LOCAL NEWS
"
Modulars coming to keep
up with enrollment boom
Parking and
traic changes
implemented
By JENNIFER COLTON
! !
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY HERMISTON FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
Hermiston hazmat crews respond to an overturned garbage truck outside of Heppner last
week.
Hermiston hazmat team
responds to Heppner crash
we were really glad to see
them.”
Last Wednesday after-
Hermiston Fire & Emer-
noon, a garbage truck start- gency Services handles all
ed over a wooden bridge on hazardous material calls for
Rhea Creek, about 12 miles northeast Oregon. The dis-
south of Heppner. The truck trict is bordered to the south
broke through the bridge, by district 14, based in On-
overturning and landing in tario, and to the west by Dis-
the creek.
trict 3, based in Gresham.
Fuel began to seep into
The garbage truck inci-
the water from the truck’s dent happened at 1:45 p.m.;
engine while the driver hazmat was dispatched at
VWUXJJOHG WR ¿QG D ZD\ WR 2:52 p.m., and the eight-
call 9-1-1 — the phone line man team arrived on scene
to the private property had before 5 p.m.
been severed during the col-
The Hermiston respond-
lapse.
ers continued the con-
The emergency call tainment work started by
came from a rural mail car- Heppner teams, including
rier who came into contact adding additional booms —
with the driver, according ORQJ FRQQHFWLRQV WKDW ÀRDW
WR5XVW\(VWHV+HSSQHU¿UH above and below the water-
chief.
line to keep oil and debris
“The rural carrier picked contained — and removing
him up and took him to the oil from the water.
next house,” Estes said Fri-
“From what we could
day. “Heppner Rescue re- tell, most of the oil was
VSRQGHGWKHVKHULII¶VRI¿FH coming out of the engine
and of course Heppner am- compartment, so that was a
bulance. When the Herm- only a small amount,” Davis
iston hazmat team came in, said.
By JENNIFER COLTON
! !
2LO DQG K\GUDXOLF ÀX-
id were removed from the
truck as well, and the driver
was transported to a local
hospital.
In addition to the Hep-
pner, Morrow County and
Hermiston emergency re-
sponse teams, an environ-
mental company from the
Tri-Cities was dispatched to
respond, as well as two tow
trucks to pull the vehicle
from the water.
The Hermiston crew ded-
icated more than eight hours
to the incident, according to
battalion chief Jim Davis.
“As far as a dump truck
going off a bridge, that’s
pretty uncommon,” Davis
said with a laugh. “As far as
the hazmat cleaning up oil
and diesel spills, that’s pret-
ty common. That’s probably
the most common thing we
do.”
Public in the area was
advised to watch for oil and
plan on using a secondary
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dissipated.
The Hermiston School
District will add six tempo-
rary classrooms at Hermis-
ton High School next month.
The classrooms will pro-
vide a stop-gap solution to
the district’s rapid enroll-
ment growth.
Although the district
planned for more students,
January enrollment almost
doubled those predictions:
The district forecast an in-
crease of 112 students from
January 2015 to January
2016, but actual enrollment
came in at 212 more stu-
dents over that time period.
Of
district
schools,
Hermiston High School
has the most students. The
school’s current enrollment
stands at 1,471; however,
the senior class of 2016 has
289 students, and next year’s
freshman class is expected
to be about 375. Those extra
100 students could put the
high school over its 1,600
student capacity — which
does not include participants
in the online and alternative
school programs, who may
use high school facilities.
Facing that crunch, the
Hermiston School Board
discussed the rental of three
modular buildings that could
each house two classrooms.
Funded from the district’s
general fund, the rental
was expected to cost about
LQLWV¿UVW\HDUDQG
Eastern
Oregon
$60,000 for any additional
years. In the coming weeks,
the three modular buildings
will be erected between the
HHS parking lot and the
Weber Field parking lot. The
classrooms will remove 21
parking spaces.
“The district is experienc-
ing record student growth,
and modular facilities are
necessary to accommodate
the added students,” said
Mike Kay, district executive
director of operations. “We
realize the impact the build-
ings will have on parking
and appreciate the patience
DQG ÀH[LELOLW\ RI RXU VWX-
dents, staff and community.”
The location of the class-
rooms had been used as a
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within the parking lots will
be rerouted for student
safety.
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