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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2017)
MOUNTED BAND GETS OFFER FROM ROUND-UP 500,000 PEOPLE ORDERED TO LEAVE SOUTH FLORIDA REGION/3A NATION/6A FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 141st Year, No. 234 Your Weekend WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Out with the old smoke ... Change in weather coming Friday • • • Dress-Up Parade Saturday in Pendleton Pendleton Round-Up Kick-Off Concert Artist reception at Arts Portal Gallery One dollar By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian A change in the weather means northeast Oregon could soon be saying goodbye to wildfi re smoke from Montana and hello to smoke from the Columbia River Gorge. Dennis Hull, meteo- rologist with the National Weather Service in Pend- leton, said the latest haze that has lingered over the area since Monday was pushed in by easterly winds carrying smoke from the multitude of fi res burning in the mountains of southwest Montana. Since then, a high pres- sure system has created an inversion that has trapped all that smoke in place, similar to the dense fog that normally rolls in from November to January. “High pressure is just keeping that air from moving,” Hull said. “It just kind of keeps a lid on the atmosphere.” Hull said a low pressure system off the Pacifi c coast is expected to move in Friday, which should help to diminish the smoke and haze. But the system is also expected to usher in west- erly winds that could blow in additional smoke from the raging Eagle Creek fi re south of Cascade Locks. “The wild card is how much the wildfi res in the Gorge will push smoke See SMOKE/12A For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Amid raging wildfi res, fi re management practices criticized Catch a movie Brooke Palmer/Warner Bros. Pictures Based on a Stephen King novel, children team up to battle an evil clown in “It.” By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press For showtime, Page 5A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 85/62 82/56 77/50 Watch a game vs. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Omar Medina has been hired as Hermiston High School’s fi rst ever graduation coordinator. Lewiston vs. Hermiston Friday, 7 p.m., at Hermiston Why this fi re season is among the worst By DAN ELLIOTT Associated Press DENVER — Acrid yellow smoke clogs the skies of major Western U.S. cities, a human-caused fi re in the Columbia River Gorge rains ash on Portland and a century-old backcountry chalet burns to the ground in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Wildfi res are chewing across dried-out Western forests and grassland, putting 2017 on track to be among the worst fi re seasons in a decade. See SEASON/2A Hermiston alum to serve as fi rst ever high school graduation coach Last year’s graduation rate was 87.6 percent By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian As the Hermiston School District works to improve its graduation rates, it will intensify its focus on students still a few years from receiving a diploma. “We tend to be reactive, especially with kids struggling,” said Hermiston High School Principal Tom Spoo. “The goal here is to try and be proac- tive.” One step in that direction is the creation of a graduation coordinator position, funded by money coming into the school from Measure 98, and hiring 2004 Hermiston graduate Omar Medina for the job. Medina said the specifi cs of his role at the high school, which started at the beginning of this school year, are still being determined. He has spent his fi rst few weeks studying Measure 98 and working with the counselors to get recommendations for students to work with. Measure 98 was approved by voters in 2016 and provides funding to increase graduation rates by expanding high school programs in three areas: career and technical education, college-level education opportunities, and dropout-prevention “I hope to do consistent check-ins, and get to know what’s going on with the students.” — Omar Medina, Hermiston High School graduation coordinator strategies. State funds are alloted to school districts based on the school’s average daily membership (weighted), or enrollment. For the 2017-2018 school year, school districts were required to submit written requests to the Oregon Department of Education detailing how they would allocate See MEDINA/12A SALEM — Intense wildfi res plaguing much of the West have rekindled controversy over logging restrictions and fi re manage- ment practices that critics say have created explosive fi re seasons. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, took to the fl oor of the Senate on Thursday to describe the toll the fi res have taken. Efforts to thin dead and dying trees have been inadequate, he said as he stood next to a large photo of fl ames leaping from trees in the majestic Columbia River Gorge. “This is a yearslong pattern in the West,” he said, calling for smarter policies and criticizing the “broken system of fi ghting wildfi res.” He complained that federal funds earmarked for fi re prevention are instead used for fi refi ghting. “The idea of ripping off prevention, which you need most, defi es common sense,” Wyden said. “Shoddy budgeting today leads to bigger fi res tomorrow.” Fires have charred more than 12,000 square miles while shrouding vast areas of the West in smoke and destroying homes and historic lodges. Some experts say the policy of fi ghting wildfi res whenever they break out See FIRE/12A One hurdle remains, depot transfer set for Dec. 1 Military still has to sign on the dotted line; business opportunities lost in long-delayed process By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian After years of delays on transferring the former Umatilla Chemical Depot to local control, Columbia Development Authority director Greg Smith believes the project could be just a few months away from the fi nish line. “We’ve set a hard deadline of December 1,” he said before adding, “The joke is, ‘What year?’” Locals have reason to be skeptical that the depot is less than three months away from being opened up to private economic development that could mean millions of dollars of investment and hundreds of jobs for the area. They’ve been promised “soon” for several years. Smith said when he was hired on in July 2015, he was told the transfer was about 90 days away. That was after a previous timeline had set a transfer date at the beginning of 2015. In the time since, Smith said the area has lost out on many large projects. He’s had tell companies interested in the land — for data centers, rail car storage, factories, solar panels, mining or other operations — that he has no idea when they would be able to buy or lease the property. “They’re gone. They’re not coming back,” he said. Other companies will likely be inter- ested. Smith called the fl at area where the chemical weapons incinerator used to stand some of the best industrial land in the state. But the delays in projects means delays in job openings that development on the depot could produce. “Folks in Hermiston, they’re not going to See DEPOT/12A Staff photo E.J. Harris Congressman Greg Walden, center, gestures while asking a question while on a tour of the Umatilla Army Depot with the Columbia Development Authority in May 2016.
