83/50
JOURNALIST’S TORSO
FOUND IN SUBMARINE
DEATH MYSTERY
CHARLOTTESVILLE
THROWS TARP
OVER STATUE ISSUE
RECORDS/5A
NATION/7A
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017
141st Year, No. 223
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Mega-dairy owner caught in prostitution sting
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The owner of Boardman’s
Lost Valley Farm mega-dairy was
among 10 people police arrested in
a Tri-Cities prostitution sting.
Greg te Velde, 59, of Tipton,
California, faces the misdemeanor
charge of patronizing a prostitute as
well as methamphetamine posses-
sion, according to information from
the website for the Benton County
Jail, Kennewick. He went into the
jail on the charges at 1:36 a.m. on
Aug. 19 and is free on bail.
A cellphone for te Velde would
not accept messages. Travis Love,
general manager with Lost Valley
Farm, said in a written statement
“we take these allegations seriously.
It is our policy to not comment on
personnel matters, pending court
proceedings.”
Washington
newspapers
reported Richland police teamed
up with Kennewick police and the
Benton County Sheriff’s Offi ce
to run the undercover operation
Aug. 17-18 in Richland that netted
six men and four women for
prostitution. An undercover female
offi cer solicited the men, and an
undercover male offi cer solicited
the women.
Te Velde is also a defendant in
STANFIELD
a $1.4 million lawsuit. Laser Land
Leveling Inc., of Nampa, Idaho,
fi led the complaint in June in
Morrow County against te Velde
and four companies for failing to
pay for construction work.
And an Oregon State Police
trooper on May 23 in Hood River
County gave te Velde a ticket for
careless driving contributing to
an accident. Circuit Court records
show a judge convicted him on the
offense on July 24. He has yet to
pay the $450 penalty.
Richland police Lt. Chris Lee
did not return a call by deadline
Wednesday.
The sting also caught Mark
Allen Phillips of Elgin. Phillips said
he didn’t want to comment.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0833.
HEPPNER
Residents
to see hike
in school
district taxes
Offi cials say increase a result of
error in levy the past few years
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
People living in the Stanfi eld School
District will see a spike in their next prop-
erty tax bill, due to what the district claims
is an accounting error.
The additional tax requirement is in
response to the district’s error in under-
levying taxes to cover a bond measure
passed nearly 20 years ago to pay for a new
elementary school.
A fl yer sent out to all residents of the
district notes that during the 2015-2016
fi scal audit, conducted in early 2017, the
district was notifi ed by its auditing fi rm that
it had not been collecting enough property
taxes to cover the bond payments by 2019,
when the bond is set to expire.
Superintendent Shelley Liscom wrote
in the fl yer that was delivered last week
that the district would need to increase the
percentage it levies for the bond for the
2017-2018 fi scal year. The letter stated
that the change was not an “increase,” but
a refl ection of what residents should have
been paying in property taxes for the past
two years.
Paul Chalmers, the tax assessor for
Umatilla County, said on Tuesday he had
already received several phone calls about
the problem, and made clear that his depart-
ment does not set the rate for bonds and is
not at fault for the error.
“The assessment and taxation depart-
ment gets certifi ed forms for every taxing
district in Umatilla County,” he said. “What
they certify to us is what we put on the tax
rolls.”
Chalmers said he was made aware
of the problem more than a month ago
and advised Liscom to send a notice to
taxpayers. He noted that for the upcoming
fi scal year, Stanfi eld will levy $792,553
for bond payments. Last year, they levied
$356,425.
Liscom said the error was discovered
See TAXES/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Kevin Murray, Laurie Murray Wood, Ann Murray and John Murray are all pharmacists. Ann and John own Murray Drugs.
Family medicine
Murrays carry on local lineage of pharmaceutical profession
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Like much of Heppner,
Murray Drugs Inc. looks like it
was plucked from the past.
People chat with each other as
they browse cards and household
items. The pharmacists greet
customers with a smile as they
come in. Outside, people can
sit at tables and enjoy coffee as
old country songs pour out of
the speakers at the grocery store
across the street.
But despite maintaining an
old-fashioned charm and homey
“We’ve had to stand up for ourselves
and fi ght a little. That’s how we survive.”
— John Murray, owner of Murray Drugs Inc.
atmosphere, the Murrays have
had to stay current in order to
maintain the family pharmacy.
“We’ve had to stand up for
ourselves and fi ght a little,” said
John Murray. “That’s how we
survive.”
John and his wife Ann have
owned Murray Drugs, Inc.,
which has locations in Heppner
and Condon, since 1990. But
the Murray family had fi lled
prescriptions
for
Morrow,
Gilliam and Wheeler counties
for a lot longer. In 1959, John’s
parents, Rod and Meg Murray,
started the pharmacy. At one
time, they also had stores in
Arlington and Prairie City. John
and Ann are both pharmacists,
as are John’s brother and sister.
Three of John and Ann’s fi ve
children also followed suit, with
two working as licensed pharma-
cists and one in pharmacy school.
The Murrays are something of
an anomaly in the days of phar-
macy giants like Walgreens and
CVS. They do their own contract
regulations and insurance, and
have been pushing back against
big insurance companies and
mail-order pharmacies for years.
“I’ve gone to several meetings
in Salem to create a level playing
fi eld,” said Ann.
One of the biggest challenges,
See MURRAY/8A
Google searches for ‘my eyes hurt’ spike after eclipse
No cases of ocular damage
reported in Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Dave Drotzmann performs an annual eye exam on Abbie Ditton of
Hermiston on Wednesday in Hermiston.
The warnings were stark: Stare
directly at the solar eclipse without
special safety glasses and you could
permanently damage your vision.
With eclipse glasses in short supply,
however, there were inevitably some
who decided a few peeks couldn’t hurt.
They may have been same people who
caused a large spike in Google searches
for “my eyes hurt” on Monday after-
noon.
The good news, according to Dr.
David Drotzmann of Lifetime Vision
Source in Hermiston, is that by now
people would know if their gamble had
caused damage to their eyes.
“They would have symptoms by
now,” he said.
Drotzmann said some people may
have experienced superfi cial damage
to their eyes, causing a scratchy or
burning sensation the fi rst day or two
until swelling in their eye went down.
If symptoms last more than 48 hours
they should see an eye doctor.
A more alarming symptom, he said,
would be a blank spot appearing in the
center of a person’s vision. To test for
that, people can stare at a word on a
sign and close one eye, then the other,
to see if any of the letters are obscured
by a blank spot in their vision.
“That’s the bad one,” Drotzmann
said.
The spots are signs that the sun
See EYES/8A