WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018
LOCAL
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Locals get primer on
immigration rights
members feel fear, which
in part drives people to
these events. He said simi-
Do Dreamers have to lar communities exist from
worry about deportation La Grande to the Tri-Cities
from the United States? in Washington, and these
Do undocumented immi- gatherings are about uni-
grants have constitutional fying people and urging
rights?
them to action.
Members
of
“We are a
the Walla Walla
community,” he
Immigration
told the crowd.
Rights Coalition
“Maybe it’s time
answered
those
to start acting like
and other tricky
it.”
questions Satur-
K e n z i e
day at a forum in
Spooner with the
Hermiston. Abi- Jesse Roa
Walla Walla group
gail Scholar said
said the notion
the Deferred Action for that people can’t do any-
Childhood Arrivals only thing is the misconception
“de-prioritizes people for she most wanted to dispel.
deportation,” but does She said she started com-
not free Dreamers from ing to meetings to learn
more, and now she is a
deportation.
In simple terms, she member of the group and
said, individuals partici- can contribute.
pating in DACA are not
“In fact, there is a lot
at the top of the deporta- everyone can do,” she said.
tion list, but they remain
Kathleen Cathey helped
on the list. Those individ- drive home that point. She
uals, known as Dreamers, is the Eastern Oregon rep-
are undocumented immi- resentative for Democratic
grants who were brought U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden.
into the United States as Cathey said Wyden was
children. Many of them do in Hermiston in 2013 for
not remember any other a town hall meeting, and
home, but can’t apply for members of Hermiston’s
citizenship or permanent Hispanic Advisory Com-
residency due to the fact mittee and local Latinos
that their parents did not packed the place. All those
follow legal immigration bodies shifted the con-
channels to bring them versation to immigration
reform, which remains
here.
Scholar and fellow coa- one of the senator’s top
lition member Eugenio priorities.
Rojas said due process
She encouraged partic-
remains a constitutional ipants to likewise mobi-
right for undocumented lize and have their friends
immigrants. The U.S. and family speak up at
Immigration and Customs Wyden’s open town halls
Enforcement — ICE — in Oregon. She said that
too often tramples on due kind of action moves the
process when it rounds conversation forward.
The Rev. Juli Reinholz
up people for deportation,
they said, and that’s a con- of Pioneer United Method-
ist Church of Walla Walla
stitutional violation.
Scholar added being in was on hand. She said
the U.S. illegally is a civil these forums are worth
violation, not a criminal attending for the educa-
tional benefit alone.
one.
Rojas at the end of the
More than 30 locals —
some white, most Latino Walla Walla coalition’s
— gathered for the three- presentation said people
hour forum at the St. from all walks of life make
John’s Episcopal Church. up the United States, and
Jesse Roa with the Tri-Cit- whether someone arrived
ies Immigrant Coalition yesterday or has had fam-
organized the event. He ily here for hundreds of
said he grew up in Herm- years or more, the country
iston, where the immi- is great already.
grant community can feel
People need to know
isolated and plenty of its that, he said.
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Mark Gomolski
enters council race
would push for more public
involvement with city deci-
sions. He said he also had
Mark Gomolski has concerns about EOTEC he
added his name to the list wanted to address.
of candidates for Hermis-
Currently the school
ton City Council.
board and city council
Gomolski, a current both meet on the second
school board member for and fourth Monday of the
the Hermiston School Dis- month, forcing people to
trict, is running for Ward I. choose between the two
Councilor Lori Davis, who meetings.
currently holds the seat,
Gomolski said if elected
has not announced
and serving in
yet whether she will
both capacities he
run again.
thought it would
Gomolski ran for
be a good oppor-
tunity for one
an at-large seat on
body or the other
the council in 2015
to change their
against a field of four
meeting dates so
incumbents but did Mark
that citizens could
not win.
Gomolski
He said he was
attend both if they
troubled
by
the
wanted.
“non-inclusion of resi-
“I think a lot of people
dents” he was seeing as the would like to go to both,”
city council made major he said.
decisions like taking sole
Gomolski said he was
ownership of the Eastern also troubled by youth sui-
Oregon Trade and Event cides in the community
and would like to see both
Center.
“I dislike decisions the school district and the
being made without public city tackle that issue.
input until after the deed is
The deadline to file
done,” he said.
for city council is 5 p.m.
He said if elected he March 6.
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
A Life Flight helicopter takes off from the scene of a single-vehicle rollover on the westbound Interstate 82 off-ramp at the
interchange with Interstate 84 on Thursday west of Hermiston.
Two hospitalized after crash
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Nine of the 11 people
injured in a crash Thursday
afternoon near Hermiston
have been released from the
hospital, according to Good
Shepherd Medical Center
and the church some of the
victims attend.
The van was carrying
members of a Lewiston
youth group and crashed
while traveling toward Port-
land on Interstate 82. The
driver, Largent Reeb, 28,
attempted to cross several
lanes of traffic in order to
merge onto Interstate 84
and lost control of the 2000
Ford Econoline, which slid
off the north shoulder of the
exit ramp and rolled.
