REGION
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
East Oregonian
PENDLETON
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Spray paint vandal strikes North Hill School schedule
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Pendleton police are on the track of
someone who vandalized properties and
vehicles Saturday night in a North Hill
neighborhood.
“We have some investigative leads
we are following on now to try and lock
this thing down and make progress on
it,” Police Chief Stuart Roberts said.
Police received the first report of
the crimes Sunday morning. Roberts
said the culprit sprayed gold metallic
paint on three residential properties and
five vehicles along Northwest Bailey
Avenue, causing thousands of dollars in
damage.
“This is significant in terms of the
dollar value loss to the victims,” the
chief said.
The gold paint is the common
denominator here, he said, and police
recovered the paint cans. The graffiti
varied from the phrase “F--- Donald
Trump” with a line through “Trump” to
the single word “Blood” on one tailgate
to “#FreeOG Joseph Johnson” on a
building.
Roberts said he had no idea what
the miscreant meant with the last one.
Pendleton police deal with a couple of
local offenders named Joseph Johnson,
he said, but he did not know any of them
who might be behind bars.
Pendleton has not been targeted by
change concerns
some teachers
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by Pendleton Police Department
Multiple vehicles and properties were the targets of a graffiti vandal this
weekend on Pendleton’s North Hill. Police Chief Stuart Roberts said the
damage is costly to the victims. Investigators are working the case, he
said, and police also are asking for the public’s help.
graffiti for a while, Roberts said, but late
last summer the “F--- Donald Trump”
showed up in black spray paint on a
side of the strip mall on the 100 block
of Southwest 18th Street. Roberts said
he notified code enforcement right off to
cover up the defacement. Roberts said
that was an isolated incident at the time.
While police are working the case,
the department also is asking for the
public’s help. If anyone have infor-
mation about the vandalism, contact
the local 24-hour dispatch center at
541-966-3651.
FLANAGAN: Community raising funds to help
the family with medical and funeral expenses
Continued from 1A
Thursday morning. Scott
stayed back to care for the
other boys. In Portland, the
surreal nightmare continued
as surgeons tried to stay
ahead of the rare but deadly
infection, known as necro-
tizing fasciitis, by amputating
parts of the boy’s body.
“They basically cut him
up piece by piece,” Scott
said.
“Almost his whole right
side was gone,” Sara said.
“They kept cutting and
hoping. Cutting and hoping.”
Eventually, as Liam kept
going downhill, he was
transferred to Randall Chil-
dren’s Hospital on Sunday
so another team could take
a look at the problem. That
night, Liam died.
Sara said she is still
processing. Her emotions
run the gamut. She smiles in
wonderment as she recalls
how he tried to keep his
family and friends from
worrying as he lay in his
hospital bed in a nest of
tubes, electrodes, cables and
monitors. He FaceTimed
with friends, laughing, joking
and showing his tubes.
“He told them ‘It’s just
going to be a couple of days
and I’ll be coming home,’”
Sara said. “He was so strong
and so brave.”
At one point, Liam was
feeling dehydrated and Sara
promised she wouldn’t eat or
drink until he was able. Liam
wouldn’t have it.
“He took my hand and
said he just needed a hug,”
she recalled.
Scott spoke to Liam for
the last time by phone on
Friday.
“I told him to be strong
and that he’d be OK,” Scott
said. “He said he missed me.”
Now that Liam is gone,
Sara and Scott are reeling in
a rush of memories.
“He was a bright ray of
sunshine,” Sara said. “He
loved everyone and everyone
loved him. He was one of
those people who would
walk into a room and would
draw everyone.”
“He was a lovable kid,”
Scott said of the boy who
uncomplainingly helped him
build fences and do other
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sara Hebard gets emotional while talking about the life of her son, Liam Flanagan,
8, on Tuesday at her home outside of Pilot Rock. Flanagan died Saturday after cut-
ting his leg while riding his bike and contracting a flesh-eating bacteria.
Contributed photo
Contributed photo
Liam Flanagan and Sara Hebard attend the
Pendleton Round-Up several years ago.
Liam Flanagan lays in his hospital bed
during his battle with necrotizing fasciitis.
tasks around the farm. “He
never had a bad word to say.”
They are second-guessing
themselves.
Maybe
if
they’d gotten Liam to the
hospital sooner when he
first complained of pain they
had chalked up as normal.
They want other parents to
know about this flesh-eating
bacteria, something they
didn’t previously know
about.
“We don’t want any other
parents to go through this,”
Scott said.
The community is raising
funds to help the family
with medical and funeral
expenses. A taco feed will
take place during Friday’s
Pilot Rock High School
basketball games (starting at
3 p.m.) against Stanfield to
raise funds. A loaded baked
potato feed is on tap during
the next day’s games against
Culver (starting at 1 p.m.). A
blanket toss, bake sale and
basket raffle will take place
both days.
“Everyone is asked to
come wearing camo in
memory of Liam,” said orga-
nizer Joan Harrison.
A Gofundme account had
already raised $4,500 as of
Tuesday and accounts have
been set up at Banner Bank
and Old West Federal Credit
Union.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 941-966-0810.
WATER: Would be used to replace water pumped from Columbia River
Continued from 1A
to put in the Umatilla River
in the summer. So the city
worked out a deal with West
Irrigation District to pipe the
water into their canal during
the growing season instead,
allowing the district to save
money by pumping less water
from the Columbia River.
“We’re really excited
about the project because it
was the first time it was done
in the state,” Hermiston city
manager Byron Smith said.
