VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES PAY TRIBUTE ON MEMORIAL DAY, PAGES A3, A13
HermistonHerald.com
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2019
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INSIDE
A pattern of love
CAREER CAMP
Hermiston students
preparing for a career in
health care were chosen
for this year’s MedQuest
Health Career Exploration
Camp.
PAGE A4
POWER PRO
Local electrical contractors
are having a hard time
competing with Amazon
for electricians.
PAGE A6
GOLDEN GIRL
Jazlyn Romero takes home
Hermiston’s fi rst individual
state title in the WIAA.
PAGE A8
BY THE WAY
Turnout for last week’s
elections was only 14% in
Umatilla County, falling
below the state’s turnout
of 21%.
Voters may have felt
uninspired by the lack
of contested races. The
Hermiston ballot had a
single contested race —
Umatilla County Fire
District board member
Spike Piersol beat chal-
lenger Sebastian Sanchez
by 74%.
Hermiston
School
District’s board all kept
their seats after running
unopposed.
Stanfi eld School Dis-
trict also passed their new
bond (for more informa-
tion see A7).
• • •
This week wraps up our
spotlight of Hermiston
High School for the month
of May. For information
about what HHS students
have been up to lately, see
A4, A8 and A9.
Next week will be a
busy one for the high
school as they prepare to
celebrate graduation with
a commencement cere-
mony on Thursday, June
6 at 7 p.m. at the Toyota
Center in the Tri-Cities.
June’s spotlight school
will be Rocky Heights
Elementary School, so
watch for information and
stories about the school
and its staff.
See BTW, Page A2
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
ABOVE: Shawn Lockwood, left, and Erin Chowning, center, made a quilt for Chowning’s grandson Cole Smith, right, for graduation using his old basketball
T-shirts. BELOW: Hermiston’s Cole Smith drives to the hoop during a 2019 District 8 3A playoff game against Shadle Park in Kennewick.
Graduation quilt pieces together
memories of basketball career
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Cole Smith’s graduation present tells a
story.
Each square of the king-sized quilt made
by his grandmother is made of a different
T-shirt or jersey from a different basketball
tournament or team.
A black square with the Las Vegas logo
represents a trip in fourth grade to a tourna-
ment in Sin City. Purple squares show off dif-
ferent Bulldogs mottos throughout the years.
A blue square reads “Best of the West” — a
hometown tournament, and one of Smith’s
favorites.
Now instead of a box of old, too-small
T-shirts he has an easy way to take those
memories with him wherever he heads off to
next.
“I liked the idea,” he said. “I thought it
would be good to look back on.”
The quilt was his mom Cheri Smith’s idea.
She got his grandmother Erin Chowning to
do the sewing, and Chowning enlisted the
help of longtime friend Shawn Lockwood to
See QUILT, Page A14
Flag illustration by Vecteezy.com
Families feel the impact after Union Pacifi c layoffs
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
8
08805 93294
2
Saturday was a tough day for the
Hinkle Rail Yard.
It was the last day for many of the
195 employees laid off last week as
Union Pacifi c Railroad slashed jobs
down to a skeleton crew at the rail
yard.
Stories fl ooded social media of
how the layoffs were hitting home
— employees of 10, 15, 20 years
who planned to retire with Union
Pacifi c were now facing an uncer-
tain future.
On Thursday, Guy Haight was
preparing for his last day. He said he
found out about the layoffs online
last week on his day off before he
was notifi ed by the company. He had
hung on through scores of previous
layoffs over the past six months, but
thought he would be safe with 19
years of seniority.
“We didn’t think it would go this
far,” he said. “We didn’t think they
would actually shut down the shop.”
His wife Susan Haight said there
wasn’t much work for a 56-year-old
machinist in the area, and they were
worried about what would come
next.
“We have a mortgage and kids at
home,” she said.
Guy said he joined UP 19 years
ago because it seemed like a great
place to earn a steady paycheck and
good retirement. It was a great place
to work, he said, until recently, when
increasingly steep layoffs depressed
morale at the yard and made work
“chaotic.”
Oregon’s two senators in Con-
See LAYOFFS, Page A14
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A string of rail cars sits on a rail line west of the Hinkle Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Union Pacifi c fi led notice with the state that it will lay off up to 195 employees
at the rail yard near Hermiston.