Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, September 21, 2017
ALVAREZ: Not yet
decided where he will
serve his sentence
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Students and educators at the Weston Middle School yell “Don’t Quit” in unison while being videoed
Wednesday at Weston Middle School. The phrase is a slogan of the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness
Council fitness campaign.
WESTON: May open the space to community members
Continued from 1A
Steinfeld
told
the
assembly that regular exer-
cise would not only make
them healthier, but improve
their performance in school
and keep them away from
drugs and gangs.
He said that only three
schools in Oregon received
the foundation’s grant, with
Weston’s video application
being one of the best he’s
seen.
“Watch out Cannes
(Film) Festival,” Vescio
said. “You’ve got two new
filmmakers coming your
way.”
Made by middle school
students Josh McDowell and
Peyton Sincleir, the video
shows the pair of eighth
graders in various locations
around the school and town,
emphasizing that they live in
“the middle of nowhere.”
The
duo
compared
Weston’s current gym equip-
ment (or lack thereof) unfa-
vorably to national fitness
center chains. For instance,
Weston had “Old’s Gym”
instead of Gold’s Gym and
“24 Hour Fatness” instead of
24 Hour Fitness.
Josh and Peyton joked
that they had to bench
press fourth graders to
stay fit, but there were real
deficiencies to Weston’s
physical education program.
The Weston-McEwen High
School weight room is open
to middle school students,
but not every student can
make the trip to Athena.
Following
assembly,
more than 30 students cut the
ribbon and made their way
into the new fitness center,
vigorously exercising on the
ellipticals, exercise bikes and
other workout equipment the
grant had purchased.
Justin Funderburk, the
middle school physical
education teacher and a
Crystal Apple award winner,
passed out bottled water as
the kids began to work up a
sweat.
Funderburk was in the
middle of a wheat field near
Pendleton helping out with
harvest over the summer
when he got the call that
Weston had won the grant.
He said he was overcome
with emotion.
“Kid don’t know this
stuff because they’re not
exposed,” he said.
In lieu of exercise
equipment, he said his gym
classes had been relying on
push-ups, sit-ups and other
body weight exercises for
P.E. classes.
The new fitness center
opens up more possibilities,
in addition to the other invest-
ments the Athena-Weston
School District has made
into physical education.
A state grant gave the
district the money to hire
a P.E. teacher for Athena
Elementary School, allowing
Funderburk to stay at the
middle school full-time
instead of splitting his time
between facilities.
With
the
additional
teacher, the middle school
offers fourth through eighth
graders 45 minutes of P.E.
per day while K-3 students at
the elementary school gives
kids 30 minutes per day.
Those figures meet the
state minimum for P.E. time,
a benchmark other districts
struggle to meet.
In 2007, the state set
a mandate that every K-5
student have 150 minutes of
physical education per week
and 6-8 get 225 minutes by
2017.
According to an Oregon
Department of Education
report, only 10 percent of
schools statewide were
meeting the mandate by
the 2015-2016 school year.
The Legislature ended up
extending the elementary
school deadline to 2021-
2022 and the middle school
deadline to 2022-2023.
Athena-Weston Super-
intendent Laure Quaresma
said the district is also imple-
menting an aerobic capacity
test and creating a fitness and
wellness committee.
Quaresma said the district
is in a good position to
expand its physical education
offerings because all three of
its school facilities have their
own gyms, something not
every small school district
can claim.
“They’re the pride of our
communities,” she said.
Students might not be the
only group that will benefit
from the new fitness center.
The district is interested
in working with the city
of Weston on opening up
the space for community
members.
Jennifer Spurgeon, the
mayor of Weston and the
vice-chair of the Athe-
na-Weston School Board,
said details still need to
be worked out including
staffing and security.
But if an agreement is
made for wider community,
use it will add an amenity in
a town that’s in need of them.
If an Athena or Weston
residents wants access to
a commercial gym, they
currently need to drive
either a half-hour southwest
to Pendleton or a half-hour
north to Walla Walla.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
JUNIPER: 105 acres enough to feed the mill for 21 years
Continued from 1A
of Oregon researchers are
calling the “new natural
resource
economy”
in
Eastern Oregon, where
entrepreneurs and small
businesses are finding inno-
vative ways to complement
traditional farming and
timber production.
A new study by the
University
of
Oregon
Community Service Center
and School of Planning,
Public Policy and Manage-
ment details how natural
resource industries are
changing in Eastern Oregon,
and how economic devel-
opment groups — such as
the Greater Eastern Oregon
Development Corporation
and
Northeast
Oregon
Economic
Development
District — can support the
sector moving forward.
