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withdrawn hundreds of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
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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.