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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 2019)
PREP BASEBALL: Henrichs named all-eO Player of the year | SPORTS, B1 E O AST 143rd year, no. 169 REGONIAN Tuesday, June 11, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Adult foster home shuttered Staff photo by E.J. Harris Dominic Mclellan, 5, of Irrigon reacts while running through a water fountain at the spray park in Butte Park on Monday in Herm- iston. Temperatures will climb to- ward the century mark latter in the week. summer heat hits this week suspicion of abuse prompted closing of Christy’s Loving Care, license suspension By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian HeRMIsTOn — an adult foster home in Hermiston known as Christy’s Loving Care has been shut down by the state after a res- ident’s broken leg sparked suspi- cions of abuse. The home on division street, which was licensed for five beds, had its license suspended on May 15 and all residents were moved to new facilities. Christy sinatra, a spokeswoman for the department of Human services, said licensee Chris sak has not appealed the suspension. according to the notice of sus- pension posted by dHs, the facil- ity closure was prompted by an incident on March 14 in which a resident broke their leg (to protect privacy, the report does not name the alleged victim or state their gender). The report states that on March 14 the victim was admitted to a hospital with a broken femur, plus bruising and skin injuries “in var- ied stages of healing,” prompt- ing hospital staff to contact law enforcement about possible elder abuse. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston confirmed that HPD officers responded. He said his department’s report had been for- warded to the umatilla County District Attorney’s office for review. according to the dHs’s report By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian See Summer, Page A8 See Abuse, Page A8 Gov. Kate Brown critical of revised wolf plan Temperatures expected to reach mid-90s PendLeTOn — Break out the iced tea. The national Weather service reported area highs this week will reach into the mid- and upper- 90s. Forecaster Rob Brooks with the federal agency in Pendleton said the temperatures could tie records. “Basically, throughout the next few days, we’re going to heat up a little bit,” he said. The Weather service’s predic- tion has the hot weather peaking Thursday, with Pendleton hitting 94 and Hermiston 98. La Grande high up in the Blue Mountains looks to hit 85, he said. While the temperatures are higher than normal for the time of year, Brooks said warming up like this is not unusual. The cli- mate database for Pendleton, for example, shows June 10 has 24 highs of 82 and above and seven are 90 or higher. Brooks said the larger con- cern is staying safe in the heat, and that is the main message the agency is pushing this week. The coolness of spring is coming to an end, and the sudden spike in heat could cause trouble for peo- ple who are not prepared. He said people need to make sure to drink wawter, take a break if they feel fatigue and be aware of the dan- gers from heat. The Weather service has developed an array for public ser- vice information on heat safety available at www.weather.gov/ wrn/summer2019-heat-sm. The hotter temps also could come with thunderstorms from central Oregon to the mountains in the northeast part of the state. of the suspension, sak said that the broken leg was a result of the resident catching his or her leg on a book case while sak was assist- ing with hygiene. “Hospital staff reported that Licensee provided a story they did not believe could have happened as Licensee described it due to the severity of the leg break,” the report states. It also stated that sak explained the other injuries by saying “she terminated a caregiver with Brown says plan fails to meet expectations for ensuring healthy wolf population By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Staff photo by E.J. Harris The Umatilla County roads department has a 10,000-gallon diesel storage tank at their facility off of Westgate in Pendleton. The city of Pendleton is considering creating their own fuel depot in case of a large-scale disaster. By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian P endLeTOn — Pendleton’s police cars, ambulances and fire engines could run out of fuel in two-and- half days during the Cascadia earth- quake. Other local agencies might not make it that long. Pendleton Public Works director Bob Patterson revealed the duration at a recent city council work session on the new fire sta- tion. Beyond police and paramedics, the city also relies on a 1,200-gallon fuel generator to provide backup to the city’s water filtra- tion plant. The generator burns 75 gallons of fuel an hour. “The concern here,” Patterson said later, “is where the city does have backup genera- tors, unless we have a large fuel depot, we’ll burn through fuel really quick.” The city is looking at the possibility of installing a large above-ground fuel tank at the new fire station on Southeast Court Ave- nue for Cascadia or other catastrophes. Pat- terson said the city has an eye on the situa- tion but installing a tank at this time is not a top priority. The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office faces a similar hurdle. sheriff Terry Rowan said his agency also lacks extra fuel for emer- gency vehicles. He said emergency agencies got a small taste of the need for fuel during the 2017 total solar eclipse, when there was worry the hordes of tourists would deplete local fuel stations. He said he took to carry- ing a couple of 5-gallon tanks for his sher- iff’s vehicle “just in case.” But the county jail is the larger concern, he said. Cascadia could disrupt the flow of electricity for days or weeks, and that means the jail would need its diesel generator for power. That is, he said, until the fuel ran out. The county stores 10,000 gallons of die- sel and a much smaller amount of gas at its road department on Westgate, but it may not be able to share. Tom Fellows, the county’s public works director, explained state highway funds paid for the tank and pay for the fuel for road saLeM — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is once again tak- ing the state department of Fish and Wildlife to task over wolf conservation. Fish and Wildlife commis- sioners approved a revised ver- sion of the Oregon wolf manage- ment plan on June 7, which was immediately met with strong crit- icism from advocates who argue the agency is not doing enough to protect the species. Brown echoed those con- cerns in a statement released through her spokeswoman, say- ing the plan fails to meet expecta- tions for ensuring a healthy wolf population. “Governor Brown believes that we must protect our historic and natural heritage in Oregon,” the statement reads. “Wolves are part of the landscape, and as their numbers increase and stabilize, we must ensure that Oregon has an effective plan to protect and continue to grow Oregon’s wolf population.” In May, Brown also con- tradicted the stance of OdFW director Curt Melcher about a Trump administration proposal to remove endangered species pro- tections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states. Melcher wrote a letter to the u.s. Fish and Wildlife service in support of delisting, saying that Oregon wolves are growing both in numbers and range. Brown quickly countered with a second letter to “clarify and correct” the state’s position, that while the success of wolf recovery in Ore- gon is “unquestioned,” a federal endangered species listing is still warranted nationwide. The Oregon wolf plan is sup- posed to be updated every five years, but was last done so in 2010. since then, the mini- See Earthquake, Page A8 See Brown, Page A8 CHI St. Anthony Hospital Family Clinic is recognized as a Patient -Centered Primary Care Home. 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