WEEKEND EDITION
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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