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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2018)
U.S VOWS TO HELP STATES MORE IN FIGHTING WILDFIRES ‘QUEEN OF SOUL’ ARETHA FRANKLIN 1942-2018 WEATHER/2A RECORDS/5A FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2018 142nd Year, No. 205 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Your Weekend • • • Wheatstock festival rocks Helix on Saturday Pilot Rock hosts reunion this weekend Rock & Roll campers perform Friday For times and places www.eastoregonian.com Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 90/57 90/58 93/61 Tolls may be coming to I-5, 205 in Portland By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau The Oregon Transpor- tation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to seek federal approval for tolling Interstates 5 and 205 through the Portland area and to study creating a seamless loop of tollways around the city. Commissioners on Thurs- day authorized the Oregon Department of Transpor- tation to analyze the feasi- bility of tolling I-5, I-205, Interstate 405, Interstate 84, U.S. Route 26, State High- way 217 and sections of U.S. Route 30. The tolled segments of each interstate would form a loop around the city to prevent diver- sion onto neighborhood streets and to maximize the reduction of congestion, said Commissioner Sean O’Hollaren. “In my view you create a donut, a beltway, a loop that doesn’t have gaps in it,” O’Hollaren said. “I think you need to look at how do you make a complete loop around the Portland Met- ropolitan Area that prices that congestion and that we are looking very seriously to what alternatives people have to get around that same property. Are we incentiviz- ing carpooling to the max, are we creating ways peo- See TOLLS/12A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Dan Slagle is a journeyman forecaster at the National Weather Service station for the Pendleton region. Forecasting wildfires Meteorologists based in Pendleton support ground effort during fire season By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian As they sit at their screens in a small office outside Pendleton, a group of meteorol- ogists can already tell what the rest of the population is soon going to find out the hard way: it’s another smoky day in Oregon. Dan Slagle looks at the high-resolution rapid-refresh smoke map on his screen and laughs. “It’s not going anywhere,” he said. While those on the ground fighting fires are most associated with stopping the blaze, local meteorologists from the National Weather Service are busy behind the scenes, communicating with firefighters and emer- gency agencies to help them anticipate what’s coming next. On Tuesday morning, they go over what they’re expecting that day — deteriorat- ing air quality, smoke pouring in from Can- ada, and a chance of thunderstorms over the mountains. Later, meteorologist John Peck will advise fire agencies and other groups about the fire weather forecast, in a series of con- ference calls. “They’ll go over what they think the concerns are with air quality, how bad they think the smoke’s going to be,” Slagle said. Meteorologists can also do a forecast Staff photo by E.J. Harris Meteorologist Dan Slagle works on the weather forecast for the region Wednesday at the National Weather Service station in Pendleton. report for a specific location, called a “spot forecast,” to provide specific advice about temperature, moisture and wind — that helps firefighters determine which angles to avoid or focus on when attacking a fire. Though most meteorologists are not at the scene, there are incident meteorologists who will travel to a fire, giving updates and forecasts for the weather conditions at the site. Covering a big region Slagle is new a journeyman forecaster at the National Weather Service station for the Pendleton region. The region, or County Warning Area, extends north to Ellens- burg, Washington, west to The Dalles, south to Bend, and east to Joseph. Their cover- age area includes John Day, Walla Walla, See METEOROLOGISTS/12A PENDLETON Future Farm’s funding fizzles out Event landed Yamaha, couldn’t sustain itself By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian EO file photo The Yamaha Fazer unmanned crop spray helicopter flies a demo flight over a vineyard during the Future Farm Expo at Echo West Ranch & Vineyard outside of Echo on August 17, 2017. Jeff Lorton doesn’t want to declare the Oregon UAS Future Farm Expo dead. He prefers the terms “in stasis” or “on life support.” Regardless of the terminology, there will be no Future Farm Expo at the Pendleton Convention Cen- ter this year, ending the agricultural unmanned aerial systems exposition after two years in Eastern Oregon. The expo was a key part of Future Farm, a Pendleton-based project meant to connect farms with UAS companies looking to test their agri- cultural technology. The city bankrolled the Future Farm through a $150,000 grant from SOAR Oregon, a now-defunct non- profit funded in part by Oregon State Lottery money, and added $10,000 of its own. Pendleton signed a contract with Duke Joseph, an advertising agency, to run the Future Farm, promote it, and create a database of contacts from the agriculture and technology industries. Lorton, Duke Joseph’s co-owner, said his company had done events similar to the Future Farm Expo in Yamhill County and Kennewick. Future Farm held the Ag Drone Rodeo at an air strip near Stanfield in 2016, rebranding it the Future Farm Expo in 2017 when it moved to the Pendleton Convention Center. Lorton said the problem with keep- See FARM/12A