The study lumps this
subset of the economy
into one of four general
categories:
agriculture,
forest products, tourism and
recreation. Businesses tend
to be very small, and create
non-traditional products such
as biomass fuel and lumber
from alternative sources like
juniper.
Over the course of a year,
researchers interviewed 42
businesses to gauge their
needs and goals. The study
area spanned 10 Eastern
Oregon counties, including
Umatilla, Morrow, Union,
Wallowa, Gilliam, Wheeler,
Grant, Baker, Harney and
Malheur counties.
On Tuesday, members of
the research team met with a
group of about 20 people at
the Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport in Pendleton to
discuss their findings. Susan
Lurie, a research associate at
the University of Oregon’s
Institute for a Sustainable
Environment, said the study
was an opportunity to expand
their understanding of what
has happened to traditional
Eastern Oregon industries,
and define where the new
natural resource economy is
heading.
“It’s both defining it,
and figuring out what these
businesses need to thrive,”
Lurie said.
Photo contributed by Eric Sines
Caleb Morris with the Ritter Land Management Team
runs the first juniper log through a portable sawmill,
which was delivered to the nonprofit group earlier
this month.
Businesses
raised
a
number of concerns in the
study, ranging from complex
government regulations to a
lack of skilled and reliable
workers. Participants at
Tuesday’s meeting brain-
stormed ways to overcome
those challenges locally,
including pilot programs
to engage students and
compiling resources to navi-
gate regulatory hurdles.
Susan Christensen, exec-
utive director of the Greater
Eastern Oregon Develop-
ment Corporation, said she
sees collaboration as the key
to success.
“To me, that means getting
together partners that might
not be the most obvious
partners,” Christensen said.
“The only way people learn
about what the other person
is doing is through commu-
nication and networking.”
The project in Ritter first
took shape in 2013 when
a group of about 30 land-
owners formed the Ritter
Land Management Team,
promoting sustainable devel-
opment and environmental
stewardship.
Landowners
soon identified the spread of
Western juniper as one of the
biggest threats to their farms
and ranches.
Fully grown Western
juniper can consume as much
as 30 gallons of water a day,
taking over rangeland and
cutting into native forage.
The trees are also susceptible
to wildfire, exacerbating fire
conditions on the range.
“It’s not just a range issue.
It’s a forest health issue as
well,” said Hudson with the
Ritter Land Management
Team. She noted that Western
juniper can grow 30-40 feet
tall in stands of ponderosa
pine.
Last year, the team
reached out to a consulting
company based in California
to determine if a juniper
sawmill would be feasible.
The final report showed that,
within the total 105.650-acre
study area, the group had
enough juniper to feed the
mill for 21 years.
The team was then able to
tap into the Western Juniper
Industry Fund, which was
made available by the 2015
Legislature. The Oregon
Community
Foundation
stepped up with matching
funds, and a sawmill was
finally delivered to Ritter
about three weeks ago.
The mill is currently set
up on the property of rancher
Caleb Morris until they can
find it a permanent home.
“We knew we had a lot
of juniper, but we weren’t
sure we had enough to keep
the mill going,” Morris
said. “But the study showed
there’s at least a 20-year
supply here, and more if we
expand beyond the Ritter
area.”
Hudson said juniper
markets appear promising.
Juniper wood is harder than
ponderosa pine and highly
resistant to rotting, which
makes it ideal for land-
scaping.
Ryan Temple, president
of Sustainable Northwest
Wood, said they are looking
forward to collaborating with
the Ritter mill.
“Our customers will
enjoy supporting the group’s
rangeland restoration proj-
ects through the purchase of
this lumber,” Temple said.
The biggest challenge,
Hudson said, will be finding
additional wood markets to
ensure the mill can remain
profitable.
“Everybody’s interested
in juniper. A lot of people
want it,” she said. “But
we have to have a bigger
market.”
However, she said the
market is there and they are
ready and willing to begin
supplying logs.
“We’re optimistic we can
make this work,” she said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
Nelson said. “Mr. Alvarez
said he didn’t try to collect
it, but I don’t believe that’s
true.”
Nelson said there was
some evidence that Salas,
an Irrigon resident, had
purchase between $50 and
$70 worth of drugs from
Alvarez, and that they
believed it to be metham-
phetamine.
“That was part of our
search warrant,” he said.
“There is a drug record
belonging to Mr. Alvarez.”
Nelson said nothing can
be 100 percent confirmed
in this case, but they
believe Alvarez, who has
a California address, may
have been bringing drugs
to the area.
He said it has not
yet been decided where
Alvarez will serve his
sentence.
Nelson also released a
statement detailing some
of the information that had
come out during the inves-
tigation, and explaining
why the state agreed to a
settlement.
