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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2015)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 LOCAL NEWS Judge sends Umatilla gang member back to prison By PHIL WRIGHT Staff Writer A Umatilla gang mem- ber who killed a man in 2011 will spend more years in prison after pleading guilty to a gun crime while on a conditional early re- lease. Teodoro “Teddy” Parra Mendoza, 21, was on the right track while in custody, Circuit Judge Eve Temple said Tuesday morning in a Hermiston courtroom, but he took the wrong path on the outside. “When you went back to Umatilla,” she told Men- doza from the bench, “your to criminally neg- behavior went back ligent homicide in to exactly what we all 2012 to avoid a pos- hoped it would not.” sible manslaughter Mendoza was conviction and re- 17 in October 2011 ceived a sentence of when he and Kevin six years and three Melendez and Andres months in the custody Carrillo, who also Mendoza of the Oregon Youth were 17, had a run-in Authority. His age with Mario Calvil- lo-Ramirez, 27, of Irrigon. and length of sentence qual- Calvillo-Ramirez was a L¿HGKLPXQGHU2UHJRQODZ member of a rival gang and for a “second look” hear- VWDUWHGD¿JKWZLWKWKHWULR ing, which allows judges to But they ended it, and reevaluate youth offenders. Mendoza beat Calvil- Temple found Mendoza lo-Ramirez with his own was doing well and rebuild- baseball bat. The older man ing his life in custody, and in June allowed him out of died from the injuries. Mendoza pleaded guilty youth prison. Umatilla police arrested Mendoza on Sept. 29 at the Marina Apartments, 1600 Second St., Umatilla, after a couple of residents report- ed a drunk man had a gun outside their apartment. Jacklyn Jenkins, chief deputy prosecutor for the Umatilla County District $WWRUQH\¶V 2I¿FH WROG WKH court Tuesday morning Mendoza was drunk and passed out when police IRXQG KLP DQG KLV ¿Q- ger was on the trigger of a loaded gun. All of that vi- olated his release, she said, but given his state, he was lucky not to be facing a new manslaughter charge. Mendoza agreed he vio- lated his release and plead- ed guilty to felon in pos- VHVVLRQRID¿UHDUPVRWKH state dropped two counts of recklessly endangering oth- ers. But defense attorney Thomas Gray argued any sentence on the gun crime should run concurrent with the time left on the homi- cide. Jenkins disagreed, and so did the judge. She sent Mendoza to state prison for 18 months on the gun possession charge on top of what he had left on the orig- inal crime. Jenkins afterward said Mendoza had about three years left on that sentence, so now he is looking at a maximum of four-and-half years in lockup, though with good behavior he could reduce his sentence on the gun crime. Temple also set the re- cord straight about the spelling of Mendoza’s name. She said the original case used Theodore Men- doza, and that was wrong. 0HQGR]DFRQ¿UPHGKLV OH- gal name was Teodoro Par- ra Mendoza, and the judge told the court clerk to have UHFRUGVUHÀHFWWKDW Young population drives growing program needs across city more Sara Ortiz said. Other suggestions were The rest of the country an indoor pool, more sports may be worried about a “sil- ¿HOGVDQGDWUDPSROLQHFHQWHU ver tsunami” of aging Baby Hermiston has increased Boomers. But in Hermiston, funding for its Parks and Rec- LW¶V D ÀRRG RI \RXQJ SHRSOH reation department in recent who are stretching some re- \HDUV )RU WKH FXUUHQW ¿VFDO sources to the limit. year, the city set aside nearly 7KLUW\ ¿YH SHUFHQW RI $300,000 for park improve- Hermiston’s population is ments and eventual construc- under the age of 20, far out- tion of a skate park. Parks and Recreation di- pacing the state average of 26 percent, according to data rector Larry Fetter said the compiled for the city’s new city’s unusually large youth Livable Hermiston com- population does put a bur- mittee. The group has been den on the department. Three tasked with prioritizing a list months of outdoor swimming of livability projects for the weather doesn’t leave time to schedule enough swim city to work on. Teenagers in town say lessons to accommodate ev- Hermiston’s adults should eryone, he said, and the city pay attention to the needs of needs to get out ahead of the demand for more soccer and its younger population. “Usually they just try to VRIWEDOO¿HOGV “From the parks side, it’s tell us ‘Oh, there’s school activities,’ but that’s not scrounging for grass in a des- enough,” Hermiston High ert,” he said. Fetter said non-city School senior Cynthia Ma- leagues like youth football cias said. Macias said