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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2018)
REGION: New Christmas tree lot sprouts in Umatilla | PAGE 3A TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2018 142nd Year, No. 29 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar Worker shot to death at Umapine Creamery Business owner says co-worker dispute led to killing on tractor By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian The Umatilla County Sher- iff’s Office and a team from the Oregon State Police crime lab are investigating a homicide at the Umapine Creamery west of Umapine. Sheriff Terry Rowan said the victim was Renee Luiz-Antonio, 35, from Milton-Freewater. According to Brent Carroll, the owner of the creamery on Umapine Road, the killing was the result of a dispute between two employees and it came to a head early Monday. “He just walked out of the milking parlor and shot him on the tractor,” Carroll said, without identifying either employee. The two men had been at odds with one another for some time, Carroll said, when one accused the other of shooting at him in Walla Walla. He said a police investigation did not come to that conclusion and it seemed the pair moved on from any bad blood. Carroll also said security cam- eras captured the Monday morn- ing shooting. Sheriff Terry Rowan said the dispatch center received the See DEATH/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris An Oregon State Police forensics team arrives at the scene of a homi- cide investigation at a dairy outside of Umapine. HERMISTON HARVESTING THE POWER OF PENNIES Electric rates to stay put for now Council will decide next meeting whether to increase rates $2 a month By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Stanfield second-grader Phoenix Davis, bottom center, stands with his classmates and a bin full of money collected in a penny harvest on Tuesday at Stanfield Elementary School. It was Davis’ idea to start the penny harvest that netted a total of $1,219.16 for the Stanfield Food Basket. Stanfield students raise more than $1,000 for local food bank By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian he students of Stanfield Elementary School have been working to make sure no one in their town goes hungry. Over the past month, students have raised more than a thousand dollars through a penny harvest, and will donate the money to the Stanfield Food Basket during an assembly on Thursday. T The entire school participated and raised $1,219.16, surpassing their goal of $1,000. The idea came from one second-grade student. While doing a reading assignment in class, Phoenix Davis came across a story about a school in New York that found a way to raise money. “There was this thing called ‘why pennies are powerful,’” said Davis, 8. He asked his teacher, Kim Harwood, if Stanfield Elementary could do the same thing. The rest of the staff agreed, and the effort turned into a competition between the classes to see who could raise the most money. Harwood said the teachers made the decision to donate the money to the Stanfield Food Basket. “The individual teachers talked about the reasons we’re doing a penny drive, See PENNIES/8A Yuletide transplant Hermiston parks and recreation director Lar- ry Fetter, right, and city planner Clint Spencer watch as Umatilla Elec- tric Cooperative brings in this year’s Christmas tree for the festival street. The tree, which arrived Mon- day morning after be- ing donated from parks manager Jason Barron’s yard, will debut at a hol- iday celebration and tree lighting ceremony Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. next to city hall, 180 N.E. Second St. Staff photo by Jade McDowell The Hermiston City Council postponed voting on a rate increase for Hermiston Energy Services Monday in order to gather more information about the utility’s costs. The council plans to vote on the proposed $2 per month increase during their Dec. 10 meet- ing instead, but City Man- ager Byron Smith said staff would likely still rec- ommend a Jan. 1 implemen- tation date for Rivera the increase. Hermiston Energy Services General Manager Nate Rivera told the council that about 52 per- cent of HES’s expenses go toward purchasing wholesale power from Bonneville Power Administration, while about 17 percent of their costs come from their contract for services with Umatilla Elec- tric Cooperative, 12 percent goes toward the utility’s debts and 11 percent goes toward system main- tenance. HES provides power to about 63 percent of Hermiston. Since 2009, Rivera said, BPA’s rates for wholesale power have gone up almost 39 percent, and another 5 percent increase is expected in 2019. Increasing wholesale power costs, along with maintenance needs as HES infra- structure ages, have put HES on the path for a projected $157,151 deficit during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. With that in mind, Rivera is rec- ommending that the city increase residential base rates from $14 a month to $16 a month, while keep- ing the charge for kilowatts-per- hour on top of that base rate the same. He also recommended an increased base rate from $35 to $37 for small commercial users, a slight increase in demand charges for large commercial users and an industrial base rate increase from $200 to $250. Rivera said HES does not currently have any indus- trial users, and “those rates fully represent what it would cost to bring them into our system.” HES began in 2001 and first raised rates in 2005. The next rate See RATES/8A
