WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
NEWS
Gearing up for
another winter
of slick roads
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
From left: ShyAnne Branson, BreAnna Van Fossen, Jeff Cates, Tami Cates, Lyman Branson and LeAnna Branson chat after
they finished Christmas dinner at the Community Fellowship Dinner at Hermiston High School.
Snow doesn’t stop Community Dinner
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
As snow fell outside on
Christmas morning, inside
Hermiston High School the
Community Fellowship Din-
ner was in full swing.
Many benefited from the
event without even leaving
home, with volunteers deliv-
ering more meals to home-
bound people from Irrigon to
Echo.
Some still braved the
roads to eat dinner and enjoy
the company of others.
“Half of us live in Irri-
gon,” said LeAnna Branson,
who was at the dinner with
her husband, son and daugh-
ter-in-law, and several other
family members. “This is our
first time for the dinner here,
but it’s wonderful. We’d do it
again in a heartbeat.”
Branson said she and her
family will consider volun-
teering for the event next
year.
“We came to participate
in a community event,” said
Branson’s son Lyman.
Many attendees end up
returning to volunteer at a
future fellowship dinner said
event founder Joe Kiser.
One such volunteer is
Adrea Powers, who came to
the event for the first time this
Thanksgiving. For Christ-
mas, she and her six-year-old
son Kody were back, greet-
ing people and serving food.
Powers, who is new to the
area, said it has been a great
way to feel more settled in
the area.
“A lot of people came alone,
but they met people while they
were here,” she said. “It’s really
nice to see so many that weath-
ered the storm.”
She said volunteering had
helped her son open up, as
well.
“I think this helps him be
able to communicate,” she
said, watching as he helped
an older volunteer carry food
to a table, then eagerly ran
back to get more.
“It’s one thing to tell him
about Christmas joy, but it’s
another to show him.”
Though the event drew
a smaller crowd than the
Thanksgiving event, chair-
man Gary Humphreys said
that’s often the case.
“Christmas is always less
by about 150 to 200,” Hum-
phreys said.
He said there was no
apparent reason for the dis-
crepancy. It could be partly
due to the weather, he said,
but that’s not consistent from
year to year.
Regardless, Humphreys
said they try to use all the
food they make for the event.
Whatever is not served at
the dinner is distributed to
Open Table services at local
churches, or to local fami-
lies in need. Additionally, he
said they offer everyone who
comes to the dinner a meal to
take home.
Humphreys said they
served 661 meals at Thanks-
giving, including 79 deliv-
ered meals and 97 meals for
people who walked in and
took food home.
The Community Fellow-
ship Dinner is in its 30th
year, and has grown fast
from its beginnings, when
just a few people gathered
at private homes on Thanks-
giving. Dozens of volunteers
turn out each year to help
greet, seat and serve people,
and many local businesses
donate food and supplies for
the event.
As winter officially
begins, cities and counties
are getting their first influx
of snow.
Hermiston’s
snow
removal strategy is broken
up into three phases cover-
ing 180 lane miles, accord-
ing to information from the
city’s street department.
During phase one,
crews clear and main-
tain main thoroughfares
through the city such as
Highway 395 and High-
way 207. During phase two
they prioritize hills, down-
town commercial streets,
municipal buildings and
the airport, in addition to
clearing public parking
lots late at night or early
in the morning when there
are few cars parked there.
During phase three equip-
ment is sent out to various
residential neighborhoods
and rotates through the
streets in a counterclock-
wise direction, taking a
break to re-clear main
thoroughfares if needed.
“It is usually possi-
ble to plow all the streets
utilizing the city’s lim-
ited staff and equipment
within a couple of days,”
the city’s snow-removal
plan states. “If we get hit
with a second storm and
have to return to phase
one streets, phase three
operation stops until we
get caught up again. We
do try to pick up where we
left off.”
It is against Hermis-
ton’s city ordinance to pile
snow removed from side-
walks and driveways onto
the street, and the city asks
that people pile the snow
on their lawns instead.
“Throwing the snow
from your driveway or
Stanfield begins search for superintendent
HERMISTON HERALD
The Stanfield School
Board determined at a spe-
cial meeting Wednesday
that the board will begin an
internal search for a new
superintendent, which will
last until Jan. 6.
At that point, they will
open the search to a wider
pool of candidates.
The district is seeking
a superintendent to take
over for current office-
holder Shelley Liscom, who
announced at last week’s
school board meeting that
she would resign June 15,
2018.
Liscom, who is in her
fourth year as Stanfield’s
superintendent, cited incom-
patibility with the board as
her reason for leaving.
Liscom also served
as Stanfield Elementary
School’s principal. Though
they did not make an offi-
cial decision, board mem-
bers said they want to split
the position into two sepa-
rate jobs. They have not yet
begun a search for the prin-
cipal position.
Currently, Stanfield Ele-
sidewalk into the street
creates a situation where
when our plowing oper-
ation comes by we plow
it back into your drive-
way area creating a larger
amount for you to clear
again out of your drive-
way,” the city wrote.
It can also obstruct
lines of sight for driv-
ers, and block drain inlets
and gutters where melted
snow is meant to drain.
Parking in driveways or
parking lots instead of the
street during a snowstorm
is also appreciated, as it
makes it easier for plows
to navigate.
Umatilla County Pub-
lic Works Department
is paying $8,500 for a
30-year-old snow plow
from the state of Oregon
surplus vehicle pool. The
county board of commis-
sioners approved the pur-
chase Wednesday.
The four-wheel drive
truck weighs about 50,000
pounds and has a sander,
an 11-foot plow on the
front and a wing plow.
The county has one of
these plows already, and it
allows a driver to clear a
road in one pass.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation
has new equipment and
tools to take on the win-
ter, including using salt in
Eastern Oregon.
ODOT in a written
statement reported it has
five new plows that tow
special trailers to help
clear two full lanes of road
at the same time.
Crews will run the new
trucks on about 200 miles
of Interstate 84 between
Boardman and the Idaho
border, on Interstate 82
south of Umatilla and on
some secondary highway
sections.
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apply for a regular adminis-
trative license in April.
Stanfield
Secondary
School Principal Beth Bur-
ton said if the board wanted
to hire internally for the
principal position, the pro-
cess would be to dissolve
the assistant principal post
and then open the princi-
pal position to internal staff
only. At that point, she said,
Sharp could apply for the
position.
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