REGION
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
East Oregonian
Finalists announced for
Port of Morrow GM
IRRIGON
Melons and music
Lip sync contest
and marimba artist
keep groove going
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Stephen Pells dutifully
mouthed the words to his
song at the Irrigon Water-
melon Festival’s lip sync
contest Saturday, but it
was his dancing that likely
allowed him to retain his
crown.
Stephen was the first one
on the stage, where he per-
formed Silento’s 2015 hit
“Watch Me (Whip/Nae
Nae).”
He not only lip synced to
the song, but also performed
all the dances that are men-
tioned in the song, includ-
ing the whip, the nae nae,
the stanky leg, the break
your legs, the duff, and the
superman.
The lip sync contest is
in its second year after a
12-year break from the Irri-
gon Watermelon Festival,
an attempt to revive a popu-
lar event of yesteryear for a
new generation of children,
according to event coordina-
tor Charlene Cooley.
Cooley said not as many
children participated this
year as they did in 2017, but
it still found an audience.
“It just takes one kids,
and then all the other kids
start to flock around,” she
said.
Performing first meant he
Photo by Antonio Sierra
Stephen Pells dances along to “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” during the lip sync con-
test at the Irrigon Watermelon Festival Saturday.
would have to sit back and
watch the rest of the compe-
tition as they performed their
renditions of “Barbie Girl,”
“Ring of Fire,” “Happy” and
“Let it Go.”
One girl even lip synced
“Uptown Funk,” the song
Stephen lip synced to when
he won the 2017 contest.
But in the end, Stephen’s
non-singing and very real
dance moves would not be
denied as he won this year’s
contest based an informal
applause meter.
His reward? “Cold, hard
cash,” according to the
emcee.
After Stephen collected
his $50 prize, he explained
that he practiced for quite
a while in preparation for a
title defense.
Learning a half dozen
dances was not easy, and
when asked which was the
hardest to learn, young Ste-
phen was resolute: “All of
them.”
The Irrigon Watermelon
Festival has the titular fruit
for sale and seed spitting
contest, but it’s more than
just melons.
The sweet green and
red gourds are not directly
involved in the car show, the
numerous raffles, the car-
nival games or the lip sync
contest.
It took a while for Aly-
sen Hesselroth to find the
marimba, but it led to an
unlikely career for the Oth-
ello, Washington-native.
Performing as Aly the
Traveling Marimba Busker,
Hesselroth added a trop-
ical feel to the warm Irri-
gon afternoon, striking the
wooden bars with two mal-
lets in each hand and playing
a combination of pop songs
and instrumentals.
In between some of her
songs, Hesselroth explained
that she was used to play-
ing at sidewalks and farmers
markets.
“I’m used to moving
crowds, so I have to remind
myself to do the banter,” she
told the audience.
As she packed up her
marimba after the set ended,
Hesselroth, 30, explained
how her career in busk-
ing evolved from her
time at Washington State
University.
A music major, Hessel-
roth was originally a pianist
before a professor suggested
she look at joining a percus-
sion ensemble.
She was blown away by
the instrumentation, and
learned the marimba to join
the ensemble.
But the thought of busk-
ing didn’t really occur to her
until she took road trips to
Austin, the musically rich
capital of Texas, and Burn-
ing Man, the radical art gath-
ering in the Nevada desert.
BOARDMAN
Lost Valley owner defends against contempt charge
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
PORTLAND — The
owner of Lost Valley Farm
near Boardman claims the
state government wants to shut
down the facility just as it’s
about to comply with waste-
water regulations.
Oregon farm regulators
are seeking a court order to
stop the dairy from producing
wastewater — which would
effectively halt operations —
because it’s disregarding a pre-
vious legal settlement.
Greg te Velde, the owner,
said there have been “some
spills and splashes” at the
facility but maintains they’ve
been “nothing catastrophic.”
Though he acknowl-
edged defaulting on the legal
agreement, te Velde said he’d
always intended to honor the
deal despite facing “a steep
learning curve.”
Upgrades to the dairy
will soon mitigate wastewa-
ter problems, te Velde said
during a July 27 court hearing
in Portland.
“I think we’re on the cusp
of having it all done,” he said.
In March, Lost Valley Farm
settled a lawsuit with the Ore-
gon Department of Agricul-
ture by agreeing to limit its
wastewater output to 65,000
gallons a day.
Since then, however, the
dairy has violated the deal
by exceeding that threshold
almost daily and failing to
maintain adequate capacity in
manure lagoons, for which te
Velde should be held in con-
tempt of court, according to
ODA.
“On most of these days,
it’s a pretty significant excess
use,” testified Wym Matthews,
manager of ODA’s confined
animal feeding operation
program.
According to ODA’s esti-
mates, the excess ranged from
19,000 to 375,000 gallons per
day, he said.
The agency also esti-
mates the amount of manure
applied to six of seven nearby
fields surpassed the agronomic
requirements of crops, which
is prohibited due to the possi-
bility of nitrogen pollution.
