A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018
FROM PAGE A1
WHO
continued from Page A1
Anderson said “Seussi-
cal” is the most produced
show across America for
good reason. She referred
to the music as “fantasti-
cally fun.”
“It’s just fun and upbeat,”
said Alyssa Perkins, who
plays the part of the Sour
Kangaroo. “There are a lot
of bright colors. It’s going
to be appealing to all ages.”
The HHS junior cred-
its Bemrose-Rust with
encouraging her to step
out of her comfort zone
and onto the stage. While
Perkins has been involved
in choir during her high
school years, this is her first
involvement with musical
theater.
Junior Kyle Ketchersid,
too, is stretching his talents.
During last year’s “Fiddler
on the Roof” production,
he played bassoon in the
orchestra pit.
Although he says he’s
not necessarily an obsessed
fan of Dr. Seuss, Ketcher-
sid has taken on the persona
of The Cat in the Hat and
The Grinch for the musical.
He said he’s enjoying the
peppy and upbeat nature of
the performance.
Community collaborates
in staging production
The costuming, Ander-
son said, adds to the whole
experience. She’s especially
thrilled with the creative
talents of a pair of crochet
artists.
“It’s such a fanciful show
and it’s awfully expensive
to come up with animal cos-
tumes,” Anderson said.
After admiring a hat
worn by advanced theater
student Kalliyan Rohrman,
the director knew just what
she needed for the show. The
girl’s mother, Shanan Rohr-
man, had made the creation,
which Anderson described
STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY
Hanna Kelley and Paul Ernst, who play Mr. and Mrs. Mayor, sing during a rehearsal of “Seussical” at Hermiston High School.
as a unicorn headdress.
During a parent-teacher
conference, Anderson said
the talented mom offered
her services. Rohrman and
Sandy Stoneburner, Ander-
son said, crocheted the cre-
ative hats without patterns
— working on them since
November. Also, Anderson
said other parents have been
working on additional hats
and the school’s art club is
putting together some of the
props.
“People will enjoy the
bright costumes and positiv-
ity of the show,” Ketchersid
said.
And then there’s the
stage. Anderson said Vore,
along with her husband,
Sam, have spent count-
less hours building the set,
which includes platforms
that divides the two worlds.
After helping with the last
play, Vore said the district
hired her to serve as tech-
nical director for drama
productions.
“I consider that my audi-
tion,” she said with a laugh.
“It’s just so much fun to be
a part of a big collaborative
effort.”
In addition to 14 stu-
dents, there are four adults
in the orchestra pit. Hav-
ing the seasoned perform-
ers, McClanahan said, offers
students an opportunity to
glean additional insight.
And, they contribute to the
fullness of the sound.
“Also, with more parts
it adds more energy to the
performance,”
McClana-
Kyle
Ketchersid,
who plays
the Cat in
the Hat,
emotes
during a
rehearsal of
“Seussical”
at Hermiston
High School.
han said. “The music is
very entertaining. It’s pretty
whimsical.”
Bemrose-Rust also sings
praises for Margaret Wetter-
ling. The pianist, she said,
has played an integral role
as an accompanist — not
only for “Seussical,” but
also choir concerts and past
musicals.
Brittany Sloan, a four-
year veteran of the HHS
stage, said the energy has
been amazing and everyone
has been working incredi-
bly hard. Sloan, who plays
the role of Mayzie LaBird,
along the rest of the cast and
crew are excited about stag-
ing the production. They
are hopeful it will draw a
packed house.
“It’s geared towards
youngsters but it’s still pretty
fun for everyone,” Ketcher-
sid said.
Anderson agreed.
“I do not like green eggs
and ham,” she said quoting
from the script. “How could
you go wrong?”
BY THE WAY
CAMP
continued from Page A1
ings that have been “moth-
balled” for years. It has
been a careful process figur-
ing out what can be re-used
without any health, safety or
environmental concerns.
“Some of the buildings
we’re looking at preserving,
they’re just too far gone,”
McReynolds said. “Some
buildings were not meant to
be here after 50 years. They
just weren’t built to that
standard.”
Not all the buildings are
that way. There are also
functional offices, housing
facilities, kitchens and other
buildings being used by
the Oregon National Guard
right now. Some historical
buildings, such as an old fire
station, are currently in use
while others, like the former
depot headquarters, will be
re-opened after a remodel.
Preservation and
conservation
The Oregon Military
Department plans to create
a representative “historical
district” inside Camp Uma-
tilla with about 12 buildings
preserved with as much his-
torical authenticity as possi-
ble. The area also includes
touches such as a chunk of
concrete from the concrete
igloo destroyed in a massive
explosion in 1944.
“Those buildings we plan
to preserve as is, with some
modifications to bring them
up to code, and use for Ore-
gon National Guard uses,”
said Kris Mitchell, cultural
resources specialist for the
OMD.
Mitchell said they are
working in consultation
with the Oregon State His-
toric Preservation Office,
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
and other groups to come up
with guidelines for preserva-
tion of as much of the prop-
erty’s history as possible.
There will be opportunities
for input from the public as
the process moves forward.
There is also an environ-
mental component.
Jeff
Mach,
natural
BTW
continued from Page A1
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Some of the old housing units will be remodeled and reused for housing in the future.
resources specialist for
the OMD, said the depart-
ment has been working with
Umatilla County and Mor-
row County on invasive
weed abatement, and has
worked with the tribes to
gather seeds they were inter-
ested in planting elsewhere.
