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