REGION
Friday, June 21, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Hermiston Butte to go
up in fl ames Saturday
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Robert Peachey spends time at the H&P Cafe when he’s not out pulling weeds around town.
Echo man improves
city one weed at a time
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
ECHO — Robert Peachey
may have lost a leg two years
ago, but he didn’t lose his
drive for community service.
Three months after mov-
ing to Echo he has been draw-
ing attention in the commu-
nity of about 700 people for
his efforts combating weeds
around town.
Peachey can stand and
walk very short distances, but
mostly uses an electric wheel-
chair to get around. He keeps
garden gloves and a pair of
pliers with him as he rolls
through town in case he spots
any weeds. He said he spent
several hours the past week
with a bucket in hand, pull-
ing up weeds along the trail
across from Echo School.
“I don’t like a mess,” he
said, pointing to a small green
weed poking up through a
crack in a sidewalk. “I like
things being beautiful. Even
seeing that weed there makes
me want to pull it because it
doesn’t belong.”
Peachey, who is 59, said he
got bad frostbite during the
harsh winter of 2016 while
living in Milton-Freewater.
He lost a few toes up front, but
complications from a hobo
spider bite and diabetes even-
tually led to getting a pros-
thetic leg.
He said he spent some
time being homeless after that
before ending up living in an
adult foster home in Echo.
Once there, he began tak-
ing his chair down to the H&P
Cafe on Main Street to grab a
cup of coffee and chat with the
locals who frequent the cafe.
One day, he said, he noticed a
bunch of weeds along a street
and pulled them up. Things
grew from there into a regu-
lar hobby.
“It wasn’t like I said, ‘OK,
I’m going to go out and clean
everything up.’ Something
just happened,” he said.
He even started doing
some work cleaning up an
overgrown yard for the own-
ers of the H&P Cafe, push-
ing a lawn mower and edger
in front of his wheelchair. He
said he refused the payment
owner Mike Barzee offered
him but did relent to trade the
help for free coffees instead.
“I’m what you would call a
coffeeholic,” he said.
Butch McClinton, who
works at the H&P, said the
help was much appreciated.
“We’re always busy here
and didn’t have time to get
over there and the grass was
getting long,” he said.
Amy Johnson of Echo
said she was extremely
impressed when she started
seeing Peachey across from
the school every day clearing
out weeds from a long section
of gravel. She said she wished
more people were like him.
“I think everyone should
know what he’s doing,
because he isn’t asking for
anything. He’s just doing it
because he cares,” she said.
Peachey said if anyone
wanted to help out he wouldn’t
say no to a bottle of water on
hot afternoons. Other than
that, he just likes to be paid in
smiles.
“People drive by and wave
at me, and it makes me feel
good, like maybe I’m appreci-
ated,” he said.
Crash seriously injures
Umatilla County resident
East Oregonian
OREGON CITY — A
Hermiston woman suffered
serious injuries Wednesday
in a head-on crash near Ore-
gon City. Oregon State Police
also reported three other
crashes that day claimed four
lives statewide.
Lucia Smith, 28, was
driving south on Highway
99E near milepost 16 when a
north-going Toyota Tacoma
crossed
the
centerline,
smashing into her Jeep Com-
mander. An ambulance took
Smith to Oregon Health &
Science University, Portland.
State police reported
receiving a driving com-
plaint at 3:53 p.m. about the
Toyota just before the crash.
Hosein Reslmn, 36, of Mil-
waukie, drove the Toyota. He
also suffered serious injuries,
and a emergency aircraft
fl ew him to Legacy Emanuel
Medical Center, Portland.
State police also reported
two Arizona residents died
Wednesday in a crash near
Crane.
Troopers and other emer-
gency personnel at about
11:15 a.m.
Wednesday
responded to the single-ve-
hicle crash on Highway 78
near milepost 22. Joyce and
Arnold Arends were driving
east in a GMC Yukon when
it went off the road and onto
the shoulder. The GMC came
Photo contributed by Oregon State Police
Hermiston resident Lucia Smith suff ered serious injuries in
this crash Wednesday near Oregon City when another ve-
hicle struck hers head-on. Oregon State Police continues to
investigate the crash.
back onto the road, where it
rolled multiple times before
coming to rest on its top
on the south side of the
highway.
The Arends died at the
scene.
The Harney County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce and Burns Fire
Department assisted at the
scene, along with personnel
from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation.
Two other crashes on the
opposite side of the state
also were deadly, according
to Oregon State Police.
Randy Darnell, 61, of
Bay City, died when his
Mazda 3 left Highway 6
near Tillamook and struck a
tree. And one person died in
a head-on crash on Highway
99W near Junction City.
