OFF PAGE ONE
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022
Exam:
Continued from Page A1
Inc. and other health care
providers.
Chase said she is
excited about this work.
An 18-year-old senior,
Chase said she plans on get-
ting into the medical field
by first becoming a medi-
cal assistant. Then she will
go to college and medical
school, she said.
Sivey was instrumen-
tal in making these plans,
Chase said, as she learned
about phlebotomy from
the teacher. Sivey created
the opportunity to take the
phlebotomy exam, and it
worked out for Chase. The
120-question exam has a
two hour time lime. She said
she passed the exam in about
30 minutes.
Adding to her excite-
ment, she said, is that mem-
bers of her family are avid
blood donors. Her grand-
mother and father, in par-
ticular, donate blood. Also,
they have long communi-
cated to her the importance
of donating blood, Chase
said.
By doing blood work, she
said she hopes to make up
for not being able to donate
blood, herself. She said she
has a hemoglobin deficiency
that keeps her from being a
donor.
Also, she has heard of
Brazeau:
Continued from Page A1
memorial service, which
was Jan. 22 in Salem. Dorran
said he considered Brazeau
a “really good friend.”
Dorran said the memo-
rial service was heart-felt.
Several people were there,
he said, and they spoke of
their disappointment about
the man’s death. Based upon
the outpouring of emotion
from funeral attendees, Dor-
ran said it was obvious how
people felt about the former
principal: They loved him,
Dorran said.
The two worked together
on several projects, Dorran
said. In addition, Brazeau
was principal when Dor-
ran’s children were students
at the high school. They also
attended church together, he
said. As such, their families
got to know each other well.
“If you knew Buzz, you
had a friend,” Dorran said.
“You always came away
from him a little smarter,
a little kinder, with a little
different view of the world
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston High School senior Marcos Preciado, 17, disposes of a vial of blood Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, after drawing it from
instructor Janci Sivey during an internship class at the high school. Preciado and three other members of the class recently
passed the national phlebotomy certification exam.
a national blood shortage.
Through phlebotomy work,
she hopes to help with that,
something also commu-
nicated by her classmate,
Preciado.
Preciado, a 17-year-old
senior, said he was thrilled
about having passed his test.
“I crammed a lot. I’m not
going to lie,” he said. “Two
days before, I was going
through flash cards all the
time after school. It was
hard, but worth it.”
Passing this exam helps
him with a career he thinks
he will like, he said. A
self-described “hands-on”
person, Preciado said he
enjoys medicine because it
involves working with peo-
ple and doing things that are
right in front of him.
Also, he has family
with health problems. His
father and grandmother are
“HE WAS A BIG,
OLD TEDDY
BEAR. “THAT
IS, UNTIL YOU
GOT HIM FIRED
UP. THEN HE’D
TURN INTO A
GRIZZLY BEAR.”
Tom Spoo, principal, Hermiston
High School
after every conversation
with him.”
He was an intellectual
as well as a bigger-than-life
personality, Dorran said.
Over at Hermiston High
School, Principal Tom Spoo
expressed many of the same
feelings and insights. He
worked in the school dis-
trict alongside Brazeau and
described him as as a smart
and powerful individual.
Spoo said he was an agri-
cultural science teacher at
the school when Brazeau
began working as the assis-
tant principal. When Brazeau
became principal, Spoo took
Hermiston Herald, File/East Oregonian
Former Hermiston Principal Buzz Brazeau gives a hug to senior quarterback Faafiaula Ena
after the Bulldogs on Nov. 7, 2009, held on to beat Pendleton on its home field. Brazeau died
Jan. 12, 2022. He was 72.
the job as assistant principal.
The pair worked together for
four years before Spoo left
to be principal of Armand
Larive Middle School.
As co-workers, they
spoke daily and constantly,
Spoo said. Both morning
people, the pair frequently
met early in the day. Still
at work into the evening on
some days, they had multi-
ple conversations through-
out work hours.
