REGION
Thursday, May 30, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Umatilla man sentenced for strangling woman near kids
East Oregonian
PORTLAND — A Uma-
tilla man was sentenced
Tuesday to time served,
having already served 22
months in custody, plus
three years supervised
release for strangling his
significant other in the pres-
ence of their four children.
According to court doc-
uments, Joel Malcom Salt,
29, a Navajo Indian, violated
a tribal protective order
in April 2017, by going to
the crime victim’s house.
The woman is an enrolled
member of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, who
lives on the reservation with
their four children.
When Salt arrived at the
house, he grabbed the vic-
tim by her hair, threw her to
the ground in front of their
children and dragged her to
the bedroom. Once in the
bedroom, Salt pinned the
victim to the floor, punched
her and strangled her, caus-
ing her to lose conscious-
ness several times.
To divert his attention,
the woman told Salt their
children probably left the
house to tell her father, who
lived next door. After hear-
ing this, Salt released the
woman and left the room
to check. While he was out
of the room, the woman
escaped out of the win-
dow and ran to her father’s
house. Her father retrieved
the four children and called
the police. Salt fled before
police arrived, but was later
arrested.
A federal grand jury in
Portland returned a one-
count indictment in June
2017, charging Salt with
assault by strangulation. He
pleaded guilty to the charge
in November 2018.
During sentencing, U.S.
District Court Judge Anna
J. Brown ordered Salt to
attend an intensive batterer’s
intervention program and to
undergo substance abuse
and mental health treat-
ment. Among other condi-
tions of supervision, Salt is
prohibited from entering the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
or contacting the woman
and their children without
advance approval of his pro-
bation officer and notice to
the United States Attorney’s
Office.
This case was investi-
gated by the Umatilla Tribal
Police Department and FBI
Portland’s Safe Trails Task
Force. It was prosecuted by
Jennifer Martin, Assistant
U.S. Attorney for the Dis-
trict of Oregon.
The Safe Trails Task
Force unites FBI and fed-
eral, state, local, and tribal
law enforcement agencies
in a collaborative effort
to combat the growth of
crime in Indian Country.
STTF allows participating
agencies to combine lim-
ited resources and increase
investigative coordination
in Indian Country to target
violent crime, drugs, gangs
and gaming violations.
EOU strengthens online marketing, recruitment and retention
La Grande
university partners
with Learning
House
East Oregonian
LA GRANDE — A new
agreement with Learning
House, a Wiley brand, opens
expansive opportunities to
empower online students
through Eastern Oregon
University’s high-quality
programs.
Learning House will
work with EOU staff to
manage online enrollment,
provide online student
retention services, conduct
market research, and exe-
cute marketing campaigns
for EOU Online. These
add-on marketing, recruit-
ment and retention services
EO file photo
A new agreement with Learning House, a Wiley brand,
opens expansive opportunities to empower online students
through Eastern Oregon University’s high-quality programs.
do not replace current EOU
staff but require close coop-
eration between Learning
House and the university.
The agreement goes into
effect and EOU will begin
working with Learning
House immediately.
“EOU is a leader in pro-
viding high quality pro-
grams to online students,”
said EOU President Tom
Insko. “This partnership
will allow us to significantly
increase enrollments and
expand market awareness
of the great online programs
offered and grow the num-
ber of lives impacted by an
EOU education. Our goal is
to be serving 5,000 students
through online programs by
2029.”
A cross-campus com-
mittee of faculty, staff and
an online student repre-
sentative convened last fall
to identify potential part-
ners and survey faculty and
staff about the prospect of
working with an enrollment
management
company.
This winter, after selecting
Learning House, the group
adjourned, and the univer-
sity began evaluating a draft
contract.
The university main-
tains full responsibility
for online academics, and
Learning House will not be
involved in program devel-
Hermiston council approves annexation
of land for planned 39-home subdivision
“HOPEFULLY THIS ALL COMES
TO FRUITION, BECAUSE WE
NEED IT.”
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Hermiston City
Council approved annex-
ation of 9.35 acres of prop-
erty off Elm Avenue for
a planned subdivision on
Tuesday.
The subdivision, at 1290
W. Elm Ave. across from
the Oxbow Trail entrance,
would have an estimated
39 single-family dwellings,
according to the annexation
application submitted to the
city.
Developer Dean Mal-
denado, of FDM Develop-
ment, told the city’s plan-
ning commission the homes
would likely sell at $275,000
to $350,000.
City planner Clint Spen-
cer told city councilors on
Tuesday that the planning
commission hearing on the
subject had drawn some
opposition from neighbors
concerned about the fact
that the property is zoned
R-4, allowing for denser,
multi-family development.
They voiced concerns about
traffic and crowding.
In response to the testi-
Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann
mony at the meeting, Spen-
cer said, Maldenado said he
had no interest in adding
multi-family dwellings to
the site. He offered to vol-
untarily enter into a bind-
ing development agreement
with the city to only develop
single-family homes on lots
of at least 8,000 square feet
— developing to an R-1
standard but saving the time
and expense it would take to
go through a rezoning pro-
cess to change the compre-
hensive plan.
Spencer said the devel-
opment agreement made the
planning commission com-
fortable with recommend-
ing that the city approve
the annexation. The devel-
opment will still have to go
through the platting process
and other approvals before
being built.
He said water and sewer
are available to be extended
to the development, and the
developer would be required
to pave the unpaved sec-
tion of West Elm Avenue
and add sidewalks, curbs
and gutters. He said the new
traffic signal at that inter-
section will help “a lot” with
traffic flow.
