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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2016)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2016 RV AND HOUSE DESTROYED IN SEPARATE FIRES Dogs rescued from home that provided adult day care STAFF PHOTO BY JADE McDOWELL Umatilla County Fire District 1 put out an RV fire at Pioneer RV Park in Hermiston on Monday afternoon. you have the dogs?’” The answer was no. The family arrived at the burning house, fearing the worst about the beloved family pets. But firefight- ers emerged from the home with the dogs in hand and deposited them into the arms of their overjoyed owners. “Everyone was crying,” Poulin-Foster said. She said they weren’t sure what had caused the fire, but it left the Hol- combs with nothing but the clothes they had been wearing when they went to the store. They are current- ly living with Poulin-Fos- ter and she said while they have appreciated offers of new furniture and house- hold goods they won’t have room to store the bigger items for at least a few days until they find a new place to live. Pauline-Foster said fam- ily friend Roxann Fisk has set up an online account for monetary donations at www.gofundme.com/rich- ard-and-roxanne-needs- our-help. If people have clothing, household goods, food or other items they are interested in donating to the family they can email rox- iraccoon@gmail.com. She said the whole fam- ily is extremely grateful for the support they have re- ceived from family, friends and community members and want to show their thanks for the fire and po- lice departments, which have been doing extra pa- trols around the house to make sure people don’t try to trespass. “The community out- pouring has been phenom- enal,” she said. “The police and fire department were amazing. They did every- thing they could as fast as they could.” Umatilla County Fire District 1 also responded to a second structure fire on Monday shortly before 1 p.m. at Pioneer RV Park, 1590 W. Highland Avenue in Hermiston. The RV was fully en- gulfed when fire crews ar- rived. The owner, who was staying at the park tempo- rarily, was inside the RV at the time of the fire but es- caped uninjured before the fire trucks arrived. A cause has not been de- termined. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at 541-564-4536. Blazers visit Hermiston boy By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer Hermiston seventh grad- er Tanner Gutcher got a surprise visit from the Port- land Trail Blazers last week while he was hospitalized at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. Tanner, who has a ge- netic disorder called An- gelman syndrome, is in the life skills program at Sand- stone Middle School and plays Challenger baseball. His mom, Lacey McElroy, said he was thrilled to meet some real-life sports stars. “Tanner was crazy, cra- zy excited,” she said. “He could not stop laughing.” Angelman syndrome comes from a missing part of the 15th chromosome inherited from the moth- er. The more of the chro- mosome a person is miss- ing, the more intense their symptoms. McElroy said Tanner’s case is more se- vere and keeps him from walking or talking and causes seizures and other health problems. He was rushed to Doernbecher at 2 a.m. Nov. 28 for a digestive complication. The Mayo Clinic web- site notes that “Frequent smiles and outbursts of laughter are common for people with Angelman syn- drome, and many have hap- py, excitable personalities.” Despite his many challeng- es, McElroy said Tanner is an “excessively happy” kid. Still, being in the hospi- tal is never fun, so the vis- it from the Blazers was a BRIEFCASE Irrigon chamber hosts farm, dairy A representative from Threemile Canyon Farms and Columbia River Dairy is the guest speaker for the upcoming Irrigon Chamber of Commerce meeting. The no-host luncheon event starts with a meet- and-greet Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 11:45 a.m. at Stokes Landing Senior Center, 195 N.W. Opal Place, Irrigon. The cost is $8 for members or $10 for non-members. For more information, contact 541-922-3857 or irrigonchamber@ irrigonchamber.com. Hermiston Herald Two fires in two days kept the Umatilla County Fire District 1 busy at the start of the week. No one was injured in ei- ther fire, and a pair of dogs were rescued by firefight- ers. On Sunday afternoon, fire crews responded to a house fire in the 1300 block of Southwest 16th Street in Hermiston. The house served as the home of Rox- anne Poulin Holcomb and Richard Holcomb but was also the site of Sandy’s Home, an adult day care facility started in 2013 to give short breaks to care- givers of elderly or disabled adults. Debra Poulin-Foster, who owned the house and ran Sandy’s Home with her daughter Roxanne, said the building was a to- tal loss. “The whole roof is col- lapsed in on the back end of the house,” she said. She said her daughter and son-in-law were out shopping when a neigh- bor called 9-1-1 to report the house was on fire and then called her husband. He called her, and she immedi- ately called her daughter to see if they had taken their two Jack Russell terrier mixes with them when they went out. “I didn’t have time to be tactful, because I was worried about the dogs,” she said. “I called and said, ‘Your house is on fire; do HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 LOCAL NEWS CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY LACEY McELROY Portland Trail Blazers Damian Lillard, left, and Shabazz Napier along with mascot Blaze visit Tanner Gutcher of Hermiston in Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. welcome distraction. Point guards Damian Lillard and Shabazz Napier visited Tanner’s room first, along with mascot Blaze. Later, several other members of the team and coaching staff came in for a photo, and Tanner got a Trail Blazers hat and signed poster. “They were great when we asked for pictures and everything,” McElroy said. She said she and Tan- ner turned on the television and watched the Blazers play the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. “It’s cool to watch and say, ‘Hey, we met them,’” she said. She said Tanner spent most of the first two years of his life at Doernbech- er Children’s Hospital and has made many visits since, so she’s grateful that the hospital provides not only excellent care but also mo- rale-boosting activities like the Blazers visit. “Doernbecher is abso- lutely amazing,” she said. “They have saved Tanner’s life on more than one occa- sion.” Back home, she said the Sandstone Middle School staff has also been very supportive in accommo- dating Tanner’s frequent absences due to hospital- izations. Two other huge supports, she said, are Tan- ner’s grandmother Ginger McElroy and his stepfather Trevor Daughtery. As of Thursday Tanner was still in the hospital. McElroy said she hoped they would be given the OK to go home soon. But in the meantime, he still had his Blazers hat and poster to cheer him up. “He likes sports a lot, so having the guys come up was an awesome experi- ence,” she said. