REGION
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
MILTON-FREEWATER
PENDLETON
Six arrested in drug raid
Three parks to get new playgrounds
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Police made six arrests
during a Tuesday morning
drug raid in Milton-Free-
water.
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts said members
of the Oregon State Police
SWAT team served a
search warrant for the Blue
Mountain Narcotics Team at
approximately 5:10 a.m. at
the home at 109 N.W. First
Ave. Roberts is the director
of the drug task force’s
board.
He confirmed police
made the following arrests:
• Kathy Ann Thomas, 50,
for delivery and possession
of methamphetamine and
frequenting where drugs are
kept and sold;
• Joseph Lee Sumerlin,
37, for delivery and posses-
sion of methamphetamine
and frequenting;
• Shirley Mae Weems, 29,
for frequenting;
• Cristobal Jaimes Rogel,
31, for frequenting;
• Timothy Lee Prock,
56, on a Milton-Freewater
Municipal Court Warrant
and for frequenting;
• and Jeffrey Carl Ellis,
29, for frequenting.
The frequenting charge
is a misdemeanor, while
Thomas and Sumerlin face
felonies for the possession
and delivery charges. All
six remained in the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton, as of
Tuesday evening.
Roberts did not provide
details of the takedown.
This is the second
BENT raid this year in
Milton-Freewater. The team
on May 31 arrested Adan
Nievez Torres, 43, of 504
Elzora Loop, and Carlos
Razo Cisneros, 43, of 1501
N. Elizabeth St., Space F in
the Locust Mobile Village.
Torres has pleaded not
guilty to 14 counts, including
delivery and possession of
heroin, methamphetamine
and
cocaine.
Umatilla
County Circuit Court records
show he paid $150,000 on
Aug. 16 to bail out of jail.
His next court hearing is
Nov. 16.
Cisneros faces four
charges — methamphet-
amine delivery and posses-
sion, tampering with phys-
ical evidence, and unlawful
possession of a firearm – and
has pleaded not guilty to
each. He remains out of jail
on a conditional release and
has a pre-trial conference
Wednesday in circuit court
in Pendleton.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Fire units respond to a brush fire along the southern banks of the Columbia River
off of Pleasant View Road east of Irrigon.
Fire burns part of wildlife refuge
A fire that started as an
agricultural burn singed
about six acres east of Irrigon
on Tuesday afternoon. A man
was burning in his back yard
when the winds picked up
and took the fire into another
yard, and to the nearby
Umatilla National Wildlife
Refuge.
“The wind just got away
from him,” said Lt. Adam
Cole with Boardman Fire
Department.
Boardman,
along with the Umatilla
Rural Fire District, assisted
the Irrigon Rural Fire Depart-
ment with the blaze. No
structures were burned, but
the man’s house, his corral
and a neighbor’s house were
threatened.
Cole said 90 percent of
the burning was in the refuge
area. He asked people to
be careful and watch the
weather, even though fire
season is over.
“If he had looked out for
the weather — he didn’t
even check — the winds are
gusting 10-15, and getting up
to 25 miles per hour,” Cole
said.
BRIEFLY
Conservation grants available
through NRCS
PENDLETON — The Natural Resource
Conservation Service is accepting appli-
cations from farmers, ranchers and private
forestland owners for financial assistance
through the agency’s Environmental Quality
Incentives Program, or EQIP, which helps
agricultural producers to offset the cost of
conservation projects.
Examples of conservation activities
include installing efficient irrigation systems
to save water and reduce energy consump-
tion; planting cover crops to improve soil
health and water quality; and removing
invasive juniper trees to enhance wildlife
habitat.
Oregon EQIP funds are available
within targeted watersheds in each county
to address natural resource concerns, as
identified by landowners, government
agencies and conservation partners. The
deadline to apply is Nov. 17.
For more information about the program,
visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.
Umatilla County firefighters
help battle Santa Cruz blaze
HERMISTON — Several Umatilla
County crews are among the Oregonians
in California battling wildfires this week.
Three people from Umatilla County Fire
District and several from Pendleton are
now fighting the Bear Fire in Santa Cruz,
after starting in the Los Angeles area.
