REGION
Saturday, June 24, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Echo looking for
Mother’s Day shooter sentenced alternatives to
wastewater issues
HERMISTON
Bedolla gets six years,
eight months in prison
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Alexis Manuel Paredes
Bedolla, 18, of Hermiston,
is heading to state prison for
shooting another man on May
8, 2016 in a gunfight.
Bedolla last week took
a deal from the Umatilla
County District Attorney’s
Office and pleaded guilty to
second-degree assault and
unlawful use of a weapon,
according to circuit court
records. Judge Eva Temple
sentenced Bedolla
to six years, eight
months in the
Oregon Department
of
Corrections,
minus the time he
served in local jail.
Bedolla’s victim
was
Adalberto
Flores, who was
17 at the time and Bedolla
in his apartment at
645 S.E. Fourth St., Herm-
iston. He took two rounds
in his buttocks but also fired
back with a rifle and struck
Bedolla in the arm, severely
injuring him.
District Attorney Dan
Primus did not
immediately return
a call seeking
comment,
but
he made public
statements
that
revealed Flores was
the shooter who
killed 22-year-old
Salvador Valencia
in 2012 in a fight at
Gotta Stop conve-
nience store, Hermiston.
Hermiston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston also confirmed
Flores shot Valencia.
The investigation into the
deadly shooting, Edmiston
said, showed Valencia was
the aggressor. The East
Oregonian in 2012 reported
sources familiar with the case
said Valencia and another
man started that fight.
While
Flores
was
involved in both gunfights,
Edmiston said, linking the
two to anything like gang
retaliation would be a stretch.
The Mother’s Day shooting
had its origins in a bar room
punched-out that took place a
few hours before and involved
one of Flores’ relatives.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0833.
PILOT ROCK
Local wildfire season starts with blaze
Wildland season
begins on Monday
East Oregonian
Local firefighting teams
controlled a 20-acre brush
fire Friday morning in Pilot
Rock. Pendleton Fire Chief
Mike Ciraulo said this marks
the start of wildland fire
season on the local front.
The Oregon Department
of Forestry will officially
declare the beginning of fire
season Monday, June 26
across the Northeast Oregon
District, which includes
more than 2 million acres
of private, state, county,
municipal and tribal land in
Umatilla, Union, Baker and
Wallowa counties — along
with small portions of
Morrow, Grant and Malheur
counties.
The Pilot Rock blaze
began a little before 9 a.m. at
600 N.W. Cedar St. near the
Boise Cascade lumber mill,
a site that catches fire almost
every summer. Ciraulo said
he and a crew from Pendleton
arrived with a brush truck,
along with two members of
the Pilot Rock Rural Fire
Protection District.
Firefighters
from
the Umatilla Tribal Fire
Department and Oregon
Department of Forestry also
joined the effort. And a local
property owner used a dozer
to establish a fire break.
The burn was about
10 acres at the beginning,
Ciraulo said, and grew to
about 20 before crews had
it contained a few hours
later. Pilot Rock division
chief Richard Hemphill said
firefighters burned off the rest
of the area. If they did not do
that now, he said, they would
Photo contributed by Pendleton Fire Department
Firefighters put out a grass fire Friday morning near Pilot Rock.
“There is perhaps a false sense that fire
conditions won’t be too bad this summer
with the spring moisture, but we need
people to work and recreate safely.”
— Logan McCrae, La Grande unit forester for ODF
end up fighting it later this
summer.
The Northwest Coordi-
nation Center predicted a
normal fire season this year in
Oregon, which would mean
an increase in fires and their
sizes over the previous year.
Ciraulo said while mountain
fire fuels remain green and
wet, the lower elevations,
such as around Pendleton
and Pilot Rock, are drying
out and have lots of fuel with
a high potential to burn.
“Fire season,” he said, “is
upon us.”
Logan
McCrae,
La
Grande unit forester for
ODF, said this year’s heavy
winter snow and spring rains
has been a blessing, but has
also spurred the growth of
vast amounts of light fuels
at lower elevations that can
burn quickly once it dries out.
“There is perhaps a false
sense that fire conditions
won’t be too bad this summer
with the spring moisture,
but we need people to work
and recreate safely, as well
as keep an eye out for fire
starts,” McCrae said.
A number of burning
restrictions will be in place
once fire season begins. Burn
permits will be required for
all open burning, except
campfires. Landowners who
burned slash piles last fall
should also check to make
sure they are completely out
and all the heat is gone.
Logging and other indus-
trial operations must meet
requirements for fire preven-
tion, such as fire tools, water
supply and watchman service
while working on ODF land.
Campers are reminded that
campfires need to be attended
at all times and extinguished
completely before leaving.
For more information,
local ODF offices can be
reached at:
• Pendleton — 541-276-
3491
• La Grande — 541-963-
3168
• Baker City — 541-523-
5831
• Wallowa — 541-886-
2881
To report a fire, call 9-1-1.
UMATILLA
Landing Days brings back Friday entertainment
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Landing Days is back in
full after faltering last year.
The annual celebration of
Umatilla’s history was kicked
off Friday night instead of
Saturday morning for the
first time in several years.
And Saturday’s schedule
was much more full than last
year, when the event was
first canceled due to lack of
volunteers and then brought
back in a very limited form.
Only a handful of people
had shown up by the time the
first band started playing at 6
p.m., but more were slowly
trickling in as they got off
work.
