WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
Irrigon man dies in Boardman shooting
Hermiston Herald
One man died Sun-
day night in a shooting in
Boardman. Morrow Coun-
ty District Attorney Justin
Nelson said in a written
statement that the Morrow
and Umatilla counties ma-
jor crime team is seeking “a
juvenile person of interest
in the case.”
Police responded around
9 p.m. to Wilson Road Mo-
bile Home Park, 600 Wil-
son Road, Boardman, to a
report of a male with gun-
shot wound. Oficers found
Evencio Salas Birrueta, 28,
of Irrigon, was the victim,
and immediately began
lifesaving measures. The
efforts were unsuccessful,
according to Nelson, and
Birrueta died at the scene.
Nelson also reported the
major crime team is us-
ing witness interviews and
crime scene analysis to ind
a juvenile person of inter-
est. According to the state-
ment, “Law enforcement
currently does not believe
there is a danger to the pub-
lic.”
“No other additional (in-
formation) will be released
at this time,” according to
Nelson’s statement. “Fur-
ther information will be re-
leased once it is determined
not to adversely affect the
investigation.”
Nelson also urged any-
one with information con-
cerning this case to con-
tact the Boardman Police
Department at 541-481-
6071.
Transportation priorities
have $14 million price tag
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
A League of Oregon
Cities survey has found
more than $3.7 billion
in transportation needs
in cities across the state,
including more than $14
million in Hermiston
projects.
The report, released in
August, compiled survey
responses from 120 cities
listing their top five prior-
ities for highway projects
and top five non-highway
transportation priorities.
It also examined those cit-
ies’ maintenance budgets
and found that responding
cities were $217 million
short of the federal per-
mile recommendation for
highway spending.
As a region, Eastern
Oregon cities had the
least maintenance money
in their budget, averaging
$2,694 per lane mile —
more than $18,000 below
the level recommended
by the Federal Highway
Administration. Hermis-
ton was above the East-
ern Oregon average at
$6,798 per lane mile in
2014-2015. The city is re-
sponsible for maintaining
73 miles of road, or 178
“lane miles” when adding
up each lane separately.
As for major projects,
among Hermiston’s top
non-highway priorities is
widening 10th Street be-
tween Elm Avenue and
Punkin Center.
City staff described
the upgrade as one of its
biggest safety concerns in
light of a planned Herm-
iston School District bond
that, if passed, would re-
sult in a new elementa-
ry school along Theater
Lane and 10th Street in
2018.
“Theater Lane will
be the main access point
for the school, and will
require the School Dis-
trict to construct approxi-
mately a half-mile of new
street,” according to the
survey response. “How-
ever, in real life, many
parents and students will
be forced to come to the
school northbound along
10th street.”
Combined with new
housing
developments
east of town, Sandstone
Middle School students
walking along 10th Street
to school and major con-
gestion at Elm and 395,
the proposed elementary
school makes widening
10th Street an urgent pri-
ority for the city, at a cost
of $5.82 million.
“There is simply no
way that the city of
Hermiston can currently
pay for a project of that
scale,” the report said.
In light of the expected
traffic increase on The-
ater Lane connected to
the proposed school, the
city also listed adding
turn pockets to the inter-
section of Theater Lane
and Highway 395 as one
of its top highway prior-
ities.
The rest of its top ive
highway priorities are a
signal at Highway 207 and
Elm Avenue (already in the
works in partnership with
ODOT), a signal at High-
way 207 and Orchard Ave-
nue, more lanes at the inter-
section of Elm and Highway
395 and a trafic signal at the
intersection of Highway 395
and Kelli Boulevard near
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Airport Road.
The city’s other top
non-highway priorities are
the re-alignment of Harp-
er Road and Geer Road
near Agape House, wid-
ening North First Place,
redesigning the intersec-
tion of First Place and
Highland Avenue near the
high school and installing
a roundabout at the inter-
section of Main Street,
Seventh Street and Diago-
nal Road downtown.
Other cities in Umatil-
la and Morrow counties
that submitted answers
to the survey are Board-
man, Irrigon, Heppner,
Milton-Freewater
and
Ukiah. The full report,
along with other League
of Oregon Cities data, can
be found online at www.
orcities.org/MemberSer-
vices/Research.
