A light layer of fog hangs
over the city of Pendleton
and the foothills of
the Blue Mountains on
Wednesday morning.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017
142nd Year, No. 8
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Bean bag
shotgun
dare leaves
one injured
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
BMCC recruiter J.J. Hill speaks to a classroom of senior high school students on Wednesday in Echo.
BMCC recruiter goes full-throttle
College enrollment jumps 11 percent
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Last year, J.J. Hill drove about
10,000 miles from high school to
high school in his ride — a silver
Subaru Crosstrek emblazoned
with the Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College logo.
On Wednesday, the BMCC
recruiter chatted with 25 Echo
High School seniors about
college. He blended with his
audience, sporting a ball cap,
jeans and T-shirt. The Pilot Rock
native came to this position as
head of the BMCC recruitment
program by way of Eastern
Oregon University, where he
majored in theater, and New
York and Chicago, where he did
theater and stand-up comedy. Hill
told a few jokes, but mostly kept
the teens trained on the future.
“Who’s going to college?” he
asked.
Almost two-thirds raised their
hands.
“We’re going to do a little
word association,” Hill told the
students. “When I say ‘commu-
nity college,’ what’s the fi rst word
that comes into your head?’”
Words fl owed back to Hill:
small, cheap, more affordable,
future, cost.
Hill fl ung out another phrase
— four-year college — and got
See BMCC/8A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
BMCC student Lizzi Cox leads a group of middle school
students on a recent campus tour.
A Nevada man is in the hospital after a
dare at a Umatilla County campground left
him with a gunshot wound.
According to reports from the Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Department, two men
— part of a group of about a dozen other
people drinking and celebrating at Frazier
Campground outside Ukiah on Tuesday —
agreed to shoot each other with bean bag
rounds from a shotgun on a dare. According
to sheriff’s reports, one man who was shot
received a serious wound on his thigh.
Umatilla County Undersheriff Jim
Littlefi eld said the incident was still being
investigated.
“I think what happened, is there were
a group of people camping, highly intox-
icated,” he said. “They decided they were
going to shoot each other with bean bag
rounds to see how they felt.”
Umatilla and Union County Sheriff’s
Deputies responded to the scene around
9:21 p.m., and found a medic that had been
nearby treating the 29-year-old victim.
A private party took the man to Grande
Ronde Hospital in La Grande. He was still
in the hospital for treatment on Wednesday.
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan
said they could not release the names of
the victim or the other person involved yet,
because the victim was not yet in a condi-
tion to be interviewed. He said the bullet
went all the way through the man’s thigh.
“There was some muscular damage,
some bone damage,” Rowan said.
Rowan said the individuals were staying
in a bunkhouse that is a temporary home to
about 20 people from all over the nation.
“I believe they were working for the
Forest Service,” he said. “It sounds like
they were celebrating the end of fi re season
and likely were a little overindulgent.”
Rowan said from what he knew, only
one gun was involved.
“Bean bag rounds” are less-than-lethal
ammunition that can be fi red as a shotgun
shell. Law enforcement offi cials sometimes
use them for riot control.
HERMISTON
City celebrates
new playground
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Matt Dietrich, youth development coach with the Portland Trail Blazers, leads a
group of children in a defensive drill on Wednesday at Sunset Park in Hermiston.
Children of all ages and
abilities were soaking up
the sun on the playground
and on the basketball court
Wednesday afternoon as
Hermiston celebrated a
newly revitalized Sunset
Park.
A central piece of the
new playground, which was
paid for by a grant from
Moda Health and the Port-
land Trail Blazers, has yet to
arrive, but several pieces —
including swings, climbing
equipment, giant plastic
drums and two large bears
for sitting and climbing —
have joined the new basket-
ball court installed last year
after the city doubled the
neighborhood park’s size.
City councilor Doug
Primmer described the
online voting competition
that led to the grant for the
new playground during the
See PLAYGROUND/8A