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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2017)
REGION Friday, August 25, 2017 East Oregonian Page 3A West Nile virus on the rise in Morrow County Fifteen mosquito pools test positive for disease By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian West Nile virus is on the rise in Morrow County, with more than twice the number of mosquito samples testing positive for the disease compared to this time last year. Greg Barron, manager of the North Morrow Vector Control District, said fi ve more samples of mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile, taken from two collection sites in rural Irrigon and Boardman. That brings the total number of positive tests countywide to 15, compared to seven a year ago. “It kind of comes with the territory this time of year,” Barron said. “We just have to reduce that (mosquito) population.” On Thursday, the district sent another 235 mosquito pools to the Oregon State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Corvallis for further testing. One pool consists of about 10-15 mosquitoes, Barron said. Crews spray for adult mosquitoes on the ground at least two or three times a week, usually from 9 p.m. to midnight when the insects are most active. The district also did an aerial application of larvicide Thursday to try and keep the numbers in check. Unfortunately, with the return of triple-digit temperatures next week, Barron said he does not see much relief in sight. “I hate to see that, because I know we’re going to be in for it,” he said. The good news, Barron said, is that while the number of positive tests is higher this year, they are coming from just a few collection sites, meaning the district knows where to focus its resources. “We’ve got it pigeonholed pretty good,” he said. Irrigon has been especially hard-hit by mosquitoes, Barron said, since it is sandwiched between irrigated farms on one end and the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Irrigon Wildlife Area on the other. West Nile is carried by mosqui- toes that feed on infected birds, and transmitted to humans via mosquito bites. About one in fi ve people infected with the virus will actually show symptoms, which can range from mild — fever, headaches and nausea lasting a couple of days — to a more severe condition known as encephalitis, which causes infl am- mation of the brain. Those at highest risk include people over the age of 50, with immunodefi ciencies, diabetes or high blood pressure. Oregon health offi cials recommend the following tips to avoid mosquito bites: • Drain standing sources of water where mosquitoes can breed, such as watering troughs, bird baths and ornamental ponds. • Use insect repellents when engaged in outdoor activities, especially at dawn or dusk when mosquitoes are active. • Wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants in mosquito-infested areas. • Make sure screen Find this observation balloon, collect $1,000 By EMILY OLSON East Oregonian You’ve seen rewards for missing dogs or cats or the bad guys in western fl icks, but now you add a new one to the list. A team of researchers is offering $1,000 for the safe return of their missing eclipse observation equipment. The rogue rig is composed of a 360-degree livestream video camera, a defunct GPS unit, a yellow and purple parachute, a John Glenn action fi gure, a lumpy meteorite and a high altitude balloon, which may or may not have popped. Holding all that together is — or was — a system of strings. “The equipment is only worth $500 to $1,000,” said David Roman, who helped launch the rig. “But we pumped $13,000 into it between our time and testing.” Plus, it carried a hefty dose of senti- mental value. The team was trying to raise aware- ness for the LGF Foundation, a nonprofi t dedicated to building a natural history museum in Arizona. They hoped to use the meteorite and footage in an exhibit, inspiring kids to develop a pioneering spirit towards science. The rig launched near Vale, Ore., at 9:10 a.m. on Monday. Researchers intended to send it as high as 100,000 feet to record the eclipse, trigger a cutaway and use the GPS tracking system to retrieve it upon landing. But as the balloon fl oated close to 20,000 feet, the GPS tracking and lives- tream connection were suddenly lost. “We have no idea what could have doors and windows are in good repair and fi t tightly. Barron said mosquito suppression efforts appear to be working, but crews need to keep up the pressure to avoid the situation getting out of hand. “Don’t ever give them a break. That’s the big thing,” he said. “We just want to stay on top of it.” According to the Oregon Health Authority, there have been 45 positive tests for West Nile in mosquitoes statewide, including 15 in Morrow County, 21 in Malheur County, six in Baker County and three in Umatilla County. Malheur County has also had three horses and two humans contract the virus. ——— Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825. PENDLETON