The transportation re-
port is a timely one given
the state legislature’s goal
of putting together a com-
prehensive transportation
funding package during
the 2017 session that
will dole out millions of
dollars for various trans-
portation infrastructure
projects across the state.
Legislators listened to
city and county officials
testify about some of
Eastern Oregon’s needs
during a Joint Interim
Committee on Transpor-
tation Preservation and
Modernization meeting in
Hermiston in June.
Guardian Angel Homes opens
second memory care facility
Hermiston Herald
Guardian Angel Homes
has room for 16 more res-
idents after cutting the rib-
bon on a second memory
care home.
The Ranch House joins
the Tuscan House — which
opened in April — as a se-
cure but home-like living
facility for people with
Alzheimer’s or dementia.
The home at 540 N.W.
12th St. in Hermiston in-
cludes 16 private bedrooms
and bathrooms, a spacious
living and dining room
area, a kitchen staffed by
a professional chef and a
fenced-in courtyard resi-
dents can use at any time.
The facility will offer nurs-
es, round-the-clock assis-
tance and a variety of ac-
tivities for the residents.
The facility is owned by
the Frantz family, which
has built and operates sev-
eral memory care facilities
around the Paciic North-
west after Marty Frantz’s
own father suffered a
stroke and severe demen-
tia in 1997.
Jennifer Baus Samos-
ka, Frantz’s daughter, de-
scribed the two memory
care homes and assisted
living facility a “beauti-
ful campus” able to ac-
commodate a wide range
of needs, from a more in-
dependent lifestyle at the
assisted living facility to
more intensive care for
Alzheimer’s patients at
risk of wandering away
from unsecured facili-
ties.
For information about
openings at the facilities,
including the new Ranch
House, call Guardian An-
gel Homes at 541-564-
9070 or visit their website
at
www.guardianangel-
homes.com.
than twice as high.
The city commissioned
a report by Anderson Perry
& Associates to examine
its methodology for set-
ting system development
charges. Cities common-
ly impose system devel-
opment charges on new
homes or businesses to help
cover the cost of expanding
infrastructure such as water
lines to accommodate new
development.
In Stanield, developers
have been paying $5,399 per
“equivalent residential unit.”
The report by Anderson Per-
ry & Associates calculates
a need of $13,190 per unit.
The city council, however,
took the public works com-
mittee’s recommendation to
impose a rate of $5,400.
“We didn’t want to be the
most expensive city in East-
ern Oregon,” City Manager
Blair Larsen said.
The city is changing how
the money is used. Before,
system development charges
went only to water and
wastewater upgrades. Now a
percentage of the revenue is
also earmarked for transpor-
tation improvements. Some
money will also go toward
park improvements.
Armand Larive
teacher wins grant
IN BRIEF
Stanfield hosts
meeting on codes
Stanield residents are in-
vited to a community meet-
ing on Tuesday, Sept. 20.
The meeting will include
a joint work session with the
city council and city plan-
ning commission to discuss
updates to the city’s down-
town code.
The city council hopes
to adopt new guidelines for
downtown businesses by the
end of the year. The project’s
four goals are to remove bar-
riers to downtown develop-
ment, encourage a “pleasant
and walkable” downtown,
promote a consistent visual
design and make the devel-
opment code easier to read.
Citizens can give their input
at the 7 p.m. Sept. 20 meet-
ing at Stanield Secondary
School, 1120 N. Main St. in
Stanield.
Development fees
will stay the same
Stanield’s city council
voted not to raise its fees
for new development on
Tuesday despite a report
justifying charges more
Armand Larive Mid-
dle School teacher Robert
Doherty was the only Or-
egon recipient of a 2016
Unsung Heroes award to
educators offering innova-
tive teaching ideas in their
classrooms.
The award from Voya Fi-
nancial came with a $2,000
grant for his classroom and
an opportunity to compete
against other inalists from
around the country for grants
of up to $25,000.
The award recognizes
Doherty’s work in teaching
Armand Larive’s video pro-
duction class, where mid-
dle school students learn to
shoot and edit video, write
scripts, record voice-overs,
perform interviews on-air
and other professional vid-
eo production skills. Past
classes have provided live
online coverage for some
Hermiston events, including
football games and Relay for
Life.
The Voya Unsung Heroes
program is celebrating its
20th anniversary this year.
Since 1996 it has awarded
nearly $5 million in grants.
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