LOCAL
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
HerMIsTOnHeraLd.COM • A3
Rooftop rescue adds fuel to friendly police-firefighter rivalry
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
P
ayback was as sweet as the
irony on Friday morning
when a Hermiston police
officer needed rescuing from a
roof.
Just a week earlier, the Hermis-
ton Police Department had poked
fun at the neighboring Umatilla
County Fire District 1 on Face-
book, asking people to not leave
valuables in plain sight in their
vehicles so that “we have more
time to help Umatilla County Fire
District #1 get cats out of trees.”
So when the call came through
dispatch asking for assistance for
an officer who had climbed onto
the roof of O’Reilly Auto Parts to
look for a trespasser, the fire dis-
trict was delighted to bring a ladder
truck — and post plenty of pictures
to Facebook.
“Took a break from our busy
day of saving cats out of trees to
help one of our fellow brothers in
blue!” they posted, joking that the
officer had been pursuing a person
throwing donuts. “Not only did we
safely rescue him from his precar-
ious position atop a frigid rooftop
but he was able to live out a life
long dream of being a firefighter.”
Candice
Slagel-Osborne,
administrative assistant for the fire
district, said as soon as she got the
call from dispatch, she knew the
rest of the UCFD staff would get a
laugh. The district probably didn’t
need to bring out as many rigs or
personnel as they did, but Lt. Jeff
Armstrong said they couldn’t resist
the opportunity.
“They’ve been poking fun at us
on Facebook, so we thought we’d
return the favor,” he said.
Police Chief Jason Edmiston
said Cpl. Riley Studebaker and
Sgt. Bill Osborne responded about
8:30 a.m. to the auto parts store for
a call of a trespasser on the roof.
Studebaker quickly climbed a lad-
der on site to check out the roof
and found some personal belong-
ings but no people.
The ladder he had used to get
up was pretty “wobbly,” Edmis-
ton said, and the department has
already had too many injuries this
year. So Osborne told Studebaker
to stay on the roof until the fire
district could provide a safer way
down — which led to the Face-
book post.
“They got us,” Edmiston said.
The police department started
the friendly little Facebook rivalry,
the chief admitted, when they
shared a post asking people to
support UCFD’s participation in
the March 10 Leukemia & Lym-
phoma Society stair climb fund-
raiser but added, “Not only does
it raise money for a great cause, it
will give our firefighters a chance
to exchange truck washing tips,
recipes, and video game cheat
codes with hose draggers from all
over.” They followed up with the
jab about cat rescues the next day,
and the fire department responded
with a meme about police officers’
real dream of being a firefighter.
The two departments share a
building at 330 S. First St., which
can lead to some friendly teasing,
Edmiston said, but in all serious-
ness, both departments get along
well and always have each others’
back. He said the teamwork during
Wednesday’s fire alarm at Herm-
iston High School, when UCFD
showed up to ascertain there was
no fire and HPD showed up to
make sure there wasn’t a threat,
shows that.
“Everyone is in sync,” he said.
Contributed photo by umatilla County Fire district #1
Hermiston Police Cpl. Riley Studebaker climbs down a ladder truck from
the roof of O’Reilly Auto Parts after climbing on the roof to check for a
reported trespasser.
Hermiston girl killed in Olympia car crash
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Family and friends of
Natalya Martinez are still
finding ways to process
what happened this week-
end, but they were any-
thing but speechless when
it came to describing the
16-year-old, who died in a
car wreck on Saturday.
“Everyone knew Nata-
lya as this sassy diva, but
she always wanted the best
for everyone,” said her sis-
ter Marissa Navejar.
They described the
Hermiston High School
junior as an animal lover
with a loud laugh and a pas-
sion for cheerleading and
travel, who had dreams of
becoming a nurse someday.
“She was a beautiful
soul,” Marissa said. “She
put all of her effort into
school. She had a lot of
plans.”
On Saturday, Martinez
and her mother were travel-
ing to Seattle to meet fam-
ily to attend a KISS concert.
Her mother, Dianna Nave-
jar, said that she got a flat
tire on I-5 near Olympia,
and because the freeway
was so busy, they decided
to get the vehicle towed
instead of changing the tire
on the side of the road.
“She was a
beautiful soul.
She put all of her
effort into school.
She had a lot of
plans.”
Marissa Navejar, sister
Dianna’s brother, David,
and her son were in another
car, and pulled over behind
them to wait for the tow
truck. The four were wait-
ing in David’s car together.
“Next thing I know, they
were waking me up, trying
to wake up Tal,” Dianna
said. She described the
whole back side of the car,
a Nissan Altima, slammed
in, and glass everywhere.
According to Washing-
5 Theater Cineplex
Check
wildhorseresort.com
for showtimes
Contributed photo by Marissa navejar
Natalya Martinez, 16, of Hermiston, died in a car crash on
Interstate 5 near Olympia on Saturday, Feb. 2.
ton State Patrol and reports
by The Olympian news-
paper, a Ford Focus hit
the Altima and rolled. The
driver of the Focus, David
Willis of Poulsbo, Washing-
ton, is the subject of a crim-
inal investigation. Willis,
40, faces charges of vehic-
ular homicide and reckless
endangerment, and is sus-
pected of being impaired,
although state patrol did not
release whether drugs or
alcohol were involved.