Carol Sedano, 65, of
Waldport, was heading
south on the highway when
her Toyota Corolla crashed
into an oncoming Buick
Rea, which then smashed
into a tree.
Jeffrey Taylor of Corval-
lis drove the Buick. He died
at the scene. He was 68.
His passenger, Made-
line Taylor, 66, of Corval-
lis, suffered serious injuries.
An ambulance took her to a
local hospital.
Sedano suffered critical
injuries and required a fl ight
in an emergency aircraft to a
local hospital.
State police reported it
continues to investigate each
of the crashes.
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Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
HERMISTON — The
Umatilla County Fire
District 1 will set fi re
to the Hermiston Butte
Saturday in preparation
for July 4. The burning
may be rescheduled if it
becomes too windy on
Saturday.
The public is invited
to observe the burning,
which will take place
from noon to 6 p.m. The
district asks that those
who wish to watch stay
on the soccer fi eld. Fire
trucks will be stationed
near the north end park-
ing lots and the water
spray park.
Around 30 fi refi ghters
will be at the scene from
surrounding fi re depart-
ments, including Echo,
Pendleton, Umatilla, and
UCFD1. The burn pro-
vides an opportunity for
seasonal fi refi ghters to
train in fi re suppression
and cleanup.
Long-time residents
will know that the burn-
ing is nothing new, but
in recent years the con-
trolled burn has stretched
from just the north side
to the south side of the
Hermiston Butte as well
following a 2016 fi re,
when fi rework embers
set the south side on fi re
during the show.
The purpose of a con-
trolled burn is to remove
fuel — brush and grass
— from the area to avoid
future emergency fi res,
in part before the Fourth
of July Celebration in
Butte Park. Controlled
burns happen all across
the nation to remove dif-
ferent types of fuel, said
UCFD1 Lieutenant Matt
Hodge.
And while fi refi ght-
ers will be tackling the
non-emergency fi re this
weekend, it can be hard to
tell if the July 4 weekend
will result in many fi re
calls. UCFD1 has four
stations — two staffed
and two volunteer — and
some years all four get
called out. Other years,
Hodge said, the district
is dealing with as little as
one fi re.
But high moisture
from last winter has
resulted in a lot of extra
fuel growth, Hodge said.
“It’s already very
deceptively dry. Peo-
ple need to be extremely
careful,” Hodge said,
“One errant spark could
rip off an acre.”
According to the
UCDF1 website, this time
of year constitutes a “no
burn period.” The period
excludes burns like small
recreational fi res, bar-
becues, and agricultural
fi res.
People who have ques-
tions about the burn-
ing policy are encour-
aged to call Umatilla
County Burning line at
1-541-278-6397.
Walden joins with Dem
rep to take out robocalls
East Oregonian
WA S H I N G T O N ,
D.C. — The U.S. House
Energy and Commerce
Chairman Frank Pal-
lone, Jr., D-New Jersey,
and Republican leader
Greg Walden, R-Ore-
gon, teamed up to stop
robocalls.
They pair Thursday
unveiled bipartisan legis-
lation, the Stopping Bad
Robocalls Act, to end
illegal robocall practices.
“Americans deserve to
be free of the daily dan-
ger and harassment of
robocalls,” Pallone and
Walden said in a joint
statement. “It’s time we
end the robocall epi-
demic and restore trust
back into our phone sys-
tem. We’re pleased to
announce we’ve reached
a deal on comprehensive
bipartisan legislation to
stop illegal robocalls.”
Last year, an estimated
47.8 billion robocalls
were placed nationwide,
according to the news
release from Walden’s
offi ce, an increase of 17
billion calls over the pre-
vious year. The illegal
calls affect American life
In increasingly harmful
ways, from scams to dis-
rupting the health care
system.
The
legislation
requires phone carriers
to implement call authen-
tication technology so
consumers can trust their
caller ID again, with no
additional line-item for
consumers, and includes
a process to help rural
carriers implement the
technology. The act also
allows carriers to offer
call blocking services
with no additional line
charge on an opt-out
basis.
“Americans should be
able to block robocalls
in a consistent and trans-
parent way without being
charged extra for it,” the
pair stated. “Our legisla-
tion also gives the FCC
and law enforcement the
authority to enforce the
law and quickly go after
scammers. We look for-
ward to moving this bill
through the Commu-
nications and Technol-
ogy Subcommittee next
week.”
The new bill also
includes provisions from
the Support Tools to
Obliterate Pesky (STOP)
Robocalls Act, which
Republic Reps. Bob
Latta of Ohio and Mike
Doyle of Pennsylvania
introduced earlier this
year. Latte and Doyle,
the chair of the Commu-
nications and Technol-
ogy Subcommittee, are
co-sponsors of the Stop-
ping Bad Robocalls Act.
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