2016 WEATHER
REPORT: EXTREME
AND ABNORMAL
JOHN MURRAY
BUILDING SELLS
FOR $100,000
RECORDS/5A
REGION/3A
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2017
141st Year, No. 214
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
Catch a movie
ToonBox Entertainment, Gulfstream Pictures
A squirrel teams up with
other rodents and a pug
to stop an evil mayor from
building an amusement
park in “The Nut Job 2.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
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80/54
MILTON-FREEWATER
Villegas
pleads
guilty but
insane to
murder
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Parking lot attendants direct traffi c on Thursday as the stream of cars lined up to get into the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston increases.
Figuring out the flow
New traffic plan in effect
after Wednesday backup
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Oscar
Villegas
of
Milton-Freewater pleaded
guilty but insane Thursday
to murdering his wife and
trying to murder their two
children. The pleas send the
27-year-old Villegas to a state
hospital for the rest of his life.
Villegas changed his
pleas Thursday morning in
the Pendleton courtroom
of Umatilla County Circuit
Judge Lynn Hampton. He
appeared via video from the
county jail a few miles away.
He told the judge he did not
want to be in court in person.
Villegas’ attorney, Kara
Davis, explained that two
independent
evaluations
of his mental heath found
he suffered from “bipolar
disorder with psychotic
features,” a chronic condi-
tion. She said the clincher
for those fi ndings came from
evidence showing Villegas
experienced delusions a year
before the crimes and even
went to an emergency room
for help.
While a doctor noted his
symptoms, Davis said no one
diagnosed him.
Villegas stabbed and cut
See VILLEGAS/10A
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Customers place orders at the Hermiston Lions Club food cart on Thursday along
the promenade at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
The taste of summer
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
This year’s Umatilla County Fair features
new faces and new places, but the fl avors are
familiar.
Local standbys like elephant ears from
Umatilla High School and Lions Club
burgers made the transition to the new
fairgrounds.
“We’ve got the best burgers here,” Phil
Hamm said as he worked a volunteer shift in
the bright red Lions Club food trailer.
The mobile trailers for the nonprofi ts
are new this year, provided by the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event Center to make up
for the loss of the permanent structures at the
old fairgrounds.
See FOOD/10A
With the Umatilla
County Fair in full swing
and the Farm-City Pro
Rodeo just beginning,
Wednesday
was
the
busiest night at the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Events Center so far. That
activity translated to some
major congestion in the
parking area, which led
to delays for people both
entering and leaving the
fairgrounds.
Hermiston
police
reported traffi c backed
up as far as Port Drive
on Highway 395 near the
water tower for about an
hour in the evening as
vehicles lined up to enter
the fairgrounds parking
lot.
Don Miller, a fair and
EOTEC board member,
added that police said
there was no danger to
driver safety, and the
traffi c cleared within an
hour. But he said the orga-
nizers of the fair realized
they needed to change the
“(The new entry)
should keep the
fl ow good, and
resolve the high
degree of delays
we experienced
on the fi rst big
night of the fair.”
— Don Miller, fair and
EOTEC board member on
the new entry lanes
parking structure for the
remaining days of the fair.
Here’s what that will look
like:
Exits
Starting
Thursday,
Miller said there will be
three separate exit points.
The fi rst will be the main
parking lot exit onto
Airport Road.
“Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce will directly
monitor traffi c control at
those sites to make it work
smoothly,” Miller said.
See TRAFFIC/10A
PENDLETON
Tiny library honors
voracious reader
Anderson cast vote for
school bond measure
from hospital bed
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Kimbra Cook, Carolyn Frasier and Scott Fairley gather around
a little library they placed in Cook and Fairley’s front yard to
honor Roberta Anderson.
After her death in 2015, Roberta
Anderson’s family members wracked
their brains for a good way to honor
the family matriarch.
Anderson, who died at age 103,
was a force.
She earned undergraduate and
graduate degrees at Washington State
College (now University). After her
husband, Fred Frasier, died of Lou
Gehrig’s disease, the widow and
single mother of three taught courses
in child development at her alma
mater and eventually became depart-
ment head. Her daughter, Carolyn
Frasier, remembers being the only kid
in school with a working mom.
Anderson married again on her
60th birthday to Rictor Anderson,
See ANDERSON/10A