After getting approval for
the project from a laundry
list of state agencies, Smith
said he and West Irrigation
District
manager
Bev
Bridgewater are now sitting
on a state committee working
to write a set of regulations
for other communities that
want to follow suit.
Pelleberg said Umatilla
wants to do something
similar by diverting water
coming out of data centers to
West Irrigation District.
“We really like what
Hermiston is doing with
reuse,” he said.
Bridgewater said like
the Hermiston water, the
Umatilla water would likely
be used to replace Columbia
River water instead of
expanding the district’s
acreage. But Pelleberg
said he is looking with city
engineers at property that
could hold massive open-air
ponds to hold recycled Class
A water created during the
winter for use during the
summer, and Bridgewater
said that project could
possibly lead to expanding
the district’s acreage. The
city needs to secure funding
first, however.
The discussion was one
of several presentations at
the Oregon Water Coali-
tion meeting, which was
combined with the Greater
Hermiston Area Chamber
of Commerce’s Business to
Business breakfast at Herm-
iston Agricultural Research
and Extension Center.
Miff Devlin, water quality
supervisor at the Port of
Morrow, also spoke about a
three-phase recharge project
to dilute nitrogen from the
groundwater around the
port. JR Cook of Northeast
Oregon Water Association
spoke about an economic
impact study being devel-
oped for the Mid-Columbia
Basin and goals for future
water projects in the area.
The meeting was wrapped up
by a “water rights bootcamp”
by attorney Laura Schroeder
of Schroeder Law Offices.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
The Hermiston School
Board will vote at next
month’s meeting to decide
whether to keep Hermis-
ton’s spring break schedule
in line with the rest of
the state, or to switch to
a schedule aligned with
Washington schools.
If the board approves
the change, spring break
would be the first week of
April 2019 instead of the
last week of March.
Members
of
the
Educational
Council
— comprised of two
administrators, two school
board members, and staff
members
representing
each school and the district
office — presented to the
board at their work session
Monday. They recom-
mended that the district
switch to a Washington
schedule.
The
Educational
Council discusses and
makes recommendations
to the school board about
the scheduling of parent-
teacher
conferences,
vacation periods and other
events not set by the state
education calendar.
Sandra Rice, who
represents the district
office on the council, said
they weighed many factors
when making a decision.
“Concerns ranged from
scheduling conflicts, to
[concerns] that staff were
not surveyed on moving
the spring break,” she said.
Delfino Osorio Garcia,
a Hermiston High School
teacher on the council, said
they considered the various
people the schedule change
would impact.
“Ultimately,
we
decided, ‘What’s best for
kids?’” Osorio Garcia said.
He said with Hermiston’s
move to the Washington
athletic conference starting
next year, they decided
that aligning the vacation
schedule with Washing-
ton’s made the most sense.
“We knew it would
have an impact on learning
if we didn’t go with Wash-
ington’s spring break,”
Osorio Garcia said.
But several teachers at
the meeting did not feel
the change would be in the
best interest of all students.
Josh Linn, a teacher at
Rocky Heights Elementary
School, had also spoken
at a previous meeting
about his concerns with a
schedule that didn’t align
with the rest of the area’s
school districts.
“The district reps say
[the schedule] is good
for kids,” he said after
Monday’s meeting. “But
only for high school sports
kids. It doesn’t benefit
the elementary schools.
It screws up our testing
schedule and it removes us
from the community.”
Linn sent an open letter
to the school board, listing
several reasons that he
and other teachers were
opposed to the change.
He said that elementary
schools participate in state
testing in April, and that
having one fewer week to
test would be difficult. He
also said there are many
activities in May, such
as Outdoor School, that
would make moving the
test to during that month
more difficult.
He added that having
teachers in the Hermiston
School
District
with
children in other districts
would make it more chal-
lenging for families to plan
holidays or even school
events.
“Some parents who
work in districts around
Hermiston will pull their
children out of class during
Oregon’s spring break to
travel, potentially having
kids out of school for two
weeks right before state
testing,” he said in the
letter. “Or those parents
will have to pay for people
to take care of their kids
while they work, shifting
the cost of sports from
those who choose to
participate to those who do
not.”
Rice said the council
began looking at revising
the schedule in October
of 2017. She said they
received feedback from
representatives at each
building, but there was no
official survey of teachers
before making the deci-
sion.
Linn said teachers had
to seek out their building
representatives to give
them their input.
“The only teachers that
ever got a say were the ed
council,” he said.
Hermiston Athletics and
Activities Director Larry
Usher said in an email that
last year, Hermiston had
734 total participants in its
athletics program. But he
said that the number did
not include students that
travel and compete in other
activities, such as band and
choir. He said with those
students, he estimated there
would be more than 900
students participating in
school activities. He added
that next year, the district
anticipates a growing
freshman class and an
increase in the number of
students that participate in
athletics and activities.
“It should be noted that
missed class time for our
students is only part of the
concern,” Usher said. “The
missed class time for those
teachers that also coach
those sports that are trav-
eling will impact an even
greater number of students
in our building.”
Linn said he planned to
speak against the proposed
change at the school board
meeting on Feb. 12.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan
at
jramakrishnan@eastore-
gonian.com or 541-564-
4534
STUDENT
OF THE
WEEK
SPENCER WELLS
Senior - McLoughlin High School
Spencer Wells is a Senior at Mac-Hi. Spencer
is part of our Mac-Hi Leadership and a 3 year
lettermen in football and wrestling. He is a
member of our Crimson and Black Honor
Choir and 2017 prom and homecoming
court. Spencer is active in his church youth
group as well as a Eagle Scout. His parents
are John and Amy Wells.
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