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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2018)
CITATIONS PILE UP FOR STANFIELD PET FOOD PLANT BACK ON TOP REGION/3A LITTLE LEAGUE/1B ROE V. WADE AND THE HIGH COURT FAITH/9A FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2018 142nd Year, No. 190 Your Weekend Fire burns to edge of Weston Fire chief ‘knocked on doors like crazy’ during evacuation • • • Have a swell time at Hermiston Funfest Celebrate Scottish roots in Athena Old-time fun at Heritage Days For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Weekend Weather Fri 103/64 Sat 95/63 Sun 101/65 Watch a game One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD By PHIL WRIGHT and BRITTANY NORTON East Oregonian Firefighters from multiple agen- cies contained a fire Thursday after- noon that burned right up to back yards in Weston. The fire scorched a large swath of land southeast of town, including an unharvested wheat field, but did not destroy any homes. Tom Roberts, Umatilla County emergency manager, said the blaze prompted a level 3 evacuation for residents on Hill and State streets, meaning they had to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Sev- eral people took up garden hoses to Staff photo by Brittany Norton A fire Thursday afternoon burned fields and approached the city of Weston, but crews stopped the blaze from damaging homes. try to create a buffer between their homes and the fire. Weston resident Melanie Hearn said she was at a doctor’s appoint- ment in Walla Walla when she started getting phone calls from family members who expressed concern about her house. She said her daughter, who no longer lives with her, got a call about the fire around 2 p.m. and traveled to her house to water down the back yard. Hearn’s home was one of several the blaze nearly affected with the charred field coming right up to her fence line. “It’s kind of a wake-up call,” said Hearn, who started worrying about the insurance on her possessions. Hearn said her family has seen fires from their back yard in the past, but nothing this close. “Every year it’s kind of worri- some,” she said. Raeana Mikel was babysitting at her sister’s home overlooking the town from the top of West Mill Street. She said gloom come over the town and she went outside to investigate. “There was just smoke every- where,” she said. She said she watched as fire engines and other emergency vehi- See FIRE/10A vs. France vs. Croatia World Cup Final, Sunday, 8 a.m., FOX/Telemundo Initiative would require sixth graders study firearms By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Gun rights advocates have a filed an initiative petition that would mandate a firearms safety instruction class in the sixth grade at Oregon public schools. Initiative Petition 6 was filed July 11, by Ston McDaniel of Prineville and Jerrad Robison of Redmond for the Nov. 3, 2020, state- wide general election ballot. Robison also is chief peti- tioner for a gun rights initia- tive in Deschutes County. The Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance would allow the county sheriff to block enforcement of local, state or federal gun laws the sheriff deemed as unconstitutional. The proposal is the brain- child of Kevin Starrett, founder of the Oregon Fire- arms Federation, said Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Polk County, who is helping out with the initiative. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Rolling out the green carpet A machine is used to roll out sod in the cattle chute on Thursday as crews ready the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds for the Pendleton Whis- ky Music Fest. For more on preparing the arena for Saturday’s concert, see Page 10A. PENDLETON Deluxe packages could help cemetery cover costs Gravesites by man-made river near mausoleum would cost more, help parks department’s budget See FIREARMS/10A By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian EO file photo Willetta Powell and Tom Cooper use a backhoe to move a con- crete grave liner while preparing a grave site Feb. 12, 2010, at Olney Cemetery in Pendleton. It took $263,350 to staff and main- tain the Olney Cemetery last year, but that wasn’t nearly enough. Liam Hughes oversees Olney as the director of the Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department, and he and his department are assembling a business plan he hopes will both boost the 50-acre cemetery’s mainte- nance budget and decrease their reli- ance on property tax revenue from the general fund. Hughes said the plan would intro- duce some new ideas, but was mostly about enhancing the features the cemetery already has. For instance, Olney established a memorial garden north of the mauso- leum several years ago. The garden featured a fountain with plots around it, an idea the parks department wants to extend further. Hughes said the fountain plots sold like hotcakes, and under the business plan the parks department would build a man-made river in a small canyon that runs through the cemetery. The canyon has steep sides and shallow ground, making it unsuitable for caskets, but the riverbanks could “We’ve always had a one-size-fits-all approach, but that doesn’t always fit what people want.” — Liam Hughes, Pendleton parks director See CEMETERY/10A