Spoo said they did not
always agree with one
another, but he always felt
impressed with Brazeau.
New law expunges juvenile arrest records
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
A new law passed in
the 2021 legislative ses-
sion in Oregon is now tak-
ing effect, and will auto-
matically expunge juvenile
arrest records of everyone
who turns 18.
Senate Bill 575, other-
wise known as the Youth
Expunction Reform Act,
saw wide support in the
House, passing 54-1. It also
passed the Senate, 26-3, and
went into effect Sept. 25,
2021.
Under this new law,
notices will be sent to teen-
agers who have records
with the juvenile depart-
ment on their 18th birth-
day, notifying them of the
expunction. The new law
does not affect convictions,
only arrest records and
other records relating to a
juvenile’s arrest.
Nor is the law retroactive
— anyone who is already
18 or older will have to file
a request with the juvenile
department through exist-
ing application processes
for expungement in order to
have their record cleared.
“Choices have conse-
quences. Lord knows I
made (mistakes) when I was
a kid that had some pretty
negative
consequences,”
said Union County Sheriff
Cody Bowen. “But I don’t
think they should be held
over a kid’s head. Once they
among loved ones who have
received life-saving care.
Preciado said he wants to
give back to the health care
field that has given his fam-
ily so much.
“I have a need to help
people in this field,” he said,
adding he will go to college
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
An Oregon State Trooper’s signature hat sits in the cabin of
an OSP service vehicle on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. A new
law passed in the 2021 legislative session will automatically
expunge juvenile arrest records of everyone who turns 18.
learn from their mistake and
pay for the consequences,
if they turn 18 and it goes
away, I’m all for that.”
Bowen spoke from expe-
rience — in his youth, he
was cited for disorderly
conduct. A framed record of
that 1993 citation hangs in
his office as a reminder that
people can change course in
life.
He said that most juve-
nile criminal cases can be
addressed through educa-
tion, structure and conse-
quence at the home. If the
home life of a juvenile does
not provide those elements,
then the juvenile depart-
ment can provide them, he
said. Bowen noted that in
some serious crimes, like
ones that victimize a person,
should stick for a consider-
able amount of time, if not
life in certain circumstances.
The new law does
not affect records relat-
ing to serious crimes such
as assault, manslaugh-
ter and other sexual or vio-
lent crimes. It also does
not affect education tran-
scripts or medical records
not related to insanity pleas.
Those records will remain
with the juvenile depart-
ment and are exempt from
expungement.
Under the new law, peo-
ple with prior arrest records
that are expunged will be
able to say that the arrest
never happened without
having to file paperwork
with the juvenile depart-
ment. However, they will
still have records for any
federal-level arrests, which
operate on a different
system.
That
distinction
is
important for individuals
in the system if they seek
out careers with exhaustive
background checks, such as
public service, military, or
security clearance investi-
gations. They may also face
challenges when filling out
a rental application.
“I think it’s great for kids
to be able to do this because
a lot of them grow up and
forget the original records,”
said Digna Moreno, Uma-
tilla County Juvenile Divi-
sion Supervisor. “And so
I think it’s great that we’re
able to do this for them.
Some of them want to enlist
in the service and some-
times their records may get
in the way.”
So with it being auto-
matic, it helps the process.”
Moreno said that the
new law will increases the
amount of work for her
department, but that it won’t
be a bother.
“It’s a little bit more
time consuming, but I think
it’s also great for the kids
when they come into our
system when they see they
have this opportunity for
the record to be destroyed
at the age of 18,” Moreno
said. “It gives them a huge
carrot to work toward com-
pleting their conditions of
supervision, being success-
ful and staying out of legal
trouble.”
The
former
principal,
according to Spoo, always
put students first.
He credited Spoo for an
excellent and impressive
attitude toward students.
Spoo also holds young peo-
ple in high regard, just like
his old boss, he said. Still,
Digester:
Continued from Page A1
manure, which is recycled
as animal bedding. The vio-
lations occurred from June
2019 to September 2020, for
which the farm was fined
$19,500.
