REGION
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Ham radio operators across the
nation hold on-air open house
Missing girl found
near Tollgate camp
Group uses exercise
for emergency
response training
A 13-year-old girl spent
Saturday night alone near
Tollgate while her family
and others searched for her.
The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office in a written
statement reported Kate
Mollinedo, of the Portland
area, woke up Sunday
and yelled until searchers,
including her mother’s
boyfriend, found her.
The girl and her family
were on a camping trip at
the Target Meadows Camp-
ground near Tollgate. The
sheriff’s office reported her
mother, the boyfriend, and
siblings thought the girl was
playing Saturday afternoon
with some other children at
the campground when she
went missing.
“They looked for her for
about three hours before
contacting the sheriff’s
office,” according to the
statement.
The sheriff’s office at
6:15 p.m. received a request
to send in the search and
rescue team, according to
county records.
“We deployed several
assets during the search,
including a helicopter with
night vision, unmanned
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
Ham radio operators
across the United States
and Canada connected
Saturday in the largest annual
on-the-air event.
An open house of sorts
held each year on the fourth
weekend in June, Amateur
Radio Field Day features
local clubs and ham radio
enthusiasts who set up
temporary
transmitting
stations in public places to
demonstrate the purpose and
capability of ham radios.
Upwards of 40,000 people
participate each year.
“We try to contact as
many people as we can. We
operate for 24 hours if we
can stay awake that long,”
Jim Davis said with a laugh.
“What we’re doing is the
granddaddy of events.”
Davis and other members
of the Hermiston Amateur
Radio
Club
gathered
Saturday at Boardman
Marina Park. Using fishing
poles, nylon paracord and
lead weights, Don Drayton,
club vice president, said
they utilized the park’s tall
and abundant trees to set up
antenna lines.
While operating ham
radios is a hobby for many,
they also serve a practical
purpose. In the event of a
natural disaster — which
might result in the loss of
electricity, cell phone towers,
landlines and internet access
— amateur radio operators
are called on to assist with
communications and emer-
gency management, Davis
said.
“We can be on the air in
an hour anywhere we go,”
Drayton added.
When
trees
aren’t
available, Drayton said he
has an 80-foot mast in his
truck. Several of the club
members, he said, have
travel trailers with all their
supplies, including genera-
tors, batteries or solar power
systems. In the event of an
emergency, everything is
Staff photo by Tammy Malgesini
Bill Quick gives a thumbs up after Whitley Smith, right, makes contact with a ham
radio operator out of California. Smith’s grandson, Brenden Smith, 15, looks on.
The group was participating in the Amateur Radio Field Day Saturday at Boardman
Marina Park.
Hams ‘hogged’
airtime
Staff photo by Tammy Malgesini
Charles Eades, Jim Davis and Don Drayton participate
in the Amateur Radio Field Day Saturday at Boardman
Marina Park.
ready to go, Drayton said.
Another purpose for
Saturday’s event, Davis
said, is to make sure all
their equipment is working.
Many of the local amateur
radio operators will be on-air
during the Aug. 21 eclipse.
In a May interview,
Andrew Phelps, Oregon
Office
of
Emergency
Management director, told
the East Oregonian that
they are using the celestial
happening as an emergency
response exercise. With a
predicted influx of a million
people flocking to the path
of totality in Oregon, he
said they plan to activate
the emergency coordination
center. It will provide valu-
able experience in planning
for and evaluating emergency
responses to disasters, such
as an earthquake along the
Cascadia Subduction Zone.
The partnership, Drayton
said, is beneficial to residents
in Umatilla and Morrow
counties, as well as the rest
of the state. He encourages
more people to obtain a
license to operate ham
radios — especially in rural
counties.
According to the
American Radio Relay
League, referring to
amateur radio operators
as “hams” was coined
in the early days.
Amateur users compet-
ed for time and signals
supremacy in each oth-
er’s receivers with other
radio operators at gov-
ernment stations, ships
and coastal stations.
Often, the amateur radio
operators could jam
other operations with
their powerful stations.
Frustrated operators
referred to the amateur
“interference” as hams
for hogging up the time.
— www.arrl.org
The Hermiston Amateur
Radio Club meets the second
Monday of each month at
7:30 p.m. at Umatilla County
Fire District #1’s Station
23, 78760 Westland Road,
Hermiston. For more infor-
mation, visit www.ai7ho.org.
———
Contact
Community
Editor Tammy Malgesini at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539
State will not suspend operations at new dairy
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
State regulators have
denied a request by multiple
environmental and animal
rights groups to suspend
operations at Lost Valley
Farm, the controversial new
30,000-cow dairy permitted
earlier this year near
Boardman.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture and Depart-
ment of Environmental
Quality are jointly respon-
sible for administering
Oregon’s confined animal
feeding
operation,
or
CAFO, program. The agen-
cies issued a hotly contested
water pollution permit for
Lost Valley Farm on March
31, which became final on
April 20.
Opponents of the dairy
farm have filed what’s
known as a petition for
reconsideration,
urging
ODA and DEQ officials to
change their minds. The
coalition also asked for a
stay of Lost Valley’s permit,
which was rejected in a
ruling handed down Friday,
June 23.
“Petitioners have failed
to provide any evidence of
exactly what harms, if any,
their members will sustain
during the reconsideration
period,” the ruling reads in
part.
Petitioners include the
Animal Legal Defense
Fund, Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity, Center for
Food Safety, Columbia
Riverkeeper, Food & Water
Watch, Friends of Family
Farmers, Humane Oregon,
the Humane Society of
the United States, Oregon
Physicians
for
Rural
Responsibility and Oregon
Rural Action. They argue
Lost Valley threatens to
contaminate local ground-
water and surface water as
the dairy ramps up to full
capacity over the next three
years.
