WEEKEND EDITION
Pendleton City Council to consider psilocybin ban |
REGION, A3
JULY 23 – 24, 2022
146th Year, No. 92
$1.50
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
Heat wave to hit Northeastern Oregon
Forecast shows high
temps last next week
at 105-plus, but lows
only in the 70s
By DICK MASON AND PHIL
WRIGHT
EO Media Group
PENDLETON — A heat wave
hitting Northeastern Oregon during
the next week could deliver high
temperatures reminiscent of the
heat bubble from June 2021.
Rob Brooks, a meteorologist
for the National Weather Service
in Pendleton, said it will be bring in
the hottest weather the region has
experienced this year.
“It is going to be toasty. It is
important that people start plan-
ning for how they are going to
handle this heat,” Brooks said.
The National Weather Service
is projecting highs in Pendleton to
rise from 92 degrees on Saturday,
July 23 to 98 on July 25. Then hit
triple digits for several days, with
103 on July 26 and 105 on July 27
and 28.
Hermiston is tracking along the
same path but looking a bit hotter,
with a high of 94 on July 23, 97 on
July 24 and hitting 101 the next day.
Highs from July 26-28 then could
reach 105, 106 and 107 in that order.
Ann Adams, assistant forecaster
with the NWS in Pendleton, said
projections for Friday, July 29,
show Pendleton reaching 107 and
Hermiston peaking at 110.
“Kind of a flashback to last
summer,” she said.
Even higher elevations are going
to feel the burn. La Grande has an
elevation of 2,785 feet, while Pend-
leton’s elevation is 1,200 feet, but the
Weather Service forecast La Grande
at 88 degrees July 23, then rising
daily and reaching 101 on July 28.
Brooks said the highs concern
him but the projected lows worry
him just as much and possibly
more. The meteorologist said many
of the low temperatures projected
for Northeastern Oregon will be at
or approaching 70 degrees.
“Recovery time will be down,”
he said. “People will have less
opportunity to cool off their core
body temperature.”
The forecast shows an overnight
low on July 25 in Pendleton of 61
and in Hermiston of 64, Adams
said, and from there the lows get
warmer for several days.
Pendleton’s low for July 26 is 64,
then creeps up to 70 degrees as a
low for July 28 and 29. And the lows
in Hermiston rise to 73 on July 28
and 74 on July 29.
“There’s definitely a trend,
unfortunately,” Adams said.
“People will need to fi nd ways to
cool off at night,” Brooks said.
Adams concurred, suggest-
ing people might be able to open
windows at night, but there does
not look to be much breeze next
week except for places close to the
Columbia River.
See Heat, Page A8
CRIME
Police nab
remaining
Island City
burglary
suspect
HOMEWARD
BOUND
Demus Montez of
Hermiston was last of
three suspects police
were looking for
By DICK MASON,
ISABELLA CROWLEY and
SHANNON GOLDEN
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The arrest
of a third suspect involved in an
attempted burglary and police chase
brings an end to a dramatic manhunt
that tied up police resources from
several agencies.
Demus Montez, 36, Hermis-
ton, evaded offi cers following the
events Sunday, July 17, that started
in Island City. Police fi nally caught
up with Montez during the early
morning hours of July 19. Montez
was identifi ed by a motorist who
reported seeing an individual wear-
ing a black hooded sweatshirt crawl
out of a fi eld outside Elgin, accord-
ing to Union County Sheriff Cody
Bowen. Police scanner traffi c indi-
cated the caller reported the individ-
ual was walking down Highway 82
near the Elgin Stampede grounds.
Deputies arrived on scene, took
Montez into custody and booked
him into the Union County Jail.
He was arrested on charges of
attempted murder, first-degree
attempted robbery, unlawful use
of a weapon, felon in possession
of a fi rearm, criminal mischief,
reckless endangering and misde-
meanor fl eeing.
See Police, Page A8
Veteran National
Guard aviator and
FAA inspector
returns to Pendleton
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
ENDLETON — Army aviator Chief
Warrant Offi cer 4 David Long this
month moved back to the town he
loves from the Willamette Valley.
Long resided in Pendleton from
1995 to 2009, while serving with the
“Dust Devils” Oregon Army National
Guard CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter
unit based at the airport.
“This is my fi nal move, he said. “I am here
to stay.”
The 36-year veteran is assigned to the
Oregon Army National Guard UH-72 Lakota
P
Top: Dave Long in the cockpit of his Rutan
Long-EZ homebuilt light plane racing in Kanab,
Utah in September 2021. Above: Dave Long
poses with his Rutan Long-EZ in Utah in 2021.
Dave Long/Contributed Photos
helicopter unit in Salem. Those years include
his service as a U.S. Navy air traffi c controller.
The Airbus Helicopters’ Lakota has two
engines, with a single, four-bladed main rotor.
Boeing Chinooks have two, tandem, count-
er-rotating, three-bladed rotors.
Long moved to the Portland area in 2009
to work as an aviation safety inspector for the
Federal Aviation Administration fi eld offi ce. He
has fl own almost every rotary wing aircraft, but
for the FAA specializes in night vision goggles,
large helicopters and air ambulances.
Long recently returned from an FAA
assignment in France with Airbus Helicopters.
There he was one of the fi rst Americans to fl y
the new H-160, a medium utility helicopter in
the Airbus MH-65 Dolphin family. It’s a scaled
up Dolphin, with a new fi ve-bladed main rotor
and an empty weight of 9,348 pounds, versus
MH-65’s 5,267. The U.S. Coast Guard operates
four-bladed Dolphins. A Lakota weighs only
7,904 pounds.
“It was the pinnacle of my fl ying career
to be on the certifi cation team for the FAA
and to represent America,” Long said. “It
was a great honor to be on the team that
certifi es a new prototype helicopter for
import into the United States.”
Long was raised in a large Mexican-Amer-
ican Mormon family in Yamhill. While he
joined the Navy, he didn’t see the world until
his service in the Guard and FAA.
Long deployed to Afghanistan with the
Dust Devils in 2005-06, brigaded with the
Nevada Guard’s “Mustangs”. His barracks
roommate and friend, Pendleton native
Warrant Offi cer 1 Adrian Stump, 22, and
Staff Sgt. Tane Baum, 30, formerly of Athena,
were killed in action. Three other soldiers died
with them on Sept. 25, 2005. There is a large
Mustang 22 Memorial in Reno and a smaller
one in Pendleton.
An assignment to train pilots in Bangladesh
followed.
Every summer the Dust Devils fought wild-
fi res across Oregon, dipping underslung giant,
20,000-pound when fi lled Bambi buckets into
water sources. He often engaged in search and
rescue missions. Boeing gave his fl ight crew
an award for a daring, long-range rescue in the
Sierra Nevada at 13,100 feet.
Long’s lengthy aviation career has prepared
him well for his next assignment in October.
Though eligible to retire, he has volunteered
for yet another deployment — flying the
Lakota on the southwest border.
See Home, Page A8