Three area players invited to football showcase in Hillsboro | SPORTS, A8
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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.