WEEKEND EDITION
HERMISTON BEATS HOOD
RIVER VALLEY SPORTS/1B
EYE IN THE SKY LIFESTYLES/1C
FIRE DESTROYS GRAIN
ELEVATOR REGION/3A
MAY 6-7, 2017
141st Year, No. 145
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WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Fritsch picked as new superintendent
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Fritsch
The Pendleton School Board
picked Chris Fritsch to be the district’s
next superintendent.
Fritsch, the assistant superinten-
dent at Longview Public Schools,
was one of four fi nalist candidates
interviewed by the community, staff
and school board this week. He will
begin the new job July 1, replacing
interim superintendent Matt Yoshioka
who began a two-month stint this
week. Yoshioka is fi lling in after the
early departure of Andy Kovach, who
was hired in 2016 and resigned in
February.
Debbie McBee, Pendleton School
Board chair, said after interviews with
“numerous” candidates and reference
checks, the board found things they
liked about each candidate.
“However, Chris Fritsch emerged
as the right fi t for Pendleton,” McBee
said in a statement. “He demonstrated
a superior breadth and depth of
experience at all levels of district
administration and was well received
by all who interacted with him.”
Fritsch was chosen over Jim
Wagner, superintendent of Kimball
Area Public Schools in Minnesota, J.T.
Stroder of Gardiner Public Schools in
Montana and Aaron Chavez of the
Wahluke School District in Wash-
ington.
McBee said in an interview that
overall the crop of 21 candidates was
much stronger than it was in 2016.
The group included more candidates
with superintendent experience,
MISSION
New Yellowhawk on path to net-zero energy consumption
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The new Yellowhawk
Tribal
Health
Center
remains a work in progress
as construction workers
pound away toward a fall
opening date.
Once
completed,
however, the building
will have already taken its
fi rst steps toward net-zero
energy
consumption,
thanks to a combination of
effi ciency and solar devel-
opment.
Representatives of the
Energy Trust of Oregon and
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion donned hard hats for
a tour of the site Friday,
adjacent to the Nixyáawii
Governance Center in
Mission. Tribal leaders
have worked closely with
Energy Trust on the project
to ensure it will one day
create just as much energy
as it consumes.
Yellowhawk is the fi rst
building from Eastern
Oregon — and fi rst tribal
building statewide — to
be enrolled in Energy
Trust’s “Path to Net-Zero”
program. That means it was
designed to operate at least
40 percent more effi ciently
than required by Oregon
energy code.
Misti Nelmes, new
buildings outreach manager
for Energy Trust, said
See FRITSCH/12A
Big fi nes
dismissed
in bighorn
poaching
By AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian/Oregonlive
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Energy Trust of Oregon
tour the construction site for the new Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center on Friday in Mission.
Yellowhawk is already
poised to exceed that target.
“It’s really exciting to
see,” Nelmes said. “Basi-
cally, the goal was to focus
on conservation fi rst.”
Nelmes led the way for
much of the tour, speaking
over the sound of whirring
power tools and heavy
machinery inside the skel-
etal structure. She explained
how the clinic will use LED
lighting and controls, and
how the heating and cooling
system will use refrigerant
in ceiling pipes to control
temperature.
“It’s very fi ne-tuned
almost to the individual
needs of each room,”
Nelmes said.
Initial plans also call
for Yellowhawk to build
a solar carport capable of
generating approximately
100 kilowatts of renewable
energy. The tribes do plan
to add more solar panels
onto the building through
community fundraising.
Energy Trust of Oregon
granted $450,000 to the
project in exchange for a
net-zero energy commit-
ment. Path to Net-Zero
offers a range of incentives
from early designs all the
See YELLOWHAWK/12A
MILTON-FREEWATER
Work begins on first new school since 1922
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
From a surprise opportunity to a successful
bond campaign, Milton-Freewater was able to
relive the happy set of circumstances that led to the
groundbreaking of the city’s fi rst new school since
1922.
Standing on a temporary stage on Mill Street in
front of a few dozen supporters Friday, Milton-Free-
water Unifi ed School District superintendent Rob
Clark and other local and state offi cials marked
the beginning of Gib Olinger Elementary School’s
construction with a ground breaking ceremony.
Clark remembered the day when the Wayne
and Gladys Valley Foundation informed him it
was interested in contributing $15 million to a new
elementary school.
“It’s like winning the Irish Sweepstake,” he
See SCHOOL/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Children play with the golden shovels at a ground break-
ing ceremony for the new Gib Olinger Elementary School on
Friday in Milton-Freewater.
Three
men
found
responsible in the illegal
beheadings of three bighorn
sheep in rural Oregon won’t
have to pay $25,000 each as
penalties.
Judges in Gilliam and
Wasco counties ruled this
week that a state law meant to
discourage poaching doesn’t
empower them to order the
men to pay the penalties —
even though prosecutors had
argued that it did.
Justin Samora, 33, and
Cody Plagmann, 37, were
caught in April 2016 after a
driver on Interstate 84 spotted
one of them standing on a
hillside over a dead bighorn
sheep from a protected herd
in the Columbia River Gorge
in Gilliam County. Troopers
found two black garbage
bags — each with the head
of a bighorn sheep in it — on
the hillside.
The rulings also mark
a victory for Jason Begay,
26, who was caught with a
ram’s head in his house in
Wasco County in May 2016.
He claimed that he found
the animal already dead and
decided to cut off its head
and take it home. But that
was enough to convict him
— like Samora and Plag-
mann — of an illegal taking
or possession of wildlife.
Since the three men
were arrested last year, state
lawmakers have raised the
penalty for illegally killing or
possessing the body parts of a
bighorn sheep from $25,000
to $50,000. That’s one of
more than a dozen penal-
ties that lawmakers have
increased as of Jan. 1: State
law now calls for poachers
to pay $7,500 for a cougar or
a black bear; $15,000 for an
elk with six-point antlers and
$50,000 for a moose with
antlers.
But defense attorneys
for Samora, Plagmann and
Begay argued that state
law doesn’t explicitly say a
judge can order defendants
to pay up in criminal court as
restitution.
Prosecutors say that’s
precisely what the law was
intended to do. In the past
two months, judges in Linn
See POACHING/2A
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Pendleton Offi ce:
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