INSIDE SPORTS DAWGS DIG DEEP FOR WINS AFTER TRAGEDY
Hermiston
Herald
ld
HermistonHerald.com
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
$1.00
INSIDE
FLU SEASON
Healing
in the
aftermath
WORST MAY BE OVER, BUT BUG
LINGERS IN UMATILLA COUNTY
PAGE A3
RECOVERY
FUNDRAISERS TO HELP
LAURIE BALL-KISER
COVER MEDICAL BILLS
PAGE A4
ARTISTS WANTED
OPEN CALL FOR NEW
WATERMELON FESTIVAL LOGO
PAGE A4
PRO-LIFE
PREGANANCY CARE CENTER
SHARES VISION FOR THE FUTURE
PAGE A7
“In a community the
size of Hermiston,
relationships are like
a spider web. People
are connected through
friends, family, work —
you never know who’s
going to be aff ected.
It takes a huge toll.”
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Pastor Terry Cummings looks at the Fire Service Award he won at the Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce’s Distinguished Citizens Awards Banquet on Wednesday in Hermiston.
HERMISTON’S
FINEST
By JADE MCDOWELL
Staff Writer
Terry Cummings
Fire and police chaplain
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Staff Writer
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
hen the smoke has
cleared and the am-
bulances have left the
scene, Terry Cummings
goes to work.
As a chaplain for the
Hermiston fi re and police
departments, his job is to help
bring peace and closure to fi rst re-
sponders and families after tragedy
strikes.
For his efforts, Cummings was
awarded the Fire Service Award at
the Feb. 1 Distinguished Citizens
Banquet. He has served in that role
in Hermiston since 2011 when the
departments started a chaplain pro-
gram. He had previously spent 43
years as a pastor before retiring.
As a chaplain, his job is to provide
non-denominational spiritual, mental
and emotional support to fi rst respond-
ers in the police and fi re departments
— and sometimes, just listening to
them talk about their experiences.
Charlie Clupny wipes a tear from his eye
while accepting the Award for Merit at
the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s
Distinguished Citizens Banquet on Feb. 1 in
Hermiston.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Liz Marvin, woman of the year, listens as
presenter Bob Green reads a list of her many
accomplishments at the Hermiston Chamber
of Commerce’s Distinguished Citizens
Banquet on Feb. 1 in Hermiston.
In an evening of honoring some of
Hermiston’s most compassionate and dedi-
cated community members, the emotion in
the room was most palpable when Charlie
Clupny took his turn at the microphone to
accept the Award of Merit at the Distin-
guished Citizens Awards banquet on Feb.
1.
“I was back there crying because I just
thought I came here to dinner,” Clupny
said, wiping his eyes. “I said I wanted to
make a difference in the world but I didn’t
think I’d get recognized along the way. I
just thought that’s what you’re supposed to
do in life.”
Jesus Rome, a coordinator for Court Ap-
pointed Special Advocates, said Clupny was
the “poster child” for advocating for foster
children in the court system with integrity
and passion. He also serves others through
the prison ministry at Two Rivers Correc-
tional Institution, Meadowbrook Springs
camp for children with learning disabilities,
the Lions Club, Relay for Life, the Catholic
church and as a Parkinson’s support group
co-facilitator.
Clupny, along with many of the other
award winners, will be featured in greater
detail in coming editions of the Hermiston
Herald.
Other winners at Wednesday’s banquet
were:
See FINEST, A14
See HEALING, A14
Alternative school, high school merge
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Staff Writer
The Innovative Learning Center,
the Hermiston School District’s al-
ternative school since 2011, offi cially
dissolved after the spring of 2016 and
is now operating under the umbrella of
Hermiston High School.
According to administrators, little
else has changed.
“We’ll still call it the Innovative
Learning Center,” said Hermiston
High School Principal Tom Spoo.
“But those kids are offi cially Hermis-
ton High School students again.”
The primary reason for the change,
Spoo said, is that the state has an atten-
dance requirement — approximately 80
percent of students have to be attending
classes full-time. Many of the students in
the ILC program are there because they
can’t attend school full-time, or split their
time between Hermiston High School
and the alternative program.
“We’ll never come close to meeting
that (attendance requirement),” Spoo
said. “That was the driving force be-
hind closing it.”
Administrators said the change will
affect Hermiston High School atten-
dance and graduation rates, but they are
happy to be able to continue providing
the alternative program in some capac-
ity. For the 2015-2016 school year, the
graduation rate for the entire district,
which includes the ILC, was 65.7 per-
cent. For Hermiston High School the
same year, the rate was 87.6 percent.
“It’s positive that we’re giving kids
an opportunity that many other high
schools don’t give them,” said assis-
tant superintendent Bryn Browning.
Assistant Principal Scott Depew said
the program has undergone small chang-
es since its adoption, but its primary goal
is to target students with attendance gaps
or other barriers to success in a traditional
high school setting. Increasingly, he said,
those barriers are related to attendance
rather than to behavioral issues.
Depew said most things about the
program will not change — it will still
offer a blend of online classes and in-
structor-led courses. The ILC will no
longer offer a night school, but staff
will remain the same, and it will still
be held in the same location. Kids and
parents, he said, do not appear to have
noticed any changes.
Depew said about 85 percent of the
students in the alternative program are
working toward a GED certifi cate.
“I’m looking at ways to discourage
kids from GEDs — I want more diplo-
mas,” he said. “But 34 GEDs means
34 less dropouts.”
NEW WOLF
HERMISTON’S VAEMU ENA
SIGNS WITH W. OREGON
FOOTBALL TEAM
PAGE A8
BRIEFLY
County
holds off
on paying
EOTEC
The Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center is
going to have to wait to get
another chunk of taxpay-
er money from Umatilla
County.
EOTEC billed the coun-
ty $45,190 to cover opera-
tions for fi scal year 2016-
17. The county, along with
the city of Hermiston, had
previously agreed to pay
$25,000 annually to the
event center for its fi rst
three years of operation.
Both local governments
later agreed to split the
amount of EOTEC’s short-
fall in each of those years,
whatever the amount.
County commissioners
took up the matter at their
meeting last week in Pend-
leton, and the three ques-
tioned what the $45,190
bill would cover. Robert
Pahl, chief fi scal offi cer for
the county, said the funds
would pay for operations
and any budget gap to date.
Pahl also said the coun-
ty would not know the full
extent of any shortfall until
the end of June or some-
time in July.
Commissioner
Larry
Givens, who serves on the
event center board, said
EOTEC’s success remains
a question.
Commissioner George
Murdock said he would not
want to approve the amount
if it wasn’t what the county
agreed to in the budget, or
if it wouldn’t completely
cover the county’s portion
of EOTEC’s defi cit.
“We pay this and they
put it in their budget and
spend it,” he said. “And
at the end of the year, if
there’s a $50,000 shortfall
we’re out another $25,000.
Right?”
“That’s correct,” Givens
responded.