OFF PAGE ONE
FAIR: Friday was 104 degrees, one degree short of record
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Continued from 1A
He said the new arena has
been performing extremely
well, especially considering how
little time there was to complete
construction, and so far the rodeo
board has only seen minor things
to tweak for next year.
“We’re excited,” he said. “We
think Friday and Saturday are
going to be big.”
While the fair’s staff pull
together numbers, volunteers and
attendees couldn’t tell whether
attendance was up or down due
to the larger fairgrounds and
different layout.
Linda Perry, who was trying
to cool down under a canopy in
the food area, said Friday after-
noon it seemed like there were
fewer people than the afternoon
she visited the fair last year.
“There’s a lot less people,”
she said. “But it’s also 100
degrees outside.”
Friday reached 104 degrees,
just one degree shy of the record
for Aug. 11, which was set in
1971. On the same day last year
the temperature was 86 degrees,
and the average for the day
is 91, according to data from
the National Weather Service.
Many people speculated that the
temperature might be keeping
some people home or inspiring
them to hit up the fair in the
evening instead of the afternoon.
Perry said despite the heat she
loved the new fairgrounds.
“I don’t feel like it’s so
crammed in,” she said. “I think
it’s absolutely fabulous they got
to come out here.”
Landon Vandehey, 15, was
using dribbles of water from
a cup to cool off his black
Australorp chicken Zanna. The
Hermiston FFA student said it
seemed to him like there were
more people at the fair overall.
“Attendance has been quite
good,” he said. “We got a good
bit of people visiting the small
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Mariano Macias, 13, of Hermiston plays a bottle game at the carnival Wednesday at the
Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
animal barn, because usually it’s
less populated.”
He said he felt like the more
visible location, and the fact that
there was more room to mill
about inside, helped bring more
people inside the barn.
As the weather continues in
the triple digits, volunteers and
attendees have been grateful for
the chance to escape the heat
inside the event center building,
which is fully air-conditioned
and has Wi-Fi.
Superintendents Suzie Reitz
and Kendra Scott were some of
the lucky ones stationed inside,
in the conference room where
the photography was displayed.
Reitz said the number of
photography entries was down
a little, “probably because of
the new facility and people
were unsure.” Scott suggested
the new location may also be
why it seemed like fewer people
were coming to look at the
photography to — not everyone
knew where it was. Many
people had a hard time finding
everything from bathrooms to
4-H exhibits, as evidenced by the
growing number of signs put up
throughout the week.
Still, Reitz said, the superin-
tendents were grateful to make
the change to an air-conditioned
building where exhibits were
safe from the gusting wind that
has hit the fair in some years
past.
Another change from previous
years was the free shuttle that
ran Friday and will continue
Saturday. The bus runs on a
continuous loop from 2-10 p.m.
between the fairgrounds, Herm-
iston Conference Center, city
hall, Hermiston High School’s
baseball field and the Wal-Mart
parking lot near McDonald’s.
On Friday afternoon the bus
helped keep cars from over-
flowing past the fairground’s
paved parking lot by dropping
off a handful of families and
individuals each half hour.
Alfonso Aguilar, who was
waiting in the shade outside one
of the fair’s entrance points for
the bus to pick him up, said he
had parked near McDonald’s and
taken the bus from there to avoid
the traffic and the five dollar
parking fee at EOTEC.
“It’s nice,” he said. “There’s
a lot of traffic, you know, so this
will make more space.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4536.
East Oregonian
Page 13A
Wildfire burns
on reservation;
communities
evacuated
WARM SPRINGS (AP) — A fire tore
through dry grass and brush on an Indian
reservation in Oregon and burned several
old, unoccupied buildings as it grew to 53
square miles on Friday.
Fire officials said several small commu-
nities have been evacuated.
A Red Cross Shelter has been set up at
the Warm Springs Community Center, but
no evacuees were staying there yet, center
employee Sophia Suppah said. The Red
Cross has set up cots, and it has food and
first aid equipment ready, Suppah said.
The fire got the attention of Gov.
Kate Brown, who announced the state
fire marshal is mobilizing resources to
help protect buildings. The fire on the
Warm Springs Indian Reservation started
Tuesday Aug. 8 on adjacent private prop-
erty. Firefighters using two helicopters,
three dozers and 16 fire engines have the
blaze only 4 percent contained.
About 105 structures are currently
threatened, including those at Kah-Nee-Ta
Resort and a nearby fish hatchery, Brown
said in a statement. However, employees
at the resort said over the phone that they
were only under a level one evacuation
level, which means people should be
aware of the danger and monitor emer-
gency services websites and local media
for information. They said the sky was
smoky, but they noted that it has been that
way for over a week from other fires in the
area and in Canada.
The cause of the fire was listed as
human in the official incident report,
though authorities haven’t announced the
cause yet.
On Thursday, large plumes of smoke
appeared every 20 minutes or so as the
fire torched trees, The Bulletin newspaper
reported. Ash sporadically fell from the
sky like snow in the 104-degree heat.
Wildfire is a fact of summer life on the
reservation and in much of Oregon. But
Elizabeth Simtustus, whose house was
included in an evacuation notice, said this
is more dangerous than the standard Warm
Springs blaze.
“The other ones weren’t as close to
houses as this has been,” she said.
Despite the threat, she and many resi-
dents decided to stay put — at least for
now — rather go to the shelter.
“It’s my family home,” she said. “I’m
the third generation to live in that house. I
was born in that house. I don’t want to see
it burned up just like that.”