Roy Raley well to remain down until after Round-Up East Oregonian Photo courtesy of David Roman The missing eclipse observation equipment, worth a $1,000 reward, could be fl oating near Boise or beyond. caused it,” Roman said. He speculates it could have been a strike from a bird fl ying abnormally high or an unforeseen puncture to the balloon. Unable to trigger the cutaway, the researchers could do nothing from the ground but hope for the best. In the days since, they’ve received several reports of sightings, but it’s tricky to determine whether it is indeed their rig and not the 50 or so that were launched in the area by NASA’s teams. Two seemingly credible tips suggest it might be fl oating near the foothills north of Boise, but Roman says the equipment could fl oat to Sun Valley or Eastern Oregon or beyond. While the team is offering a $1,000 reward, they hope whoever fi nds it might donate that money back to the LGF Foundation, helping to educate the general public on paleontology and geology. Those with any information can contact David Roman at 480-789-9829 or david@spiritven.com. Defendant seeks to keep police interview from jury their pets if they talked, according to Jenkins, and he threatened their fi nan- cial security. Peech asked one victim on Aug. 13, Umatilla County prosecutor Jaclyn Jenkins wants a jury to know what 2015, to “place pretext calls and text Kenneth Eugene Christopher said messages” to help fi nd Christopher. to police about having sex with an Sheriff’s deputies arrested him, and underage girl. Christopher, 48, and his Peech questioned him and recorded lawyer want the court to suppress that the interview. Police also advised Christopher of his rights to conversation. remain silent and ask for a Christopher’s attorney, lawyer, Jenkins claimed, and Jody S. Vaughan of Pend- he indicated he understood leton, fi led a motion on those rights. Aug. 9 in Umatilla County During the interview, Circuit Court asking for a according to Jenkins, “the hearing to determine if a jury defendant admitted to having should hear statements her sex with [one victim], admitted client made during police that it started when she was questioning two years ago. 14, but argued that she was at She argued he was injured at fault for instigating the sexual the time, and as a result of the Christopher contact between the two.” injury was not able to waive Jenkins stated this is the interview his right to keep silent. “Furthermore,” Vaughan asserted, Christopher seeks to suppress. While Christopher “had some minor “he has no independent recollection of the statements he made to law enforce- cuts and abrasions from when he was arrested,” Jenkins argued “he was not ment.” Jenkins fi led a response with the injured to the point that his statements court on Aug. 23 that stated Lt. Ben were involuntary.” He was “an active Peech of the Converse County Sheriff’s participant” throughout the questioning, Offi ce, Wyoming, received a report on she stated, and never once indicated he Aug. 12, 2015, of possible sex abuse. suffered from any injury. Therefore, she argued, the court During the ensuing investigation, two girls told police Christopher sexually should allow the statements at trial. Circuit Judge Jon Lieuallen will assaulted them. The crimes began in 2009 in Milton-Freewater and ended hear arguments on the matter during a two-hour hearing Tuesday in Pendleton. fi ve years later in Wyoming. Christopher faces 30 counts in all, Christopher threatened the teens and By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian including four of fi rst-degree rape, fi ve of fi rst-degree sexual abuse and four of fi rst-degree sodomy. He remains in the Umatilla County Jail, Pendleton, in lieu of $1 million bail. The court set his fi ve-day trial to begin Sept. 18. In other court action, Milton-Free- water drive-by shooting suspect Clem- ente Garcia-Cerda, 21, of Walla Walla, had a pretrial conference Wednesday. Lieuallen is presiding over that case and set a trial readiness hearing for Nov. 7. Garcia-Cerda faces attempted murder, weapons charges and multiple counts of recklessly endangering another person stemming from a May 10 shooting. The co-defendant in the case, Francisco Javier Palacios-Garcia, 24, of Milton-Freewater, took a deal in July and pleaded guilty to two counts each of unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering another person. He is serving a fi ve-year sentence in Eastern Oregon Correctional Institu- tion, Pendleton. And Angela Marie Fix, 40, of Pilot Rock, had a pretrial conference Thursday in Pendleton. She faces fi rst-degree arson and second-degree manslaughter charges in the July 16 death of Larry Castro of Pilot Rock. Fix remains in the county jail on a $500,000 bond. Circuit Judge Christopher Brauer set a trial readiness hearing in the case for Aug. 31. ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@ eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0833. One of Pendleton’s main drinking water production wells will remain offl ine through Round-Up. According to a Thursday email from Public Works Director Bob Patterson, the replacement pump equip- ment for the well at Roy Raley Park won’t be on-site until Sept. 18. The wells at Roy Raley at Stillman parks, which collectively produce 4.6 million gallons of water per day, went out of service in early August. While the Stillman well went back into service Aug. 12, repairs at Roy Raley have taken longer as pump equip- ment was stuck in the well hole for more than a week. Although the well will be ready for pump instal- lation by Round-Up week, Patterson said that with all the activity surrounding the event at Roy Raley Park, the city decided to wait until after the rodeo ends. In an interview Thursday, Patterson said City Manager Robb Corbett has approved $95,700 to repair the well, although that cost doesn’t cover the additional contractor the city hired to help remove the lodged pump. Although water use will ramp up for Round-Up week, Patterson doesn’t expect there to be a water supply issue if the city’s current cool weather holds. If there is a heat spike, Patterson said the city will curtail water use in Pendleton parks and ask large-scale customers like Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, Blue Mountain Community College and the Pendleton School District to reduce their use. With a “pinch point” in the 700-foot well hole currently preventing the pump from lowering to the 440-foot mark to effi ciently pump water, the city’s replacement pump will be different than its predecessor. To be more fl exible around the well hole’s outcroppings, the city will replace the 14-inch diameter pump with a 12-inch pump and the 10-inch diameter column pipe with an 8-inch one. Rivoli picks up $15,000 Wildhorse grant East Oregonian The Rivoli Restoration Coalition is $15,000 closer to meetings its goal of restoring the Rivoli Theater in Pend- leton and turning it into a performing arts center. The coalition announced that it received a $15,000 grant from the Wildhorse Foundation for the fi rst phase of construction, which encompasses skilled demo- lition, excavation and basic structural work. The coalition has now raised 54 percent of the campaign goal of $559,114 for the fi rst phase of the project. The EO Media Group, the parent company of the East Oregonian, is one of the donors. Andrew Picken, the presi- dent of the coalition, said the coalition and the Pendleton Downtown Association co-applied for the grant. He added that this was the second successful collab- oration between the two nonprofi ts after the down- town association helped the coalition obtain a $100,000 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department grant earlier this year. The coalition has already hired Kirby Nagelhout Construction to handle the fi rst phase of the project and Picken expects construction to start in early September. Route work pays for my children’s activities. Stanfi eld School Board considers spreading bond payments over two years By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian The Stanfi eld School Board will meet next week to discuss spreading out missed payments for its elementary school bond over the next two years, instead of levying the entire amount this fall. The district mailed out a fl yer last week notifying residents that due to a miscal- culation by the district, they had been under-charging resi- dents for the last several years on bond payments and would be increasing residents’ prop- erty taxes for the next fi scal year to make up the defi cit. After a meeting with county assessor Paul Chalmers, district offi cials and board members said they would most likely be spreading the payments out over two years, instead of lumping it into one fi scal year. Stanfi eld School Board Chair Scott Morris said the board was hoping to hold a special school board meeting next week, in which they could approve a resolution to spread out the payments. Morris said the defi cit was fi rst brought up to the board at a school board meeting during budget season, in spring of last year. Stanfi eld School District Business Manager Kris James clarifi ed that she and Liscom never placed full blame on the previous business manager for the error. “There were previous administrators,” she said. “We can’t really put our fi nger on where it originated. We’re just picking up the pieces.” The bond to build a new elementary school in Stan- fi eld was passed in 1999. It was advertised as a $5.4 million bond at a cost to taxpayers of $2.97 per $1,000 of assessed value. It passed with 375 votes in favor to 223 opposed, from a pool of about 1,100 registered voters. The bond is set to expire in 2019. Become an East Oregonian Carrier. in The Lounge Saturday August 26th, from 7 pm - 10 pm. No Cover Charge. 541-276-6111 Red Lion Lounge • 304 SE Nye, Pendleton 211 SE Byers Ave. Pendleton or call: 541-276-2211 1-800-522-0255
