Hermiston
WINTER SP
PREVIEW ORTS
2014-15
Herald
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015
HermistonHerald.com
INSIDE
Winter sports
Staff photo
by E.J.
Sam
Colbray
of
Hermiston
is looking
for
his fourth
wrestling state
title.
preview 2014-15
$1.00
ABOUT TOWN
Free event
provides
Medicare
information
FILLING THE
FOOD
GAP
Medicare counseling
and information is avail-
able just in time for the
end of open enrollment.
Free Friday Medicare
Madness is Friday from 9
a.m. to 1 p.m. in Confer-
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cafeteria) at Good Shep-
herd Medical Center, 610
1: WK 6W 7UDLQHG
volunteers from the Se-
nior Health Insurance
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will be on hand to answer
questions. They also are
available throughout the
year for questions. Those
attending should bring a
list of medications they
take.
For more information,
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shiba@gshealth.org.
Fair extends
court
application
deadline
Program provides food to take home when students don’t have access to school meal options
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
H
eading home from school for
the weekend is a happy break
from classes for most elemen-
tary school students, but for
some children in the commu-
nity it means two days of not
knowing where their next meal will come
from.
“Children don’t have control over their
own lives,” Agape House director Dave
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ents who can’t provide, and some who
choose not to.”
That’s where the Agape House’s back-
pack program comes into play. The pro-
gram provides a bag of easily-prepared
food to the area’s neediest elementary
school students to take home for the week-
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and lunch at school during the week.
The students are chosen by councilors
at the elementary schools in Hermiston,
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Hughes said the program started about
six years ago when a local principal ap-
proached the Agape House with tales of
students who would wrap up part of their
school lunch on Friday to take home for
the weekend, then arrive on Monday and
ravenously devour their breakfast.
“Teachers and counselors say it’s amaz-
ing how much better of a student kids are
when they have adequate food over the
weekend,” Hughes said.
The program used to use backpacks,
but Hughes said it got too expensive to
keep replacing the ones that didn’t make
it back to the schools, so now plastic gro-
cery sacks are used. Volunteers from Al-
trusa International and Faith Presbyterian
Church pack the bags every Thursday
morning and deliver them to the schools.
At one point the program was serving
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shortages. Hughes said each child gets
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See FOOD, A16
City lights Christmas tree Thursday
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The city of Hermiston has planted a Christmas tree in the middle of Northeast
Second Street near City Hall in Hermiston.
A tree is blocking the street next
to Hermiston’s city hall, but it’s no
accident.
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in the middle of Northeast Second
Street by the city after workers used
a jackhammer to create a three-foot
deep hole in the road.
The display is part of a larger vi-
sion that includes a nightly light show
set to music on the side of the former
RoeMarks building. The block of
downtown where the tree and light
show are located will remain closed
to vehicles during the month of De-
cember.
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See TREE, A16
The Umatilla Coun-
ty Fair has extended the
2016 fair court applica-
tion deadline.
It also was announced
the program is open to
all high school age stu-
dents residing in Umatilla
County. Previously it was
open only to 10th through
12th grade students. Ap-
plications are due by Fri-
day, Dec. 11.
Applications are avail-
able at www.umatilla-
county.net/fair, the fair
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Ave., Hermiston, all
Umatilla County high
schools and 4-H Exten-
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will contact all accepted
applicants to schedule in-
terviews.
For more information,
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nalley@umatillacounty.
net.
Bomb hoax leads
to arrest of man
By SEAN HART
Staff Writer
A Hermiston man was
arrested Monday morn-
ing after an investigation
into a bomb hoax.
Hermiston Police De-
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Hermiston, and charged
him with possession of a
hoax destructive device
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derly conduct. He was
lodged in the Umatilla
County Jail on $10,000
bail.
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Hermiston Police De-
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Beebe Avenue for a re-
port of a purported bomb
inside a garbage can, ac-
cording to a press release
from Police Chief Jason
Edmiston.
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scene and met with an
employee from Sanitary
Disposal who found a
cardboard box with the
words “this is a bomb”
written on it inside an
open garbage can that
was scheduled for collec-
tion, the release states.