she would DQG$<62DUHFUXFLDOIRU¿OO- like to see some sort of youth ing in gaps on the recreation center or other “hangout” side. “The city could not ac- place for teenagers in Herm- iston. Her friends agreed, not- commodate, nor are we in- ing that now teenagers con- terested in accommodating, gregate at parks, the movie everyone’s needs in the city,” theater or bowling alley, even he said. Recreation director Dan though the parks are weath- er-dependent and movies can Earp said the department does offer a “fairly comprehensive get expensive. “At the bowling alley program” for a city of Herm- there’s always adults there, iston’s size, because of its too, so it’s awkward,” sopho- young population. Those of- By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY Cory Bowe, 10, and Jantzen Wrathall, 12, practice lines Wednesday for Hermiston Park and Recreation’s “The Little Town of Christmas.” The young cast will perform on Dec. 10 and 11 at Armand Larive Middle School. ferings stretch beyond sports into educational programs, enrichment classes and drama productions like the perfor- mance of “The Little Town of Christmas” that is currently in the works. “We do offer a lot of class- HVDQGWKH\NHHS¿OOLQJXS´ Earp said. “We have a waiting list.” At the Hermiston Pub- lic Library, programming is also affected. Library director Marie Baldo said the library gets 400-500 children and teens signed up for the sum- mer reading program each year, and activities during the school year can have as many as 100 children or teens at- tending. Even the Baby Boo- gie sessions can attract more than 50 children and their parents every Wednesday morning. “It gets rather lively,” she said. Baldo said for teenagers, the library tries to host activ- ities — like scavenger hunts — that can be done over the course of a day instead of having everyone show up at once. “Those type of static events allow us to serve more and more people even as our staff doesn’t grow,” she said. As for circulation, Baldo said the staff buys new books for children and teens month- ly. Baldo said she likes to take the library’s Teen Advisory Council on “mall crawls” where they head to Barns and Noble in the Tri-Cities to browse the aisles and pick out new young adult literature for the library. “Quite frankly they’re better equipped to pick out books they want to read than a 60-year-old lady,” she said. The most obvious and well-documented effects of Hermiston’s “youth tsunami” are in the school system. Enrollment in Hermiston School District rose by more than 200 students this year, causing the district to plan for DQRWKHU ¿YH WZRFODVVURRP modulars to the 24 portable classrooms it already has. Deputy Superintendent Wade Smith described the lack of permanent classroom space for the district’s grow- ing population as a “desper- ate situation” last week. The district has been looking at possible bond measures to ad- dress the growth but is limited by how much debt it can take on until the community pays off the district’s previous cap- ital construction bonds. Preschool is also ex- panding in Hermiston. In March Umatilla Morrow County Head Start received a $780,000 grant from the federal government to train and certify private preschool providers as Head Start teachers, allowing them to take on some of the students that have been relegated to a waiting list for regular Head Start classrooms due to the area’s high number of pre- school-aged children. In the private sector, the needs of a younger-than-av- erage population also come into play. Nick Bejarano, director of marketing and communi- cations for Good Shepherd Health Care System, said the hospital is aware of the city’s young population and is com- mitted to doing what is neces- sary to meet the needs of local families. Good Shepherd current- ly has four full-time and one half-time pediatrician, in ad- dition to the family doctors who also provide general wellness visits for children. Bejarano said pediatricians are hired based on popula- tion ratios recommended by organizations like the Ameri- can Medical Association. The hospital wants to make sure its pediatricians are able to take their time to get to know each patient, he said. “If we know our pediatri- cians are kind of being over- whelmed we look and say ‘Maybe we need to hire an- other,’” Bejarano said. Hermiston man joins Alice Cooper in Hall of Fame Gene Snyder crowned as a new craving king of White Castle HEALTHY FRIDAYS By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer A Hermiston man is in the same Hall of Fame as rock legend Alice Cooper. Not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, mind