NEWS
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, MARCH 20, 2019
New drone adds search and rescue capabilities
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
The next person who gets lost
or stranded in Umatilla County
could get help from the SARbot.
Umatilla County Emergency
Management’s new $25,000
unmanned aerial vehicle is its most
technologically advanced yet,
sporting capabilities such as infra-
red imaging and the ability to carry
a few pounds of food or medical
supplies to a stranded person wait-
ing for rescue.
“I personally think this is going
to be one of the premier drones in
emergency management this side
of the state, at least for a while,”
emergency manager Tom Roberts
said.
The county has used smaller,
lesser-equipped drones in the past
for search and rescue missions,
fugitive hunts, and reconnaissance
during disasters such as wildfires
and hazardous material spills.
When the Tillicum Inn in Uma-
tilla caught fire a little over a year
ago, firefighters were able to scope
out the situation on the roof using
a UAV. Another time the gadget
went into the air to help search
for a missing 13-year-old girl near
Tollgate.
The new, larger orange and
black quadcopter will improve
the county’s capabilities. Opera-
tors can bring up a feed from the
regular camera (with extra zoom
capabilities) or a forward-looking
infrared (FLIR) camera providing
thermal imaging. Roberts said the
FLIR camera would have come in
particularly handy recently when
Morrow County deputies spent
four hours searching for a crash
victim who fled the scene, wading
through knee-high snow and freez-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County emergency manager Thomas Roberts, right, talks to BMCC sophomore Adam Shodin about the
county’s new unmanned aerial system, an Aerial Technology International EMBot, at a job fair Wednesday on the
BMCC campus in Pendleton.
ing temperatures in the dark.
Equipment such as the cameras
are removable, so the emergency
management department or sher-
iff’s deputies can interchange the
technology with newer versions
that come out or load up on addi-
tional accessories in the future.
“In terms of what we can do
with it — no pun intended, but the
sky’s the limit,” Roberts said.
During a search, the unmanned
aerial vehicle can be automated to
thoroughly and efficiently search
every foot of an area with cliffs,
ravines or other challenges for
rescuers on foot. Images can be
broadcast to multiple screens, from
phones of rescuers to a laptop at a
command site. And while rescu-
ers once managed to fly two candy
bars to stranded bear hunters using
a drone, the SARbot will be able to
carry a few pounds’ worth of food,
medical supplies, rope, communi-
cations equipment or other items if
needed.
The drone was custom-de-
signed and built by Lawrence
Dennis. He founded ATI, a Port-
land-based company that provides
“bots” for everything from string-
ing power lines to agricultural
mapping, in 2012.
The SARbot (SAR stands for
“search and rescue”) was paid
for by about $15,000 from Ore-
gon’s Office of Emergency Man-
agement homeland security grant,
and the Wildhorse Foundation
pitched in about $10,000 more to
cover the remaining cost and a few
accessories.
Dennis said it could probably
carry 10 or more pounds if needed,
but he would recommend sticking
to about three most of the time for
optimal battery use and handling.
He said law enforcement agen-
cies often come to him because
commercial drones off the shelf
just don’t provide what they need
for missions. ATI’s practice of
using a “configurable undercar-
riage” also helps UAVs last longer
by requiring only one piece of the
technology to be replaced when
it’s outdated.
“It’s hard for people to keep
up with the pace of how things go
along,” he said. “After a year or
two they would find their drone
was not supported anymore.”
Five Umatilla County employ-
ees are trained to use the SARbot
so far, something Dennis said is
important. While someone driving
a car for the first time might have
a good idea of how components
like the steering wheel and gear
shift work, unmanned aerial vehi-
cles are less familiar territory for
most people.
A UAV is really only as good as
its operator, Dennis said.
“A lot of people think the magic
is in the drones, but it’s not,” he
said.
Roberts said the county will
continue to get people trained and
licensed to operate the drone, and
is looking for search and rescue
volunteers who would be inter-
ested in getting trained as well.
