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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2018)
EIGHT DIE IN WRECK NEAR CRANE CALIFORNIA RETHINKING POT RULES REGION/3A NORTHWEST/2A WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2018 142nd Year, No. 203 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Smoke from Washington descends over Oregon DEQ issues air quality advisory, forecasts it to stay through weekend By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris A haze hangs over downtown Pendleton on Tuesday as smoke from regional wild- fires has inundated the region. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued an air quality advisory for much of Northeastern Oregon advising resi- dents to avoid prolonged outdoor activities. PENDLETON At various points Tues- day afternoon, Pendleton had the worst air quality in the state. Due to wildfires in Wash- ington, Pendleton had a par- ticulate matter of 173 at 3 p.m., according to the Ore- gon Department of Environ- mental Quality. Considered “unhealthy” by the DEQ’s air quality index, Pendleton’s air qual- ity was considered worse than several sites in Jack- son and Josephine counties, which have been inundated with smoke from fires in southern Oregon and north- ern California for weeks. DEQ spokeswoman Katherine Benenati said the department was issuing an air quality warning for much of the Interstate 84 corridor, including northeast Oregon. Although the DEQ isn’t attributing the smoke to a specific fire in Washing- ton, there are several fires in central Washington that have burned thousands of acres and are far from containment. According to a DEQ press release, the smoke is expected to remain in north- eastern Oregon through the weekend, although light winds may clear some of it on Thursday. The Umatilla County See SMOKE/8A HERMISTON Family alleges officer beat, injured teen Police investigating actions after arrest during scuffle By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian A Pendleton police officer is under investigation following allegations of brutality. Chief Stuart Roberts said so far, those allegations don’t match with what police are finding. But the 15-year-old boy and his mother said an officer choked him and struck him on his head when he was trying to return his dog home. The East Oregonian generally does not identify minors facing criminal charges. The EO also has not identified the offi- cers involved because they remain on duty and are not facing criminal charges. The teen and his family live off South- west 18th Street, which ends at the Uma- tilla River levee. They said the evening of July 29 several juveniles came from the direction of the levee and squared off to fight in the street near their home. About then, someone opened the front door, and Apollo, the teen’s 8-month-old pit bull mix, took off at a dead run and headed to the levee. The teen said he gave chase and caught the dog a few blocks away at Trailhead Park. The juveniles who were in the fight also headed that way, he said, and police followed. He scooped up the dog, but an officer told him to stop. “I said no,” he said he responded, “I’m taking my dog home.” The officer grabbed his right wrist, he See OFFICER/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Dr. Rose was a dentist who originally occupied one of the offices in the top of the old Swayze bank building on Main Street in Hermiston. Mitch Myers has remodeled the top floor of the old bank. Old buildings get new lives Fast-growing city faces challenges in protecting its past By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian T here are pieces of Hermiston’s his- tory that have been preserved in boxes of photographs at locals’ homes and a few scattered historic buildings. An archway from the previous iter- ation of Armand Larive Middle School — once known as Union High School — stands near the public library as a testament to the many school buildings Hermiston has seen come and go over its more than century-long history. But Hermiston doesn’t have any buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, despite being the big- gest city in a county that has 42 sites on the registry (Pendleton has 16 of those; Echo has 10). Carlisle Harrison, one of Hermiston’s history enthusiasts, said some of the city’s lack of historical preservation has to do with how the town developed. It was small and very poor for the first few decades of its existence (the town was incorporated in 1907), then saw a pop- ulation explosion during the building of the McNary Dam and Umatilla Chemi- cal Depot in the 1940s. At that point no one was as worried about eye-pleasing architecture as they were about getting buildings up fast and cheap. The results, he said, were a lot of buildings that were “nothing to write home about” and not built to last into the 21st century. “Things were practical and inexpen- sive,” he said. “In Pendleton the mon- eyed wheat farmers came into town and built nice houses.” Harrison said that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing — it contributed to the reputa- tion Hermiston still has today of being a friendly, welcoming town where it doesn’t matter whether you were born there. “In some respects, people had more to do with each other and not so much with the things we have,” he said. It has also made it easier to develop and modernize without worrying about historic preservation. The downside is that today Hermiston lacks the “historic downtown” approach to draw tourists. There is no grand, his- toric city hall building. The Oasis theater that used to sit on Main Street is gone, as is the old hotel. A tall brick cathedral with stained glass windows from the early days of the city was replaced with a Chevron station. Dick Lowry, another of Hermiston’s unofficial historians, said Hermiston See BUILDINGS/8A “Things were practical and inexpensive.” — Carlisle Harrison, Hermiston history enthusiast, on the city’s buildings in the mid-20th century
