Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2016)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2016 LOCAL NEWS HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 Delays expected during summer road construction projects CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Hermiston Police Department posted three photos to Facebook of a person of interest in an investigation into use of a skimmer on ATM machines. This one is the only one where the male is not wearing sunglasses on his face. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Hermiston Police Department posted three photos to Facebook of a person of interest in an investigation into use of a skimmer on ATM machines. The man is wearing the same zipper-front two- toned jacket in all three photos. Hermiston Police Department posted three photos to Facebook of a person of interest in an investigation into use of a skimmer on ATM machines. The man is photographed from cameras at ATM machines and wearing at least two different ball caps in the photos. Nearly 100 reports of missing money in bank fraud Police release photos of person of interest in investigation By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER Hermiston Police De- partment has released photos of a person of interest in the bank ac- count fraud case that has affected a number of Hermiston residents in recent weeks. The reports start- ed the week of May 8, as customers of multi- ple banks began notic- ing that someone had withdrawn hundreds of dollars from their bank account, usually from an ATM in the Portland area. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said he didn’t have an exact tally on hand, but he thought the depart- ment had taken close to 100 reports by now, to- taling thousands of dol- lars of theft. He said he knew there were others who had re- ported the fraud to their bank but not the police department. The person in the surveillance photos re- leased Thursday is be- lieved to have affixed a “skimmer” to a local ATM. The device looks like an extension of the card reader, but instead intercepts debit and credit card information that thieves can later collect and use to their advantage. Edmiston said it appears in this case the information is being used to manufac- ture fake debit cards that are then used to with- draw cash from other ATMs. Police believe the crimes are the work of an organized ring of criminals. “This is a fairly so- phisticated operation, which would lead us to believe it is also fairly organized,” Edmiston said. He said Hermiston detectives have been exchanging information with other jurisdictions, including Portland and the Tri-Cities, to work together to bust the crime ring, which ap- CONTRIBUTED PHOTO This photo from the Richland Police Department shows an example of a credit card skimmer (right) that can be attached to a card reader to steal information. pears to be hitting cities across in the Northwest. Richland police re- cently arrested two people caught stealing card information from a self-pay gasoline pump, but the suspects did not match the description of the suspect in the Herm- iston fraud. Edmiston said if any- one notices a suspicious device on an ATM they should alert the bank or the police. He said the reports of fraud coming in now seem to be from people who did not im- mediately notice the suspicious activity on their account, but people should still check their bank accounts frequent- ly in case not all of the card numbers collected by the thieves have been used yet. Anyone with infor- mation on the case is asked to call Detective Robert Guerrero at 541- 667-5098. As road construction season enters full swing, the Oregon Department of Transportation is remind- ing drivers to use caution in order to avoid tragedy. This year ODOT crews and contractors will repair and resurface hundreds of miles of pavement, includ- ing the following projects in Umatilla and Morrow counties: •Work continues on Highway 395 between north Hermiston and Uma- tilla, including lane restric- tions, sidewalk closures and minor delays during a paving grind/inlay. The majority of the project is expected to wrap up part- way through June, with all aspects complete by July 4. •Interstate 84 will ex- perience lane closures, reduced speeds and minor delays for concrete repairs between exit 188 (Stan- ield/Pilot truck stop) and milepost 203 (Pendleton/ Woodpecker truck stop). Work is expected to start in August or September and be completed in October. •Interstate 84 will be reduced to a single lane in work zones between milepost 203 (Woodpeck- er truck stop) and milepost 217 (the bottom of Cab- bage Hill) for pavement grinding and inlay. Work is expected to start in July or August and be completed in September. • The Exit 209 inter- change of Interstate 84 and Highway 395 in Pendleton will be under repairs re- sulting in lane closures of the bridge and the tempo- rary closure of the west- bound freeway off-ramp from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 16, and again on June 22 and 23. •Highway 730 between Southshore Drive and the Washington border will experience lane closures, reduced speeds, pilot cars and up to 20-minute de- lays in order to complete a pavement overlay. The work is expected to begin sometime in late fall and be completed in August 2017. •Highway 206 between Gilliam County and Hep- pner will experience lane closures, reduced speeds, laggers, pilot cars, de- EO FILE PHOTO John, left, and Larry Riggs excavate a 14-feet-deep hole near the intersection of Highway 395 and Jennie Avenue in Hermiston. As part of an ODOT project, the trafic signals are being relocated and replaced at the intersection. lays of up to 20 minutes and parking restrictions in Heppner during a chip seal operation. Work is expect- ed to start in late July and take about two weeks to complete. •Highway 244 will ex- perience lane closures, reduced speeds, pilot cars and delays of up to 20 min- utes for a pavement chip seal between its intersec- tion with U.S. 395 near Ukiah and Interstate 84 near Hilgard. Work is ex- pected to start Aug. 8 and take about