Reward increased in depot threats

This story was published Fri, Mar 17, 2000

By Terry Hudson
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - The reward fund for the arrest and conviction of whoever has been calling in bomb threats to the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility construction site has been doubled.

Valley Electric Co., an electrical subcontractor for Raytheon Demilitarization Co., and The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 112 have each contributed $5,000 to the reward being offered after five recent bomb threats at the chemical munitions disposal plant construction site.

That brings the reward up to $20,000.

Raytheon first offered a $10,000 reward following the latest bomb threat on Wednesday.

Raytheon project manager Jay Bluestein said the additions to the reward show people working at the site are united in wanting the threats to end.

"We all share the frustration in being kept from doing our job - building a plant to dispose of the Umatilla stockpile," he said. "The reward, hopefully, will help generate the kind of information that will result in closing this matter."

Ed Cohen, contracts manager for Valley Electric, said the entire team building the facility is frustrated by the disruptions and the missed work.

"It's the men and women who are working here and their families who are really suffering," Cohen said in a prepared statement. "Most of these people are local, so the local economy will be affected."

 

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