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. Retirement gathering set for 2 A retirement reception is planned for Morrow County Judge Terry Tall- man and Commissioner Leann Rea. The public is invited to celebrate the contri- butions of Tallman and Rea to Morrow Coun- ty. The event is Friday, Dec. 16, from 2-4 p.m. at the Bartholomew Building, 110 N. Court St., Heppner. For more information, contact 541-676-5613 or rlutcher@co.morrow. or.us. Sushi restaurant open in Hermiston A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Monday at Kobe Hibachi Sush. The celebration hosted by the Hermiston Cham- ber of Commerce was held at the new restau- rant, 1055 S. Highway 395 Suite 100, at the Cor- nerstone Plaza Hermis- ton. The eatery had a soft opening the week of Thanksgiving. Its open- ing follows a trend of new Japanese restaurants in Umatilla County, with two recently opened in Pendleton and another sushi place on the way in Hermiston. In addition to sushi, the restaurant also sells steaks, seafood, rice and noodles. It is open 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. They can be contacted at 541- 567-6178. Stardust takes home hip-hop championship By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer Hermiston High School’s dance team Stardust came out on top in the hip-hop category during a statewide com- petition this weekend. Ashley Seibel, who coaches the team along with Laura Sanchez and Jake Royer, said the team had 16 girls and two boys competing in hip-hop, with another four stu- dents who only perform in the team’s jazz num- bers. “I’ve been coaching eight years and this is the largest team I’ve coached to date,” she said. The category cham- pionships hosted by the Dance and Drill Coaches Association at Greshman High School on Saturday were invite-only based on scores at prequalifying competitions. On Saturday the team danced to a medley of hip-hop songs by Be- yonce, Drake, Missy El- liot and Lil Jon. “It’s slow and sultry at the beginning and in- your-face crazy at the end,” Seibel said of the routine. The routine was cho- reographed by senior Alex Anteau, who had impressed Seibel with her choreography work as an intern at the dance studio Dance Unlimited. “She did really well so I said to her, ‘You’re real- ly good at this, let’s give it a try and see what you can do,’” Seibel said. She said Anteau proved her talent is “im- measurable” and she will “continue to have a home with our coaching staff, long after she graduates this year.” Anteau said she loves choreography and dance, and hopes to someday have a job that allows her to do both. She practiced that as both a dancer in Saturday’s routine and its choreographer. “At practice I would be dancing with them, and then step out and see how it was going,” she said. “It gets kind of com- plicated.” Anteau said she wish- es more people under- stood how much hard work dancing takes and how dedicated the mem- bers of Stardust are. In addition to singing Anteau’s praises, Seibel also said she was proud of the rest of the team. “They are projection powerhouses,” she said. “They just know how to make you believe them. They know how to sell it.” The first-place prize was an improvement over 2015, when the team took third place at the same competition. Now that the fall dance season is over the team will start working on a jazz routine to per- form at the OSAA champi- onships in the spring. ——— Contact Jade McDow- ell at 541-564-4536. Investigation leads to arrest, recovery of stolen property Thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen equipment was recovered by the Uma- tilla County Sheriff’s Of- fice this week. Clyde Beldon Baker, 36, was arrested and charged with multiple felonies in con- nection to the investigation. According to a news release by the sheriff’s of- fice, on Nov. 29 a Hermis- ton resident reported they were missing an increasing number of items from their farm and suspected Baker, a relative who was acting as a caretaker of the property and had moved to the area around the time of the thefts. Detectives Erik Palmer and Kacey Ward contacted Baker, a convicted felon, and found him in posses- sion of suspected metham- phetamine and a collection of property reported stolen. The property included a horse trailer, industrial gen- erator, air compressor, con- struction equipment, tools, horse tack, firearms and ammunition. Among the stolen tools was a concrete saw belonging to Knerr Construction that the com- pany reported went missing from either the Eastern Or- egon Trade and Event Cen- ter or a construction site in Walla Walla. The sheriff’s office stated that Baker admitted he was taking property from his rel- ative’s farm and other loca- tions in Umatilla County and Walla Walla County, then selling or pawning the items. Baker was lodged in the Umatilla County Jail and faces charges for several counts of first-degree theft, felon in possession of a fire- arm, unauthorized use of a vehicle, unlawful posses- sion of methamphetamine and supplying contraband. Palmer and Ward are continuing to investigate in cooperation with the Wal- la Walla Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies and expect more charges to be added. Advanced Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Institute 620 NW 11th St., Ste. 201, Hermiston • 541-289-7075 www.hermistonortho.com