Roberts debuted the new drone
Wednesday afternoon at Blue
Mountain Community College in
Pendleton during a law enforce-
ment-themed career fair. Stu-
dents were drawn to the display
of UAV technology Roberts had
spread out, and asked questions
about how easy the drones were to
operate.
Blue Mountain Community College holds off tuition hike
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Blue Mountain Com-
munity College will not
increase its tuition for the
first time in 23 years while
facing a $1.8 million budget
shortfall.
Casey White-Zollman,
vice president of public rela-
tions for the college, said
the BMCC Board of Edu-
cation on March 13 voted
unanimously against rais-
ing tuition for the 2019-20
academic year to keep the
college affordable.
“The decision did not
come lightly,” according
to a written statement from
White-Zollman. “The board
considered survey feed-
back from students, as well
as recommendations from a
campus-wide budget com-
mittee, before coming to a
resolution.”
The college has about
7,400 students in all. While
setting the 2018-19 tui-
tion last year, according
to White-Zollman, stu-
dents told the board they
were at the point of choos-
ing between their education
and basic needs. BMCC has
the highest tuition and fees
for the 17 community col-
leges in Oregon following a
12 percent increase over the
past two academic years.
Blue Mountain charges
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
BMCC Board of Education member Jane Hill testifies before
the Joint Committee on Ways and Means speaking about
community college funding levels on Friday at BMCC in
Pendleton.
$108 per credit for resi-
dents of Oregon and bor-
der states plus various class
fees. According to Oregon
community college data,
going to BMCC for the
2018-19 school year costs
$6,188, not including books
and supplies. The aver-
age annual in-state tuition
for community colleges is
$5,399 and out-of-state is
$10,058. The in-state aver-
age increased $227 from the
previous school year while
the out-of-state average
bumped up $64.
“The college has been
conservative in planning
and budgeting,” White-Zoll-
man said, but that has not
March 4-5-6, 2016 | Spokane Fair & Expo Center | Spokane, WA
March 22-23-24, 2019
20th Annual Spring
OVER 150 NORTHWEST ARTISANS
FINE ART | HAND CRAFT | SPECIALTY FOODS
TRAC Center
Pasco, WA
FREE PARKING
Admission $ 7
CusterShows.com
Friday
10 AM —8 PM
Saturday 10 AM —6 PM
Sunday 10 AM —4 PM
Kids 12 and under free!
509.924.0588
been enough to offset the
rising costs of employees,
complying with state and
federal unfunded mandates
and paying into Oregon’s
Public Employee Retire-
ment System. PERS in par-
ticular, she said, is going to
hit BMCC hard next year.
The state in the past pro-
vided approximately one-
third of the college’s oper-
ating costs, White-Zollman
explained, with another one-
third from tuition and one-
third from local taxes. Now,
BMCC receives 28 per-
cent from the state, 32 per-
cent from property taxes,
and 5 percent from other
resources. The largest chunk
— 35 percent — comes
from tuition, meaning stu-
dents shoulder most of the
costs.
The
state
allocated
$579 million for the 17
community colleges, but
White-Zollman said the
actual cost of running the
colleges is $647 million.
“That is what we need to
keep things as is,” she said.
Gov. Kate Brown’s bud-
get proposal cuts commu-
nity college funding to $543
million, while the Legis-
lature’s Ways and Means
Committee proposed $590.7
million for the colleges.
“BMCC and other com-
munity colleges are bud-
geting at the $590 million
mark,” she said.
And that’s a bit of a crap
shoot. The colleges have to
set their budgets in May,
while the Legislature does
not finish with the state’s
budget until July.
Based on the Legisla-
ture’s proposal, BMCC
faces a $1.8 million gap
between resources and
costs.
Rather than increase
prices, White-Zollman said,
the board chose to use $1.8
million in reserves and will
take the next year along
with incoming president
Dennis Bailey to restructure
how the college delivers
education at a cost students
can afford. The reserve fund
has enough to sustain the
college for a few years, she
said, but by 2022 that plan
would run into trouble.
“The board believes it’s
time for the state to ade-
quately
fund
commu-
nity college education,”
White-Zollman said.