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.