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PAGE A4
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019
HermistonHerald.com
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INSIDE
LOWER TAXES
Hermiston School District
expects school bond prop-
erty taxes to go down by
about 40 cents per $1,000
of assessed valued after
paying off all its pre-2008
bonds.
PAGE A3
PERFECT SCORE
Hermiston’s Case Hiatt hits
100 of 100 targets at state
trap shooting tournament.
PAGE A7
BED BUILD
Church partners with Sleep
in Heavenly Peace to build
30 beds for area children
without a place to sleep.
PAGE A11
BY THE WAY
Burn ban in
effect
Umatilla
County’s
annual non-agricultural
burn ban went into effect
Monday.
According to a county
press release, the burn ban
applies to all unincorpo-
rated areas of Umatilla
County, excluding land
owned by the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation,
the state of Oregon, and
the federal government.
Prohibited
activities
include burn barrels, yard
and garden debris piles,
and small scale residential
burning.
Agricultural
burn-
ing is still allowed, but
smoke management per-
mit holders are required to
check for burn day status
by calling 541-278-6397
or by visiting the Uma-
tilla County website or its
smoke management Face-
book page.
• • •
Phone lines were down
for four days at Two Riv-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Firefi ghters attempt to contain a fi re burning in a residence on Northwest 13th Street in 2017 in Hermiston. Fireworks were the suspected cause.w
Fireworks can spark property
damage, injuries
By JADE MCDOWELL AND
JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITERS
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Fireworks line tables at the Black Cat fi reworks stand in the Fiesta
Foods parking lot in Hermiston.
See BTW, Page A2
‘Tis the season for burnt fi n-
gers and grass fi res.
Fireworks on the Fourth of
July have been an American tra-
dition since July 4, 1777 when
rebellious Colonists still at war
with Great Britain used them
to commemorate the one-year
anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence. The tradition
calls for some caution, however.
While many fi reworks acci-
dents end with only minor dam-
age, there have been tragedies
in the region. Two years ago a
pair of families in Hermiston
lost their home after a duplex
on Northeast 13th Street burned
down in a grass fi re that wit-
nesses said was likely started
by children who had been play-
ing with fi reworks nearby. And
in 2015 a 25-year-old Pendleton
man lost his life in an explosion
believed to be caused by home-
made fi reworks.
Lesley Phillips, who sells
Black Cat fi reworks out of a big
white tent in the Fiesta Foods
parking lot each summer, said
she tries to educate customers
about ways to keep their celebra-
tion from turning into a 911 call.
“Safety is a very big key,” she
said.
She recommends that peo-
ple use a hollow concrete block
to stabilize fountain-type fi re-
works and keep them from blow-
ing over the the wind. She also
See DANGER, Page A12
Banner illustration: Vecteezy.com
Friends of Oxbow help keep restoration area clean and safe
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
I
8
08805 93294
2
n her years caring for the Oxbow area,
Eileen Laramore has seen a thing or two.
The diminutive 69-year-old is a fi erce
protector of the 222-acre Bureau of Recla-
mation property along the Umatilla River in
Hermiston. She and a handful of other vol-
unteers she has christened Friends of Oxbow
are out each week battling invasive weeds,
assisting in restoration projects and keeping
the habitat free from garbage.
“One time I found a pair of black stiletto
heels,” she said. “They were gorgeous. They
were stunning. But how did they get there?”
Last summer the amount of man-made
trash spiked after a sudden proliferation of
homeless camps and criminal activity in the
maze of thick brush and trees.
“Last year we had nothing but trouble
here,” she said. “This year we’ve only had
two camps so far.”
Laramore said the Bureau of Reclamation
was able to curb the problems eventually
by being proactive, including cutting down
swaths of trees through the biggest prob-
lem area to increase visibility. There were no
active homeless camps visible as she hiked
through the property Wednesday morning,
but she pointed out former living spaces as
she went.
There was the “bicycle chop shop” where
police and volunteers pulled out a collection
of stolen bicycles, the “party camp” where
she found people singing around an illegal
campfi re, and the “hole-in-the-ground camp”
where someone dug a 10-foot hole and cov-
ered it with tin sheets.
One woman kept a mattress in a grove of
trees that Laramore suspected might be used
for prostitution. Then there was the “Taj
See OXBOW, Page A12
Staff photo by Benjamin Lonergan
Eileen Laramore leads a group of activists who clean up the
Oxbow area. Laramore has been involved in cleaning up
homeless camps and damage in the area since 2013.