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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2015)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM LOCAL NEWS Animal rescuer weighed jail against saving dogs ther. But she also said she Robin Barker of Herm- could not return the dogs iston feared she would be to a place where she felt no charged with a felony af- one fed or cared for them. Suzanne Phillips is the ter she took three under- fed dogs from their owner. director of Fuzz Ball. She Then another animal rescu- said Fuzz Ball often accepts animals that law enforce- er helped save the day. The Umatilla County PHQW VHL]HV WKHQ ¿QGV WKH 6KHULII¶V 2I¿FH UHFHLYHG D pets temporary homes and call Friday, Nov. 20, from ZRUNV WR ¿QG WKHP SHUPD- a woman who said a dog nent homes. “We don’t have a shel- escaped its chain on the EORFN RI *HHU 5RDG ter but since we have foster Hermiston, and ate one of homes it works pretty much her chickens. Barker serves the same way,” she said. She said she did not un- on the board of Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, a small res- derstand why the sheriff’s FXHQRQSUR¿WLQ+HUPLVWRQ RI¿FH GLG QRW GR PRUH WR and said she saw a posting help the dogs. Fuzz Ball about that dog on Face- has previously worked with book, so she went to check WKH DJHQF\ WR ¿QG KRPHV for animals in need and it out the scene. She said she found wet, can do that while the out- cold and underfed dogs; come of a criminal case is four adults and four pup- pending and at no cost to pies. They had no shelter the county. Fuzz Ball works nor food. One dog, she said, entirely off donations, Phil- had vomited sticks and lips said. Barker, Phillips and oth- plastic it had tried to eat. She took videos and a part- ers then took to Facebook ner took photos of the dogs. with photos of the dogs and She also took videos of directed viewers to contact interactions with the dog’s WKH VKHULII¶V RI¿FH ZKLFK owner, who could not be has it own Facebook page. reached for comment. Bark- -RGL/DPEHUWRI/D*UDQGH er confronted him with the has helped Fuzz Ball earn conditions the dogs were grants, and she started an living in. In one he assert- online petition to push the ed he cared for and fed the VKHULII¶V RI¿FH WR WDNH DF- dogs. But Barker said he tion. Monday evening it also relinquished two dogs had about 3,500 backers, and four puppies to Fuzz though many are anony- Ball, and in one video he mous. Rowan said he does not seems to imply he was OK monitor the Facebook page with her taking the dogs. Sheriff Terry Row- nor comment on it, but will an said the following day direct staff when appropri- the man reported Barker ate. He said it is a good tool had stolen his dogs and he to spread a message, and wanted them back. Rowan WKH VKHULII¶V RI¿FH GLG WKDW said pets are property under with a response Saturday to Oregon law. So a deputy address concerns about the told Barker to return the dogs. Rowan called that an dogs or she could face an unusual move, but people needed to know the sher- arrest for theft. That threat, Barker said, LII¶V RI¿FH ZDV LQYHVWLJDW- turned her world upside ing the case. But Barker said she down. She said she lost sleep, cried, worried about grew so worried Monday her own pets and what morning that she called would happen if she could District Attorney Dan Pri- not attend to her aging fa- PXV WR ¿QG RXW LI FKDUJHV By PHIL WRIGHT Staff Writer were pending against her, and he referred her to the county commissioners. She then spoke with Com- missioner Bill Elfering and he brought it back up with Rowan. Later that day, vol- unteer Carri Curtis of Hermiston said she spoke to the dog owner and of- fered to buy all four an- imals if he relinquished ownership. The man asked for $500, she said, but in the end took $150. And, she said, he signed the paperwork. Barker said she still wants to make sure law en- forcement knows not to ar- rest her, and she planned to check in with an attorney. But for moment she felt re- lief. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015 City asks for follow-up survey responses By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer A community activity center and indoor aquatic center are residents’ top pri- orities for increasing Herm- iston’s livability, according to the results of a city survey. Now the city wants to hear another round of feed- back on those and three other top priorities before deciding which amenities should be the highest funding priority in the next 10 to 15 years. Clark Worth of consulting ¿UP %DUQH\ :RUWK ,QF hired to conduct the surveys, said the new survey would VSHFL¿FDOO\ DVN LI SHRSOH would be willing to contrib- XWH ¿QDQFLDOO\ WR DQ\ RI WKH projects through higher taxes, donations or other means. ³:KDWZH¿QGZKHQZH do these types of surveys is that some concepts may sound like they have a lot