REGION
Friday, July 6, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
HERMISTON
Fourth of July is Butte-centric
Child drowns in pool
East Oregonian
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
As the sun went down
and the sound of neighbor-
hood fireworks began to fill
the air, Hermiston’s Fourth
of July celebration was still
going strong.
A pool party and 20 ven-
dors kept visitors busy, as
well as some new attractions
scattered around Butte Park.
Steve Vickers of Nampa,
Idaho, had brought 28 “bub-
ble balls” — four to five-foot
inflated balls with a hole in
the middle — into which a
child could be strapped.
Kids bumped into each
other and rolled around,
occasionally going rogue
and tumbling headfirst into
the sidelines.
“It’s been crazy,” Vickers
said between checking in the
long line of customers. “I’ve
been doing this about three
and a half years. I started
with 12 bubbles, and now I
have 90.”
Vickers said his com-
pany, Vickers Entertain-
ment, does between six and
eight events per week.
Brandon Artz, recre-
ation supervisor for the city
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Children play in bubbles balls on the soccer fields at Butte Park during the Fourth of
July celebration in Hermiston.
of Hermiston, said the turn-
out was good, and they
were expecting more peo-
ple to come as the fireworks
started at the park.
Artz said the biggest
change this year was the
way they were handling
parking lots.
“The biggest difference
is the exit strategy,” he said.
“We’re trying to do all right
turns out of parking lots.
Last year we had two acci-
dents right in front of the
pool.”
Artz said there were more
than 100 staff members
working the event, starting
at 8 a.m. and going till about
11 p.m. on Wednesday.
Many families got to the
park early, setting up blan-
kets and chairs in prime
spots.
The Zumaya family
relaxed under some trees in
the center of the park.
Flor and Juan and their
daughter Gisela said they
have lived in Hermiston for
six years, and have come to
the celebration before.
“To us, it’s not a big
deal,” Flor said. “It’s good.
It’s nice to be with family.”
Umatilla gets five-year STEAM grant
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Umatilla students can
learn as much outside of
class as they do in, with the
help of a grant the district
just received to fund science
and arts programs.
The district received a
five-year grant from the
Oregon Department of Edu-
cation, and will receive
$467,572 per year for the
first three years. The final
two years of the grant will
be funded at 75 percent.
Grant money will go
toward developing STEAM
— science, technology,
engineering, art and math
— programs.
Superintendent
Heidi
Sipe said the grant will
allow the district to sup-
plement existing programs,
as well as add some new
classes and services.
“We’ll get to add so many
cool things, like Saturday
classes and mental health,”
she said.
The district has an active
after-school program that
about 50 percent of students
attend, and offers classes
that are driven by student
interest and often taught by
high schoolers.
The grant will allow for
more classes, Sipe said,
and will especially focus
RVs meant
for camping,
not permanent
dwelling
East Oregonian
HEPPNER — The Mor-
row
County
Planning
Department is reminding
residents that recreational
vehicles can be a fun way to
travel during summer vaca-
tions but are not allowable as
a permanent residence out-
side of an RV park.
The department stated
in a news release that RVs
do not meet building code
standards that have been
“established to protect pub-
lic health, safety and wel-
HERMISTON — A two
year-old girl drowned in a
swimming pool outside a
residence in Hermiston on
Thursday morning.
Hermiston
Police
reported that around 9:49
a.m. Thursday, they and
Umatilla County Fire Dis-
trict were dispatched to a
neighborhood on East Main
Street. A family member of
the child was already con-
ducting CPR. Officers said
despite efforts by family,
emergency personnel from
UCFD and Good Shepherd
Medical Center, the child
could not be revived.
Hermiston Police Cap-
tain Travis Eynon said in
a press release that the
EO file photo
Alexander Gutierrez, second from right, instructs a
group of campers in August 2016 on how to program a
robot during the Greater Oregon Science Engineering
and Math camp in Umatilla.
on expanding arts opportu-
nities. Previously, the after-
school program focused on
“STEM” — science, tech-
nology, engineering and
math — but Sipe said they
are added to include more
art components.
“We’re looking at dance,
probably more drama offer-
ings than we had before,”
she said. “We’re really hop-
ing we can expand the anime
club.”
The grant will also fund
expansion of the district’s
mental health and adult edu-
cation programs.
“It’ll be a lot of the same
fare.” As such, using them
for camping in designated
camping areas is “wonderful
and encouraged” but other
uses can run afoul of Mor-
row County’s code enforce-
ment and zoning ordinances.
Temporary permits can
be obtained in certain cir-
cumstances, including medi-
cal hardship and during con-
struction of a new dwelling.
RVs can also be used as tem-
porary housing to accom-
modate visitors of a primary
residence in a residential or
farm zone for less than 30
days in a 12-month period.
For further information,
contact the Morrow County
Planning Department at
541-922-4624 or visit www.
co.morrow.or.us/planning.
mental health services
offered during the day,”
Sipe said. “But the chal-
lenge was that families had
to leave work, or kids would
have to leave class to partic-
ipate. This gives families the
option of having the same
services, after school and in
the evening.”
The district will also
expand the time and fund-
ing options for evening
education programs. Fam-
ily members can take GED,
ESL and parenting classes.
