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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2017)
GRIDIRON GIRLS BURNS, KIELE TAKE TO FIELD AS QB, KICKER SPORTS/1B PALMER CLEARED BY DOJ REGION/3A FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2017 141st Year, No. 259 Your Weekend • • • One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Where do you want to eat? Hermiston diners hungry for new restaurants Oktoberfest Pendleton at the Round-Up Grounds Autumn in Echo citywide yard sales Book sales in Irrigon and Pendleton By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 53/33 59/35 63/38 Watch a game vs. Bend vs. Hermiston Friday, 7 p.m., at Kennison Field Districts discuss the good, bad marks on state school report card By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Divergent trends defi ned the report cards for Umatilla County’s two biggest school districts. After the Oregon Depart- ment of Education released the documents Thursday, the data show the Hermiston School District made one of its greatest gains in high school English assessment while high school language arts proved to be one of the Pendleton School District’s most drastic declines. And although Pendleton is buoyed by a high graduation rate but a lower on-track rate, the script is fl ipped for Hermiston. The report cards give the public access to assessments, graduation rates, attendance and more for the 2016-2017 school year. See SCHOOL/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Hermiston may have 58 different restaurants listed on the review website Yelp, but residents are still hungry for new dining experiences. A recent post on Facebook asked what fast food restaurants Herm- iston needs most and nearly 400 people chimed in. Wendy’s, Arby’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken were among the top choices. Manny Gonzales, 18, said he made the post because he was interested in hearing what peoples’ favorite fast food restaurants were, but he thinks Hermiston could use another sit-down option, too. “We need a Red Lobster or Olive Garden where someone can dress nice and take someone on a date,” he said. Gonzales said his favorite fast food restaurant in town is Dairy Queen, because they have good service, “great prices, yummy ice cream and good fries.” But he could go for a Carl’s Jr., Panda Express or Zip’s Drive-In, too. In 2011, consulting fi rm Pitney Bowes Business Insight estimated the Hermiston area could support another 5,800 to 6,400 square feet of full-service restaurants and another 1,500 to 1,750 square feet of fast food restaurants. Their report for the city stated there was demand for a “moderately priced sit-down restaurant” and recommended an Applebee’s, Country Kitchen, Sizzler or IHOP, as well as the addition of a Wendy’s or Arby’s in the fast food category. Hermiston previously had an Arby’s and a Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Arby’s was replaced by Starbucks in 2005 and Kentucky Fried Chicken closed more than fi ve years ago. The town has lost some sit-down restau- rants too, including Stet’s Steakhouse, which closed in September. Other Hermiston restaurants have found a niche and thrived, however. Delish Bistro, which opened two years ago, has started leasing the larger and more visible Stet’s Steakhouse location at 1619 N. First St. and plans to move in sometime around February. A car moves through the drive-thru at McDonald’s restaurant on Thursday in Hermiston. A 2011 study found that Hermiston could support more full-service and fast food restaurants. See FOOD/10A Rocket scientist recalls early NASA days By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Beer and space travel don’t usually go together, but they paired nicely Wednesday evening at the Prodigal Son Brewery. Retired NASA engineer Norman Chaffee opened up his brain and let its contents pour out to those packed into the pub’s tiny theater. Chaffee is a rocket scientist — the archetype for an ultra-intel- ligent person — so brainy, in fact, that he simplifi ed complex ideas for his audi- ence, sans jargon. Out came recollections of the early days of aerospace in the 1960s, when he worked on the Gemini and Apollo programs as a propulsion engineer. He retired in 1998 but continues to do consulting and educa- tion outreach. Chaffee, an Oklahoma native who grew up in a family of engineers, said his scientifi c adventures started in boyhood when he loved taking things apart and “trying to put them back together.” A chemistry set offered tons of fun. “If the angle of re-entry is too narrow, you hit the atmosphere and skip like a stone.” — Norman Chaffee, Retired NASA engineer Staff photo by E.J. Harris Retired NASA engineer Norman Chaffee speaks about his time working for the space agency on the Gemini and Apollo programs as a propulsion engineer Wednesday at Prodigal Son in Pendleton. “I set the house on fi re a couple of times,” he said. “In high school, we blew up a chemistry lab table trying to make dynamite.” He turned his mother’s kitchen bright purple after he used the stove to heat potas- sium permanganate. When it reached its boiling point, it exploded. Chaffee started as a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1962. In a world of thrusters, pressure regulators and propellants, Chaffee and fellow engineers attacked problems that threatened the success of space missions. Chaffee clearly remem- bers the day in 1967 when Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White II and Roger Chaffee (no rela- tion) died in a fi re that erupted in their command module during prefl ight testing. The trio had been preparing for the fi rst manned Apollo fl ight. The death of Roger Chaffee especially saddened him. Because of their common name, they often got each other’s mail and phone calls and had developed an easygoing kinship. The three men died when a circuit shorted in an atmosphere of pure oxygen, igniting highly fl ammable materials in the cabin. Norman Chaffee and other NASA engineers tested different materials inside a faux command module, See NASA/8A