you. The White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame. The Midwestern restaurant chain inducted Gene Snyder, 74, this year, christening him the “Traveling Slider Man.” 7KH¿UVWWKLQJ6Q\GHUDOZD\V does when he travels is check for the nearest White Castle. He has eaten the restaurant’s famous sliders from New York to Las Vegas. “Its been a part of my life for almost 70 years,” he said. Last year’s inductees in- cluded Alice Cooper, who has discussed his love of White Castle burgers during media interviews in the past. This year no one particular- ly famous got the honor, but Snyder pointed out that there were only 11 inductees out of 1,148 people who applied. “It’s easier to get into Harvard than to get inducted into the White Castle Hall of Fame,” he said. His lifelong craving for White Castle’s two-inch slid- ers started when he was a kid growing up in Chicago. “I was always real slight and did not like to eat any- thing but White Castle, so my mom and dad would take me there to make sure I ate,” he said. “That’s what started it.” When the family moved to the north side of the city, picking up a bag of White Castle sliders meant an hour- most he would get a few cou- round-trip tickets to the said. restaurant’s headquarters in He said out of all the foods pons for free sliders. Instead, the company Columbus, Ohio, for Snyder that he missed after moving away from the Midwest, the contacted him with free and his wife reason he missed White Cas- tle sliders the most was the restaurant’s unique way of cooking the mini-burgers in a Free health screenings: blood pressure steamer surrounded by juicy checks, weigh ins, body mass index, onions. cholesterol and glucose. “It’s a whole different Every Third Friday of the Month taste,” he said. November 20 • 9:00 - 11:00am Today the sliders are avail- GSMC Education Department able in the frozen food section of some grocery stores in the 3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWEXWLW¶VQRW One FREE class focusing on the first six quite the same. months of pregnancy. Healthcare professional When he saw a notice on speakers will provide presentations on topics one of the boxes calling for that include medication use, exercise, diet, people to submit their stories breastfeeding and many other helpful of White Castle cravings he subjects. Free, but please pre-register. sent something in and then November 5 • 6:30-8:30pm IRUJRW DERXW LW ¿JXULQJ DW GSMC Conference Room Center 2 EARLY PREGNANCY PHOTO COURTESY GENE SNYDER Gene Snyder holds a box of White Castle sliders during his trip to Columbus, Ohio to be inducted into the restaurant’s hall of fame. long drive, but that didn’t stop them. Neither did an eventual move to Seattle, where the nearest White Castle was thousands of miles away. “We would get freshly cooked White Castles and put them in our luggage and take them back to Seattle,” Snyder said. “The smell would per- meate the whole cabin.” His wife Karen said the tradition of bringing White Castle sliders back from va- cation continued after the couple married. “We used to bring them home by the hundreds,” she Providing the Most Advanced Digital Hearing Technology A family run business for over 50 Years 541-276-3155 1-800-678-3155 29 SW Dorion Pendleton 236 E Newport Hermiston www.ruhearing.com BIRTHING CLASSES Two-day course to prepare each mother and birth partner for a knowledgeable, rewarding and sharing childbirth experience. November 6 & 7 Friday: 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Saturday: 9:30 am - 3 pm GSMC Conference Room BABYSITTING BASICS 101 For babysitters ages 10-15. Learn childcare techniques, children's developmental ages and what to expect, basic first aid and infant and child CPR. November 21 • 9:00am - 3:00pm CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT CLASS Oregon - Utah - Valid 35 States PENDLETON Red Lion - 304 SE Nye Ave. Nov. 11 th • 1:00 pm or 6:00 pm GSMC Conference Room $30 - includes lunch & all class materials. Must pre-register & pre-pay. BREASTFEEDING CLASSES One class covers breastfeeding benefits, pumping and much more. Come to this FREE class taught by a certified lactation consultant, and learn techniques that make for a successful experience. Free, but please pre-register. November 4 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm GSMC Conference Center 3 & 4 Walk-Ins Welcome! OR/Utah: (Valid in WA) $80.00 or Oregon only: $45 www.FirearmTrainingNW.com • FirearmTrainingNW@gmail.com 360-921-2071 For information or to register for a class, call (541) 667-3509 or email healthinfo@gshealth.org
