East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, September 01, 2018, WEEKEND EDITION, Page Page 3A, Image 3

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    REGION
Saturday, September 1, 2018
East Oregonian
Hunter who hung upside-down
in tree for 2 days in coma
LA GRANDE (AP) — A
70-year-old Oregon hunter
who was rescued after hang-
ing upside-down for two
days about 30 feet above
ground was “hollering out”
for help, but a father-and-
son hunting duo who heard
him spent an hour and a half
searching for him because
they weren’t looking up, a
newspaper reported Friday.
Eddie
Voelker,
of
Prineville, Oregon, was
hunting earlier this week in
the remote, northeastern part
of the state when he slipped
off his tree stand and became
entangled in his safety har-
ness while hanging upside-
down. Voelker remained
conscious but could not
free himself, The Observer
reported.
Two days later, Steven
and Joseph Royston of Stay-
ton were hunting a short dis-
tance away and they heard
Voelker yelling for help.
He is now in critical con-
dition at a hospital in Rich-
land, Washington, where he
is in a drug-induced coma,
according to family friend
Jeanette Jacoby.
“We didn’t stumble on
him — he was hollering
out,” Steven Royston told
the newspaper. “We were
hunting about a mile or so
from his location and I heard
someone yelling. I knew we
needed to do something.”
Since Voelker’s yell-
ing was echoing in the for-
est, Royston and his son
drove around in their vehi-
cle so they could cover more
ground.
“My son honked the horn,
and we knew we were get-
ting closer to him (because)
once he heard the horn he
started yelling louder. He
kept it up so we could find
Contributed photo
him,” he said.
The hunters at first had
trouble because they were
looking at ground level, he
said.
“He said, ‘I’m up in the
tree,’” Royston recalled.
“Holy smokes. He was about
30 feet above and tangled in
the ropes from his tree stand.
His head was straight down,
(and he had) no way to get
himself down. We knew we
needed to get him help right
then.”
The Roystons drove
about 8 miles to get cell-
phone reception and called
911.
On the way, they flagged
down another car and told
that person to go sit with
Voelker.
They waited by the road
and were able to lead a res-
cue helicopter to Voelker, but
the helicopter crew didn’t
have the right equipment to
get him down, Royston said.
About 30 people from
all different local agen-
cies arrived, but no one
had equipment that was tall
enough to reach him.
Then, a paramedic with
the La Grande Fire Depart-
ment remembered seeing the
local electric utility train-
ing with their bucket trucks
to rescue linemen who are
injured on the job. The res-
cuers called Oregon Trail
Electric Co-Op and made
the unusual request for help.
“I wasn’t certain they
were going to play ball,”
Capt. Robert Tibbetts said.
“Not because they aren’t
helpful, but because it was
such an unusual request. It
was rolling the dice.”
Tibbetts said that being
upside down for an extended
length of time can lead to
poor circulation and a mul-
titude of issues — poten-
tially life-threatening — for
the body once it’s upright.
It was actually better that
Voelker hadn’t been able to
right himself when no para-
medics were around, he said,
because it could have been
much worse.
“We knew the likelihood
of cardiac arrest is extraor-
dinarily high. We knew we
couldn’t barge in and put him
in the (bucket) truck without
doing treatment first,” Tib-
betts said. “We were forced
to slow it down a bit and deal
with the medical side of it
while developing a plan for
the actual rescue.”
The U.S. Forest Ser-
vice set up a rope system
to slowly lower Voelker
into the bucket, and as they
started to do that — and as
he became more upright —
his medical condition dete-
riorated rapidly. Voelker’s
heart stopped briefly, but
rescuers got a pulse back
before he was loaded onto a
helicopter.
PENDLETON
City seeks OK for UAS industrial park utility plans
East Oregonian
The city of Pendleton is
piloting plans forward to
build an industrial park at
the Pendleton Unmanned
Aerial Systems Range.
