to
safety, and then you have
to use first aid. It could be
multiple scenarios all in one
case.”
There are about 25 people
in the county’s Search and
Rescue volunteer program.
According to Rick Pullen,
a volunteer for the last six
years, the team averages
about 12 calls per year.
“This year we’re already
above 12,” he said. Last
Saturday, volunteers were
called to two incidents in
one day. Although there
may be an urban call once
in a while, most are in the
mountains, and almost all
are in the middle of the night.
The number of calls spike in
bad weather, especially in
winters like this one.
The job can demand time
away from work and family.
“A lot of these volunteers
are working,” Pullen said. “I
have to take vacation time
out to go on a call.”
Pullen said the team uses
several different modes to
conduct searches: snowmo-
biles, four-wheelers, drones.
“We’d really like to put
together a horse team,” he
said.
At Wednesday night’s
training, the group splits up
into two teams. The team
working on litters practices
quickly putting together,
then taking apart the device
used to carry a person. They
practice securing it to a stand
with a wheel attached to it.
That device was donated
by the family of a man
who drowned at McKay
Reservoir several years ago,
and whose body volunteers
recovered.
“Just remember,” says
one of the instructors with
a grin. “It’s 10 times harder
when it’s dark out.”
As teams practice, others
stand around and take mental
notes.
Dalton Cash has been
with Search and Rescue for
about three years, and joined
because he’d seen his father
volunteer and wanted to do
the same.
Though he’s had some
experience, he said he’s
been surprised by how many
calls the team gets, and how
difficult it is to track people.
“Something that’s been
hard is learning how to get
my eyes to look at a track
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Search and rescue volunteers Kyle Waggoner, Dan
Heath, Rick Pullen and Bob English on Thursday
night discuss how to attach a litter to a special wheel
that allows easier transport in rough terrain during
training exercises.
that I can’t see,” he said,
noting the importance of
looking for signs of human
activity outside the obvious
ones.
“An instructor may say,
‘there’s a footprint there.’ I
can’t see it. He’ll point out
broken twigs and crushed
leaves.”
On the other side of the
room, Emma Hubbard and
Kendra Russell work on
tying knots. Russell prac-
tices a bowline knot, which
rescuers have to learn to tie
around themselves in cases
of self-rescue.
“If you slide down a
steep embankment, barely
hanging on, or if you’re in
the water, someone throws
you the rope,” Johnson said.
“Hanging on with one arm,
you have to be able to tie the
rope with one hand.”
Other knots include a
figure 8 knot, a basic over-
hand knot, a munter hitch
knot and a prusik knot.
“Most of the rescue
knots — figure 8s are used
for anchors,” said Kevin
Schreibner, a 19 year-veteran
with Search and Rescue
and one of the instructors.
“They’re simple, very easy
to recognize.”
Johnson, who has been
with Umatilla County Search
and Rescue for about two
and a half years, came to the
job from a Forest Service
background. He also does
security for the county court-
house, and had done search
and rescue in the past.
Those who volunteer
have to get certified in class-
room and practical skills,
and then get approved by
OSSA standards as a ground
searcher. There are different
classifications of searchers,
and Johnson said most of
Umatilla County’s obtain the
second-highest.
“It’s about what type of
terrain you can handle,”
he said. “Type 1 searchers,
those are the people going up
to Mount Hood. They have to
be able to sustain themselves
for 72 hours. We try to make
all ours type 2 searchers.
That means you can sustain
yourself for 24 hours.”
The team meets at least
once a month for a night
training, and usually has
a Saturday training each
month that lasts six to eight
hours.
In the next segment of
training, volunteers will go
out onto a trail, where they
will have to carry a litter for a
quarter mile. The group will
also practice flying a drone.
In addition to their
monthly appointments, the
group is always on call for
emergencies.
“It’s definitely a commit-
ment,” Johnson said.
For more information
about volunteering, contact
Johnson at 541-966-3635.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
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