REGION
Saturday, July 8, 2017
BRIEFLY
Bird causes power
outages after flying
into substation
HERMISTON — About
2,900 Umatilla Electric
customers lost power
Friday morning when a bird
flew into power equipment
at the Hermiston Butte
substation.
The power failure
affected people in
Hermiston, Irrigon and
Boardman from 9:43 a.m.
until 10:41 a.m., with most
customers getting power
back before noon.
Several areas around
Umatilla and Morrow
counties were without
electricity Friday morning,
according to the Umatilla
Electric Cooperative’s
outage map.
Steve Meyers, a
spokesman for Umatilla
Electric, said most of the
customers affected receive
power from the Butte
substation. The areas that
appeared to be hardest hit
were in the northern part of
Hermiston near East Punkin
Center Road south of Walls
Road, the area around
Diagonal Boulevard and in
southwest Hermiston south
of Highland and west of
11th Street.
Senior center
will reopen after
month-long closure
PENDLETON —
Following through on a
promise to end the closure
“come heck or high water,”
the Community Action
Program of East Central
Oregon will re-open the
Active Senior Center of
Pendleton on Monday.
The nonprofit had
closed the 510 S.W. 10th
St. facility in early June to
address a prolonged cook
shortage. Although a new
cook hasn’t been hired
yet, Marci McMurphy,
CAPECO director of food
and nutrition, said they are
looking at candidates and
intend to reopen with their
existing staff.
McMurphy said there
are no plans to close the
senior center again in the
near future.
The senior center serves
lunch four days a week
as part of CAPECO’s
congregate meals program,
normally attracting between
25-50 seniors per day.
The vacant cook position
has been open since April
20, but CAPECO has had
difficulty finding a qualified
applicant willing to work
the 35-hour-per-week job.
CAPECO has talked
with St. Anthony Hospital
about using its kitchen staff
to prepare the senior center
meals, and McMurphy said
that option remains on the
table.
Hermiston City
Council to hear
NOWA update
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston City Council
will have a work session
Monday to hear updates
from the Northeast Oregon
Water Association.
The work session
begins at 6 p.m. at city
hall, followed by a regular
council meeting at 7 p.m.
The agenda for the
East Oregonian
Page 3A
UKIAH
regular council meeting
includes committee reports,
a proclamation for National
Night Out and authorization
of the city manager to
accept state and federal
grant funding to hire a
consultant for updating
the Hermiston Municipal
Airport’s master plan.
The council will also
be asked to consider an
agreement with Umatilla
County to transfer a portion
of Highland Avenue,
between Southwest 11th
Street and Southwest 15th
Place, from the county
to the city. The request is
tied to a developer’s plans
to build a commercial
mini-storage facility on a
vacant lot there. The county
requested during a planning
commission hearing on the
development that the city
either take over the road
or prohibit installation of
curbs and gutters there.
Echo gears up for
Open Air Market
ECHO — Produce,
crafts and more are featured
during the Open Air Market
in Echo.
Held the third Saturday
of each month, the next
event is Saturday, July 15
from 4-7 p.m. at George
Park, located at Bonanza
and Dupont streets. There
is still space available for
people who would like to
sell their wares.
Proceeds from vendor
fees goes to the Echo
Museum. Last year’s
markets resulted in a $600
contribution to the museum.
For more
information, contact
echoopenairmarket@
gmail.com or visit
www.facebook.com/
echoopenairmarket.
Astronomer to
shed light on
solar eclipse
PENDLETON — An
upcoming astronomy talk
will provide insight about
the Aug. 21 total solar
eclipse.
Shane L. Larson, a
research associate professor
at CIERA — the Center
for Interdisciplinary
Exploration and Research
in Astrophysics at the Adler
Planetarium in Chicago
— has presented yearly
lectures in Pendleton.
During his talk, the former
La Grande man will explore
some of the important ways
that eclipses have helped
in developing a better
understanding of the Earth
and its place in the cosmos.
