TAKIN’ IT FOUR RIDERS
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SPORTS/1B
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Two more GOP
senators oppose
health care bill
NATION/7A
TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017
141st Year, No. 196
STANFIELD
Council
outlines
21 goals
for city
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
One dead in arson fi re
PILOT ROCK
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Developing Stanfi eld’s
interchange with Interstate
84 is the city’s top priority,
according to a goal-setting
process with city councilors.
Councilors had two
different
brainstorming
sessions earlier in the year,
then individually ranked
all projects according to
importance. Fostering devel-
opment at the interchange by
expanding the city’s urban
growth boundary was the
fi rst of 21 goals released
Friday by the city of Stan-
fi eld.
City manager Blair Larsen
said he expects the goals to
guide the city’s work for the
next fi ve years. Some proj-
ects on the list are already in
the works, while others will
need grant money or other
revenue sources behind them
before they become a reality.
“Funding is always the
issue,” Larsen said.
As far as development
of the land around the inter-
change, Larsen said there are
two main ways a city can
directly infl uence develop-
ment: putting the necessary
infrastructure into place and
working to match the needs
of potential developers. The
state often sends “leads” to
cities, letting them know that
a company is in need of a
piece of land in their area that
meets a certain list of criteria.
Larsen said Stanfi eld usually
doesn’t have a match because
its available commercial and
industrial land is too small or
too far away from the city’s
infrastructure.
The state is extremely
restrictive on when cities
can add space to their urban
growth boundaries, and
Larsen said Stanfi eld’s needs
wouldn’t fi t that criteria.
However, he believes the city
would qualify to swap land,
taking a chunk out of the
city’s UGB elsewhere and
putting in the land around the
interchange instead.
Developer Kent Madison
is looking to develop an RV
park and commercial space
on the opposite side of the
interchange, near Echo.
That land is in Echo’s urban
growth boundary, not Stan-
See STANFIELD/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Laurie Sammons of Canyon City thumbs through a box of family photographs salvaged from the home of her father, Larry Castro, on
Monday in Pilot Rock. Castro died in an early-morning fi re Sunday that police believe was arson.
Angela Marie Fix arrested for fi rst-degree arson
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Brandon Cross remembered
crawling on his belly to search the
burning Pilot Rock home for anyone
in danger. He said he spent a few
frantic moments inside the house
before the overwhelming heat and
fl ames forced him to retreat.
“It burned the hair off the back of
my head,” said Cross.
Pilot Rock Police Chief William
Caldera in a written statement
reported fi refi ghters found the body
of Larry Eugene Castro, 72, just
inside the front door of Castro’s
home at 439 S.W. Birch
Place, off Highway 395 in
the small town.
Caldera also reported
police arrested Angela
Marie Fix, 40, of 522 S.W.
Birch Place, for fi rst-de-
gree arson.
Cross and his girlfriend
were returning to John
Day after attending the Fix
Pendleton Whisky Music
Fest when they saw smoke coming
from the home Sunday around 1:45
a.m. Their day of fun, he said, turned
into a nightmare.
“As soon as I seen the house was
on fi re, I started beating
on the door,” Cross said,
while his girlfriend called
9-1-1.
A lamp was still on in the
living room, so he fi gured
someone was home, but no
one responded. Cross said
he broke in.
Furniture and walls
were ablaze, he said, and
thick smoke hovered a
mere eight inches off the fl oor.
“I was on my stomach crawling
through the house,” he said.
Without a fl ashlight he relied on
the fl ames to see. Cross said he was
inside maybe a minute, though it felt
like an hour, and he saw no body.
Then he had to get out.
Cross said he ran to the back and
spotted an open bedroom window.
“There was a teddy bear right
there, and I thought there was chil-
dren in the house,” he said, so he
broke in through the window.
Cross said he checked in and
under the bed and again found no
one. But he was not done.
Smoke billowed into a small
house nearby. Again he pounded on
a door, and again no one answered.
See ARSON/8A
PENDLETON
Fans pack stadium for Maroon 5
Whisky Music Festival
sells out in second year
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The fi rst time Heather Hampton
saw Maroon 5 in concert, the band
was the opening act at a West Holly-
wood nightclub in 2002.
Fifteen years and three Grammy
Awards later, Hampton has seen
Maroon 5 play a staggering 198
times — including Saturday’s
headline performance at the second
annual Pendleton Whisky Music
Festival.
“The fi rst time I saw them live,
they were just super talented and
super catchy,” Hampton said.
Music fans and critics agreed,
and Maroon 5 has since ascended
to superstardom, winning multiple
awards and topping the U.S. Bill-
board album charts.
Hampton, who works as a mail
carrier in San Diego, can say she’s
been there since the beginning. She
has a tattoo of the band’s name on
her left forearm, and a video on
YouTube from 2011 when she was
invited on stage by lead singer Adam
Levine at the Hollywood Bowl.
“She started it all,” Levine told
the crowd. “She was our fi rst huge
fan.”
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Saturday’s sold out Pendleton Whisky Music Fest featured Little McKay Creek Band, Runaway June,
Magic and headliner Maroon 5.
Hampton made the trip to
Pendleton with her friend and
fellow Maroon 5 superfan Tracy
Wesolowski. The two women previ-
ously met about fi ve years ago at a
K-Mart in Los Angeles, where they
attended a promotional event for
Levine’s clothing line. Now, they
travel to shows together whenever
they can.
The duo arrived Friday night
following a 12-hour drive from
Wesolowski’s home in San Jose.
See MUSIC/8A