A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018
LOCAL
Hermiston High School hosts Knowledge Bowl
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Jose Quinones, who co-owns the Econo Lodge in
Umatilla, stands in a room renovated after a fire damaged
the motel (then called Tillicum Inn) in September 2017.
Former Tillicum
Inn reopens
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
The former Tillicum
Inn has risen from the
ashes.
The Umatilla hotel
has been franchised as
an Econo Lodge and
reopened Friday after
closing for more than a
year to repair damage
from a fire.
Jose Quinones, who has
owned the 40-room hotel
with his wife, Parveen,
for three years, said they
couldn’t wait to finally
open their doors again.
“It took a long time,
but we’re here,” Quinones
said.
The inn was lucky in a
lot of ways, but even with
the stars aligning, the fire
meant more than a year of
lost revenue and employ-
ees who took jobs else-
where during the closure.
Hotel manager Josie
Kepich, who stuck with
the business through the
past year, said the fire
started around noon on
Sept. 6, 2017. Luckily, she
said, because it started in
the middle of the day, there
were only about seven
people in the building and
she was able to quickly
get them out before any-
one was injured.
The blaze heavily
burned six rooms in the
center of the building —
three upstairs and three
downstairs — but other
rooms were also damaged
by smoke, water and fire-
fighters chopping holes
in the roof to help them
put the flames out more
quickly. It got so hot in the
upstairs hallway that the
plastic case around the fire
extinguisher melted.
“It was ugly,” Kepich
said. “After everyone
left, I came in here and
thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
When asked how the
fire started, Kepich and
Quinones said it was an
electrical cause, but they
didn’t know the exact
problem or what room the
fire started in. They said
they preferred to leave
that to the insurance com-
pany and fire department
to discuss directly.
“That’s in the past;
we’re looking forward,”
Kepich said.
After the fire, they
started working through
the insurance claims pro-
cess and getting all the
needed permits to strip
most of the building down
to the studs and completely
remodel. Smoke-damaged
linens, carpet, drapes,
beds and other items were
tossed out and contractors
from Belfor Restorations
were brought in. Luck-
ily, Quinones said, Farm-
ers Insurance was great to
work with, and everyone
from city staff to the Uma-
tilla Chamber of Com-
merce told the business to
just let them know what-
ever they needed.
“It’s been hard, but we
have had everyone help-
ing us,” Kepich added.
While some employ-
ees have moved on to
other jobs since the fire,
Kepich said many are
returning to work for what
will now be known as the
Econo Lodge. Custom-
ers, too, have been using
other hotels, but Kepich
said judging by the num-
ber of calls she still gets
asking when they will be
open again, at least some
are planning to return next
time they’re in town.
“We need to get opened
up and start some reve-
nues going again,” she
said.
The newly remod-
eled Econo Lodge fea-
tures new “everything,”
from furniture to carpet to
showers. Private kitchen-
ettes have been added to
some rooms, and the busi-
ness has added a continen-
tal breakfast.
Quinones said after all
the community has done
for them, he and his wife
and the staff are anxious to
find ways to give back to
the community.
Winning the Knowl-
edge Bowl takes several
of the seven cardinal vir-
tues — patience, diligence,
even humility — but know-
ing what the whole group of
them are called was worth a
point all by itself.
One of the questions in
the final round asked stu-
dents: Since the early days
of the Christian church, the
seven deadly sins have been
balanced by the seven cardi-
nal what?
The battle of wits at
Hermiston High School put
students from local high
schools through four rounds
of questioning, on subjects
from pre-calculus and chem-
istry to religion and world
history
A final round ended with
a team from Echo on top,
followed by two Hermiston
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Students competed in Hermiston’s Knowledge Bowl, while
school board member Dave Smith (center) kept time, and
Nancy Lauck read questions.
nell, Washington.
The Hermiston club is
run by HHS counselor Mag-
gie Hughes-Boyd, and for-
mer HHS teacher and cur-
rent BMCC professor John
Lauck.
teams.
Several local schools host
competitions throughout the
year. This year, teams from
Echo, Hermiston, Stanfield
and Umatilla competed,
along with a team from Con-
Within their schools, stu-
dents meet throughout the
year to practice and com-
pete, testing their knowl-
edge in history, literature,
math and science.
In competition, there are
three 4-person teams in a
room, and the teams have a
few seconds to talk it over
and respond. If the first team
to answer gets it wrong, the
other teams have a chance to
respond.
John Cox, a social studies
and English teacher in Echo,
had 12 high school students
at this year’s competition.
During the school year, he
said, the team gets together
twice a week during lunch-
time, and reviews questions
from previous years.
Though some students
find a niche where they carry
the team, Cox said he hopes
most students will develop
a good sense of general
knowledge.
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