He said the passenger
in Salas’ vehicle when he
was shot was not forth-
coming with information,
and changed his story
several times in different
interviews. The passenger,
Jose Longoria, Jr., was an
acquaintance of Salas.
“During the first inter-
view, the witness indicated
that someone just ran up to
the car and shot the driver,
and he had no knowledge
of who the individual was
or anything else,” Nelson’s
statement said. “During
the fourth interview, the
witness admitted that the
victim had requested the
witness come with him to
confront David Alvarez
at (his) residence. The
victim had indicated that
Mr. Alvarez had punched
the victim in front of his
daughter earlier in the day
based upon a debt that the
victim owed Mr. Alvarez.”
Nelson said Alvarez
punched Salas and caused
a cut to his eye after Salas
indicated he would not pay
back Alvarez’s money.
Salas’ daughter, who saw
the incident, was seven
years old at the time.
Nelson
said
they
discovered that Salas also
requested that Longoria
bring a handgun since he
knew Alvarez would be
carrying a firearm and had
threatened him in the past.
Nelson said after the
shooting, Salas quickly
went unconscious and
floored the gas pedal, and
Longoria reached over
and steered the truck until
it crashed into a field near
the mobile home park.
Someone at the mobile
home park called in the
shooting and a Boardman
police officer was on scene
right away.
Longoria also informed
officers that after the
shooting and crash, he hid
the firearm, methamphet-
amines and drug parapher-
nalia behind the glove box
in Salas’ truck. Officers
found all these items
during a second search of
the vehicle.
Nelson also noted some
disparities between Alva-
rez’s and the Longoria’s
accounts of the shooting.
He said Alvarez claimed he
shot Salas only after Salas
asked for, and was given,
the gun by the witness.
Longoria said he never
handed a gun to Salas, and
had it between his legs the
whole time.
Nelson said in consid-
ering the case, the state
knew Alvarez’s self-de-
fense claim could be
disputed, but that Salas’
apparent request for a
witness to accompany him,
as well as his decision to
go to Alvarez’s house to
confront him, would be
difficult for a jury.
“Taking into account
these and other strengths
and weaknesses of the
case, the State believed
that resolution of the case
with this sentence was in
the best interest of justice,”
Nelson said.
Nelson said his staff
met with Salas’ family
members, and that 15 of
them attended and partic-
ipated in the settlement
conference. He said that
Salas’ mother and sister
asked for statements to be
read to the court.
Salas’ mother, Alida
Birrueta, said she hoped
Alvarez knew that his hate
toward her son had robbed
the family of seeing him
ever again.
“I hope you can rest
easy as you have taken
a father away from his
child,” she said.
His sister, Janet Salgado,
said the family had been
suffering, and that things
would not get better.
“His life to you was
worth a couple of dollars,
but to us he was worth
more than that, and we
hope your life never gets to
have a price.”
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
PENDLETON: Approved $1.1M
bond to replace multiple water lines
Continued from 1A
ally, the Quezadas must
apply for a certificate of
occupancy by Sept. 1, 2018.
If the owners fail to
meet that criteria, the
city can foreclose on an
approximately
$26,000
lien it obtained through the
settlement, resume fining
them $500 for violating
the nuisance ordinance, or
both.
Before meeting behind
closed doors, Charles
Denight, associate director
of the Pendleton Develop-
ment Commission, said the
Quezadas are looking at
bids for new windows.
Other council business
included:
• The council approved
a $1.1 million bond from
Culbert
Construction
to replace water lines
under Southeast Third
Street, South Main Street
and Southeast Goodwin
Avenue.
The Third Street line,
installed in 1911, is the
primary line between the
South Hill and North Hill
reservoirs and the produc-
tion wells in Stillman and
Kiwanis parks.
According to a report
from City Engineer Tim
Simons, the Third Street
line was shut down over
the summer after the city
discovered a leak under
the railroad track, causing
concern that it would create
a “soft spot” under the
tracks.
During the master plan-
ning process, consultant
Murraysmith discovered
that other water lines
near the Third Street line
also needed replacement,
leading to the Goodwin and
Main Street projects.
The city will pay for the
water line projects through
the water utility rate hikes
and a $14.9 million dollar
loan from the state.
• The council unani-
mously approved a cost-
share agreement with the
Oregon Department of
Transportation for the first
phase of an Interstate Exit
209 interchange realign-
ment.
If the council applies for
a $1 million federal grant
with ODOT for engineering
work, it would cover 30
percent of the cost.
• The Oregon State
University
Extension
Service took another step
toward putting a taxing
district on the May ballot.
The council unani-
mously approved a resolu-
tion the includes Pendleton
in the proposed district.
Hermiston
approved
a similar resolution in
August.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.