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