Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 NEWS Lamp blamed for fire at local Adventist church Initial damage estimated at $3 million Other emergencies strike during the weekend The Umatilla County Fire District stayed busy this weekend with several major structure fires. In addition to a blaze that damaged the Seventh-day Adventist church in Herm- iston, crews on Sunday morning also responded to a fire on Northeast 10th Street and on early Monday morning to an RV and shed fire on Echols Road. Around 6:30 a.m. Sun- day, crews responded to a fire in the 2100 block of Northeast 10th, where a single-wide manufactured home was fully engulfed. Fire Marshal Scott Goff said the cause of the fire was determined to be a faulty water heater. He said the couple who live on the property were not home at the time and no one was hurt. The damage from the fire is estimated at $75,000. Shortly after midnight on Monday, crews responded to a fire on Echols Road. This blaze burned a 25-foot motor home and a fifth- wheel trailer, as well as a small barn and some other items, including an area full of scrap metal, wood and car parts. There was also a 100-gallon propane tank that was actively vent- ing and on fire. The fire spread to about half an acre. Crews had put the fire out and were back to the station within about three hours. Goff said the property owners were in the house, and there is a person who was living in the motor home, but they were not inside at the time. Goff said the cause of that fire has not yet been determined, but no foul play is suspected. The crews who responded to the fires this weekend also covered sev- eral medical calls and an assault call in Umatilla, receiving help from off- duty firefighters and other departments. they were comforted by the knowledge that their church family still exists, just in a different location. The church, at 855 W. Highland Ave., is best known in the community for its annual Journey to Beth- lehem living nativity. Rob- ins said most of the scenery is stored in a separate stor- age shed. UCFD was assisted by Boardman, Echo and Uma- tilla rural fire departments in fighting the fire. HERMISTON HERALD By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER A fire early Sunday morning destroyed much of the Hermiston Adven- tist Church, as flames and extensive smoke damaged the decades-old house of worship. Umatilla County Fire District Marshal Scott Goff said investigators think the fire was caused by a lamp that was too close to a wooden table. Foul play is not suspected. “It was a long, slow, smoldering fire that kind of cooked the whole building,” Goff said. As flames engulfed the west side of the building before dawn on Sunday, some church members were quick to jump to action. Larry Hanson, a former head elder in the church, helped fight the fire as a volunteer for the Echo Fire Department. “It’s kind of hard to say how long it had been burn- ing,” Hanson said. He arrived around 5:15 a.m., close to an hour after UCFD reached the church, and remained on site until about 9 a.m. Hanson, a longtime member of the church, said the building was con- structed in the mid-1960s. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Flames erupted out of these doors on the west end of the Seventh-day Adventist church on Sunday in Hermiston. Hanson said on Monday that they wouldn’t know the extent of the damage until an insurance adjuster arrived Tuesday. Goff said he estimated the damage at $3 million. Hanson said the church’s insurance would cover those costs. While the building is under repair, he said the con- gregation will hold church services at the Hermiston Junior Academy, the school run by the Seventh-day Adventist church, on North- west 11th Street. Carl Robins, a member of the Hermiston Seventh-day Adventist church for the past seven years, was standing in the parking lot and sur- veying the damage Monday morning. “I’m sad,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.” Robins said he had looked at the damage inside the building on Sunday, and said it appeared that much of the building’s interior had been burned. “The guy who does the sound equipment went into the sanctuary, and he said pretty much everything in there is toast,” he said. Robins said he was relieved no one was injured, which was the most import- ant thing. As he was stand- ing there, a man drove up and handed him a bag. “I brought cookies for your congregation,” he said. “I know that’s not much.” Hanson said the church currently has about 175 active members, and they had varying responses to the fire. “It’s interesting,” Han- son said. “People react in differ- ent ways. There certainly were a few people crying — I think especially those who grew up with this being the only church they’ve ever known.” He said for others, the fire was disappointing, but Council unpacks property rule issues By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER The Hermiston city council changed its mind mid-meeting on one prop- erty issue Monday and decided to ask the public about another before mov- ing forward. The council first rejected a proposed update to acces- sory dwelling regulations, then after further discussion gave the planning commis- sion the go-ahead to start the public hearing pro- cess. After hearing mixed reviews on an idea to ban use of metal shipping con- tainers for storage in resi- dential zones, they asked city staff to survey the pub- lic about it. Councilor John Kir- wan had commented at a previous meeting that he was seeing an increase of metal shipping containers being used as storage sheds next to houses. He inquired about regulations for such use, and after finding out there were none, councilors asked city staff to consider drafting some rules. On Monday during a work session, city planner Clint Spencer presented a “first draft” recommen- dation from the planning commission for feedback. The rules would ban use of the containers in residential zones, leaving an exemp- tion for temporary uses up to 60 days in a year or up to 120 days when connected to a construction project that has been issued a building permit. In commercial and industrial zones one con- tainer per lot (in a commer- cial zone) or per acre (for industrial) could be used, provided it was painted the same color as the pri- mary building, rust-free, logo-free, on a concrete or asphalt slab and has been granted a building permit. In all zones, the regulations would apply to new con- tainers, not existing ones. Councilors had mixed feelings about the proposal. Doug Smith said he didn’t want to see a lot of the ship- ping containers popping up in residential neighbor- hoods, but later during the council’s regular meet- ing said he thought the city should get feedback on what seemed like it could be a polarizing issue. Mayor David Drotz- mann said some shipping containers next to houses were unsightly, but he wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with