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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2019)
Three area players invited to football showcase in Hillsboro | SPORTS, A8 E O AST 143rd Year, No. 195 REGONIAN THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Five arrested by ICE near Hermiston Multiple ICE sightings reported in the Hermiston area By JESSICA POLLARD East Oregonian HERMISTON — Five Guate- malan citizens were arrested on July 9 by Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement agents near Hermiston. Mateo Demateo-Baltazar and Rolando Pablo-Calmo are fac- ing pending immigration pro- ceedings. Higinio Pablo-Calmo, Teodoro Pablo-Ramos and Mario Lorenzo-Pablo are facing pending removal from the United States. Tanya Roman, a public affairs offi cer for ICE in Seattle, said she is still working to confi rm if all fi ve people are still in custody. According to Roman, they all have prior criminal records. The ICE Online Detainee Loca- tor System lists Demateo-Baltazar and Pablo-Ramos as still in cus- tody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. According to the city of Tacoma, the center is the fourth largest in the nation, with a capacity of 1,575 detainees. Roman said the arrests were in “no way associated with any antici- pated nationwide targeted enforce- ment actions.” Roman stated the arrests were, instead, part of a targeted enforce- See ICE, Page A7 PENDLETON National Weather Service radar will get upgrade The system will be ready in time for fall and winter By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney A B-25 bomber lands at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport for the Ride with the Raiders event. Hundreds turn out for Pendleton Bike Week’s kickoff event By BEN LONERGAN East Oregonian PENDLETON — A pair of police cars and a motorcycle hearse led hun- dreds of motorcycle enthusiasts as they rode onto the tarmac at Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton Wednes- day afternoon for Pendleton Bike Week’s Ride with the Raiders. The event served as a remembrance ceremony for the Doolittle Raiders and approximately 17,000 deceased Oregon military members. “It’s a fellowship of brothers that served and the plane and fl ags represent a piece of American pride for us,” said Roy Yeomens of Enumclaw, Washing- ton. “It is important to remember those we served alongside. This is a great way of doing that.” This year is Yeomens’ fourth year attending Pendleton Bike Week after missing last year’s event. Yeomens’ says that there is nothing else like it in the Pacifi c Northwest. “Oregon has events for everybody and lots of great places to ride,” he said. “I’ve never had a bad experience here.” For Pendleton Bike Week co-founder Eric Folkestad, the Ride with the Raid- ers event could not have gone any bet- ter. Folkestad estimates approximately 250 people turned up for the ride from the Pendleton Convention Center to the airport. “It went off without a hitch and every- one wanted to turn out and support the military,” Folkestad said. “We defi nitely had a better turnout this year than past events and it’s really the volunteers and See Raiders, Page A7 PENDLETON — The National Weather Service’s radar in Pend- leton will be offl ine for over a week as the agency completes a major upgrade. Starting Monday and running through the end of the month, NWS will take apart the red and white radar tower to thoroughly clean, repair and upgrade equip- ment in the radome and replace the pedestal. The agency uses radar to track precipitation, wind and other weather elements. Meteorologist Rob Brooks said even though the radar will be down, the weather service will be able to use radar readings from its neighboring offi ces in Port- land; Medford; Boise, Idaho; and Spokane, Washington. The Pend- leton offi ce will still have other tools, such as observations, spot- ter reports and satellite data. “We’re not blind,” he said. The weather service is upgrad- ing its radar systems across the country. Having the work done now in Pendleton means the sys- tem will be ready for the fall and winter months, when there are commonly more extreme weather events. Once upgraded, the sys- tem should be able to provide reli- able data for at least the next 10 years, according to the weather service. Meteorologist Mark Austin said the NWS can now get satel- lite data updated once every min- ute, and has a “very dedicated network” of storm spotters in the area. They might not have as accurate a measurement as usual of how much precipitation fell, he said, but they will know where the storms are located. The upgrade project is part of the Service Life Extension Program, which is being imple- mented across the country to extend the life of NSW radar for at least another decade and pre- vent equipment failures. Brooks said Pendleton’s equip- ment was installed in the 1990s. “This will help ensure func- tionality and performance,” he said. Wind energy in the western U.S. is growing — and so are confl icts Wind power has stamped its insignia across Eastern Oregon By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN Capital Press MORO — In Sherman County, every family gets a gift at Christmas time. In this sparsely populated stretch of Oregon where unrelenting winds swirl across wheat farms, wind power has stamped its insignia. Hundreds of wind turbines tower over the land, whirring as they gen- erate electricity — and money. Wshh. Wshh. Wshh. Each December, house- holds receive checks for $590 in exchange for use of their county as a wind site. Developers pay the bulk of the money to farmers whose land they lease. A landowner typically gets $8,000 per megawatt per year, and the average turbine’s capacity is 2.5 to 3 megawatts. The county also invests its share of the revenue in infrastructure. Court records show Sherman County — once the second-poorest county in Oregon — has raked in tens of mil- lions of dollars since the fi rst turbines were erected in 2002. “Wind turbines. What can I say?” said Sherman County Judge Joe Dabulskis, the top elected offi cial. “Whether you’re for them or against them, they have made a difference.” Some rural communities love wind power. Some hate it. Like it or not, the production of wind energy is expand- ing in the rural West with new, more effi cient technology. At the same time, Capital Press/Sierra Dawn McClain /Capital Press See Turbines, Page A7 Marty Myers, general manager of Threemile Canyon Farms near Boardman, stands in front of the six wind turbines leased on his land.