An 8-year-old girl was in
the car with Willis and was
transported to the hospital
for injuries. According to
The Olympian, Dianna was
also transported with inju-
ries. The other two occu-
pants of the vehicle, Dian-
na’s 14-year-old son and
David, were not injured.
On Monday, Martinez’s
family gathered at the home
of her aunt, Sonia Nash.
They laughed and teared
up as they recalled things
about Natalya.
“She had already named
all her future cats and
dogs,” Marissa said. “I feel
like now I have to adopt all
the animals she would have
adopted.”
They said Martinez
loved cheerleading, and
though a concussion had
sidelined her the previous
season, she had planned to
return to the sport this year.
Marissa said the family
is close-knit, and Martinez
had been eagerly anticipat-
ing becoming an aunt later
this spring, buying clothes
for her brother’s child.
“She said she was going
to be the best aunty in the
world,” her mom said.
She had also been look-
ing forward to the KISS
concert — which had
become something of a tra-
dition with her uncle David.
He had taken her to see the
band three times, and this
time many family members
were going.
“She was really excited
— it was their last tour,
and she was excited to
have everyone together,”
Marissa said.
Her grandmother, Josie
Correa, said her grand-
daughter loved to tease peo-
ple, but in good fun.
“She was always play-
ing with me,” Correa said.
“She was always giving me
a hard time. I think it meant
that she loved me.”
She loved photogra-
phy and new places, and
had plans to travel with her
cousin this summer.
“Even when we were
driving from Portland to
Olympia, she was point-
ing out all the things she’d
never seen before, places
she wanted to come back
to,” said Dianna.
“She was really good at
being a girl,” Marissa said.
“Hair, makeup, nails — I
was always trying to get
her to do mine. She would
Facetime me after school to
show me her makeup.”
In addition to Marissa,
Martinez had two brothers,
Jordan and Michael, her
father, Mike, and several
relatives and friends.
“We’ve been here our
whole lives,” said Marissa.
“It’s not just affecting peo-
ple in Hermiston, but Stan-
field, Pendleton, Tri-Cities.”
Correa said since Sat-
urday, Martinez’s friends
have sent them videos and
photos of her.
“A lot of people cared
about her — people we
didn’t even know,” she said.
Marissa said a date has
not yet been set, but they
will have a service that will
be open to all high school
students or anyone who
knew her.
541-966-1850
Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
When
skateboarding
debuts as an Olympic sport
in Tokyo in 2020, the U.S.
team will have trained at a
facility designed by the same
company designing Hermis-
ton’s skate park.
California Skateparks,
one of the world’s top skate
park design companies,
recently built the California
Training Facility, an indoor
training facility in Vista,
California, that will serve as
the training ground for the
U.S. Olympic team, as well
as other top professional
skaters and foreign Olympic
teams.
Last week, consultants
from California Skateparks
visited Hermiston for a
workshop to discuss plans
for a skate park the city plans
to build across First Street
from Hermiston’s police and
fire station.
“We had about 30 inter-
ested people show up,”
parks and recreation director
Larry Fetter said. “Most of
them were skaters of some
sort.”
Participants watched a
video exploring a concept
design and rendering by
DugOut Design Studio of
Beaverton, a subcontractor
for California Skateparks, of
what Hermiston’s skate park
could look like, using some
of the most popular elements
of skate parks worldwide.
Afterward, they placed col-
ored dots on a conceptual
drawing to show what they
liked best, and used their
phones to take an online sur-
vey about the park. Fetter
said the company will take
about six weeks to shape the
feedback into a new design,
which they will bring back
for a second meeting before
finalizing.
Elements the skaters
liked best are filled with
skateboarding jargon —
top picks include a hubba,
bank to ledge, pump track,
snakerun, mini ramp bowl
and brick banks. Fetter said
some sections of the park
can be dual-purpose, such
as a “skateable” basketball
court, a parkour obstacle
course, and stairs/railings/
benches that have a func-
tional purpose as well as a
skating one. Parts of the park
will also be sheltered, and
lighting will allow skaters to
use the facility after dark.
“We got a lot of feedback,
and really strong responses,”
Fetter said, noting most
attendees rated the overall
design presented with a 4 or
5 out of 5.
The property where the
park will be built encom-
passes about 1.5 acres across
First Street from Hermis-
ton Police Department and
Umatilla County Fire Dis-
trict. The city owns about
half an acre outright and
controls the lease with
Union Pacific Railroad for
the rest.
Fetter said it’s the perfect
location for a skate park.
The police can help keep an
eye on it, there aren’t any
residential neighbors around
to complain about late-night
skating, and it is situated
just a block from the high
school. A fence will go up
along the railroad to discour-
age anyone crossing into the
park from that side, and Fet-
ter said landscaping and
other design elements will
help the park blend in aes-
thetically with the Maxwell
Pavilion next door.
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