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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2018)
WEEKEND EDITION TRACK STARS RUN AT UMATILLA WORLD/9A U.S. BOMBS SYRIAN CAPITAL SPORTS/1B SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2018 142nd Year, No. 127 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD KNOW THE DRILL SCHOOL SHOOTER SCENARIO TESTS RESPONSE Perry says BPA won’t be sold off Agency likely to increase surcharge after recent dam spill ruling By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Boardman Police officer Corey Rose, left, and Lt. Loren Dieter engage with a hostage taker during an active shoot- er drill Friday at Riverside High School in Boardman. More than 400 school officials, students and law enforce- ment officers participated in the exercise. By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian T he student was tall, dressed all in black, strode into the main hallway at the Boardman high school and fired two rounds from a handgun. No one was hit. Riverside Junior-Se- nior High School already was in lockdown. Minutes before the shooter entered Friday morning, an agitated father had taken the front office staff hostage. Dozens of observers in the school’s auditorium watched all the drama unfold on TV and projection screens during the largest school shooter drill ever in Eastern Oregon. Boardman Police Chief Rick Stokoe and Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts organized the law enforcement end, while the Morrow County School District coordinated the education side. Staff from 18 school districts were on hand, along with representatives from eight law enforcement agencies, including the sheriff’s offices of Union and Morrow counties, and Boardman fire and ambulance services. Morrow County school students, staff and teachers volunteered to play various Staff photo by E.J. Harris Police officers from multiple agencies clear classrooms of victims during an active shooter drill on Friday in Boardman. rolls. Almost 400 people in all watched or participated, including 45 students and 260 members of the school district. Everyone gathered in the gym before the drill started. Stokoe announced only two people knew the whole scenario. “This is going to be a surprise for everyone,” he said. “But not too big a surprise.” And given all the drill was trying to accomplish, he said, “If it went off perfect, I would be amazed.” Police checked every person — including each other — for weapons of any sort. Groups then headed to their destinations, be that school rooms or See DRILL/10A Cheap electricity has helped bring industrial development to the Pacific Northwest, but utility companies fear decisions regarding the Bonneville Power Administration will increase rates. Some good news came Thursday, when Energy Secretary Rick Perry told Rep. Greg Walden that his department will not move to sell off the Bonneville Power Administration’s assets without going through Congress. The idea to privatize BPA, which provides wholesale power to electric utilities across the Pacific Northwest, was proposed by the Donald Trump admin- istration last summer. It received strong pushback from Oregon lawmakers. “It is the one idea — bad idea — that unites all of us in the Northwest,” Walden told Perry, according to a video of Thurs- day’s hearing before the Congressional Subcommittee on Energy in Washington, D.C. “I’m afraid this move could do nothing but harm my constituents, drive up electricity costs, and hurt consumers across the region.” He asked Perry if he could assure him the Department of Energy “will leave Bonneville alone unless Congress provides explicit authorization.” “Yes, sir,” Perry replied. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon) also spoke against privatization of the BPA during the hearing, noting that the BPA takes no appropriations from Congress, but rather operates solely on the revenue it earns from wholesale power sales. He stated that the wholesaler provides half the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest and three-fourths of the region’s high-voltage transmission grid. “Selling off these transmission assets would fragment the grid, be devastating to the region and provide a meager one-time asset that would not have any long-term beneficial effects with regard to our economy,” he told Perry. The fate of Bonneville Power Adminis- tration has repercussions on local utilities such as Umatilla Electric Cooperative, which gets 85 to 90 percent of its power from BPA. Steve Meyers, UEC spokesman, said in an email that customer-owned utilities in the region are concerned about the consequences of taking the system out of See BPA/10A HERMISTON High-end housing developer sets sights on 350-acre property By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian As Hermiston homes continue to be snapped up almost as soon as they hit the market, some relief could be coming in the form of a major new housing development off Highway 207 and Feedville Road. There is still work to be done — including a re-platting process through the city to divide the property into residential lots — before developer Don Howell of Columbia Basin Land, LLC can say for certain the project will happen. But he is optimistic. Howell said it is too soon to say for certain what size all of the lots will be, or how many of each type of housing would be built in the first phase of the project. But overall he envisions a mixed-use “master-planned” development called The Hayfields, featuring a variety of housing options interspersed with open fields, trails, community gardens and a building to serve as a gathering space. “There is an unfilled demand for quality housing in this community,” he said. There is room on the 350-acre property for hundreds of homes, even with Howell’s plan to leave some areas open space to give residents a view of vegetation instead of the back of their neighbor’s house. While he envisions streets of more compact lots serving snowbirds who spend part of the year in another state and families looking for affordable housing, he also wants to provide larger lots for people who want to live in city limits but have some extra land. On the bluff with a north-facing See PROPERTY/9A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Columbia Basin Land, LLC, would like to develop on their 350-acre property on Feedville Road southwest of Hermiston.
