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.