Crews from Oregon that were helping
fight the fires in Northern California will be
returning to their home stations in the next
day, as weather improves and firefighters
work to contain the blaze.
The affected parts of Southern
California still remain under Red Flag
warnings, and weather is expected to be
hot, dry and windy. Oregon crews are
expected to be there at least through this
weekend.
LEARN HOW TO
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When the ice thaws and
the snow melts, children
from North Hill, South
Hill, Sherwood Heights and
from across Pendleton will
have access to three new
playgrounds.
The Pendleton City
Council approved the
replacement of playgrounds
at Aldrich, May and Sher-
wood parks at a meeting
Tuesday. Parks and Recre-
ation Director Donnie Cook
said the city plans to install
the new equipment in the
spring.
The
playgrounds
Aldrich, May and Sher-
wood were three of the five
the parks department shut
down in 2015 after safety
inspections deemed the
structures unsafe. While
the playground removed
at Vincent Park went
unreplaced because of its
proximity to Pioneer Park
and the Kiwanis Club of
Pendleton agreed to take on
maintenance and liability
of the Kiwanis Park play-
ground if it was reopened,
the parks department began
writing grant applications
to acquire new playgrounds
for the other three parks.
The department raised
$95,000 through a $56,500
state grant and smaller
private grants. The city was
also aided by the winning
playground
vendor,
GameTime of Fort Payne,
Alabama, who agreed to
match the city’s $50,000
equipment purchase.
Cook said this means
the city was able to buy
higher quality equipment
with a larger footprint,
while the rest of the budget
can continue to go toward
excavation, the playground
surface and installation.
The new playgrounds
will also feature new swing
sets, although it’s not
included in the bid package.
Cook said a combination of
grant funding and the parks
budget will cover the swing
sets, which Cook estimates
cost $1,500 each.
With most of the parks’
playground inventory now
in good shape, Cook said
his next focus will be to
replace the equipment at
Airport Park.
JOHN DAY
Poet laureate to share poetry, stories
of poetry. In addition, Woody writes short
fiction, essays and is a visual artist.
Her work is held in high acclaim,
Oregon Poet Laureate Elizabeth Woody
will share selections from her poetry and including by The Bloomsbury Review,
stories during an informal event in John Day. which highlights lively writing by authors
Open to the public, the free gathering is who might not receive attention due to
Monday at 7 p.m. at the John Day United smaller promotional budgets.
“Her poems are like hands and
Methodist Church, 126 N.W.
hearts and also like lights: they
Canyon St. After Woody’s read-
grip and pulse and illuminate.
ings, a reception will be held so
Like the woman herself, the work
people can greet her.
is grand and modest and forceful.
Woody is the state’s eighth poet
It will shake you, and move you
laureate since 1921. There was
deeply,” the publication said about
a lapse in appointments between
Woody’s work.
1990 to 2005. Woody’s two-year
Woody earned a master’s
appointment features outreach as
degree in public administration
an ambassador of poetry across
through the Mark O. Hatfield
the state.
School of Government’s Exec-
In March 2016, she was Woody
utive Leadership Institute at
appointed Oregon’s Poet Laureate
by Governor Kate Brown — the first Amer- Portland State University, a bachelor’s
ican Indian to be so named. An enrolled degree in humanities from The Evergreen
member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm State College in Olympia, Washington,
Springs, Woody is of Yakama Nation descent. and studied creative writing and two-di-
“Woody follows in the tradition of mensional arts at the Institute of American
peoples who have understood the power Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She has taught at
of language, and the place of a poet/singer/ the Institute of American Indian Arts and at
storyteller at the center of the world,” said Portland State University.
For more about Woody, visit www.
Joy Harjo, a playwright and poet.
Woody received the American Book oregonpoetlaureate.org/elizabeth-woody.
———
Award in 1990, and the discretionary William
Contact Community Editor Tammy
Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry and
was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards Malgesini at tmalgesini@eastoregonian.com
in 1995. She has published three books or 541-564-4539
East Oregonian
IRRIGON
East Oregonian
East Oregonian
■ How to equitably transfer assets
to both your farming and
non-farming beneficiaries,
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SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.com or drop off to the attention of
Tammy Malgesini at 333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers
Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-966-0818 with questions.