Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 Fire destroys Hat Rock home By PHIL WRIGHT Staff Writer Fire burned a couple out of their home Sunday evening near Hat Rock State Park, northeast of Hermiston. Conni Hull said her parents, Connie and Kelli Maret, ended up at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, Richland, Washington, after experiencing heart trouble in the wake of the fire. Her father suffered from breathing in smoke, she said, and her mother is a breast cancer patient, but both were stable and in good condition at the hospital. The blaze happened Sunday around 6:30 p.m. at 82276 Hat Rock Road, space 14. Hull said her fa- ther was cooking dinner when a lithium battery in a spare room exploded while charging. Connie Maret grabbed a fire ex- tinguisher, his daughter said, but it was expired. He then ran for a garden hose, but that was too short and he had to attach another hose to it. The Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District was the lead agency at the scene, and Umatilla County Fire District 1, Hermiston, also respond- ed. The couple owned five dogs and five cats, Hull said, and two dogs died in the fire. No one has seen the cats, she said, so they might have escaped. A neighbor was caring for the other three dogs. The American Red Cross Cascades Region is providing resources for the Marets to meet imme- diate basic needs, includ- ing temporary housing and clothing. Hull added fam- ily and friends are work- ing out where her parents could live after that. The home appears to be a total loss, Hull said. Her grandmother left the home to her parents 10 years ago, and they did not have homeowners in- surance and live off dis- ability benefits. She set up an online donation ac- count to help her parents at www.gofundme.com/ grandparents-lose-house- to-fire . STATION: continued from Page A1 Gorham said the district hired six new firefighter/ paramedics in order to meet the increased staffing needs that will come with the 24/7 station. Two paid firefight- er/paramedics and an intern staff the station. The building is 31 years old, but this is the first time it will be staffed around the clock. It also went through some upgrades and remod- els to make the building more livable. A semi truck hit the station in June 2014, and though no one was in- side the building at the time of the crash it hit the area where firefighters would stay. It took several months to repair. The three district em- ployees staffing the station on Thursday, March 2, were Lt. Nate Stephens, firefight- er and paramedic Dan Shult and resident intern Hunter Eynon. “Before, the closest (fully-staffed) station was Station 21,” Gorham said, speaking about the down- town safety center shared with the police station. “You couldn’t get any am- bulance response out of here until yesterday.” The station has four ve- hicles, including a brush STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS The Marets’ neighbor, Lilli Peterson, took in the Marets’ three surviving dogs, Ozzy, Roscoe and Jasmine. continued from Page A1 Friday of each month, fami- lies are encouraged to come in the mornings and read with their students. Tamie Watkinds, a Title I teacher at West Park, said one of the most import- ant things teachers can do to encourage literacy is to give children books of their own, as many don’t have them in their homes. “If the kids meet their (reading) goals, they get to choose a book to keep,” Watkinds said. “Books seem to be a very good in- centive.” Rick Cotterell, the prin- cipal of McNary Heights Elementary School in Uma- tilla, said the students have special dress-up days for the entire week, and one of Early morning fire puts family out of home Hermiston Herald A fire in Hermiston did extensive damage to a duplex early Tuesday morning, putting a family of six out of their home. No one was injured. Umatilla County Fire District 1 responded at 3 a.m. Tuesday to the 900 block of Orchard Avenue to put out the fire. Scott Goff, a UCFD volun- teer, said there was fire, heat and smoke damage in one of the units and smoke damage in the other. Goff works for the Or- egon State Fire Marshal’s Office, but was speaking on behalf of the UCFD. He said the fire appeared to have been started by a malfunctioning furnace. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Firefighters work to contain a duplex fire in the 900 block of Orchard Avenue early Tuesday morning. The American Red Cross is providing aid to two adults and four chil- dren, according to a press release. The Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District also sent firefighters to support the effort, Goff said. truck, an interface truck, a water tender and a medic unit. Stephens said the district always budgets for new equipment, but didn’t pur- chase any new engines or trucks for the station yet. “Probably a new engine is needed next,” he said. Gorham said the current staff at Station 22 will stay there for the whole year, and in January, other fire- fighters will rotate in. The increased hours for the station were made pos- sible when the Hermiston and Stanfield departments merged in 2016, creating the UCFD. The consoli- dation of the two districts resulted in a combined tax rate of $1.75 per $1,000 assessed property value for Hermiston and Stanfield residents. The merger is expected to generate about $900,000, which will go toward new staff, replacing vehicles and toward staffing the Punkin Center station full- time. UCFD Chief Scott Stanton said he estimates about $625,000 of the funds generated from the merger would go toward staffing the station. 