A2 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
THREE MINUTES WITH …
JAKOB THOMAS
STEFANI
Nutrition Services Supervisor
at Good Shepherd
When and why did you move to Hermiston?
I moved to Hermiston after living in Seattle for
about a year in 2010. I grew up and went to high
school in Umatilla, so once I came back I decided to
move over to Hermiston.
Where is your favorite place to eat in
Hermiston?
El Ranchero. The staff are good people and the food
is consistently good. Get the adobada tacos!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’ve been making an effort to stay active, so I do a
lot of running, but I usually spend my spare time
being creative in some way. I like to make music, DJ,
and I’m currently learning Photoshop so I can try
out designing graphics for T-shirts.
What surprises you about Hermiston?
How easily people around here will choose to
believe a debunked YouTube video or conspiracy
theory over actual professionals.
What was the last book you read?
“The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath
What website or app do you use the most?
It’s a tie between Twitter and Instagram. I’m hope-
lessly addicted to both. Follow me? It’s
@t0mmydreamer on both
If you could travel anywhere, where would you
go?
Defi nitely Japan.
What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened
to you?
Once at a music festival in Seattle, one of my favor-
ite bands was playing and everyone was going abso-
lutely crazy for them. I went to dive off the stage to
crowd surf but everyone dispersed, and I crashed
into the fl oor. Luckily, my back broke my fall so it
wasn’t only the funniest thing to happen to me but
also the most painful!
What is one of your goals in the next 12 years?
To make some money off of one of my creative
endeavors
What is your proudest accomplishment?
I seem to be most proud of the events my friends and
I put on together. We’ve done some livestream DJ
sets and before COVID-19 we put on an Emo Night
at Union Club, and years before that we used to put
on hardcore and metal shows in my friend’s garage.
COMMUNITY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2020
HERMISTON HISTORY
HH fi le photo
Marselino Mateo, left, tosses a Walchli watermelon to Zenon Magaña during harvest in 1995.
Hermiston man injured in Vietnam
25 YEARS AGO
Aug. 1, 1995
Efforts to build a skateboarding
arena in McKenzie Park will resume
in earnest next month.
“We kind of put it on hold for the
summer,” said Michelle McKimmy,
because the 10 boys involved in the
project, including her son, Brandon
Reed, had other commitments.
Reed approached city build-
ing offi cial Hank McDonald with
the idea last spring. At McDonald’s
urging, Reed brought to the idea
to the Hermiston Parks and Recre-
ation Committee, which approved
the arena and pledged $5,000 in city
funds for the project.
McKimmy said materials alone
will run about $10,000. The boys
will be asking local businesses for
donations to build the arena, she
said.
50 YEARS AGO
July 30, 1970
The mother of a Hermiston youth
in Vietnam received the fi rst word
this week from her son that he was
injured in action, nearly 20 days
after the accident occurred.
Mrs. R.B. Blahm told the Hermis-
ton Herald Tuesday that her son, Pri-
vate First Class Danny Aiken, was
hospitalized at Cam Rahn Bay on
July 8 with severe burns on his hands
and face. She said neither the war
department nor the Red Cross had
informed her of her son’s condition.
The burns seared Aiken’s eyes
shut for about 10 days and he will
have to be taught how to use his
hands again, said Mrs. Blahm. She
said he has regained partial sight.
The incident, as related to Mrs.
Blahm by her son, was that he and
two other men were aboard a heli-
copter on a mission with another
helicopter escort. The ship Aiken
was in landed in a village called Duc
Pho, where a booby trap was thrown
aboard the helicopter, exploding on
impact. Her son said a captain riding
in the copter was killed and the pilot
received minor facial burns.
A 1967 graduate of Hermiston
High School, Aiken was a side door
gunner and crew chief aboard the
helicopter, and entered the Army in
November of last year. He has been
in Vietnam two months.
75 YEARS AGO
Aug. 2, 1945
L.E. DeBaun escaped with minor
burns on his right hand last Thursday
HH fi le photo
Angel Martinez, 10, bites into a juicy piece of watermelon in 1995.
evening when his car caught fi re and
burned while he was returning from
a business trip to Pendleton.
The blaze started in the wiring
on the instrument board and spread
very rapidly as he had no means of
extinguishing the blaze and neither
did the fi rst two cars to arrive on the
scene. DeBaun pulled the burning
wires from the car which caused the
only burns he suffered.