The free event is
Sunday, July 16 from 6-8
p.m. at The Prodigal Son
Brewery & Pub, 230 S.E.
Court Ave., Pendleton.
People who would like to
dine at the pub are asked
to do so before or after the
presentation , as food will
not be served in the theater.
For more information,
contact Matthew Barnes at
mhbvalcar@gmail.com or
541-276-6090. For more
about Larson, visit www.
writescience.wordpress.
com.
———
Briefs are compiled
from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email
press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
Local YCC teens put out fire
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Several teens saved a Ukiah woman
and child and their home Thursday
morning, putting out a fire before any
major damage was done to the structure.
The six teenagers, all aged 14 and 15
and members of a Youth Conservation
Corps crew with the North Fork John
Day Watershed Council, were helping
Ukiah School employee Trent Douglas
set up a greenhouse at the school when
they spotted a fire coming from a home
nearby. They went to look and discov-
ered that the porch of a home was on
fire.
Douglas said the teens acted fast.
“From the time they spotted it and
got over there, it probably took 45
minutes to an hour,” he said. “They got
it out pretty quick, but because the porch
had caught fire, I didn’t feel safe leaving
it on the side of the house, so we pulled
the porch off the side of the house and
hosed all the pieces down.”
Douglas said he did not know how
the fire started, but there was very little
damage to the actual home.
The woman renting the home was
at work, but her young daughter and a
babysitter were in the house and were
unharmed.
Douglas said there was a garden hose
running in the front yard, which the
teens grabbed to douse the fire. While
the Ukiah fire hall is near the house,
Douglas said the teens had it under
control before the fire department had to
be called.
“It was flaming pretty good,”
Douglas said. “But they were on it. The
kids were pretty impressive.”
Douglas said Friday was the crew’s
last day in Ukiah, and they will now be
working in the mountains near Olive
Lake for the next two weeks.
The students, all from around Umatilla
and Union counties, are Ben Combs,
Austin Kendall, Tovias Niel, Quinton Orr,
Khai Robertson and Colton Schock.
MERKLEY: Thanked for helping save rural postal service
Continued from 1A
his field representative Karen
Wagner.
Lunch at the diner gave
Spurgeon extra time with
Merkley, and as they chatted,
the conversation inevitably
turned to health care.
“I keep talking to people
about it because we have
a very stressful health care
system,” Merkley said.
“Ordinary people don’t have
the time to research all this
and figure it out. It’s a big
national discussion because
peace of mind on healthcare
is a quality of life issue.”
Spurgeon, who owns a
business with her husband,
shared that they have had
to change health insurance
plans four times in four
years and are currently on
the Affordable Care Act
exchange. As Merkley talked
about structure of the ACA
versus new proposals by
Republicans in Washington,
D.C., however, Spurgeon
said the real problem as
she sees it is not insurance,
but the price of health care
spiraling out of control. Spur-
geon is a cancer survivor and
said it was literally impos-
sible for her to find out how
much various appointments
or treatments would cost at
different hospitals.
“It’s ludicrous,” she said.
“If I take my car into the
shop, they’re responsible to
give me a bid.”
Most of the conversation
revolved around more local
topics, like grants for restoring
Weston’s historical build-
ings and a new committee
Spurgeon has created to
discuss education. Small
town mayors, Spurgeon
commented, “don’t have the
luxury of being partisan.”
That was true in the other
small towns that Merkley
visited on Friday. He started
the morning in Echo, where
Mayor Jeanne Hampton and
City Administrator Diane
Berry showed the senator
around Echo’s historic
buildings. Merkley paused
to take a photo in front of
the Echo museum’s wooden
sign, and later to read a
plaque describing a daring
bank robbery in the early
1900s. A few minutes later,
back at city hall, he brought
up Echo’s sewer system
challenges and asked if there
were federal regulations
that were contributing to the
problem. Berry said the maze
of
sometimes-conflicting
regulations from multiple
federal agencies had thrown
up extra roadblocks.
