Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
PENNIES: Students surpass fundraising goal
Continued from 1A
and helping others. Espe-
cially this time of year, peo-
ple are in need,” she said.
Though the students were
excited by the competi-
tion aspect — with the high-
est-earning class getting a
pizza party — Harwood said
they also talked about the
impact the donations would
have locally.
“They were listing people
that needed food,” she said.
“The fact that it was some-
where close, it hit close to
home.”
Some of Harwood’s sec-
ond-graders said they asked
their parents to help out,
while others donated money
of their own.
“My parents have a jar
filled with money, and I asked
them for some of that,” said
Avah Viesca.
Sophie McFetridge said
she found $2 in her back-
pack, which she donated to
the penny drive.
“I grabbed some of my
money, but made sure I didn’t
get rid of all of my money,”
Davis said.
Though he said he hoped
his class would win, he was
more happy to be doing
something nice for others.
Davis’ mom, Kalie, said
her son always takes the ini-
tiative to raise his own money.
“Phoenix does extra
chores to earn money for
when we go on vacation or
when he really wants a new
toy or game,” she said.
But he saved that money
once he came up with the idea
for a penny drive.
“The first week of the
penny harvest he came home
and dumped all of his allow-
ance money into a bag so he
could donate it,” she said.
“He has a heart for helping
people.”
Toni Eddy, the board chair
of the Stanfield Food Basket,
said she and other food bank
members were moved by the
students’ efforts.
“It had everyone in tears,”
she said.
Eddy said the food bank
serves between 120 and 150
families per month. It is open
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
Toni Eddy, of Irrigon, packs a box with food while preparing an order at the Stanfield Food Basket as Doris Reid of Hermiston looks on Monday.
the last two Mondays of
each month from noon to 4
p.m. During November and
December, it is open every
Monday.
She said families can
take whatever they need, but
they give out food based on
the size of the family. They
stock fresh, frozen, dried and
canned food, and try to pro-
vide enough food for fami-
lies to make five or six meals
between each visit to the
food bank, to supplement
food they can buy with their
own income or from other
programs.
She said Safeway donates
fresh produce through their
“Fresh Alliance” program,
and several individuals and
groups will contribute, as
well.
“Most of our donations
come in the form of food,”
she said. “We have a couple
of sources that contribute on
a regular basis.”
They also apply for
grants, and get donations
from CAPECO and the Ore-
gon Food Bank. Donations
from schools and community
members also help.
“We use the monetary
donations to fill in the gaps,”
she said. “So if we’re get-
ting a lot of grain products,
we may need to buy more
canned food,” Eddy said
They also use it for spe-
cial occasions. This year, they
gave away whole roasted
chickens for Thanksgiving.
The Stanfield Food Basket
is located at 405 N. Sherman
St., Stanfield, and is open to
anyone who lives in Umatilla
County.
Janet Butler of Stanfield puts food items in a bag while filling an order on Monday
at the Stanfield Food Basket.
RATES: The council voted
6-1 to table the resolution
Continued from 1A
increase was 10.95 percent
in 2015 and 2.5 percent in
2016. The increase proposed
for Jan. 1 would represent a
2.56 percent increase.
Rivera said the increase
would have been higher,
but HES saved a combined
$3 million on a refinance of
its bond debt and savings
on construction costs com-
pared to what had been orig-
inally budgeted. However,
he also said the increase
before the council Mon-
day did not factor in what-
ever amount BPA increases
its wholesale power rates
by in 2019, or what costs
might be added to HES by
a capital improvement plan
in the works — meaning he
would likely be in front of
the council a year from now
asking for another increase.
Mayor David Drotz-
mann said he didn’t like
the idea of continuing to
go back to customers with
more rate changes each
year, and city council-
ors pointed out that it was
unfortunate timing with
the recent rate increase for
water and sewer that will
kick in March 2019.
Smith said staff thought
it was better to raise rates
only as needed.
“The council had previ-
ously said they didn’t want
to wait, and see those 11
percent increases,” he said.
Councilor John Kirwan
said he wanted to see a
more specific breakdown of
how the customer’s bill was
divided between differ-
ent costs such as wholesale
power and construction. He
asked that the council post-
pone a vote on the increase
until their next meeting
so that Rivera could come
back with that breakdown
and a better explanation of
how the savings from con-
struction and the bond refi-
nance were being used.
The council voted 6-1 to
table the resolution. Coun-
cilor Manuel Gutierrez was
the dissenting vote, after
pointing out that a Dec. 10
vote for a Jan. 1 increase
would not give customers
much time to prepare.
Included in the resolu-
tion was a new program
that, if passed, would allow
customers to pre-pay their
electric bill with HES.
Rivera said customers who
prepaid at least $25 of their
first bill would be able to
avoid the $250 deposit that
new customers are usually
required to provide.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
DEATH: Report of shooting came
in at about 6:30 a.m. Monday
Continued from 1A
report Monday at about 6:30
a.m. and deputies responded
in the foggy, sub-freezing
morning, where they found
Luiz-Antonio dead.
“There was evidence at
the scene that indicated Mr.
Luiz-Antonio was shot and
killed while operating the
tractor,” according to writ-
ten statement from the sher-
iff’s office.
Detectives and some
members of the local major
crimes team spent most of
the day “investigating and
searching for evidence that
may lead to a suspect and an
arrest in the case,” according
to the sheriff’s office.
“We have leads on the
case, and are following up
with our investigation,”
Rowan said. “We are not at
liberty to identify the other
employee at this time.”
The sheriff’s office also
stated the Oregon State
Medical Examiner plans to
conduct an autopsy Tues-
day and will release further
information as it becomes
available.
Umatilla County Dis-
trict Attorney Dan Primus
also was at the scene. Pri-
mus or one of his deputies
responds in person to homi-
cide scenes. He said he was
there in case the investiga-
tion required a search war-
rant or to answer questions
about evidence gathering.
Primus also said it helps to
have a first-hand account if
he needs to present the case
to a jury.
Rowan said there are
nine people working the
investigation,
includ-
ing officers from Hermis-
ton, Milton-Freewater and
Walla Walla to help with
translation.
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