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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.”
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