Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, July 28, 2017
COACH: Worked for 32 years at the district
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Phil Hamm, director of the Hermiston experiment station, talks about the benefi ts
of locating the new Precision Irrigated Agriculture Center in the HAREC campus in
Hermiston.
BMCC: Is the second of three BMCC
bond projects to be completed this year
Continued from 1A
the world, according to Fred
Ziari with IRZ Consulting in
Hermiston.
Ziari’s company special-
izes in helping farmers adopt
precision irrigation practices,
though he said the devel-
opment of new technology
has outpaced the ability for
companies to fi nd qualifi ed
experts in the fi eld. Ziari said
he approached BMCC seven
or eight years ago about
developing a curriculum to
train the next generation of
tech-savvy farmers.
“I can see, with a little bit
of effort, that this can become
a global center for teaching
irrigation technology,” he
said. “There’s no place like
this.”
The Precision Irrigated
Agriculture Center is the
second of three BMCC bond
projects to be completed
this year. The fi rst, the
Workforce Training Center
in Boardman, celebrated its
grand opening in April. It
houses the college’s indus-
trial systems and data center
programs.
The bond is also funding
the new Facility for Agricul-
tural Resource Management,
or FARM, on the BMCC
Pendleton campus. President
Cam Preus said the college
should be ready to unveil that
building by late September.
Rather than build the
Precision Irrigated Agricul-
ture Center next to BMCC’s
other Hermiston facilities, it
was located at the Hermiston
agricultural
experiment
station through a long-term
lease with OSU. Phil Hamm,
who directs the station south
of town, said they are already
using the same irrigation
equipment that farmers use
commercially in their fi elds,
meaning students will leave
the program ready to jump
right into the local workforce.
“This is just a tremendous
opportunity for OSU and
BMCC to partner and provide
something that’s never been
done before,” Hamm said.
Ziari said he is already
looking forward to hiring the
program’s fi rst graduate.
“Precision irrigation has
been growing dramatically
throughout the U.S.,” Ziari
said.“This is a great oppor-
tunity for students to learn
knowledge that is globally in
need.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
DAIRY: At full capacity is expected to generate
187M gallons of wastewater and manure annually
Continued from 1A
petition for reconsideration,
asking regulators to take a
closer look at whether the
permit does enough to protect
surface water and ground-
water sources. On Tuesday,
ODA and DEQ issued a
10-page order denying the
request and potentially setting
the state for a future lawsuit.
Ivan Maluski, policy
director for Friends of Family
Farmers in Salem, issued a
statement saying attorneys
are reviewing Tuesday’s
order. He said there is a “clear
indication that Oregon has
a broken system for CAFO
permitting,” while specifi -
cally criticizing ODA, DEQ
and Gov. Kate Brown.
“These mega-operations
pollute the air with no envi-
ronmental oversight, they
put our limited groundwater
at risk, and though Oregon
has lost nearly 40 percent
of our dairy farms over the
past decade with small and
mid-sized farms getting hit
the hardest, the governor and
her agencies are bending over
backward to open the door for
out-of-state factory farms like
Lost Valley,” Maluski said.
Lost Valley Farm is owned
by Greg te Velde, a California
dairyman who has been
milking cows in Oregon since
2002. He used to run Willow
Creek Dairy on land leased
from Threemile Canyon
Farms before relocating
and expanding his business,
which sells milk to Tillamook
Cheese at the Port of Morrow.
In the lead-up to permitting,
ODA and DEQ were fl ooded
with 4,200 public comments,
mostly in opposition to Lost
Valley. The campaign was
spearheaded by a coalition
of environmental, animal
rights and small farms groups
including Friends of Family
Farmers, the Animal Legal
Defense Fund, Center for
Biological Diversity, Center
for Food Safety, Columbia
Riverkeeper, Food & Water
Watch, Humane Oregon,
Humane Society of the United
States, Oregon Physicians for
Social Responsibility and
Oregon Rural Action.
They argue that Lost Valley
— which at full capacity is
expected to generate 187
million gallons of wastewater
and manure annually —
poses a signifi cant risk of
groundwater and surface
water contamination, while
also exacerbating elevated
levels of groundwater nitrates
in the lower Umatilla Basin.
Regulators have insisted
their permit for Lost Valley
is the most protective of any
to date, requiring 11 ground-
water monitoring wells and
a minimum of three annual
inspections.
Te Velde has also defended
the farm’s management prac-
tices. Wastewater is stored
in lagoons on site and then
mixed at specifi c agronomic
rates with irrigation to help
grow feed crops for the
cows. Monitoring wells are
supposed to ensure the soil is
not being overloaded with the
nitrogen-rich water.
Lost Valley has been
operating for several months
now, so far bringing in 16,000
total animals with 8,700 being
milking cows. The dairy
expects to gradually build its
full herd of 30,000 animals
over the next several years.
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
The solar eclipse is coming
August 21
Come get the coolest eclipse
glasses in town at your nearest
East Oregonian office, or come
visit us at our Umatilla County
Fair booth, Aug. 8-12.