The car is a complete loss with
only the two front tires remaining for
salvage. DeBaun was alone on the
trip and reported it was the hottest,
fastest blaze he ever witnessed.
2) For the fi rst time during the 41
years since Echo was incorporated,
the special bond election Tuesday
resulted in a unanimous vote of the
electors. The proposition of issuing
$7,500 in bonds for drilling a deep
well for the municipal water system
was approved by 118 voters with-
out a negative ballot being cast.
100 YEARS AGO
July 30, 1920
J.B. Beebee, a farmer four miles
north of town, saw two tiny boys
trudging along the road Monday eve-
ning near his home and took them in
to question them. He found that they
were trying to walk to the Eastern
Oregon State Hospital to fi nd their
mother, who is confi ned there. Mr.
Beebee kept the children overnight
and delivered them to Mayor F.C.
McKenzie, who obtained the follow-
ing story:
Their names are Owen and Clyde
Ellinger, ages nine and six, and their
father, a real estate broker in Bend,
had given them money to come and
see their mother, who was in the hos-
pital in Pendleton, but was shortly to
be discharged and they intended to
go home with her.
They said that their father had
not given them the exact fare and
as he was not in the station when
the train pulled out, they had pur-
chased a ticket for the distance
that their funds would allow and
intended to strike out and walk
from that point.
Mr. McKenzie took them with
him to Pendleton, as he was going
there on business, and investigated
the case thoroughly with authorities
at the hospital.
He found that the boys’ mother
is in the asylum, but that their father
died about four months ago in Bend.
The children had been placed at
a home in Beaverton, and how they
had obtained money to get away to
see their mother has not yet been
found out.
BY THE WAY
Construction of Funland playground gets underway July 29
Construction of Hermiston’s new Funland Play-
ground at Butte Park will get underway Wednesday, July
29, with a groundbreaking ceremony at 12:30 p.m.
Due social distancing concerns, only a few people will
be allowed in the construction area during the ceremony,
but members of the public can watch from outside the
fence.
The groundbreaking ceremony team consists of Mayor
David Drotzmann, City Councilor Roy Barron, Char-
lie Clupny, Larry Fetter, Patricia Alder, Jayda Marti-
nez (age 9) and Jaysen Martinez (age 5).
The city hopes to complete the playground in October
and hold an opening celebration then. It is designed with
ages 5-12 in mind and will feature Wild West, Adventure
and Farming themed zones.
“Rebuilding Funland bigger and better than before is
possible because Hermiston is a resilient and can-do com-
munity that regularly puts its children fi rst,” Drotzmann
said in a statement.
“This playground will be a testament to the generos-
ity of our residents and their desire to see our youth have
a safe place to play.”
• • •
Podcast looks at historical jailbreak, murder
The East Oregonian is hosting a weeklong podcast
this week telling the story of the murder of Umatilla
County Sheriff Til Taylor during a jailbreak, and the
manhunt that followed his untimely death.
This week is the 100-year anniversary of his death on
July 27, 1920.
The podcast, with new episodes released daily in con-
cert with the anniversaries of the events described, is
available on www.eastoregonian.com/multimedia/pod-
casts or on Apple podcasts or Stitcher.
• • •
Fire danger leads to safety restrictions
With hot, dry weather increasing fi re danger in East-
ern Oregon, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
has implemented Phase A of the public use restrictions to
limit the chance of human-caused wildfi re ignitions.
These restrictions, which focus on smoking, off-road
travel and chain saw use, went into effect Friday, July 24,
at 12:01 a.m. and will remain in place until further notice.
Visitors to the forest are asked to restrict activities
that could cause a fi re, and to be very careful with camp-
fi res, which should be confi ned to a fi re pit, attended at all
times and completely extinguished when campers leave.
For more information, visit www.fs.usda.gov/
wallowa-whitman.
• • •
Senior meals include enchiladas
The Harkenrider Senior Activity Center contin-
ues to provide takeout and delivery meals to senior cit-
izens in the community. The menu for Thursday, July 30
is chicken enchiladas, rice and beans.
For a Meals on Wheels delivery, call 541-567-3582
before 10 a.m. to place an order. To pick up a meal from
the center at 255 Northeast Second St., call the same
number before 11 a.m. Meals are $4 and can be picked up
between noon and 12:50 p.m.