THEFT: Woods
claimed he was
never at Fiesta Foods
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Students visiting from Minamisoma, Japan, exchange greet-
ings with Cheri Kendrick on Monday shortly after arriving in
Pendleton. Kendrick and her family are hosting one of the
students at their Pendleton home.
PENDLETON: Group
is here until Aug. 18
Continued from 1A
“I’m a little nervous,” she
said.
Monday was her first day in
Pendleton, or America, for that
matter. She’s 4,000 miles away
from her home of Minamisoma,
Japan.
Kobayashi’s host sister, Jessie
Patterson, didn’t miss a beat.
“Don’t be,” she said. “We’re
so happy you’re here.”
Patterson can relate to the
travel jitters. The Pendleton High
School senior had returned from
a two-week stay in Minamisoma
only a week earlier.
The Pattersons are hosting
Kobayashi as part of an Pend-
leton-Minamisoma
exchange
program. Since 1998, the
program has exposed students
from both cities to new perspec-
tives and encouraged them to see
the world in a new light.
“I basically got to be a toddler
again for a few weeks,” said Lily
Williams, a senior at Pendleton
High School. “It helps you
realize just what else is out there.
Pendleton is so small.”
Williams, like Patterson, was
selected for the Minamisoma trip
from a pool of applicants. The six
cohort members, who happened
to be all female this year, paid
$400 for the trip — grants, dona-
tions and fundraisers took care of
the rest.
“This group was really smart,”
said Karin Power, who served as
the group’s chaperone. She added
that she was impressed by their
courage and insight.
For some travelers, it was the
first time they’d left the United
States, and it wasn’t a normal
vacation. The students stayed
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton Mayor John Turner bows to one of the students
from Minamisoma, Japan, during a formal greeting of the
group during Tuesday evening’s work session of the Pendleton
City Council.
in local homes, fully immersed
in Japanese culture. During the
day, they’d get out and explore
Minamisoma, a coastal town
with a population of roughly
56,000. They also visited a few
other destinations, like Tokyo.
The Japanese students are here
until Aug. 18. There’s a string of
activities lined up for their stay,
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Three students from Minamisoma take a selfie during a
visit to Happy Canyon on Tuesday after donning costumes and
boarding a stagecoach that is used in the night show.
with new additions like a night at
the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, a visit
to the UAS Testing Range and a
hike near Tollgate.
They
started
exploring
Pendleton in earnest on Tuesday.
A tour of the Happy Canyon
Grounds sparked those nerves
that Kobayashi noted.
The suggestion that the
students try on a few costumes
caused eyes to widen. Giggles
filled the air as Happy Canyon
Director
Becky
Waggoner
handed out pioneer get-ups and
dance hall ensembles, complete
with sequins and feather boas. It
wasn’t long before the girls were
requesting specific colors and
accessories, making the most of
their limited English language
skills.
Similarly, the girls let out
gasps as Happy Canyon volun-
teer Stuart Harris pulled out a
few stage guns. But they eased
into using the props, even posing
for outlaw-style selfies on the
stagecoach.
And a break from the heat in
Dairy Queen was just the trick
for showing them Pendleton is
nothing to be nervous about.
As Narumi Tatenuma, 17,
dipped into an Oreo Blizzard, she
gave the treat a universal sign of
approval: two thumbs up.
and officers took the initial information,
including witness/employee statements
and secured surveillance video. He said
video showed the bank bag was in arm’s
reach of the suspect.
Detectives began working the inves-
tigation on Monday and two days later
interviewed several people, including
Wood at his home at 800 E. 14th St., The
Dalles.
Wood has relatives in the Hermiston
area but claimed he was never at Fiesta
Foods, Edmiston said. That story started
to crumble when detectives learned about
Wood’s traffic stop.
An Oregon State Police trooper at 7:10
p.m. on the day of the theft stopped Wood
on the westbound side of Intestate 84 near
milepost 97 for driving while suspended,
according to a digital copy of the citation.
The time of the stop fit the timeline for the
theft, Edmiston said, and the police video
showed Wood wore the same clothes as
the suspect in the Fiesta Foods video.
“Sometimes you just hit a streak of
luck,” Edmiston said.
Police were able to obtain a search
warrant for Wood’s vehicle, which
Edmiston said led to recovering evidence
that “blew a giant hole” in Wood’s story
and linked him to Fiesta Foods. Edmiston
said he could not specify what the
evidence is due to the ongoing investiga-
tion.
The Dalles Police Department later that
evening assisted the detectives in Wood’s
arrest and booked him in jail there. The
search, however, was not a total success.
“We have not located the bag with the
checks,” Edmiston said. “That’s really
what we were hoping to find.”
He speculated Wood tossed the bag
because there was no hard cash inside.
Hermiston police on Thursday drove
to The Dalles and brought Wood to the
Umatilla County Jail, Pendleton. The
district attorney’s office on Friday charged
Wood with first-degree aggravated theft,
accusing him of stealing third-party
checks from Fiesta Foods worth more
than $10,000 and creating a loss for the
business exceeding $50,000.
Circuit court records also show
Wood has charges pending in Wasco
County for endangering the welfare of
a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor
and permitting the unlawful operation
of a vehicle, all stemming from a car
crash and fight on May 26 in The Dalles.
Police reports indicated he provided
alcohol to a girl younger than 18 and
allowed her to drink and use marijuana
at his home before the crash.