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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 2019)
HERMISTON LOOKS FOR WIN AGAINST WALLA WALLA | PAGE A10 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 INSIDE ELECTIONS Dan Dorran of Hermiston is the fi rst to throw his hat in the ring for the 2020 Umatilla County Board of Commissioners race. PAGE A3 HermistonHerald.com $1.50 Farewell to a watermelon king Skip Walchli is remembered as a generous, hard-working pioneer of Hermiston BY JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR POWER UP C linton Patrick “Skip” Walchli was a hum- ble man, but his water- melons spoke for themselves. Walchli, who died at his Herm- iston home on Friday at the age of 80, started growing watermelons after taking out a bank loan to start his own farm at the age of 17. Over the next 63 years his famously sweet, juicy watermelons helped put Hermiston on the map. His family says the last week of his life he was still involved in running the farm, asking his sons for details about what was going on in the fi eld. “He retired last Friday,” said Curtis Pederson, Walchli’s his son- in-law. “He wasn’t going to quit.” Walchli and his wife, Sherry, raised seven children at their home on Loop Road, behind the sheds where Hermiston residents fl ock to buy watermelons fresh off the vine each summer. There was also always a steady fl ow of people coming to visit with Walchli. His daughter, Sherie Britt, described her dad as a “magnet” who loved to be surrounded by friends and family. “The night he passed, probably 100 people came through to see him,” she said. He was a smart business owner whose conservative spending kept the farm afl oat through hard economic times, Britt said. He expanded his crops over the years to include everything from peppers to asparagus, and his world-fa- mous watermelons are sold across the country. “He never did learn to use a computer,” she said. “He ran his farm in his head.” Pederson said his father-in- law had a bit of a gruff exterior but once people got past that he was extremely generous. He qui- etly supplied free watermelons to a long list of events, from church picnics to service club fundraisers, throughout his life. “He would give them a rough fi ve minutes, make them sweat, then give them twice or three times what they asked for,” he said. Bob Walchli said he never saw his dad say no when asked to help someone. The Walchli kids learned the value of hard work on the farm, but Skip also doted on his chil- dren, pretending to grumble when they picked up expensive hobbies like barrel racing but always track- ing their progress with pride. He frequently took a truckful Hermiston’s electric utilities try new strategies for reducing power outages. PAGE A14 SWIMMING Hermiston School District second graders got free swimming lessons last week. PAGE A15 BY THE WAY More road construction Hermiston Avenue is back open after a month of closure, but work has begun on a new city street project. Beginning next week and continuing through Oct. 11, crews will be working to resurface West Highland Avenue between Southwest 11th Street and Southwest 15th Place, and West Harper Road between Highway 395 and Northwest Geer Road. Drivers can expect tempo- rary closures during the three-week process. • • • The Good Shepherd Women’s Clinic has hired a second midwife. Cynthia Rice, a certi- fi ed nurse midwife, comes to Hermiston from Geor- gia. She has seven years of experience as a registered nurse and a master of sci- ence in nurse-midwifery from Frontier Nurs- ing University in Hyden, Kentucky. She said in a news release that she was inspired to become a midwife after a midwife helped her through the birth of her second and third children after a “very traumatic” birth experi- ence with her fi rst child. She said she is excited to work with the team Contributed photo by the Walchli family Top: Skip Walchli in his younger years. Bottom: Walchli See BTW, Page A2 See FAREWELL, Page A16 District sees little variation in test scores By JESSICA POLLARD STAFF WRITER T 8 08805 93294 2 he Oregon Department of Education released results of Smarter Balanced test scores from the 2018-2019 year, and state- wide, less than half of all students are up to par when it comes to math profi ciency at their grade level and almost 60% demonstrate pro- fi ciency when it comes to reading and writing. Scores show 53.4% of Oregon students were profi cient in English language arts this year, by Smarter Balanced standards, a 1.5% drop from a year ago, and they’re 39.4% profi cient in math, one point lower than last year. Students are tested in grades three through eight, and as high school juniors. The department of education says the results pro- vide a snapshot of student progress. But ODE notes that this is just one assessment and should be taken in context with other data points. “It shouldn’t be the only thing we’re looking at,” ODE Direc- tor Colt Gill told Oregon Public Broadcasting. This year, the results hold a little more weight than usual. State offi - cials expect the data to help districts fi gure out how to spend some of the money from the new business tax for schools, called the Student Suc- cess Act. With the exception of a few ups and downs, Umatilla County’s big- gest districts seem to be maintaining See TEST, Page A16 HH fi le photo Instructor Kendra Scott asks her students to name things they are thankful for during class in November 2018 at Rocky Heights Elementary School in Hermiston.
