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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2017)
REGION/3A 60/43 TALK WITH THEODORE ROOSEVELT HERMISTON OPENS NEW DISC GOLF COURSE COMMUNITY/6A THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 141st Year, No. 243 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WESTON BOARDMAN Alvarez gets 8 years for manslaughter Pleads guilty to 2016 shooting of Evencio Salas Birrueta By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Fitness celebrity Jake Steinfeld and Josh McDowell team up to cut a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors, signifying the opening of Weston Middle School’s new $100,000 fi tness center. Josh’s video helped the school get chosen as one of three in Oregon to receive the workout equipment. WORKED UP TO WORK OUT Weston Middle School opens fitness center to keep up with PE standards By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian On a dreary Wednesday morning, the students of Weston Middle School set an example for adults every- where on how to get excited for a workout. All it took was a home- made video by Weston students, a visit from fi tness entrepreneur Jake Steinfeld and the prospect of opening a new, $100,000 fi tness center. The fi tness center was funded by a grant from the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils and its ribbon cutting cere- More online To see the student-made video that helped secure the grant visit eastoregonian.com See ALVAREZ/8A PENDLETON Council approves settlement with Quezada family Old city hall has new roof, owners to focus on new windows By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian mony brought Steinfeld, the students and several local government offi cials to the middle school auditorium. Steinfeld, the founda- tion’s chairman and the founder of the Body by Jake fi tness brand, encouraged the students to continue the rapturous rounds of applause they had showered on middle school Principal Ann Vescio’s announcements all morning. “The more you clap the more calories you burn,” he said. See WESTON/8A An 18-year-old pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter in a shooting death that happened last September in Boardman. David Alvarez, who was charged with killing Evencio Salas Birrueta, pleaded guilty in a settlement to manslaughter in the second degree and was agreed to an enhanced sentence of 100 months to the Department of Corrections, instead of the presumptive Measure 11 sentence of 75 months. Alvarez was charged with the murder of Salas, 27, on Sept. 11, Alvarez 2016 at Wilson Road Mobile Home Park in Boardman. Alvarez was 17 at the time of the shooting. Alvarez was transferred from a juvenile correctional facility in The Dalles to the Umatilla County Jail in February when he turned 18. Police arrived at the scene of a crash at a Boardman mobile home park and found Salas shot in the “shoulder area of the arm.” They began lifesaving efforts, but Salas died from the injuries. Alvarez fl ed, going to his father’s home near Longview, Wash- ington. He turned himself over to police in Washington the next day. Alvarez was charged with murder, second-degree manslaughter and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon. Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson said the confl ict may have been due to a drug deal between the two men. “I believe Mr. Alvarez said he had somehow loaned (Salas) some money,” Patti Hudson, executive director of the Ritter Land Management Team, said harvesting juniper will not only help ranchers keep their land healthy and productive, but may revitalize the local timber industry in a new way. “We eventually hope to have a number of people employed doing both the restoration work and the mill work,” Hudson said. The operation is a prime example of what University The Pendleton old city hall could be ready for occupancy, more than three years after it exploded. After meeting behind closed doors Tuesday, the Pendleton City Council unan- imously agreed to a settlement with the family who owns the fi re-damaged building at 34 S.E. Dorion Ave. Both sides were set to meet in Pendleton Municipal Court in August over thousands of dollars the city has fi ned the Quezadas, but the settlement means the owners will avoid the family. Old city hall originally exploded in July 2015, killing Eduardo Quezada, a member of the family that owns the building, and severely damaging the interior and exterior. The city council voted to fi ne the Quezadas $500 per day starting in January, after the family failed to install a new roof and seal the building by the end of 2016. Following the council’s vote, City Attorney Nancy Kerns shared the terms of settlement. In exchange for dropping the fi nes, the Quezadas will plead guilty to the nuisance ordinance violations. The family will again be required to meet certain benchmarks to avoid penalties. With the building now roofed and other openings boarded up, the benchmarks focus on installing new windows. The windows facing Southeast Dorion Avenue and Southeast First Street must be installed by mid-January and the rest of the windows replaced by mid-April. Addition- See JUNIPER/8A See PENDLETON/8A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Lyla Rogers and Kelsey Graham work out Wednesday in Weston Middle School’s new $100,000 fi tness center. Tapping into Eastern Oregon’s natural resources New U of O study touts juniper tree mill By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Like much of the high desert landscape across central and Eastern Oregon, the community of Ritter in rural Grant County is dealing with a scourge of unwanted Western juniper trees, crowding out native vegetation for wildlife and livestock. In response, a collaborative group of landowners known as the Ritter Land Management Team recently purchased a small portable sawmill to turn the pesky plants into valuable lumber, while also providing much-needed jobs for the area. The fi rst juniper logs were milled at Ritter last week, and the team expects to sell the fi nished product to Sustainable Northwest Wood, a Portland lumberyard owned by the nonprofi t Sustain- able Northwest. Juniper sales now make up 50 percent of the company’s annual business.