WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL
Better rating for
fire district likely
to lower insurance
premiums
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
The eastbound lanes of the Interstate 82 bridge at Umatilla won’t open in 2018 as expected.
Bridge not yet ready to reopen
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
T
he Washington State Department
of Transportation doesn’t know
exactly when the eastbound
Interstate 82 bridge across the Colum-
bia River will reopen, but it won’t be
in 2018.
The department had previously said
construction on the bridge deck near
Umatilla would finish in October, then
pushed that timeline to December. But
in an email to the Hermiston Herald,
spokeswoman Jackie Ramirez said
the bridge that previously took drivers
into Oregon will continue to be closed
through the winter because crews can-
not finish work on the bridge until the
weather warms up again.
“Crews will finish pouring the con-
crete once the weather gets better and
completion of the bridge will be in
spring/summer of 2019,” she said.
Ramirez said there was some “addi-
tional repair work” that cropped up
unexpectedly as contractors worked
on replacing the bridge deck, and that
extra work put them too far behind to
finish up concrete overlay pours before
cold weather set in.
A smaller crew will continue
throughout the winter on repairs that
can be completed in cold weather.
The eastbound bridge, built in 1955,
had originally carried traffic to and
from Oregon before a second west-
bound bridge was added in 1988 to
carry two lanes of traffic into Washing-
ton while the 1955 bridge carried two
lanes of traffic into Oregon.
Since the summer of 2017 the west-
bound bridge has carried one lane of
traffic each direction while construc-
tion crews rebuild the eastbound bridge
deck, which had been riddled with
holes and patches over time.
Oregon and Washington split the
cost of maintenance for bridges that
span the Columbia River between the
two states. In this case, Washington is
managing the project, originally bud-
geted at $10 million.
Ramirez said WSDOT wanted
to remind drivers to be cautious and
allow themselves extra time to cross
the bridge, as the department has seen
traffic delays during peak travel times,
such as Thanksgiving weekend.
“We especially see the bridge back
up when there is a collision, as crews
have to block both lanes to clear the
collision,” she said.
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office forms sharpshooter program
New sharpshooter
unit would provide
an additional
resource during
local crises
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office is develop-
ing a team of sharpshooters.
Sheriff Terry Rowan said
the “designated marksman
program” is new but aims
to fill a crucial need for
crack shot officers who can
respond to local crises.
The Oregon State Sher-
iff’s Association pushed the
initiative this year, Rowan
explained, for sheriffs to
develop teams with sharp-
shooting skills.
“There has been a lit-
tle bit bigger push to create
these regional specialized
teams,” Rowan said.
Beyond having interests
in such a program, he said,
the key was for agencies
that could equip and train
officers. Rowan, who serves
on the association’s execu-
tive committee, said Uma-
tilla County could handle it.
The team consists of
four members: Capt. Stew-
art Harp, Lt. Thoren Hearn,
detective Erik Palmer and
retired court security offi-
cer Cliff Pease, who also
has a military background.
The sheriff’s office has
not made a public splash
about the program. But last
week, Hearn approached
the county board of com-
missioners for approval to
purchase 16,000 rounds of
ammunition for $8,021.50.
He said the bulk purchase
would provide ammo for
training, on-duty deputies
and the designated marks-
man program.
Harp said the sheriff’s
office has been mum on the
marksman team because it
remains in development.
Rowan said the unit is too
new to send out, so the first
call for a tactical police
response would go to the
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment SWAT team and the
next to Oregon State Police
SWAT.
But both teams take
time to assemble and get in
place, particularly the state
team, whose members live
throughout Oregon. Harp
said the standoff with a
homicide suspect in January
2017 at a Pendleton hotel
exemplifies the need for a
local approach.
Police from Pendleton,
Hermiston and the sheriff’s
office waited long hours
for the Oregon State Police
SWAT to provide crucial
support. He said that inci-
dent sparked discussion in
the sheriff’s office about
the glaring need for a faster
response with officers who
have the proper training and
equipment.
“Sometimes the only
way to address that is to step
up and do it,” he said. “I had
the opportunity to step in
and develop the program.”