The district will now be
an approved GED testing
site, meaning fees will be
absorbed by the district, and
testing times will become
more flexible.
This year, Sipe said 26
people attended the ESL
class, and four are taking the
GED class.
Umatilla has had some
form of after-school pro-
gram since 2003, originally
funded with Title I money
and limited to reading and
math instruction. Sipe said
the first grant from the Ore-
gon Department of Educa-
tion’s 21st Century Commu-
nity Learning Center Title
IV-B was received in 2005.
A grant in 2013 allowed
them to expand the pro-
gram to include Friday after
school, when they conduct
many of their field trips.
“A lot of kids don’t get
to travel and experience
things outside our commu-
nity,” Sipe said. “So that’s
when we take them kayak-
ing with the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department,
to the planetarium, to Intel.
They get to explore career
opportunities.”
Sipe said initially, the
district was nervous about
applying for such a large
grant, and thought about
sticking to smaller grants.
“Ultimately, we decided
if we wanted to provide the
best quality program, we
needed to go for big fund-
ing,” she said.
department would not be
releasing names yet; there
did not appear to be any-
thing suspicious about the
death, and it appeared to be
an accidental drowning.
“Tragedies such as this
are obviously painful for
the family,” he said in a
written statement. “They
are also hard on our first
responders as well as our
entire community. Our
thoughts and prayers go
out to the family during
this difficult time.”
Eynon said the girl was
found in the in-ground
swimming pool shortly
after she went missing
from the yard. She and her
parents were from Utah
and were in Hermiston vis-
iting family.
BRIEFLY
Chase leads
to arrest near
Hermiston
STANFIELD — Stan-
field police on Thurs-
day arrested a man who
crashed his vehicle into a
ditch and fled on foot, lead-
ing police on a chase from
the Stanfield area to near
East Punkin Center and
South Edwards Road.
Officers arrested Kody
Michael Elmer, 23, shortly
before 5 p.m., and booked
him in the Umatilla County
Jail on charges of attempt
to elude, resisting arrest
and criminal trespass in the
second degree.
Elmer has been con-
victed of several crimes in
the past two years, all in
Linn County. They include
strangulation and stalking,
unlawful use of a weapon,
use of tear gas or mace in
the first degree, theft in the
first degree and identity
theft.
Boutique changes
schedule back to
three daily flights
PENDLETON — After
fielding several com-
plaints, Boutique Air
will return to its original
schedule.
In an email, airport
administrative specialist
Erica Stewart said she was
informed by Kristen Ball,
the customer service sta-
tion manager for Pendleton
and Portland.
“She had been get-
ting a lot of negative feed-
back and reached out to the
CEO, Shawn Simpson,”
she wrote. “He listened.”
Since mid-June, Bou-
tique has used a modified
schedule that shifted some
flights from Saturday to
Sunday and moved its first
daily flight from 8:05 a.m.
to 10:05 a.m.
According to Airport
Manager Steve Chrisman,
Boutique altered the sched-
ule to provide more flights
during times when more
passengers were boarding
planes.
Starting July 15, the San
Francisco-based
airline
will revert to a schedule
that will feature three daily
flights seven days a week.
While the schedule
change was meant to boost
boardings, airport enplane-
ment data shows that Bou-
tique continues to outpace
its first year in Pendleton,
and is the best since 2008.
Crash near
Warehouse Beach
injures man
HERMISTON — One
man suffered injuries from
a crash near Umatilla on
Tuesday and was life-
flighted to the Tri-Cities
for medical care.
A white Chevrolet SUV
driven by Dwight Finch
of Hermiston was travel-
ing westbound on High-
way 730 near milepost
194 about 5 p.m. when the
left front tire blew out and
the vehicle swerved, side-
swiping a motorcycle in
the eastbound lane. The
driver of the motorcycle,
John Torres of West Rich-
land, lost control and the
motorcycle fell on its left
side, skidding about 255
feet before going onto the
south gravel shoulder of
the road.
Torres was thrown
off and suffered a broken
leg, and was transported
by helicopter to Kadlec
Regional Medical Center
in Richland. The motor-
cycle had damage to the
entire left side, and the
SUV had damage to the
left front fender and mirror.
Forest Service unveils recreation
application, has nearly 10,000 downloads
East Oregonian
PORTLAND — Ore-
gon and Washington out-
door lovers have a new app
to help enjoy and navigate
national forests.
The United States For-
est Service Pacific North-
west Region announced
the recent launch of the
Pacific Northwest Forest
Service recreation app for
Android and Apple mobile
devices.
The app provides infor-
mation on hiking trails,
camping,
picnicking,
boating areas, and more
across 16 national forests,
one national scenic area
and two national volca-
nic monuments in Oregon
and Washington. The app
also provides information
on passes and fees, visitor
center locations and hours
and alerts on fires and road
closures.
Jim
Peña,
Pacific
Northwest regional for-
ester, in a news release
said “the app is a response
to people wanting more
mobile-friendly ways of
getting their hiking, camp-
ing, and other recreation
information.”
The Forest Service
released an Apple version
of the app in May, and it
has nearly 10,000 down-
loads with a 4.7 rating in
the Apple app store.
You can download the
app on Android or Apple.
To learn more about the
Forest Service in the
Pacific Northwest, please
visit www.fs.usda.gov.
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