FROM A1
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
herMIsTOnheraLd.cOM • A11
staff photo by Kathy aney
Aaron Davis talks to his civics class at Hermiston High School during a discussion Thursday about legislation to lower
Oregon’s voting age to 16.
contributed photo from hermiston school district
Catherine Doherty, Eleanor Larsen, Glyn Lystrup, and Caden
Lloyd (pictured left to right) of Rocky Heights Elementary
School won Hermiston’s Battle of the Books championship.
BTW
Continued from Page A1
noteworthy performances
during the Lionel Hamp-
ton Jazz Festival, held Feb.
22-23 at the University of
Idaho.
Majazzty, a Hermis-
ton High School musical
ensemble directed by Jor-
dan Bemrose-Rust, was
named the runner-up in the
category of Senior Area
Mic Ensembles Division. In
addition, Sandstone Middle
School soloists Elizabeth
Doherty (Junior Instrumen-
tal Trumpet Solos) and Amy
Wooster (Junior Instrumen-
tal Flute Solos) received rec-
ognition during the festival’s
Young Artists’ Concert.
In its 52nd year, the event
featured student competi-
tions, workshops and clinics.
More than 4,000 students
from over 130 elementary,
middle and high schools, as
well as college and universi-
ties, participated from across
the region. Performances
from the Young Artists’
Winners Concert are avail-
able on the Lionel Hamp-
ton Jazz Festival’s YouTube
channel.
• • •
A friendly competi-
tion between employees
at the local Department
of Human Services office
recently proved that even a
little change can make a big
difference.
The Penny Wars Fund-
raiser included the col-
lection of food items and
change. While employees in
the Aging and People with
Disabilities
department
came out victorious, those in
need in the community are
the real winners. ADP won
with 109,908 points for col-
lecting 1,195 food items and
$196.54 in cash.
Coming in second was
the Child Welfare depart-
ment with 599 food items
and $185.81. The Self Suf-
ficiency employees came in
third with 183 food items
and $236.99.
“This started our as a
small feat and turned into
a battle that will be talked
about for years to come,”
said Nicole Depew, who
helped organize the effort.
• • •
The menu for the Har-
kenrider Senior Activity
Center is corned beef and
cabbage, carrots and red
potatoes, lime Jell-O salad
and dessert on Thursday, in
honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
The menu for next Tuesday
is salisbury steak, a vegeta-
ble, salad and dessert.
———
You can submit items for
our weekly By The Way col-
umn by emailing your tips
to editor@hermistonher-
ald.com.
VOTE
Continued from Page A1
experience into adulthood, I wish I
could have voted.”
Although most of Davis’ students
felt 16-year-olds weren’t ready to vote,
almost everyone said they planned to
exercise their right to vote once they
turn 18. And many acknowledged that
those who are of legal age may not
necessarily be informed, either.
“I think a lot of adults get informa-
tion from social media as well,” Fer-
guson said. “That was really prevalent
in the 2016 election. Picking credi-
ble news sources is probably harder
MAXFEST
Continued from Page A1
Above, three 10-foot-
wide fans dispersed radiant
heat around the building.
Below, stamped concrete
created a faux wood floor.
Myers said ticket sales
were brisk. Many came not
only for the beer, but also to
get a peek at the new event
center. By night’s end, 500
people had come through
the door.
Myers said the only blot
on the night was that he
didn’t see any city adminis-
trators at the event. During
construction, Myers, owner
of Mitco Investments, dis-
puted with city building
official Chuck Woolsey
who Myers said purposely
held up the project. Despite
the rift, Myers said he had
hoped to see city represen-
tatives show up Maxfest or
for 16-year-olds, but it affects adults
too, who are also influenced by social
media.”
Temple agreed.
“I’d say if being well-informed
is the criteria for being able to vote,
there are a lot of adults who aren’t,”
he said.
Davis didn’t share his personal
opinion with students, but said they
had all brought up well-informed
points.
“More voters isn’t necessarily bet-
ter,” he said. “But 16- and 66-year-
olds can chose who to follow, whether
to isolate themselves, or what they
want to hear.”
According to an article by the Ore-
the ribbon cutting the previ-
ous evening.
“We had lots of peo-
ple from the community,”
Myers said. “We had some
police officers. It would
have been nice to see the
mayor, city manager, assis-
tant city manager or some-
one from the city council.”
Myers said he has got-
ten a lot of interest in the
facility.
“We’ve already got
many
events
booked
through the summer. We
had events booked before
we even finished the build-
ing,” Myers said. “We’re
real excited to see what it
brings.”
The facility has a max-
imum occupancy of 300,
but opening those $80,000
roll-up doors adds another
600 square feet outdoors
for summer events.
A trio of beer connois-
gonian/OregonLive, the bill would
give 16-year-olds the right to vote in
all elections, but may ultimately only
apply to state and local elections. The
article reported that Democratic state
Sen. Shemia Fagan, who introduced
the measure, said that teens were beg-
ging to be able to take action to pro-
tect their own futures. She referenced
the students from Parkland, Florida,
who gained national attention for their
activism for gun control after a mass
shooting at their school in 2018.