Mayor David Drotzmann
asked about another letter
of opposition, sent by own-
ers of a nearby property for
sale, who stated there was
already “ample” property
available nearby for that
use. Spencer said the prop-
erty in question was zoned
for commercial use, not
residential.
The property for the new
subdivision sits behind Life-
time Vision Source, owned
by the mayor. The mayor
only votes on city ordi-
nances in the event of a
tie, and Tuesday’s vote was
unanimous.
The proposed subdivi-
sion off of Elm is one of sev-
Sheriff’s office confirms ID of victim
in fatal crash near Pendleton
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Office confirmed Toni
Renee Brown, 21, of Pend-
leton, was the victim in
the recent fatal crash near
Pendleton.
The sheriff’s office
Tuesday at about 8:30 a.m.
responded to a report of a
single-vehicle rollover off
Mill Road near Hoeft Road
south of Pendleton. Depu-
ties found a maroon Chev-
rolet Malibu was resting
on its top on Hoeft Road,
which is a two-lane, gravel
road.
Brown was the driver
and only occupant, accord-
ing to the sheriff’s office,
and she was dead before
deputies
and
medics
arrived.
The sheriff’s office also
reported the crash likely
occurred several hours
before its discovery and
possibly during the night.
The Malibu apparently
lost traction and the driver
overcorrected,
which
caused the car to skid and
roll over.
eral housing projects pro-
posed or started in the city
recently. Last month the
council annexed land off
Theater Lane into the city
for a proposed 53-lot sub-
division, and construction
has started on a 43-unit
apartment complex on
Southeast Sixth Street.
“Hopefully this all comes
to fruition, because we need
it,” Drotzmann said.
On Tuesday the coun-
cil also approved renew-
ing the city’s contract with
Kayak Public Transit, which
runs the city’s free public
bus system. The city started
HART in January 2017.
Assistant city man-
ager Mark Morgan said the
agreement for 2019-21 is the
same as the HART’s first
two years — the city pays
Kayak $125,000 a year to
run the entire operation.
He said ridership was at
about 5,000 rides in 2018,
but is on track to reach over
8,000 in 2019. The bus sys-
tem has expanded its hours
and now runs from 7 a.m.
to 7 p.m. Monday through
Friday, making 10 loops per
day through the city.
opment or curriculum. The
agreement affects market-
ing, recruitment, retention
and consulting services for
online programs, and EOU
will continue to attract and
enroll on-campus students
independently. Funding for
the agreement comes from a
revenue-share after students
have enrolled and are taking
classes.
Psychology
professor
Robert Butler participated
in the committee last fall,
and said he was pleased with
Learning House and its will-
ingness to honor EOU’s cul-
ture and identity as a small,
rural university.
“Wiley and Learning
House are focused on help-
ing Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity realize its goals in a way
that aligns with its unique
mission and culture,” said
Todd Zipper, co-president
of Wiley Education Ser-
vices and Learning House,
a Wiley brand. “Together
we can ensure that more
students have access to the
university’s programs in
order to achieve their career
ambitions.”
After the campus com-
mittee adjourned in Janu-
ary, anthropology profes-
sor Linda Reed-Jerofke
remained on the contract
evaluation team. Reed-Jer-
ofke said she was opposed
to the offer a different com-
pany put forward last year,
but is satisfied with the pro-
posal from Learning House
and its participation in the
process, noting that the
university needs to expand
its marketing and advertis-
ing, but lacks the funds to
do it.
LOCAL BRIEFING
Milton-Freewater
development sets
grand opening
MILTON-FR EEWA-
TER — Milton-Freewa-
ter’s largest housing devel-
opment in years breaks
ground on Friday.
Developer Barry Weis,
of Milton-Freewater, said
the area spans 176 acres
in all and the first phase
offers 72 lots. He called the
site of future homes a boon
for community.
His company, Leg-
acy Land Development, is
holding an open house for
the public to celebrate the
event at noon on Key Bou-
levard one block south of
Sykes Boulevard.
Services offered
for those who hire
homecare workers
SALEM — The Arc of
Oregon will provide free
services to employers of
personal support work-
ers and homecare workers
in some counties in East-
ern Oregon through a new
contract with the Oregon
Home Care Commission.
The Employer Resource
Connection provides free
services to employers of
homecare workers and per-
sonal support workers. Its
consultants help empower
individuals to be effec-
tive, successful employers
of homecare and personal
support workers by provid-
ing tools, resources, and
support to manage their
in-home services, so they
can live as independently
as possible at home and in
their communities.
For example, a per-
son with an intellectual or
developmental disability
may need assistance decid-
ing the types of interview
questions to ask potential
personal support workers.
Employer
Resource
Connection will be offered
to employers of personal
support workers in these
counties: Baker, Gilliam,
Grant, Harney, Hood
River, Malheur, Mor-
row, Sherman, Umatilla,
Union, Wallowa, Wasco
and Wheeler. Employer
Resource
Connection
will also be available to
employers of homecare
workers in these counties:
Gilliam, Hood River, Mor-
row, Sherman, Umatilla,
Wasco and Wheeler.
St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t
The sheriff’s office also
reported it is awaiting for
the results of toxicology
tests to determine if alco-
hol was a factor.
JD Ward, DO. OB/GYN
is now accepting
new patients.
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Education: Boise State University,
Western University of Health Science
Board Certifi cation: Board Certifi ed
American, Board of Obstetrics and
Gynecology
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