Tyler Lobdell, staff
attorney at Food & Water
Watch, said companies
that participate in the
LCFS must comply with
all environmental laws.
Even as CARB was
reviewing Threemile Can-
yon’s LCFS application,
Lobdell said the farm was
using excess natural gas.
“Under these circum-
stances, CARB should
have
never
granted
Threemile’s LCFS appli-
cation,” he said. “But the
agency has the opportu-
nity and obligation to cor-
rect that error now.”
Jennifer Maleitzke, a
spokeswoman for R.D.
Offutt, said Threemile
Canyon takes environmen-
tal compliance seriously
and corrected the situation
immediately after being
notified by DEQ in Octo-
ber 2020. The farm has
paid the fine, she said.
Maleitzke said the com-
plaint filed by Food &
Water Watch ignores the
fact that Threemile Can-
yon is turning a waste
product into renewable
energy. Renewable natu-
ral gas is considered car-
bon neutral and is fully
compatible
with
the
after high school.
Also excited about her
own future in this field,
Vertrees said she has been
enjoying Sivey’s class. As
part of her studies, she has
done an internship at Inter-
path. At this workplace, she
said, she got to watch pro-
fessionals in the field. She
said she also got to practice
drawing blood, processing
samples and more.
An 18-year-old senior,
Vertrees said this work has
prepared her for anything
she should want to do in
medicine.
“I thought that this would
get my foot in the door,” she
said.
Following high school,
she said she wants to go to
Blue Mountain Community
College, transfer to a univer-
sity, earn a bachelor’s degree
in biology and then go to
medical school.
She said she wants to
become a doctor, which she
said is attainable because
of her “good study tech-
niques” and time-manage-
ment skills. According to
Vertrees, she feels prepared
for her future. In the mean-
time, however, she has more
immediate plans for her
phlebotomy certificate once
she receives it in the mail.
“I’m going to frame it,”
she said.
Her classmates said they
would do likewise with their
own certificates.
Brazeau had a special way
about him that made him
different, he said.
“He was a big, old teddy
bear,” Spoo said. “That is,
until you got him fired up.
Then he’d turn into a griz-
zly bear.”
Spoo said the old bear
would get very excitable
while watching his school’s
teams play sports. At games,
Spoo recalled, Brazeau
would lead fans in cheers,
which endeared him to the
students.
“I think a lot of kids saw
him as a grandfather, in
some regards,” Spoo said.
As for Spoo, he said he
saw Brazeau as both a men-
tor and a friend.
The commissioner and
the principal said they
are not alone in miss-
ing Brazeau. His impact
was felt by a generation
of people not only through
the high school but also
through Brazeau’s com-
munity service. He served
on boards for the Uma-
tilla County Fair and the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center.
existing gas distribution
infrastructure.
“We are proud to pro-
vide RNG as an alterna-
tive fuel for transportation
vehicles and contribute to
carbon reduction goals,”
Maleitzke said. “The path
of innovation isn’t per-
fect but it is necessary if
we are to continue to meet
the nutritional needs of
our population as well as
ensure the long-term sus-
tainability of our planet.”
Stanley Young, com-
munications director for
CARB, said the agency
is looking into the mat-
ter and will do its own
fact-finding before taking
any action.
At stake is a poten-
tially valuable revenue
stream for large dairies
such as Threemile Can-
yon. The USDA Economic
Research Service wrote in
2011 that, even with mod-
erate carbon offset prices,
the sale of credits could
substantially
increase
revenue for farms with
digesters.
For example, a dairy
with at least 2,500 ani-
mals could generate $419
million in revenue over
15 years with credits val-
ued at $13 per ton of car-
bon. That is about 46%
of the total value of dairy
digesters.
At $13 per ton, it
would not be profitable
for dairies with fewer
than 250 head to adopt a
digester, the researchers
determined.