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
The Oregon National
Guard has its portion of the
former Umatilla Chemical
Depot, but nobody knows
when the rest of the prop-
erty will be transferred to
local control for economic
development.
Frustration was palpa-
ble on a meeting via confer-
ence call between members
of the Columbia Develop-
ment Authority board (made
up of representatives from
Umatilla County, Morrow
County, the Port of Umatilla,
Port of Morrow and Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation) as they
discussed additional road-
blocks that have come up.
“It just continues to be
one lost opportunity after
another,” board member
Kim Puzey said, referring
to interested developers who
have gone elsewhere due to
the delays.
The U.S. Army’s Base
Realignment and Clo-
sure office was at one point
expected to transfer land to
the CDA for industrial and
agricultural
development
and a wildlife preserve in
2013, but that deadline has
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were taken to Good Shep-
herd Medical Center, Herm-
iston, and two were flown
to Kadlec Regional Medical
Center, Richland.
Other than Reeb, the pas-
sengers ranged from ages
14 to 20.
An employee of River
City Church in Lewiston
said in a Facebook mes-
sage to the Herald on Friday
that one of the victims was
still in the ICU recovering
from surgery, but said that
in the interest of their mem-
bers’ privacy, they could
not comment further on the
condition of those injured.
Nick Bejarano of Good
Shepherd said that sev-
eral of the youth, as well
as Reeb, were brought to
the emergency room with
varying degrees of inju-
ries. While they were being
treated, he said, Good Shep-
herd staff set up a private
space for families of the
passengers, as well as pas-
sengers who did not have
major injuries.
Reeb, who did not return
a request for comment,
posted on Facebook thank-
ing Good Shepherd employ-
ees for their care.
“The staff and every-
one here at Good Shep-
herd not only were so amaz-
ing at their jobs, they set up
a whole conference room
with food and drinks for all
the families and other youth
not injured and took such
good care of our group med-
ically but also beyond that,”
Reeb wrote.
Tensions rise as new delays
expected on depot transfer
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Reeb was cited by Ore-
gon State Police for failure
to drive within a lane.
Oregon State Police Sgt.
Seth Cooney said around
1 p.m., the van was travel-
ing eastbound on I-82, and
was approaching I-84.
“They were in the fast
lane, but they needed to go
westbound, so the driver
attempted to swerve from
the fast lane to make the
exit. He lost control of the
van, slid off the north shoul-
der of the exit ramp, and
rolled one and a half revolu-
tions,” Cooney said.
According to the Ore-
gon State Police crash
report, two passengers
were ejected, and five were
trapped and had to be cut
out of the vehicle. Nine
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since moved several times,
most recently to November
2018.
During Tuesday’s meet-
ing, however, CDA direc-
tor Greg Smith reported that
the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency had changed its
mind and decided to require
a Class A permit for hazard-
ous waste disposal under the
Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act. Smith said he
thought that process would
likely create a four to seven
month delay.
Tom Lederle of the
Army’s BRAC office was
more optimistic, saying he
thought they could work
on the RCRA permit at the
same time as other outstand-
ing issues with the trans-
fer and it would not create a
long delay.
“We were very surprised
when the EPA made this
demand at the 11th and a
half hour,” he said.
Michele Lanigan, also of
BRAC, said they had made
a plan for permits with the
state three years ago and the
EPA had been on board with
it, but a recent personnel
change in the EPA’s Region
10 had seemed to prompt the
change in direction.
Lederle said sometimes
people look at something
like the depot transfer and
decide it’s so important it
needs more public process.
“There’s been a public
process for 29 years. Don’t
tell me it needs more,” Gary
Neal replied. “How many
more years does it need?”
“Probably 100 years, at
the rate we’re going,” some-
one on the call remarked.
Smith said he planned to
take a trip to Washington,
D.C. on March 11 to lobby
on behalf of the CDA, and
he would work to find the
“highest person in the EPA
I can get” to meet with and
ask for help in speeding
along the process.
The CDA has also been
facing delays over the pro-
grammatic
agreement,
which deals with cultural
and historical preservation.
The former depot contains
areas of historical signifi-
cance, such as a piece of the
Oregon Trail, as well as areas
of religious and cultural sig-
nificance to the tribes. Smith
said he was trying to find a
“fair and reasonable” way to
balance those concerns with
maintaining the CDA’s abil-
ity to develop portions of the
depot for industrial use as
agreed upon years ago.
“I think there is a com-
promise that can be reached,
but it really requires every-
one to come to the middle,”
he said. “If we dig in our
heels I think we’re going to
come to an impasse.”
The Oregon Military
Department’s 7,500 acre
portion of the 19,728-acre
depot was transferred to
the department in Novem-
ber for creation of an Ore-
gon National Guard training
facility, but the remainder
of the land is still under the
Army until the transfer to
the CDA takes place.
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