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East Oregonian
SCHOOL: Most Pilot Rock
students come by bus or car
Continued from 1A
Street as one of their main
concerns. Despite the lack of
sidewalks, the steeply graded
road is heavily traveled by
students looking to enter
the cafeteria for breakfast
service, a journey made
more treacherous during the
winter.
The educators said staff
members know to drive
slowly down the street,
but Vescio said she would
also like to see more cross-
walks on both sides of the
school. One of the existing
crosswalks is obscured by
a retaining wall, making it
difficult for drivers to see
students trying to cross the
street.
Spurgeon said these issues
come with the territory of
trying to modernize a historic
school that started its life as a
teaching college.
In order to install side-
walks and crosswalks, city
and school officials will have
to contend with old right-of-
ways and the steep terrain of
the surrounding area.
“It’s not an ideal situation
in this hilly area that we live
in,” he said.
Foster said Kittelson will
return to Weston in the spring
with its recommendations.
Weston is like many small
towns in Eastern Oregon
where sidewalks tend to
peter out once the downtown
area gives way to residential
neighborhoods.
Echo School District
Superintendent
Raymon
Smith said the city has done
a good job of surrounding
Echo School with sidewalks.
The school’s pedestrian
issues are focused at its
student parking lot across
from its Rieth Road entrance.
Without a crosswalk,
Smith said most students
elect to jaywalk, a problem
that’s exacerbated further
when parents drop off their
kids in the middle of the
street in front of the entrance.
Smith said he is talking with
the city and Umatilla County
about installing a crosswalk
at the entrance.
Although there are not
many sidewalks beyond
Highway 395 in Pilot Rock,
Superintendent Steve Steniak
said there aren’t many
student pedestrian problems
in the city because not many
students walk to school. Pilot
Rock school buses will ferry
children to school from as
close as a half mile away.
As a result, Steniak said,
most young Pilot Rockers
come by bus or car.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
Friday, December 1, 2017
SHOOTING: Witnesses said they heard multiple shots
Continued from 1A
Street. Medical supplies remained in
the middle of the street just north of
the access road to Taco Bell and the
nearby Walmart on the west side and
the parking lot of Walgreens on the east.
Monte Ludington, deputy district
attorney, went to the scene in place of
District Attorney Dan Primus, who is
at the Oregon District Attorneys Asso-
ciation conference in Gleneden Beach.
Primus has made it a point to respond in
person or send staff to officer-involved
shootings in the county.
Witnesses said they heard multiple
shots, perhaps as many as seven or
eight, but police haven’t released
further details.
Roberts said Thursday morning
that police learn to shoot until they
neutralize the threat. Contrary to movie
portrayals of gunfire, he said, one bullet
does not send a body flying.
Roberts also addressed statements
on social media criticizing police for
shooting the suspect as he ran.
“I’m not saying that was the circum-
stances here,” he stressed, but if it were,
case law could be on the side of police.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 in
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Crime-scene tape wraps around a light pole Wednesday night in Pendle-
ton on the corner of Southwest Court Avenue and 20th Street near the
site of an officer-involved shooting.
the case of Tennessee v. Garner found
police can use deadly force to stop a
fleeing suspect if they believe the person
poses a serious threat of death or injury
to others. Roberts said evidence at the
scene backed up what officers saw.
Roberts said any more information
would come from the Umatilla County
District Attorney’s Office. Primus did
not return a call Thursday.
The last officer-involved shooting in
Pendleton was in 2012.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hank Stahl, with Stahl Farms, and Cyd Bothum, with
Hermiston Foods, shoot baskets at the Simplot booth
at the Hermiston Farm Fair on Thursday at EOTEC.
FARMING: Local organic
production is on the rise
Continued from 1A
to bring in more presenters
and hold more sessions. This
year’s trade show featured 48
different vendors, including
multiple farm suppliers,
Energy Trust of Oregon
and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Farm Service
Agency.
Attendees filled the room
for a morning seminar on
pollinators, which discussed
the importance of bees
and bee habitat in agri-
cultural systems. Andony
Melathopoulos, with OSU’s
Pollinator Health Extension
Program, said Oregon is
home to more species of
bees than there are east of the
Mississippi River.
“It’s a hotbed of diver-
sity,” Melathopoulos said.
“People are just amazed by
them.”
Melathopoulos went on
to explain how farmers can
treat their crops for weeds
and pests while taking care
not to harm pollinators. He
ran through a litany of avail-
able products, demonstrating
how to properly read labels
and determine if and when a
grower should apply certain
chemicals in the field.
“Without a doubt, pollina-
tion is very important for the
production of many crops,”
Melathopoulos said. “I hope
people came out of this
session knowing pest control
is possible and compatible
with pollinators.”
For the first time, the
Hermiston Farm Fair also
organized a seminar dedi-
cated specifically to growing
organic crops. It takes three
years before a farm can be
certified organic, and growers
must adapt to a very strict set
of approved standards.
Local organic production
is on the rise, said Alexandra
Stone, a former organic
farmer and cropping system
specialist for OSU. In eastern
Washington, Stone said
organic sales grew sixfold at
the farm gate between 2005
and 2015, from $100 million
to $600 million.
“There’s already a lot of
organic production out here,”
she said.
Yet demand for organics
is still outpacing production
in the U.S., with imports
exceeding exports by $1.1
billion, Stone said. With that
in mind, she led a survey
among 20 farmers in the
room to determine what
they want and need from
the university to tap into the
organic marketplace.
Of those polled, 79 percent
said they expect demand for
organics will continue to
increase, yet 40 percent said
they did not have the tools
to control pests and disease.
The vast majority of farmers
said they would benefit
from some kind of technical
training through OSU, with
more than half favoring a
hybrid online undergraduate
and professional develop-
ment certificate program.
Later in the afternoon,
Clinton Shock with the OSU
Malheur Experiment Station
detailed how precision irriga-
tion can optimize yields and
save farmers money, all while
protecting the environment.
“We really want high and
stable production of horticul-
ture and crops,” Shock said.
“Precision irrigation is really
the key.”
Shock said researchers are
working to determine a set
of criteria known as the soil-
water tension for different
crops, which essentially
describes the amount of
energy a plant must expend to
suck up water in the ground.
If the tension is too high, a
plant may shut down. If the
tension is too low, water may
leach away nutrients, leading
to waste.
But if a grower knows the
soil property, Shock said they
can find the sweet spot. That
means healthier crops for less
money. Plus, as a side benefit,
he said the more efficiently
nitrogen is used, the more it
protects groundwater quality.
“A lot of the public thinks
growers are not innovative,
or stuck in the mud,” Shock
said. “That just isn’t so.”
The Hermiston Farm Fair
will continue Friday at 8 a.m.
at EOTEC before coming to
a close at noon.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
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