At a meeting Tuesday, the
Pendleton City Council will
consider approving nearly
$600,000 in task orders to
complete utility plans for the
industrial park.
In order to pay for Port-
land engineering firm Mur-
raysmith to complete the
plans, a city staff report
states that the money would
come from $25 million
in utility loans from the
state. In 2015, the Pendle-
ton City Council approved
annual 10.5 percent water
and sewer rate hikes through
2020 to pay off the loans.
Murraysmith
would
be responsible for putting
together plans for extend-
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HERMISTON
Council approves raise
for city manager
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Emergency crews rescue Eddie Voelker, 70, after he had been hanging upside down
in a tree for two days.
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Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
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ing utilities to the proposed
industrial park. The city has
also applied for a $3 million
grant from the U.S. Eco-
nomic Development Admin-
istration to pay for the util-
ity extension and build new
hangars at the airport.
Public Works Director
Bob Patterson has estimated
it would take $13.9 mil-
lion to extend utilities to the
park and another $11.5 mil-
lion to build an airport res-
ervoir and pump station for
fire protection.
Not on the agenda are
incentive packages for the I
& E Construction apartment
complex proposal on West-
gate and the Makad Corp.
hotel project at the airport.
Although both were dis-
cussed at previous meetings,
Mayor John Turner said the
potential deals are still being
negotiated by staff.
Page 3A
Hermiston city man-
ager Byron Smith
is meeting or
exceeding
all
expectations of
the city council,
according to their
annual evalua-
tion, and he will
receive a raise of
$6,400 on Sept.
1.
Smith
During Mon-
day’s city council meeting
the council met in execu-
tive session “for the pur-
pose of discussing mat-
ters pertaining to the
review and evaluation of
employment-related per-
formance of the City Man-
ager.” Afterward the coun-
cil approved an adjustment
to his contract, giving him
a base salary increase of
$6,400.
Smith was originally
hired in August 2014 at
$115,000 and has been
given a raise after each
annual
performance
review. His salary was
listed as $132,330 in a
database of city salaries in
the fall of 2017.
The city’s pay structure
includes six salary steps
for each position, which
represent a four to five per-
cent salary increase at each
step.
The East Oregonian
made a public records
request
for
Smith’s
eval-
uation,
which
shows his com-
posite score on
seven
catego-
ries. City coun-
cilors rated each
category on a
scale of one to
five, and Smith
scored a four
(exceeds expectations) or
three (meets expectations)
on all categories. Smith’s
highest score was a 4.3 for
“personal,” which includes
ethics and professional-
ism, and his lowest was a
3.4 for “elected body rela-
tions” with the city council
and for communication.
In open session Monday
Mayor David Drotzmann
noted that Smith met or
exceeded all of the coun-
cil’s expectations and had
also been given some feed-
back and goals to work on.
“You have led us down
a very positive pathway
and I think you will con-
tinue to do so,” Drotzmann
said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
MILTON-FREEWATER
Two men face
attempted murder
for shooting
PENDLETON — The
other two adult suspects
in the recent shooting in
Milton-Freewater are in
the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton.
Charley
Lozano
Magana and Juan Vene-
gas Esquivel, both 24 and
Walla Walla residents,
were in jail in Walla
Walla County. They
waived extradition and
arrived Thursday at the
local jail.
They
face
multi-
ple charges stemming
from the Aug. 17 shoot-
ing, including recklessly
endangering
others,
unlawful use of a weapon
and
attempted
mur-
der, according to public
records.
They join Michael
Angelo Cantu, 27, also
of Walla Walla, who has
been in the jail since Aug.
22. He faces the same
charges.
Police reported the trio
and one juvenile were
involved in a gang-re-
lated drive-by shooting
late at night. There were
no injuries. Police tracked
down the group after they
left
Milton-Freewater
and entered Walla Walla.
Authorities have not
identified the juvenile.
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