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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION MONASTIC LIVING IN THE BLUE ETHICS INVESTIGATION MOUNTAINS PORTLAND CLEANS TO MOVE FORWARD 2A LIFESTYLES/1C DIRTY RIVER NORTHWEST/7A JULY 15-16, 2017 141st Year, No. 195 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Another day, another $10 Minimum wage up 50 cents in Umatilla County By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Workers in Oregon are seeing bigger paychecks this month after minimum wage rose to $10 per hour in rural areas on July 1. The 50 cent hike is part of a 2016 compromise to slowly phase in a series of wage increases tied to geography. By 2022, the “standard” wage will be $13.50 an hour, while Portland workers will make $14.75 and rural employers will have to pay at least $12.50 an hour. When the bill was passed last year, the minimum wage across the state was $9.25. Workers around the country have been pushing for a $15 per hour minimum wage, but the state put the more modest measures into place to soften the blow for businesses. Cherie Bumpaous, owner of the Pheasant Blue Collar Bar and Grill in Hermiston, said this month’s 50 cent increase still has an impact on small local businesses and their clientele. She said what many people don’t realize is that an increase in wages also means an increase in taxes and benefi ts that the employer has to pay out as well, expanding the total cost of the raise beyond 50 cents. “Of course it’s going to trickle down to the customers,” she said. “A nickel or dime you can absorb, but 50 cents you really can’t absorb.” That means higher prices for customers. See WAGES/14A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Bartender Meagan Shaver pours a drink Thursday at the Pheasant Blue Collar Bar and Grill in Hermiston. Athena teen’s lifelong goal of going to Ivy League fulfi lled STANFIELD ‘Sometimes it smells like dead flesh’ Stench from dehydration plant irks residents By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian fl y-by-night proposition: it takes years of careful groundwork and rigorous study to gain admission. Although that preparation usually starts before high school, going to Harvard has been Michael’s near lifelong dream. Amy Shafer remembers talking with her sons about Stanfi eld residents have long looked forward to summer as a time when the air is perfumed with the smell of local mint harvests. But this year the small town has been inundated with a not-so-pleasant scent that has caused many to complain — and some to vomit. Leland Winebarger has a welding busi- ness in Stanfi eld that is located close to the factory. “It was just awful,” he said of the smell on Wednesday. “Today I threw up.” Several others have complained about the harsh stench emitting from a local dehy- dration plant run by 3D IdaPro, the product from which is primarily used to make dog food. “Sometimes it smells like dead fl esh,” said Kathy Baker, a longtime Stanfi eld resident who owns a store, Fun Fashions Boutique, down the street from the factory. “It hurts your nose.” Other Stanfi eld residents described the smell as that of rotten or burnt potatoes, which is the primary product the plant deals with. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality representatives said they contacted the factory earlier this week after receiving 17 complaints in a single day, and that the company had immediately responded. “We contacted the facility and said we’d received complaints and we need to look into reducing the odors,” DEQ’s Greg Svelund said Wednesday. “That was on Monday. The company already sent us information about what they think the odors may be, and have come up with a rough plan to repair it. It was remarkably fast.” See HARVARD/14A See STENCH/12A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Weston-McEwen High School graduate Michael Shafer stands on Athena’s Main Street Friday. After vowing to attend Harvard University as a four or fi ve-year-old, Shafer will attend the Ivy League university in the fall. By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian On Friday, it seemed like everyone in Athena stopped to say hello as Michael Shafer posed to get his picture taken for his latest achievement. As Michael stood on Main Street across from the Athena Post Offi ce, a man walking by stopped to talk with his father about the media attention being bestowed on the 18-year-old wearing a “Harvard Class of 2021” shirt. “He got his brains from his mother,” John Shafer quipped. One of the owners hopped out of the Sugar Shack Espresso Bar & Sweet Shoppe across the street to wave at Michael and a UPS driver briefl y stopped to joke that she wanted to get into the picture before speeding off. This is life in downtown Athena. It’s Michael’s life, until he switches coasts to attend the most prestigious university in the country. Michael’s shirt isn’t aspira- tional. He will start taking classes at Harvard University this fall. Applying to the Cambridge, Massachusetts college isn’t a The future of farming is coming to Pendleton Expo to showcase latest in farm technology By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Contributed photo by Robert Delahanty The Remote Operated Vineyard Robot, or ROVR, will be on display during the 2017 Future Farm Expo in Pendleton. Imagine putting on a pair of virtual reality goggles and being able to control a robot that mimics human movements to prune clusters of premium wine grapes. Sounds futuristic, but the Remote Operated Vineyard Robot, or ROVR, may become an integral tool for U.S. winegrowers sooner rather than later. Engineers at Digital Harvest, a Virginia-based company specializing in precision agriculture, have spent the last 18 months working to build the ROVR system, which will be on full display during the 2017 Future Farm Expo coming Aug. 15-17 at the Pendleton Convention Center. The Future Farm Expo is a three-day summit and trade show that invites local agriculture professionals — including growers, consultants and food processors — to meet with high- tech developers and learn how they can use drones and droids to make their operations run more effi ciently. This year’s expo will feature drones capable of fl ying beyond the pilot’s line of sight, mobile farming apps, advances in irrigation tech- nology and, yes, a live demonstration of ROVR, which was built from scratch at Digital Harvest’s research outpost at the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range. The ROVR has already been See FARM/14A
