MOM, SON RECOVERING IN S. AFRICA WA-HI OVERPOWERS BULLDOGS DOW SETS NEW HIGH RECORD REGION/3A SPORTS/1B NATION/7A FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 142nd Year, No. 230 Your Weekend • • • FIRE SEASON ISN’T OVER YET Don Horneck Benefit Fun Run on Saturday Open house, Umatilla Fire Station, Saturday Free art classes for ages 12 and under, Saturday Photo courtesy of the Kansas City Star Retired Kansas City Fire Chief Paul Berardi will become the interim Pendleton fire chief on Oct. 15. For times and places see Coming Events, 6A Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 81/56 71/49 66/43 Retired K.C. fire chief comes to Pendleton Watch a game vs. La Grande vs. Mac-Hi Friday, 7 p.m., Milton-Freewater Staff photos by E.J. Harris Medical marijuana patients push back A U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife firefighting vehicle drives towards a burning stand of trees off the Old Emigrant Highway on Thursday west of the Deadman Pass rest areas outside of Pendleton. Will hold interim position through 2018, can apply for permanent job after that By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian By NOELLE CROMBIE The Oregonian/OregonLive PORTLAND — In August, a state analyst spotted dozens of suspi- cious transactions when he crunched cannabis sales data: a small number of medical marijuana card- holders bought unusually large quantities of marijuana flowers on consecutive days. Oregon regulators sus- pected medical marijuana patients and caregivers were exploiting the system by buying cannabis to sell on the illicit market. The response was swift. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, under pres- sure from federal officials to tackle the robust black mar- ket for marijuana, quickly issued a temporary rule that dramatically reduced the amount that medical mari- juana cardholders could buy in a day. One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD An Oregon Department of Forestry firefighter uses a hose line to douse some flames. A vehicle stops to watch as a helicopter makes a bucket drop on a fire. Wind drives Cabbage Hill fire near Pendleton By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian irefighters battled a fire Thursday afternoon six miles southeast of Pendleton on Cabbage Hill that threatened several homes. The fire, located on the Umatilla Indian Reser- vation, grew to about 80 acres and Oregon Depart- ment of Forestry spokeswoman Jamie Knight said 15 mile-per-hour winds caused it to spread through grass and timber stands. Knight said eight residences and 16 outbuild- ings were threatened by the fire, which ODF responded to just before noon. Chuck Sams, spokesman for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said the fire started with a prescribed burn near Poverty Flat before wind expanded the blaze. As of Thursday afternoon, Knight couldn’t pro- F vide a containment level for the fire. Agencies responded to the fire with 10 engines, seven aircraft and three bulldozers. Responding agencies including, ODF, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Umatilla Tribal Fire Department, Pendleton Fire Department, and East Umatilla Rural Fire District. The Oregon Department of Transportation is encouraging drivers traveling on Interstate 84 at milepost 225 to drive cautiously due to smoke from the fire. The roadway shoulders could be closed for emergency vehicles and ODOT cautions that there could be long delays if conditions worsen. ODOT has closed Old Highway 30 frontage road from mileposts 224 to 228 and Sams said Emigrant and Poverty Flat are closed. According to the National Weather Service, winds will pick up going into Friday before a cold front sweeps through the area and brings possible isolated showers over the Blue Mountains. See CANNABIS/8A The new interim chief for the Pendleton Fire Department is downsizing in a big way. The city of Pendleton announced Thursday that it hired former Kan- sas City, Missouri, Fire Chief Paul Berardi as the department’s new leader. According to a city press release, Berardi spent his entire 31-year career with the Kansas City Fire Department, serving the last five years as chief before retir- ing at the end of 2017. “The City of Pendleton is very fortunate to have retained the ser- vices of someone so highly accom- plished in his profession as Chief Berardi,” City Manager Robb Cor- bett said in a statement. “He and his wife want to be in Oregon and Pendleton in particular.” Although Berardi grew up in Kansas City and spent his profes- sional life there, he said in an inter- view with the East Oregonian that he’s spent time in the Northwest before and is excited to work in Pendleton. In an interview, Corbett said Berardi never formally applied to the job but was instead connected with Pendleton through the West- ern Fire Chiefs Association. See CHIEF/8A Maxwell Market wrapping up season By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Hermiston residents have one last chance to hit up their local farmers market. The Maxwell Market’s last day will be next Thurs- day, from 4-7:30 p.m. The market has grown since its start earlier in the summer, with more than two dozen vendors under the giant canopy on the cor- Receive Care Whenever and Wherever You Need it! ner of First Place and West Locust Avenue. Quarters are a little tight, but Nikki Brown, who has been coordinating the mar- ket this summer, said by the end of the summer she had more than 30 vendors she had needed to turn away for lack of space. “We had as many as we had in the market that couldn’t get in,” she said. Brown said vendors interested in participating in next year’s market should keep an eye on the Maxwell Market Facebook page for future announcements about vendor meetings and early sign-ups. There may be slightly more room next year when the market moves across the intersection to the Maxwell Pavilion, a large, perma- See MARKET/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Pepper wreaths from Bautista Farms sit in the sunlight Thursday at the Hermiston Farmers Market. ONLY $35 PER VISIT! • COUGH • COLD • FLU • SORE THROAT • EAR ACHE • PINK EYE • RASH • URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS • AND SO MUCH MORE! Virtual Care 844.724.8632 FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SAHPENDLETON.ORG