three weeks to complete. •Highway 74 between Gilliam County and Hep- pner will experience lane closures, reduced speeds, pilot cars and delays of up to 20 minutes for a chip seal project. Work is ex- pected to start July 11 and take two to three weeks to complete. “ODOT reminds motor- ists to slow down, pay extra attention and be prepared for laggers and trafic pat- tern changes when they see orange cones and construc- tion signs,” the department wrote in a news release. Trafic ines are doubled in work zones, regardless of whether there are con- struction workers on site. ODOT emphasized that obeying the reduced speed limit and avoiding distrac- tions like cell phones can prevent an expensive ticket and save lives. City plans to spend less, but still has several projects planned for 2016-2017 Water tower paint job, city bus in budget By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer After years of plentiful construction, the city of Hermiston will slow down spending with a 2016-2017 proposed budget that is $14 million smaller than the year before. City Manager Byron Smith told the budget com- mittee Wednesday that a large part of the decrease comes from the completion of a long list of capital im- provements. “We inished up a lot of construction projects in the current iscal year,” he said. The average citizen, however, may not no- tice much of a difference. Multi-million dollar proj- ects in recent years, such as a new recycled water treatment plant, have been largely out of the public eye, while proposed proj- ects, such as a repaint of the water tower and construc- tion of the senior center, will cost much less but be more visible. For 2016-2017 the city’s big spending item will be construction of the Harken- rider Center, a new senior center that will start con- struction downtown in the fall. It will be funded with a $2 million Community De- velopment Block Grant and up to $750,000 of the city’s money. Smith said strategies such as providing in-kind labor will likely reduce the cost, but, “we’re going to budget for the full amount and then we can back off from there.” Another sizable item is $100,000 in the street fund for an overlay on North First Place between Elm Avenue and Harper Road. Smith said the overlay will keep the street usable for a few more years while the HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY, KYNLEE! May all your wishes today and tomorrow come true! We cannot think of anyone more deserving! -Love Grandpa and Grandma Powell See Us for Hearing Tests Every Monday and Tuesday. 29 SW Dorion, Pendleton, OR Call 541-276-3155 for appointment city continues to try and get funds (possibly as part of the transportation package being put together for the 2017 legislative session) to replace it completely. “We’re just trying to save the street before it to- tally breaks down,” Smith said. Another $130,000 is budgeted for the West Highland Trail project, which will create a pe- destrian/bike path parallel Highland Avenue from Riv- erfront Park to 11th Street. Construction on the joint project with the Oregon Department of Transporta- tion is expected next spring. The city has also bud- geted $70,000 to purchase a bus and begin a Dial-a-Ride program to supplement the city’s current public trans- portation program, which allows senior and disabled residents to purchase tick- ets from the city for $2 apiece that can be redeemed for a ride from a private taxi company. “It’s less of a subsidy to operate the Dial-a-Ride program than the taxi pro- gram,” said Mark Morgan, assistant city manager. After adopting a new logo and the tagline “Where Life is Sweet,” the city plans to repaint the wa- ter tower on south Highway 395 and spend an additional $25,000 implementing the brand on letterheads, signs and other city items. “We put $75,000 in the water budget to repaint — fully repaint — the water tower. All of it. At the same time,” Smith said. The budget also includes increased personnel costs, including a 2.25 percent pay increase for all city staff to match the raise negotiated by the police union. One thing missing from the proposed budget is funds for construction of a skate park. While a small amount of money remains in the proposed budget for design purposes, Smith said the city is hitting the brakes on construction of the proj- ect in light of a recent court case that brought up some liability concerns. Under Oregon’s Public Use of Lands Act, land- owners that let the public use their land free of charge for recreational purposes are protected from lawsuits if someone is injured on that land. But the Oregon Supreme Court recently ruled that a legally blind woman who fell into a hole in a Portland park could still sue the individual city employee who dug the hole and left it unattended. “The city still technical- ly has immunity, but our employees don’t and we’re obligated to defend them,” Smith said. As a result the city, un- der the advice of its insur- ance provider, is slowing down on the skate park idea until efforts by the League of Oregon Cities to get new legislation on the issue have played out. One of the reasons the proposed 2016-2017 bud- get is smaller than last year’s is that by July the millions of dollars in state money that the city has been holding for construc- tion of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center will be completely spent. In the past year the city also completed construc- tion of an outfall pipe for the new Recycled Water Treatment plant, worked with NOWA to make im- provements to the regional water system, completed a water pipeline along Feed- ville road to the Hermis- ton Agricultural Research & Extension Center, per- formed most of a $4 mil- lion upgrade to the Herm- iston Municipal Airport, improved Victory Square Park, expanded Sunset Park, created a drainage basin at Newport Park and made repairs to the Hermis- ton Family Aquatic Center. The city council will hold a public hearing on the budget on June 13 at 7 p.m. at City Hall before considering the budget for inal adoption. A copy of the budget can be examined at City Hall, 180 N.E. Sec- ond St.
