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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2018)
HERMISTON’S LAST OSAA RUN ENDED IN SOFTBALL QUARTERFINALS » PAGE A10 WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2018 $1.00 HermistonHerald.com INSIDE FRESH START Hermiston’s farmers market opens with a new location, new management and new night. PAGE A3 TURNING THE TASSEL ON TIME Hermiston senior will graduate from same high school 100 years after great-great-grandmother IN MEMORIAM Hermiston residents celebrate Memorial Day with cemetery service, private memorials. PAGE A4, A15 By TAMMY MALGESINI COMMUNITY EDITOR A lthough she never met her great-great- grandmother, Emily Marvin of the Herm- iston High School class of 2018 feels a kindred spirit with Gladys West Graham. “I bet we would be best friends,” Emily said. The HHS senior is set to turn the tassel along with approximately 350 classmates — 100 years after her great-great-grandmother received her diploma along with nine fellow graduates from the Hermis- ton Standard High School class of 1918. Coinciden- tally, Gladys received her diploma Thursday, May 16, 1918, and Emily will receive hers Thursday, June 7, 2018 — the first time in many decades that Hermiston’s graduation is being held on a Thursday. When Emily’s grandfather, Lee Geissel, moved to Umatilla in the early-1980s, he was visiting his mother, Betty Geissel, in Milton-Freewater. Lee recalls she brought out Gladys’ diploma and said he should have it since it represented history of the Hermiston area. “It sat on the top shelf of my closet for years,” Lee said. The 14-inch-by-17-inch document had been rolled up into a scroll. After flattening it out and hav- ing it professionally preserved, Lee started to look at it more often and realized the connections it repre- sented between his grandmother and granddaughter. SIGNING DAY All Umatilla students going on to higher education were recognized in a schoolwide signing ceremony. PAGE A6 BY THE WAY Ranch & Home not on council agenda The Hermiston city council met after the Her- ald’s deadline on Tuesday night to discuss a re-zone of land off Diagonal Road and changes to an ordi- nance about garage sales, but one thing that was not on the agenda was an extension of an incentive agreement with Ranch & Home. The city initially had promised to reimburse certain development costs if the store, being built on South Highway 395, gained its occupancy per- mit by January 1. After the store was not able to open by the start of the year, that promised reimbursement of $105,675 was extended to June 1. Ranch & Home has not responded to calls from the Hermiston Herald about the store’s opening date but it appears it will not open by Friday. Even if the city council doesn’t amend the agreement with Ranch & Home, it can still recoup some of its costs — the agreement decreases the incentive by 10 per- cent per month, meaning a certificate of occupancy by July 1 would represent a $95,105 reimbursement. A century of similarities STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY Emily Marvin stands underneath an old archway that was once part of Union High School which preceded Hermiston High School. Her great- great grandmother Gladys West Graham graduated from the school 100 years ago, when the school was in a different building (below) located at East Ridgeway Avenue and Second Street. In addition to graduating a century apart from the same school, both were born in June — Gladys in 1900 and Emily in 2000. And the similarities don’t stop there. Both participated in theater productions while in school, like to read and have a common connection with peaches. See 100, A16 See BTW Page A16 Communities help overcome ‘opportunity gap’ By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER If getting to the middle class was a track event, some children were born on the finish line and some have a full 300-meter hurdle race ahead of them. In 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties — including Umatilla and Morrow — children born to the lowest 40 percent of income-earners have a less than 50 percent chance of ever reaching the middle class or above as adults, according to a report by the Oregon Community Founda- tion. Meanwhile children born into the middle class and above — helped by parents’ social connections, SAT tutors, extracurricular activities and more — are likely to stay there. It’s known as the “opportunity gap,” and closing it for local children is a challenge that consumes schools, government agencies and charities in every town. “This work can’t be done in silos,” Catie Brenaman, family edu- cation and support director for Uma- tilla-Morrow County Head Start said. “This is not a one-agency job.” The OCF report, titled “Toward a thriving future: Closing the oppor- tunity gap for Oregon’s kids,” sug- gests a wide variety of solutions are needed to improve upward mobility for children born on the wrong side of the gap. Those suggestions include providing programs to encourage post-secondary education, strength- ening families through parent edu- cation and helping children build See GAP, A16 STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Student ambassadors Gema Juarez, center left, and Gina Olsen, center, have a question and answer session with a group of Hermiston High School students during a tour Tuesday at BMCC’s Hermiston campus.