of community support, until \RX VSHFL¿FDOO\ DVN LI SHR- ple are willing to pay for it,” Worth said in a statement. “This follow-up survey will help to determine what con- cepts truly are supported by the community to a level that a large-scale project may be viable.” More than 1,000 people took the original survey, which will help the Liv- able Hermiston committee compile a report for the city council to consider while de- veloping a long-range plan and budgets for the next 10 to 15 years. After being asked an open-ended question about what the city should do with a hypothetical gift of $1 mil- lion, residents’ top answer was building some sort of community center with activ- ities for youth. Other top an- swers were an indoor aquatic center, cultural center offer- ing space for musical per- formances and art displays, revitalization of downtown and an expansion of the city’s SDUNVWUDLOVDQGVSRUWV¿HOGV “A Community Activity Center, like a YMCA or a %R\V *LUOV &OXE DQG D year-round aquatic center were by far the two most SRSXODUUHVSRQVHVLQWKH¿UVW survey,” Worth said. “After that the concepts started to get a bit broader, but there were still several distinct themes that emerged to form WKHUHVWRIWKHWRS¿YH´ During the Livable Hermiston committee’s Nov. 16 meeting Worth said Hermiston’s top strengths seem to be its young popula- tion, welcoming small-town character and prime cross- roads location. The newest Livable Hermiston survey can be found online at www.sur- veymonkey.com/r/Hermi- sonCommunity. iPhone 6s with coverage in the Middle of Anywhere. Switch now and get $400 per line when you trade in a Smartphone and purchase the new iPhone 6s. Hermiston ag teacher wins award, attends national convention A Hermiston agricultural educator recently attended a national convention as one of a select group of teachers nationwide wide who re- ceived a professional devel- opment scholarship. Hermiston High School’s Alyssa Davies received a 2015 Teachers Turn the Key scholarship and attended the National Association of Ag- ricultural Educators annual convention Nov. 17-21 in New Orleans, according to a press release from the as- sociation. The scholarship brings together agricultural educa- tors with four or fewer years of experience and immerses them in three days of pro- fessional development that DGGUHVVHV LVVXHV VSHFL¿F to the early years of teach- ing agriculture. Participants also have the opportunity to become involved in NAAE leadership and network with other NAAE convention attendees. Recipients come away from the experience with a long-lasting peer cohort and tools that will help them have successful careers as agricultural edu- cators. Davies has been teach- ing agriculture at Hermiston High School for two years, where she serves more than 500 students. Hermiston’s Agriculture, Food and Nat- ural Resources program of- fers rigorous opportunities for these students, who are also all FFA members. Some of these include participa- tion in the Columbia Basin Student Homebuilders Pro- gram, summer internships with local businesses and an annual Ag in the Classroom day where high school stu- dents teach agricultural les- sons at six local elementary schools. “My instruction concen- trates on providing oppor- tunities where students use critical thinking skills and cooperative learning,” Da- vies said in the release. “I challenge myself every day to keep learning new things in order to share with my students; my curriculum is continually developing and improving in order to meet the industry’s changes.” In her two years at +HUPLVWRQ 'DYLHV DQG ¿YH of her students have been able to attend the National FFA Organization’s Wash- ington Leadership Confer- ence. While there, Davies’ students learned about the need for service in their lo- cal communities, and she was able to connect with advisors from all over the country through profession- al development. In addition to attending professional development, each of the scholarship re- cipients was also recognized during a general session at the convention. RAM Trucks sponsors the schol- arship program as a special project of the National FFA Foundation. Headquartered in Lex- ington, Kentucky, NAAE is the professional organi- zation in the United States for agricultural educators. It provides its nearly 8,000 members with professional networking and develop- ment opportunities, pro- fessional liability coverage and extensive awards and recognition programs. The mission of NAAE is “pro- fessionals providing agri- cultural education for the global community through visionary leadership, advo- cacy and service.” With 3D Touch, Live Photos, 7000 series aluminum, A9 chip, advanced cameras, 4.7-inch Retina HD display, and so much more, you’ll see how with iPhone 6s the only thing that’s changed is everything. 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