“Tonight might be a little
slow but we’re building up
to tomorrow,” said Mark
Ribich, Umatilla Chamber of
Commerce interim president
and city councilor.
He
said
organizers
were excited about the
“fantastic weather” for the
weekend. They expected a
large turnout for Saturday’s
events, which will include
a parade, contests, bands,
dance groups, beer garden,
food and craft vendors, wood
carvers auction, kids’ talent
show and fireworks over the
marina at 10 p.m.
Friday night featured food
vendors, a beer garden and
bands The Outsiders and
Grupo Viajero. High school
students Bianca Espain and
Jacquelin Brown showed up
early and said the part they
were most excited about was
the food.
Espain said she has been
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
The Outsiders perform at Umatilla Landing Days on
Friday at Marina Park.
to Landing Days before and
her other favorite part of the
event was the fireworks.
“Over here is just a beau-
tiful view of the river and
with the fireworks, it’s just so
pretty,” she said.
Brown said she had never
been to Landing Days before
but was looking forward to it.
Barb and Robert White
of Hermiston said they had
never been to Landing Days
before, but had talked to
someone at the marina about
it recently and were planning
on attending both days. After
enjoying an elephant ear, they
were particularly interested
in the craft vendors, watching
the Round-Up City Cloggers
perform, listening to the
live music and watching the
fireworks.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Echo’s city council
meeting for June did not
include any action on the
city’s ongoing wastewater
challenges.
The recycled water
the city releases into the
Umatilla River does not
meet state standards for
biological oxygen demand,
and the city is under a dead-
line from the Department of
Environmental Quality to
complete a project fixing the
problem by December 2019.
After working with engi-
neers, the city notified ranch
owner Michael Yunker that
it would like to buy about 10
acres of his ranch to store the
recycled water instead, and
may use eminent domain to
condemn the land if he did
not sell voluntarily.
Yunker said he has not
heard anything from the
city in the last month, other
than a letter delivered to the
attorney that he has retained,
stating that the city under-
stood how precious his land
was to him and was working
to find other possible solu-
tions.
City administrator Diane
Berry confirmed that the
city is looking at a number
of possible solutions that
would not include Yunk-
er’s land, including new
evaporation technology that
wasn’t in use when the city
first had a problem years
ago.
“If at all possible we will
avoid (condemnation), but
we can’t make any prom-
ises,” she said.
She said that after news of
the letter to Yunker reached
the public, some people
have commented that the
city must have mismanaged
its sewer ponds, but she said
that such ponds are “pretty
static” receptacles that don’t
leave much to be managed.
“That’s not the reason
we’re having problems with
DEQ,” she said.
Developer
Kent
Madison, who is looking at
possible development of an
RV park and commercial
properties north of Echo,
has offered to help find a
way to integrate a solution
to the city’s sewer problem
into that development. He
offered up a report from his
engineers from J-U-B Engi-
neers (Echo uses Anderson
Perry & Associates) on
Thursday giving a second
opinion on other solutions,
and promised to provide a
report to the council each
month.
Prior to Echo’s regular
city council meeting, the
city’s budget committee
approved the proposed
2017-2018 budget with
recommendations for the
council and staff to consider.
Much of the budget was
similar to previous years,
but committee members
suggested it may be time to
revisit Echo’s contract with
Stanfield Police Department
for services, noting that
the cost had gone up, even
though in recent years Stan-
field has struggled to keep a
full staff of officers.
Berry said the $68,564
for 2017-2018 included an
increase in costs for dispatch
services, which are out of
Stanfield’s control. She said
the council was certainly
welcome to ask her to look
into other options, but last
time she studied similar
arrangements between other
cities in Oregon she found
that Echo was paying less
than most. She also noted
that when the Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Office
handled Echo’s police
service years ago the city
was getting an average of
28 hours of patrol time per
month, compared to more
than 100 from Stanfield.
The committee also
suggested that the council
consider smaller raises
for city staff than the 3 to
5 percent outlined in the
budget.
HERMISTON
City to look at $1M
electrical meter deal
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Hermiston City
Council will consider a $1
million contract for new
electrical meters Monday.
The contract between
Hermiston Energy Services
and Landis + Gyr Tech-
nology for new automatic
meters would include
$397,227 for installation
and $624,223 for the meters.
The cost was already incor-
porated in a bond restructure
that HES completed in 2016.
The “smart” meters
would
allow
remote
communication
between
the meters and the utility,
providing such benefits as
outage information in real
time instead of relying on
calls from customers to
notify HES that the power
is out in their neighborhood.
The council will also
consider renewing the city’s
franchise agreement with
Charter Communications on
Monday.
The agreement leaves
room for the city to impose
more fees on the company
during the course of the
seven-year
agreement.
Charter currently pays a 3
percent franchise fee on its
profits from cable only, but
provides internet service on
the same infrastructure that
it is paying the city franchise
fees for. Many households
are moving from cable to
internet to provide their
television entertainment.
According to a memo
from city staff to the city
council, taking a separate
action later to include
internet on the franchise fees
would result in an additional
$75,000 to $100,000 in
revenue for the city. Charter
paid $66,000 last year in
franchise fees to the city.
The rest of Monday’s
meeting
will
include
committee reports, an
update on the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event
Center and consent agenda
items. The meeting begins at
7 p.m. at city hall, 180 NE
Second St.
Before and After ‘The Big One’
By Jade McDowell
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