The OMD also plans to con-
tinue the work started by the
Army to bring more burrow-
ing owls to the property.
New projects
Since November the Ore-
gon Military Department
has already spent $2 million
in infrastructure upgrades,
mostly for the sewer sys-
tem. Over the next three
years another $25 million
is expected to go toward
more utility upgrades, dem-
olition, remodels, new class-
rooms and office space.
There will also be new roads
and fence lines to separate
out the department’s prop-
erty from the portions of the
depot slated to be transferred
to Umatilla County, Morrow
County and the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
The fencing will be used
to keep civilians from wan-
dering onto areas where sol-
diers are training, but it will
also be to keep soldiers from
encroaching on what will
soon be private property
during their training exer-
cises, which sometimes take
place at night over large areas.
Overall, however, the
property’s change from a
federal military installa-
tion to state control should
increase the amount of pub-
lic access to an area that
for many years required a
background check to visit.
Local law enforcement have
already been given a tour
of the property — some-
thing they hadn’t previously
been given the opportunity
to do — and the National
Guard plans to allow some
use of shooting ranges by
law enforcement in the
future. They also plan to
sign mutual aid agreements
allowing their firefighters to
work closely with other area
firefighters to prevent and
fight fires in the area.
McReynolds said they
are trying to use local con-
tractors and suppliers as
much as possible. There will
still be armed patrols of the
property, but overall less of
the “tight security experi-
ence” associated with fed-
eral control of the property,
said OMD chief of plan-
ning and programming Stan
Hutchison.
“We anticipate the public
will have an ability to have
much more interaction with
this facility than they had
under the Army before,” he
said.
Roy Swafford, director of
installations for the OMD,
said Camp Umatilla has
potential for a significant
impact on the local econ-
omy, from hiring more full-
time employees and local
contractors to purchasing
food for hundreds of soldiers
coming in for training. He
said he couldn’t put a num-
ber yet as to how many jobs
might be added but there
have already been some new
hires for maintenance of the
property.
Oregon National Guard
units and units from other
branches of the military will
use Camp Umatilla for their
weekend and annual training
requirements.
“For local units like Mil-
ton-Freewater, La Grande, it
gives them access to firing
ranges that they would oth-
erwise have to go to another
facility over on the coast, or
in another state,” Swafford
said.
The new training cen-
ter will also be home to
the 249th Regional Train-
ing Institute, which a news
release called “the Oregon
National Guard’s premier
training institute for forg-
ing exceptional leaders, and
... a leader in the nation for
conducting infantry transi-
tion and advanced infantry
leader training.”
There will be new bar-
racks for more than 320 sol-
diers, new classrooms and
training grounds such as an
obstacle course and mock
city.
The QPR (Question,
Persuade, Refer) course
takes between an hour
and an hour and a half and
teaches participants how
to identify and intervene
when people are at risk for
suicide.
The classes are appro-
priate for ages 14 and
up and no experience is
required. This class is free
to attend and sessions
begin at 8 a.m., 10 a.m.,
noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Register at Good Shepherd
Medical Center.
• • •
A pair of agencies are
looking for relatives of
Pvt. Howard A. Binder,
who was from Umatilla
and enlisted in the U.S.
Army in Portland during
World War II.
He is among a group
of 13 soldiers who died
Oct. 10, 1944, in Ajon-
court, France. The Defense
POW/MIA Accounting
Agency and the Army’s
Past Conflict Repatri-
ation Branch is seeking
family members of Binder
and others killed. Rela-
tives are requested to sub-
mit a DNA sample to com-
pare with remains recently
recovered in the area where
the men went missing.
Information about the
incident indicate Company
B (60th Engineer Com-
bat Battalion) suffered
the loss of 47 men during
an explosion of anti-tank
mines. Due to intermittent
enemy artillery and mortar
fire in the area, it has never
been definitely established
whether this or a defective
fuse caused the explosion.
For more information,
visit www.dpaa.mil. To
make arrangements to sub-
mit a DNA sample, call
1-800-892-2490.
• • •
Patty Burres and Sky-
ler Stokoe are the most
recent Umatilla High
School
students
fea-
tured in “The Promise of
Oregon.”
The statewide public
education support cam-
paign was established in
November 2014 by the
Oregon School Boards
Association. This year’s
focus includes increasing
graduation rates.
Photos of the students
are featured, along with
completion of the sen-
tence, “I am the Prom-
ise of Oregon and stay-
ing on track to graduate
because …” Stokoe shared
about her interest in study-
ing forensic chemistry to
increase her knowledge.
And, Burres touted the
overall benefits of addi-
tional education.
“I want to be the best
person I can be,” she said.
For more information,
visit www.promiseoregon.
org.
• • •
It’s National School
Counseling Week, and a
good chance to thank a
school counselor for all
they do.
According to a press
release from the Hermis-
ton School District, at the
elementary level a single
counselor works with 400-
600 students, at the middle
school up to 800 students
and at the high school four
counselors work with over
1,600 students.
Counselors teach stu-
dents how to resolve con-
flicts, manage anger and
build self-esteem while
providing academic sup-
port. They’re also the first
to respond in crisis, setting
up safe rooms and lending
emotional support. They’re
an ear to listen and a shoul-
der to cry on, helping stu-
dents through a variety of
problems and issues.
We thank these counsel-
ors, and hope you will, too.
———
You can submit items
for our weekly By The Way
column by emailing your
tips to editor@hermiston-
herald.com or share them
on social media using the
hashtag #HHBTW.