D
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SO
T
U
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$1 EACH
Best deal in town!
Pick some up for your friends
and family while supplies last.
East Oregonian
1-800-522-0255
211 SE Byers Ave. Pendleton 333 East Main St. Hermiston
machine, uniforms and some
extra bats and balls. The girls
practiced on the fi eld near
the Round-Up Grounds, the
site of Indian Village, so the
infi eld was grass — save
one circle cut out for home
plate. To power the pitching
machine, Prouse donated
a noisy generator, parking
it behind the restrooms to
muffl e the sound. The fi eld
was in close proximity to an
enclosure containing some
ornery livestock.
“I remember a playoff
game at the fi eld when a ball
rolled in with the bulls,” she
said.
No one retrieved the ball,
she said, though one boy
offered, sure that he could
quickly grab the ball before
the bull jumped to its feet.
His dad said no.
There weren’t too many
teams in the area to play that
opening season.
“We played Hermiston
eight times that fi rst year,”
she said, laughing, adding
that the team won two and
lost 15 games in all. The next
year, after joining with the
Intermountain Conference,
the team went 11-8. In her
15 years as head coach, the
team topped the conference
four times and made it to
state every year except that
fi rst one. Coach Prouse was
IMC Coach of the Year in
1993.
Three decades later,
Prouse has retired. Over the
32 years at the district plus
previous years in Beaverton,
she coached volleyball at
various levels for 39 years,
basketball for nine, softball
for 21 and golf for 11. She
also served as assistant
women’s softball coach at
Blue Mountain Community
College for four seasons.
In high school softball, she
amassed 199 wins. Three of
her volleyball teams — two
JV and an eighth-grade team
— had undefeated years.
In addition, she taught
PE to thousands of children
from kindergarten through
high school.
Prouse never had children
of her own.
“My kids were the kids I
coached,” she said. “I took
care of them like they were
my own.”
But that didn’t mean
she babied them. Kelli
(Chandler-Read) Bullington
recalled Prouse coaching
her freshman volleyball
team. Bullington described
Prouse as smart, focused,
motivating and demanding.
“I remember practice
being hard. She was pretty
stern,” Bullington said.
“If you could make Coach
Prouse smile that was really
cool.”
Coach Prouse’s favorite
phrase for when something
went wrong, Bullington
said, was “it’ll all come out
in the wash.”
The coach’s love of
athletics
started
early,
possibly in the womb. She
recalls regularly running
three miles around her
Beaverton
neighborhood
with her sister just for
fun. As a third-grader, she
begged her father to install
a basketball hoop in the
driveway and he promised
he would as soon as she
grew as tall as her mother’s
shoulder. Prouse measured
daily and fi nally her dad put
up the hoop.
“We’d shoot until dinner
and then go out again after-
wards,” she said.
Prouse went on to run
track and play basketball
and volleyball at Beaverton
High School. Summers she
played slow pitch softball.
As a senior, she was named
“Girl Athlete of the Year.”
That same year, her softball
team traveled to Fargo,
North Dakota, for nationals
and got fourth. At Portland
State University, she played
volleyball, basketball and
softball.
As a teacher, Prouse liked
to mix it up for the young
students in her PE classes.
She coaxed out physical
talent and honed eye-hand
coordination with activities
such as mini-marathons,
juggling, lacrosse and cup
stacking. (Her students
earned Guinness Book world
records for cup stacking
seven years in a row.) Prouse
also made up original games
such as “healthy heart tag.”
Her ingenuity spilled
into the regular classroom,
too. During one downsizing
spell in the late ’80s, she was
asked by the district to step
outside her comfort zone and
teach high school sewing
classes. Though Prouse
didn’t sew, she refused to
panic, knowing she had a
secret weapon.
“At the time, I lived
with my grandma who was
an excellent seamstress,”
Prouse said.
Each night, Nellie Jones
would tutor her grand-
daughter on button holes,
zig-zag seams and other
sewing skills.
“I would have a lesson
each night and go the
next day and teach what I
learned,” she said. “I stayed
one step ahead of them.”
Fellow teacher Karen
Schimmel marveled at
Prouse, who taught and
coached
Schimmel’s
children and grandchil-
dren. Prouse, Schimmel
said, found ways to teach
successfully even when
budgets were tight at the
three schools (Lincoln,
Washington and West Hills)
where she taught PE.
“Ms. Prouse packed up
her SUV on a daily basis and
transported the more expen-
sive items to each school,”
Schimmel said.
Prouse is preparing to
move to Beaverton, where
she plans to work on her
golf game. She’ll coach
freshman volleyball at
Beaverton High School and
volunteer at Tualatin Hills
Park & Recreation.
“I want to keep busy,”
Prouse said. “And I like
kids.”
Looking back on the
years of coaching and
teaching, she refl ected on
the hundreds of Pendleton
kids who came into her orb.
“I always expected the
kids to try,” she said. “I
loved it when they made
their fi rst basket or ran in
and jumped rope for the fi rst
time. I loved it when their
eyes lit up.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
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