“It consumes those nutri-
ents so they don’t become pol-
lutants, so that balance is criti-
cal,” Matthews said.
Although ODA is in the
process of revoking the dairy’s
“confined animal feeding
operation” permit, it will take
two months for that action to
become final, or even longer
if the order is contested by te
Velde.
Because wastewater vio-
lations at the dairy haven’t
ceased, there’s a “serious risk”
of groundwater contamination
unless the situation is brought
under control this summer, the
agency claims.
It’s “particularly important”
for Lost Valley Farm to com-
ply with CAFO permit condi-
tions because it’s in the “envi-
ronmentally sensitive” Lower
Umatilla Groundwater Man-
agement Area, which already
has elevated levels of nitrate
contaminants, the agency said.
ODA is worried that pollut-
ants from the dairy will even-
tually reach groundwater,
even if they haven’t yet, said
Matthews.
“Our concern is the opera-
tor is loading the soil,” he said.
If the soil continues to be
loaded with nitrogen, pollut-
ants would be expected to
reach the groundwater within
two years under water-sat-
urated conditions, said Kirk
Cook, a geologist and program
manager of ODA’s pesticide
stewardship program.
However, the nitrogen
remains immobile when the
soil isn’t saturated and the
dairy is in an arid part of the
state, he said.
The ODA has requested
that Multnomah County Cir-
cuit Judge Kelly Skye issue
remedial sanctions requir-
ing Lost Valley Farm to cease
wastewater production within
60 days and remove waste
from lagoons to free up 75
acre-feet of storage capacity.
Of the all dairies inspected
by ODA this year, the facil-
ity was the only one to have a
lagoon overflow and the only
one that didn’t turn over agro-
nomic data, said Matthews.
The dairy began construc-
tion of a fourth manure lagoon
to alleviate the storage prob-
lems, but it didn’t first notify
ODA to ensure the con-
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Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
tor of operations for Haney
Truck Line and regional
sales manager for Knight
Transportation, according
to informati.
Gardner works for Next-
Level: Building Enterprise
Value and is from Selah,
Washington. He is the for-
mer CEO of Larson Fruit
Company, former CEO of
United Pump & Supply
and has an MBA in market-
ing, finance and accounting
from University of Texas.
Seamans is a certified
public accountant and is the
community and economic
development manager for
Benton-Franklin Council of
Goverments in Kennewick.
She is the former busi-
ness development manager
and CPA for the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
Wilhelm also lives in
Kennewick and is currently
project manager for Boise/
PCA Paper Mill in Wallula,
Washington, through QBM
Management, Inc. He is fhe
former plant manager of
Zeachem, Inc.
Man fails at armed robbery
HERMISTON — The
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Office is looking for the sus-
pect that tried but failed to
pull off an armed robbery.
Two employees of the
Short Stop Gas, 32553 E.
Punkin Center Road, Herm-
iston, were working outside
Sunday morning at about
4:15 when an armed man
approached on foot from the
road. The sheriff’s office in
a written statement reported
the suspect held a black rifle
and covered his face in a
dark green bandanna.
“According
to
the
employees,” the sheriff’s
office reported, “the sus-
pect ordered one of them to
go inside the store. Instead,
both employees ran across
Highway 207 and called
911.”
They also told law
enforcement the suspect
tried to open the store’s cash
register, but it was locked.
When he could not open the
register, he bolted from the
store, taking nothing.
He ran west on East Pun-
kin Center and got into a
white four-door sedan. The
car headed west on East
Punkin Center, the sheriff’s
office reported.
The employees told the
sheriff’s office the suspect
was about 6 feet to 6 feet
2 inches tall and weighed
approximately
120-140
pounds. He wore a black
hooded sweatshirt, a black
baseball cap, dark-col-
ored gloves and white plaid
shorts with lime green and
navy stripes and white socks
that covered his calves.
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BOARDMAN — Final-
ists for the Port of Mor-
row manager position will
be available for a meet and
greet with the public next
Monday.
The
port’s
board
announced Monday after-
noon that the finalists are
Dean Gardner, Ryan D. Neal,
Stephanie Seamans and Peter
M. Wilhelm. They will attend
a meet and greet at the River-
front Room, 2 Marine Drive
in Boardman, from 5-7 p.m.
on Aug. 6. Appetizers and
non-alcoholic beverages will
be provided, and the final-
ists will give a short speech at
5:30 p.m.
The candidate chosen for
the general manager job by
the port’s board will replace
longtime Port of Morrow
manager Gary Neal, who
is retiring at the end of the
year.
Finalist Ryan Neal is
Gary Neal’s son. He is cur-
rently the general manager
of warehousing for the Port
of Morrow and the only
finalist from Boardman.
He was formerly direc-
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struction complied with
waste management plans, as
required, he said.
“That is a general theme
— showing up to find things
we should have known
about,” said Matthews.
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