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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2018)
REGION Saturday, March 10, 2018 East Oregonian Democrat on the road to oust Walden HERMISTON Police to respond to school fire alarms By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Jamie McLeod-Skinner hauls her dog and a teardrop trailer across Eastern Oregon in her bid win the Democratic Party nomination for the 2nd District Congressional District and the right to face Greg Walden in November. Thursday she was in Canyon City and Friday in Pendleton. Tuesday she will be in The Dalles for the Wasco County Democrats monthly meeting. She said she spent nine months of the campaign with her ear to the ground, talking to locals across the seventh-largest congressional district in the country. “I’m a big advocate of local wisdom,” she said, while also a fan of data and information to inform policy decisions. Issues vary from one end of the district to the other, she said, but housing, health care and net neutrality are common issues. She said she wants to see broadband access in rural areas, incen- tives for renewable energy development and social infrastructure to address the opioid addiction crisis. The district has plenty of differences, but McLeod- Skinner said she sees a strong sense of unity throughout. “The thing that cuts across the board is we all care about out families,” she said. “We care about our communities.” McLeod-Skinner grad- uated high school in 1985 in southern Oregon, earned a degree in water law from the University of Oregon and said she is a lifelong Democrat. The former city manager for Phoenix, Oregon, McLeod-Skinner now lives with her wife in Terrebonne in Jefferson County. She said her wife’s family has ranched in Jordan If you see police showing up to a Hermiston school in tactical gear, it may be nothing more than a false alarm. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston announced Friday that from now on, available on-duty and patrol officers will be responding to any local school, public or private, that has an unex- pected fire alarm go off. He said he’s aware that people driving by may be alarmed to see multiple officers arriving at a school and donning protective helmets, vests and rifles. But past school shooters — including the recent high school shooting in Parkland, Florida — have pulled fire alarms as a way to draw more people into the hallways, and the new policy could cause the move to backfire on someone intending to harm students by bringing law enforcement to the school before the first 9-1-1 call. “Our focus is the safety of the students,” Edmiston said. The downside is from time to time local schools do have false alarms, either accidentally or as a result of a student purposely pulling an alarm when there is no fire. Hermiston schools are well-equipped with cameras, Edmiston said, and if a student pulls an alarm on purpose because they think it is funny they could be charged with disorderly conduct. “It’s like yelling fire in a movie theater or yelling bomb on a plane,” he said. “There’s some things you just don’t do.” Whether it’s a false alarm or not, the public can help by treating the appear- ance of police seriously and not interfering with officers. If it turns out the fire alarm Staff photo by Kathy Aney Jamie McLeod-Skinner and her dog hit the road to campaign around Oregon’s 2nd District. The Terrebonne resident and former city manager of Phoenix, Oregon, describes herself as a “rural Democrat.” Hood River, has been in office since 1999 and has more than $3 million cash on hand, according to opensecrets. org, which tracks campaign finances. McLeod-Skinner said to counter that she has a large team of dedicated volun- teers. She also is putting in time and miles in the district. God, guns and guts matter out here, and guts is maybe where challengers can carve into Walden. Constituents have slammed the representative for skipping on public appearances, partic- ularly in the wake of prom- ising last year not to support health care legislation that cut pre-exisiting conditions, only to vote for the Republican plan to do just that in repealing the Affordable Care Act. Voters want to see leaders held accountable, McLeod- Skinner said, and to see their elected representatives take a stand against divisiveness, such as when President Donald Trump demeans or criticizes some groups. “We don’t have that kind of leadership from our represen- tative,” she said. McLeod-Skinner is going up again six Democrats for the nomination. The field consists of: Michael Byrne, stonemason from Parkdale; Jim Crary, retired attorney and oil company executive from Ashland; Eric Burnette, mariner from Hood River; Jennifer Neahrin, physician from Bend; Tim White, former automotive chief financial officer from Bend; and Raz Mason, a hospital chaplain from The Dalles. McLeod-Skinner and several of the Dems are coming for candidate forums March 22 in La Grande and March 23, 6-8 p.m., at the Bob Clapp Theatre, Blue Mountain Community College, Pend- leton. Elgin trapper gets probation after killing wolf ELGIN — David Sanders Jr. of Elgin will serve two years probation and pay $7,500 after shooting a gray wolf he illegally trapped. Sanders, 58, pleaded guilty on Feb. 26 in Union County Circuit Court, La Grande, to a misdemeanor of using unbranded traps to take wildlife. The state dismissed one count of taking a special status game mammal in was from an actual fire, police can then help with traffic and crowd control as the fire department does its job. Edmiston said when law enforcement arrives at a school, likely ahead of the fire trucks, they will not prevent fire personnel from entering the building before police have made contact with a school administrator to find out what is going on. He said he notified Umatilla County Fire District 1 of the plan and will have a sit-down to discuss it in depth next week. “I told them, we’re not going to call a false alarm, that’s your job,” he said. “And we’ll try and park out of the way, let them do their job.” Edmiston has also worked with Hermiston School District Superin- tendent Tricia Mooney and director of operations Brad Wayland on plans for future fire alarms. Maria Duron, communications officer for the school district, said in an email the district supports the police depart- ment’s decision to respond to fire alarm activations. They also plan to make the department aware of sched- uled drills ahead of time. “Should the fire alarms go off in our schools unplanned, we will be investigating the cause, staff and students will follow safety procedures and we will notify the public,” she said. Edmiston said there has been some concern in recent years about the “mili- tarization” of police but the vests, helmets and rifles that police will put on over their regular uniforms would help protect them and give them a better chance against an active shooter. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Valley in the southeastern corner of the state for 100 years. She calls herself a “rural Democrat.” She said the Democratic Party has focused too much on the urban areas while Republicans have been beholden to corporations. Both leave out rural residents. Government also can’t step in and take on a problem on its own, she said, there needs to be partnerships and local solu- tions. And while she supports polices to keep water clean, for example, the implementa- tion matters. “We need to make it easier for folks to have their liveli- hood work,” she said. She also said voters see incumbent Rep. Greg Walden has shifted his focus from the district. “The issues that are really impacting people’s living, he is not stepping up,” she said. Walden, a Republican from exchange for Sanders’ plea. The parties agreed to a sentence of probation, the fine, 100 hours of community service and the suspension of Sanders’ hunting/trapping license for three years. Oregon State Police reported the shooting occurred in December west of Elgin in the Umatilla National Forest. Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel in a written statement reported this was illegal trapping and not wolf poaching because Sanders “was not out to illegally take a wolf but instead made a poor decision with respect to his trapping operation.” If Sanders reported the wolf in his trap when he found it, she continued, the state would not have filed criminal charges. Page 3A Sanders had a previous violation for unbranded trapping in Baker County in 2016. SHOP ONLINE 24/7 HERMISTONCDJR.COM Hermiston police arrest man for indecent exposure HERMISTON — Herm- iston Police arrested a man Thursday, and an investiga- tion is pending on indecent exposure at North First Street. Officers arrested Jeffery Hawkins, 58, of Hermiston, on a warrant for failure to appear. Hawkins claimed he was not exposing himself, but urinating in public, which Hermiston police chief Jason Edmiston said is also a citable offense. Hawkins has been arrested several times in Umatilla and Morrow counties. On Wednesday, Umatilla School District also reported that a male in a van had exposed himself to a student, and as of Friday morning the school district said no suspect had been found. 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