14 years, Youngman sold it to Pam Monger. Terri Hymas, the current own- er, purchased the salon in 2011. For more information, call 541-567-2911. Get ’em’ while they last Four scholarships in the amount of $2,500 each are available from the Hermis- ton Education Foundation. The awards will be giv- en to seniors from Hermis- ton High School who will attend college or university academic programs. Im- portant factors in the eval- uation of applicants include academic scholarship, com- munity service, leadership and financial need. The application is due by Friday, March 24, with interviews to follow. Ap- plications are available at the high school counsel- ing office or the Herm- iston Chamber of Com- merce, 415 S. Highway 395. For more information, call George Clough at 541- 314-3182 or write HEF, P.O. Box 1096, Hermiston, OR 97838. A celebration of 100 years in the making comes to a close Sunday as local Girl Scout Cookie booths shut down for the season. The next few days are your last chance to buy the eight varieties offered, including Thin Mints, Samoas, Tag- alongs, the gluten-free Toffee-tastic and more. Boxes are $5 each. To find a local sales site, visit www.girlscoutsosw. org/en/cookies/find-cook- ies.html and enter your zip code. Cotterell said McNary Heights is below the state average in literacy rates, with more than 60 percent of the student population as English language learners. One of their goals, he said, is to align the intervention process across grade levels, so kids don’t have to adjust to a new program each year. Headings said compared to other schools with chal- lenging populations — high poverty, high ELL popula- tions — West Park is above average. But compared to the entire state, Headings estimated the school is at or below the average literacy rate. Watkinds said one of the new programs she is using this year seems to be hav- ing some success. The pro- gram, called Fast ForWord, uses repetition to help kids understand new concepts and words. “Kids need, on average, 14 to 30-something repeti- tions to understand a new concept,” he said. “For kids who struggle with reading, that’s not enough. With the new program, they get hun- dreds or thousands of repe- titions of the same sound,” she said. “We’re seeing really nice gains with kids who’ve struggled in the past.” IN BRIEF Longtime beautician goes out in style READING: HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7 FROM PAGE A1 Buttercreek Salon is planning to celebrate long- time beautician Kathy Youngman’s retirement. The celebration is Satur- day from 3-5 p.m. at Butter- creek Salon, 315 S.W. 11th St., Hermiston. Everyone is invited to drop in and con- gratulate Youngman. After attending beau- ty school in Pendleton, Youngman started working as a beautician in Herm- iston in 1973. She bought Buttercreek Salon in 1983. After owning the salon for the highlights is a school- wide parade in which each class makes a float based on a book they like. The school also has guest read- ers in classes throughout the week. “Each day there’s an emphasis on reading, and at lunch, the kids answer comprehension questions and can win prizes,” he said. “It’s so much fun for the kids.” Education foundation offers scholarships $ WHY ADVERTISE IN THE EAST OREGONIAN AND HERMISTON HERALD CLASSIFIED SECTION? EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS. CHOOSE A PROVEN SOURCE FOR RETURN ON INVESTMENT You should be advertising in these tough economic times. “ We are a regional transportation company with drivers and vehicles stationed in six cities. We occasionally run classifi ed help wanted ads in various publications in the northwest when we have driver openings. Sometimes our classifi ed ad draws very few results (depending on the time of year) so we must repeat the ad. This recently occurred with a week long ad we ran in the East Oregonian. Our classifi ed ad representative, Dayle S. expressed concern about the lack of success in our ad and asked our permission to enhance the ad to garner a better response. She revamped the ad which we were very impressed with. The response to her revamped ad was dramatic and we are SO SO impressed with the unsolicited service Dayle provided. Transportation Solutions Out of all the publications we advertise in, this was the fi rst time an ad representative took the time to assist us with a more eff ective ad. Anytime we need a classifi ed ad in the East Oregonian, we will require that Dayle is the one who places our ad. Of the six cities we advertise in, Dayle with the East Oregonian is the very best classifi ed ad consultant we have ever worked with. ” Myron H., Transportation Solutions To advertise in the most powerful local media available, call Dayle or Terri at 1-800-962-2819 . Dayle Stinson Terri Briggs