Rowan said the team
members earlier this year
took 48 hours of “pretty
extensive” shooting training
over several days and they
train every month. Their
main weapons are .308
rifles. Almost half of the
cost of the ammunition was
for 4,000 .308 Winchester
rounds.
Rowan said the team is
not a fiscal burden for the
sheriff’s office. The ammo
purchase was in the budget.
And he said the sheriff’s
office gives guns it confis-
cates to reputable arms deal-
ers after criminal cases con-
clude. In exchange, he said,
the dealers give a discount
on the cost of new equip-
ment. Simply put, the sher-
iff’s office is using weapons
from bad guys to help arm
and outfit its own.
The program could one
day expand, he also said,
but at this time it was dif-
ficult to say what the end
result would look like. Still,
he and Harp were positive
about the team’s potential.
“I’m really excited,”
Harp said, “about what it will
bring to our community.”
Commercial and resi-
dential insurance premi-
ums will likely go down
in the Hermiston and
Stanfield area after Uma-
tilla County Fire District’s
Insurance Services Office
rating improved.
Both cities, as well
as most of the rural area
UCFD covers, have been
upgraded to a class three.
Previously, Hermiston was
a class four and Stanfield
was a class five.
The ISO gives fire dis-
tricts ratings on a scale of 1
to 10 based on factors, such
as a fire district’s response
times, station proximity,
equipment quality, training
hours, water infrastructure
and dispatch call-handling
times. Dick Ferranti of Fer-
ranti Graybeal Insurance
Agency in Hermiston said
the lower the number, the
less risky insurance com-
panies consider an area.
“A lower number indi-
cates a quicker response,
better equipment, better
vehicles, etc. so that if we
do have a fire they can put
it out more quickly,” he
said.
He said the ISO class is
one of several things insur-
ance companies look at
while setting premiums,
but the lowered number is
a “very positive thing” for
the Hermiston-Stanfield
area. The ISO is an inde-
pendent actuarial financed
by dues from insurance
companies, and those
companies use data gath-
ered by the ISO — includ-
ing the fire district ratings
— when calculating pre-
miums for homeowners
and business insurance.
The new class three rating
should reflect in lower pre-
miums as people renew or
purchase policies.
“The lower the rates, the
lower the protection class,
the more attractive this
area becomes,” he said.
In an announcement
about the lowered ISO rat-
ing Thursday, the fire dis-
trict said the new class
three rating puts UCFD
in the top 8 percent of the
nation.
“The ISO change here
is huge for the communi-
ties and those areas within
five miles of a fire station,”
Chief Scott Stanton said
in a statement. “It really
shows a lot of the hard
work that the water depart-
ments, county 911 dispatch
and the fire district have put
into this accomplishment.”
He credited the 2016
merger between Stanfield
and Hermiston fire districts
with making the improve-
ments that led to the rat-
ings change possible.
Further class changes
could be in UCFD’s
future. Operations chief
Jim Forquer said there are
still areas the district could
improve upon, particularly
when it comes to preven-
tion items, such as building
inspections.
“A lower number
indicates a quicker
response, better
equipment, better
vehicles, etc. so that if
we do have a fire they
can put it out more
quickly.”
Dick Ferranti,
Ferranti Graybeal
Insurance Agency
Forquer said the UCFD
administration and board
are also looking at how
they could add a fifth fire
station to UCFD’s proper-
ties. Right now, he said, it’s
just in the talking stage, but
they are looking for prop-
erty or an existing building
on the east side of Herm-
iston, somewhere toward
Highway 37 and Walls
Road. Being able to put
personnel and equipment
out there would put almost
all of the fire district within
5 miles of a station.
Forquer said there are
many factors that help
UCFD achieve a good
ISO rating. The merger
strengthened their staff-
ing, training and equip-
ment scores and they have
strong working relation-
ships with neighboring
fire districts. He said the
district is helped by hav-
ing five water tenders,
which benefits rural areas
where fire hydrants aren’t
plentiful.
“We have a fairly robust
water tender support sys-
tem, so we can have a lot of
water on the road,” he said.
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