So far, Lost Valley has
brought in just more than
half the cows it is permitted
to handle — 16,000 total,
with about 8,700 milking
cows. Estimates show that,
at 30,000 cows, Lost Valley
will produce 187 million
aerial vehicles (drones),
ATV units, canine units,
and ground search teams,”
the sheriff’s office reported.
Sheriff’s personnel and
search and rescue teams from
Morrow, Union, Wallowa,
Baker, Harney, and Malheur
counties also helped, as did
staff and resources from the
emergency
management
departments of Umatilla and
Morrow counties, LifeFlight
Helicopter and the U.S.
Army National Guard.
Rescuers found her
Sunday at about 10:30 a.m.
approximately 1/8 mile
from her camp. She was
unharmed, the sheriff’s
office reported, except for a
few scratches.
She told the sheriff’s
office she fell from a tree
Saturday afternoon, became
disoriented and could not see
or find her camp.
“She wandered along a
trail where they picked huck-
leberries earlier, and then fell
asleep near a tree after dark,”
according to the statement.
“When she woke at daylight,
she walked around and yelled
until searchers, including her
mother’s boyfriend, heard
Kate and found her.”
She did not require any
medical attention.
Man jailed for causing
crash while intoxicated
East Oregonian
Oregon State police
reported an intoxicated
driver Sunday near Irrigon
crashed into two vehicles.
State police arrested
Jesus Eduardo Zuniga, 21,
of Boardman, on several
charges, including driving
under the influence of
intoxicants (alcohol and
marijuana).
Zuniga was driving a
gray Dodge Charger south-
bound on Paterson Ferry
Road at a high speed Sunday
afternoon, according to state
police, when he crashed
into a westbound car on
Highway 730 and then into
an eastbound vehicle.
The collisions resulted
in minor injuries to Zuniga
and the other two drives,
Katherine Calvert, 45, and
Virgil Leroy Hausinger, 66,
both of Irrigon. State police
reported ambulances took
them to Good Shepherd
Medical Center, Hermiston.
A passenger in one vehicle
was not injured.
State police arrested
Zuniga at the hospital
and booked him into the
Umatilla County Jail, Pend-
leton. Monday morning, the
Morrow County District
Attorney’s Office charged
Zuniga with driving under
the influence of intoxicants,
reckless driving, two counts
of fourth-degree assault
and three counts of reck-
lessly endangering another
person. He was released
from jail on $40,000 bail
Monday. His next court
hearing is July 6.
PENDLETON
BOARDMAN
Petition for reconsideration pending
By East Oregonian
gallons of wastewater and
manure every year.
ODA and DEQ claim
they crafted a permit that
will be the most protective
of water quality to date.
For example, Lost Valley is
required to have 11 ground-
water monitoring wells on
site, which is seven more
than usual. The facility will
also be inspected at least
three times as often as other
dairies.
Tarah Heinzen, staff
attorney for Food & Water
Watch, previously told the
East Oregonian they knew
it was unlikely the state
would stay Lost Valley’s
permit. Their petition for
reconsideration
remains
under review, and the groups
may still consider a formal
appeal in court.
Greg te Velde, owner of
Lost Valley Farm, previ-
ously said that suspending
his operation would have
just as harmful an effect
on the cows as it would
his business. Without the
CAFO permit, te Velde said
he would have nowhere else
to go with the cows. It is
entirely possible they would
have to be sold for slaughter,
he said.
In addition, te Velde
said he would likely face
foreclosure in Oregon after
roughly $100 million worth
of investment since 2003.
Previously, te Velde ran
Willow Creek Dairy on
land leased from nearby
Threemile Canyon Farms.
A spokeswoman for
Lost Valley said the farm is
pleased with the latest deci-
sion, and continues to focus
on its operations.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
HEALTHY FRIDAYS
FREE health screenings & health coaching: Blood
pressure checks, weigh-ins, body mass
index, cholesterol and glucose.
First Friday of every month
8am-11am
B&B to open on South Main
PENDLETON — A
local property owner is
aiming to open a new Pend-
leton bed and breakfast by
Round-Up.
The Pendleton Planning
Commission
recently
approved a conditional use
permit to turn a 704 S. Main
St. house into the Bogart
Brothers Bed & Breakfast.
Property owner Patricia
Cant said the house oper-
ated as a bed and breakfast
in the late 1980s and early
1990s before she purchased
the six-bedroom, four bath-
room home.
Cant said she raised her
family in the house, which
also hosted an adult foster
home. She rented out the
house for several years before
deciding to re-purpose it.
“I came back to reclaim
it,” she said.
A colonial revival home,
the house was built in 1905
and is on the city’s historic
homes registry.
The house will have four
rooms available to customers,
Cant said, including a larger
suite for families.
She plans to live in
the house initially before
eventually moving out
of the house and ceding
management duties to an
innkeeper.
As a condition of the bed
and breakfast’s permit, the
half-acre property will have
four off-street parking spots.
According
to
the
Pendleton
Chamber
of Commerce, the city
currently has two bed and
breakfasts — Pendleton
House Historic Inn and
NEIGH-bors Horse Hotel
and Bed & Breakfast.
CLEARANCE
SALE
Starts July 5th 8:00 a.m.
We will be c lo sed July 1st - 4th
to prepare fo r sale.
GSMC Conference Center 7 (by Education Dept)
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