one in some- one’s back yard, painted a subtle color and mostly out of sight. He said he “under- stood the visibility issue” but wasn’t sure he wanted to see the city take away an affordable storage option for people. “I’m struggling with it a little bit,” he said. “I don’t like the way they look, but I don’t like the way some of my neighbors’ houses look either.” Comments from the pub- lic were mixed too. Jackie Linton said she thought shipping containers would look out of place in her Beebe Avenue neighbor- hood, but she didn’t have a problem with them in more rural neighborhoods with larger lots. Rhonda Sal- lee and Randy Smith ques- tioned why the city needed such an ordinance at all. Councilors asked staff to survey Hermiston residents and bring the feedback to a future council meeting. The council also dis- cussed another set of rec- ommendations from the planning commission Mon- day, for accessory dwelling units. Spencer said those could include guest houses, basement apartments, apartments over garages EARTHLINK INTERNET HIGH SPEED INTERNET and other “mother-in-law” apartments. Spencer said the state legislature passed new laws for ADUs that take effect July 1, including a require- ment that new ADUs have permits. Spencer said Hermiston has always allowed acces- sory dwelling units only if no rent was charged for them, but the new law forces the city to let people charge rent for guest houses, base- ment apartments and other ADUs on their property. He said it was “frustrating” that the state had arbitrarily changed the character of Hermiston’s zoning code by turning all of its sin- gle-family residential zones into multi-family residen- tial areas. To address the changes, the planning commission spent three months crafting amendments to the city’s code. The new require- ments state that accessory dwelling units must meet all building codes, include a bathroom and kitchen, be accessible from a sepa- rate entrance than the main dwelling and come with one to two additional paved offstreet parking spaces depending on the number of bedrooms. The dwellings will be subject to a permit and permit fee, and will be charged the utility rate for multi-family dwellings. City councilor Jackie Myers wanted to see addi- tional rules about the ADU having to match the primary dwelling and setting aes- thetic standards, and other councilors agreed, but Spen- cer said the advice of legal counsel was that wouldn’t 5 Theater Cineplex Check wildhorseresort.com for showtimes $5 Matinee Classics Every Wednesday Enjov big-time Internet speeds without spending big bucks! Get Connected for as low as Get Connected for as low as 14.95/mo. $ 49.99/mo. For the first 3 months (Offers varv bv speed & location) first 12 months HyperLinkh High-Speed Internet Satellite Internet Connection speeds up to 75 Mbps* What you get with HughesNet Satellite Internet: ! 50X faster than DSL!!** ! High speed with fiber optic technology ! Fast speeds up to 25 Mbps ! Available everywhere ! Fast download time for streaming videos, music and more! ! Larger data allowance (up to 50 GB per month) CONTACT YOUR LOCAL AUTHORIZED RETAILER 855-977-9436 Speed performance allowing vou to stream & download shows, music, photos, large files and more on multiple devices HughesNet is a registered trademark of Hughes Network Systems, LLC, an EchoStar company. The HughsNet Gen5 service plans are designed to deliver download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps, but individual customers may experience different speeds at different times of the day. Speeds and uninterrupted use are not guaranteed and may vary based on a variety of factors including: the configuration of your computer, the number of concurrent users, network of Internet congestion, the capabilities and content of the websites you are accessing, network management practices as deemed necessary, and other factors. When you connected to HughesNet service using Wi-Fi, your experience will vary based on your proximity to the Wi-Fi source and the strength of the signal. *Speeds may vary depending on distance, line quality and number of devices used concurrently. Subject to availability. Some prices shown may be introductory offers. Equipment fees, taxes and other fees and restrictions may apply. **Speed comparison based on 1.5 Mbps DSL. Credit & Debit Cards accepted Cineplex gift cards available 541-966-1850 Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216 hold up as a “reasonable” standard under the law because the city doesn’t have rules for what colors people can paint their primary resi- dence, for example. When it came time for a vote, only councilors Doug Primmer and Lori Davis voted in favor of having the city start the public hearing and notice process to turn the regulations into law. But afterward Drotzmann expressed the feeling that the regulations were likely as extensive as the plan- ning commission was able to make them, and Spencer confirmed that there wasn’t much more the commis- sion could add after legal counsel had directed them to take out multiple design standards that had origi- nally been included. He also said that the state law takes effect July 1 no mat- ter what the city passes to “put siderails” on the issue, and that it could always be revised later. That persuaded Myers, Gutierrez, Smith and Har- din, who voted with Prim- mer and Davis this time after Myers made another motion to once again con- sider moving forward with the public process to adopt the new standards. Shooting victim taken off life support, homicide investigation underway HERMISTON HERALD The investigation into the shooting of Erik Navar- rete Campos, 26, has turned into a homicide investiga- tion, according to Herm- iston Police Chief Jason Edmiston, after the young man was removed from life support Friday. An autopsy determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. Police responded to Navarrete Campos’s resi- dence in the 500 block of Hartley Avenue in Hermis- ton about 1:20 a.m. on June 4 after a report of gunshots and found Navarrete Cam- pos injured. He was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Wash. Police have not released information about sus- pects or the circumstances surrounding the incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to call 541- Erik Navarrete Campos 567-5519 to speak with a detective. Navarrete Campos’s family and friends held two car washes over the week- end to help raise money for his medical expenses and have set up a GoFundMe page online. He was a life- long Hermiston resident. The victim’s legal name is Campos Navarrete, but family and friends knew him as Navarrete Campos. The most valuable and respected source of local news, advertising and information for our communities. www.eomediagroup.com 1 Loving Husband 4 Amazing Children 8 Beautiful Grandchildren 12 Sweet Great Grandchildren 1 Blessed Life Mary Lois Newman June 19, 1928 We Love You, Your Loving Family