When Merkley next
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sen. Jeff Merkley visits with rural carrier Ken Hasenbank on Friday at the U.S. Post
Office in Helix. Sen. Merkley co-sponsored a bill that helped save rural post offices,
including the one in Helix.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sen. Jeff Merkley walks down the center of Concord
Street with Helix Mayor Jack Bascomb while taking a
tour Friday in Helix.
arrived in Helix, Mayor Jack
Bascomb greeted him in
front of city hall with a smile.
“Thank you for saving our
post office,” he said.
In 2012 Merkley intro-
duced an amendment which
prohibited the U.S. Postal
Service from closing rural
post offices if certain condi-
tions of timeliness cannot be
met. The Helix post office,
which features the longest
mail delivery route in Oregon,
had been slated to close but
was taken off the chopping
block by the new rule.
Bascomb walked with
Merkley through the streets
of Helix, pointing out the
park that always floods and
problems with the bridge
over the creek there. A couple
of minutes later they made it
to the post office in question,
where Bascomb introduced
Merkley as “the man who
saved our post office.”
The senator chatted
with employees there and
Helix School District super-
intendent Darrick Cope,
who had come to check his
mail, before Merkley’s staff
reminded him that he had
another appointment to get
to.
In Adams Merkley met
with Mayor Dane Holmes,
who showed him the prop-
erty where the city hopes to
one day have a community
center.
“Now this is where I’m
supposed to beg,” Holmes
said. “We need money for it.”
Merkley offered up
his staff’s services in help
navigating federal grant
applications, and the two
men spent most of the rest of
Merkley’s short visit talking
about the water table and the
wheat harvest.
In Athena, Mayor John
Shafer took Merkley on a
walk down to the park where
volunteers were setting up for
the weekend’s Caledonian
Games. They discussed the
town’s pool, the new bank
and stopped to admire the rose
garden featuring the names
of U.S. presidents of Scot-
tish-Irish descent. Shafer’s
son Michael came along,
and when Merkley found
out he has been accepted to
Harvard and plans to study
government there in the
fall, he offered advice about
applying for internships in
Washington, D.C. and about
the Shafers’ upcoming visit to
the nation’s capital.
In Weston, the last of the
small cities tour, Merkley
said it was one of the few
incorporated cities in Oregon
he had never visited. When
Spurgeon apologized for
“talking your ear off” he
waved it away, commenting
that he had learned a lot.
“It was very helpful,” he
said. “That’s why I’m out
here.”
Merkley hosts town halls
in Union, Wallowa, Baker,
Malhuer and Harney coun-
ties this weekend.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Please Welcome
Aimee Rogers, MD
Urologist
Now Scheduling Appointments
Worried About Falling
Monday @
Elizabethan Manor
3:00pm
44882 Mission Road,
Pendleton, OR
(541) 276-7157
McKay Creek Estates
1601 Southgate Place,
Pendleton, OR
(541) 276-1987
Elizabethan Manor
44882 Mission Road,
Pendleton, OR
(541) 276-7157
Prestige Senior Living, L.L.C
www.PrestigeCare.com
Th ursday @
McKay Creek Estates
1:30pm
1601 Southgate
Place, Pendleton, OR
(541) 276-1987
Presented by
Ken Hall,
Area Manager,
Encompass Home Health
This presentation is free and open to the public.
541-966-0535
Dr. Rogers is originally from Southern California and
graduated from Loyola University in Chicago. She
attended medical school at the University Of Louisville
School Of Medicine, and completed her residency in
Urology in Morgantown, West Virginia at West Virginia
University. She then spent three years at Reid Hospital
in Richmond, Indiana. Dr. Rogers is Board Certifi ed,
American Board of Urology. Dr. Rogers has purchased a
home in Pendleton and looks forward to being involved
in the community.
St. Anthony Clinic
3001 St. Anthony Way
Pendleton, Oregon
www.sahpendleton.org