The voting age was lowered from
21 to 18 in 1971, as per the 26th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
That was partly due to teens opposed
to being drafted for the Vietnam War.
seurs, Ashley Lovejoy,
Danielle Baldwin and Jor-
dan Richards, sat around
one round table sampling
microbrews and admiring
the scenery.
“It’s awesome,” Bald-
win said. “It’s beautiful.”
And the beer?
“So far, so good,” said
Richards, who sipped a
Peaches and Cream Ale
from Laht Neppur Brew-
ing Company in Waitsburg,
Washington.
Two couples, Steve and
Jane Watson and Nathan
and Paula Thompson, sat
in the tented area. They
said they had watched con-
struction of the event center
last summer with curiosity
as they visited the nearby
farmers’ market.
“I love it,” Steve Wat-
son said. “This used to be
an eyesore.”
The facility was set to
host the city’s farmer’s
market in 2018, but con-
struction was hampered by
the dispute between Myers
and Hermiston’s building
department. Myers plans
to host the farmers’ market,
rebranded as Maxwell Mar-
ket, at the new pavilion this
spring.
Myers plans to eventu-
ally install a replica of a bell
that once stood on the prop-
erty with a plaque telling
about the Maxwell Siding.
He said he loves the
event center’s connection to
the past. He gestured down
the tracks and then up.
“Maxwell siding went
for about 200 feet that way
and 300 feet that way,”
he said. “If not for Max-
well Siding, there probably
wouldn’t be a Hermiston.”
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
Ample snowfall boosts Oregon snowpack
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
What a difference a
month makes.
Oregon snowpack was
averaging just 73 percent of
normal at the beginning of
February, setting the stage
for low spring and summer
stream flows, particularly
west of the Cascade Range.
Now farmers in Hermiston
can expect stream flows up
140 percent of normal in the
Umatilla Basin from April
to September.
After
weeks
of
record-breaking snowfall
and precipitation from Cra-
ter Lake to Baker City, every
basin in the state is now
measuring above normal for
snow, except for the Hood,
Sandy and Lower Deschutes
basins, which were at 93
percent as of March 11.
The USDA Natural
Resources
Conservation
Service has released its lat-
est monthly Oregon Water
Supply Report, which calls
for vastly improved condi-
tions based on the sudden
surge of winter weather.
“A remarkable and unex-
pected recovery in snow-
pack occurred during the
shortest month of the year,
dramatically
improving
the water supply outlook
across Oregon,” the report
states. “February storm
cycles more than doubled
the amount of snow on the
staff photo by e.J. harris
Snow piled up this winter for Eastern Oregon, boosting snowpack and stream flow predictions.
ground in most locations,
breaking many records
along the way.”
According to the NRCS,
seven of Oregon’s long-
term snow monitoring sites
broke records for highest
snowpack on March 1, with
data going back 35 years.
Between Feb. 20-26, almost
every snow measurement
site from Crater Lake to
Mount Jefferson set records
with 2 to 3 feet of fresh
powder.
As a result, most basins
went from a snowpack defi-
cit to a surplus. Eastern Ore-
gon is piling up the snow,
with the Umatilla, Walla
Walla, Willow, John Day,
Malheur and Goose Lake
basins all topping 150 per-
cent of normal. Precipita-
tion at lower elevations also
set records in places like
Heppner, Baker City and
Malheur County.
“All of the state just dra-
matically improved for
snowpack,” said Julie Koe-
berle, a hydrologist with the
NRCS Oregon Snow Sur-
vey team.
More snow is, of course,
good news for farms and
fish. Koeberle said fore-
casts are looking especially
promising in northeast Ore-
gon, with stream flows pre-
dicted to be 140 percent of
normal from April through
September in the Umatilla,
Walla Walla and Willow
basins.
A few areas, includ-
ing the Deschutes River
basin and Mount Hood,
are still lagging behind at
80 to 95 percent of normal
stream flows. But based on
the current trajectory, Koe-
berle said most of the state
is going to have normal to
above normal stream flows
heading into spring.
The one caveat, Koe-
berle said, is avoiding sus-
tained periods of warm
weather that can melt snow
too quickly — as it did last
May, diminishing what was
an already sparse snowpack
and leading to water short-
ages and drought statewide.
The U.S. Drought Moni-
tor still shows more than 60
percent of Oregon in moder-
ate to severe drought.
“You can’t really get rid
of drought with just one
good wet month. It takes a
little more than that,” Koe-
berle said.
The federal Climate Pre-
diction Center, meanwhile,
continues to call for a bet-
ter chance of higher tem-
peratures over the next three
months, and a roughly equal
chance of dry or wet weather.
If warmer weather does melt
away snow quickly again,
Koeberle said the impacts
could be mitigated if Mother
Nature comes through with
enough spring rain.
“It’s really just kind of a
wait and see,” she said.
Reservoir levels are a bit
more hit and miss across the
state, storing anywhere from
65 percent to 97 percent of
capacity, though most can
expect significant inflows in
the coming months as snow
begins to melt.