REGION
TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2022
Former L.A. fi re commissioner seeks
ouster of Pilot Rock fi re district captain
THE OBSERVER — A3
Drazan rolls governor
campaign into Heppner
size-fi ts-all” approach in
Oregon government. Some
rules and expectations that
HEPPNER — Chris-
might be workable and
tine Drazan rolled her
culturally aligned in the
more metro and suburban
campaign to become Ore-
gon’s fi rst Republican gov- parts of our state instead
ernor in 40 years into Hep- aff ect the ability of rural
Oregonians to support
pner on Wednesday, Aug.
17, for an ice cream social. their families and lives.
To get to Mahonia Hall,
The event at the Chris-
Drazan has to defeat Dem-
tian Life Center drew sev-
ocrat Tina Kotek, who
eral dozen people and
served as the speaker of
some public offi cials,
including Morrow County the Oregon House 2013-
22, and Betsy Johnson,
Sheriff Ken Matlack and
a longtime Democratic
fellow Republicans state
Oregon legislator now
Reps. Greg Smith, Hep-
running an unaffi liated
pner, and Bobby Levy,
campaign.
Echo.
As part of her cam-
“Getting involved in
paign’s “Roadmap for Ore-
public service in the fi rst
gon’s Future,” a six-page
place for me was about
list of issues and
service,” Drazan
proposed solutions
told the East Orego-
she would imple-
nian. “It was really
ment as governor,
about the oppor-
Drazan described
tunity to make a
a series of “polit-
diff erence and be
ical agendas and
eff ective. What I
Drazan
bureaucratic hur-
learned as a leg-
dles” that interfere
islator was that
with Oregon’s agricultural
my opportunity to really
change outcomes, which is community.
“Sometimes we’re
really what defi nes eff ec-
tiveness for me, was really talking about banning the
equipment that they use
limited.”
in the fi elds, like diesel
Drazan, 50, served in
the Oregon House of Rep- bans,” she said.
Drazan has also been
resentatives 2019-22 for
District 39, which includes vocal about her sup-
port for changing Ore-
parts of Clackamas
gon’s education system,
County. She also was
minority leader until 2021, citing a low overall high
school graduation rate
when she left the state
House to run for governor. (80.6%) as a mandate for
change. According to Dra-
“As Republican leader,
zan’s “Roadmap,” this
my caucus members pro-
includes focusing on aca-
posed a hundred amend-
demic accountability and
ments to various pieces of
legislation, and repeatedly “keeping politics out of the
classroom.” She said grad-
it was on party line vote,
uation requirements that
rejected,” she said.
were rolled back during
With Democrats
the pandemic should be
holding a supermajority
reinstated.
in the Legislature, she
“I believe that those
said, Republicans have
few tools to stop proposals were positive, not negative
for our kiddos, and that
they opposed. It became
our expectations should
clear, she explained, there
be higher, not lower,” she
was not going to be an
said.
opportunity for her as a
And students who are
Republican legislator in
members of minorities
Oregon to work on big
already face numerous
issues. But the governor’s
cultural and social chal-
offi ce off ers just that.
lenges, she said, and while
“The governor’s
there have been leaders
role is so critical and so
focused on addressing
important to provide bal-
some of the social and
ance and accountability,”
emotional dynamics
Drazan said. “In single
within schools, they failed
party control, if you’re in
a state with only one party to actually help those stu-
dents obtain an education.
everywhere you look, you
Drazan campaigned all
really don’t have the kind
week in Eastern Oregon,
of accountability that I
including stops at Burns,
think Oregonians want
Ontario, Baker City, John
right now.”
She criticized the “one- Day and Fossil.
By DAKOTA CASTETS-DIDIER
East Oregonian
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PILOT ROCK — A
former Los Angeles Fire
Board commissioner is
calling out the Pilot Rock
Rural Fire Protection Dis-
trict for allowing a man
with criminal convictions to
stay in its ranks.
Rebecca Ninburg also
stated Herschel Rostov, the
district’s new fi re chief, is
on administrative leave due
to an ongoing sexual harass-
ment investigation.
Ninburg sent an email
Wednesday, Aug. 17, to
local fi re offi cials and news
outlets that addressed Jim
Critchley, chief of Pend-
leton Fire and Ambu-
lance Department, and Tim
Weinke, president of the
Pilot Rock Rural Fire Pro-
tection District Board of
Directors.
“I’m writing because
I’m deeply concerned that
Fire Capt. Brian Hemphill
is continuing to work for
Pilot Rock Fire Protec-
tion District,” she stated.
“You are both aware that
Capt. Hemphill has felony
and misdemeanor charges,
including assault and stran-
gulation, DUI, and stealing
medication from Pendleton
Fire Department.”
State court records show
Hemphill pleaded guilty
to 2013 charges of stran-
gulation and fourth-de-
gree assault, pleaded guilty
in September 2015 to
fourth-degree assault and in
January 2016 pleaded guilty
to driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants. All the
charges were misdemeanors
East Oregonian, File
Pilot Rock Fire Chief Herschel Rostov discusses the station’s air tank refi ll procedure Nov. 18, 2021, during a
training at the fi re station in Pilot Rock. Rostov has been on administrative leave since at lease July 2, 2022.
and the cases were in Uma-
tilla County. Records also
show Hemphill completed
probation in each case.
Nothing in the state court
records verifi ed Ninburg’s
theft assertion.
Critchley said Pendleton
Fire has had an agreement
with Pilot Rock Fire to pro-
vide administrative support
since July 1, while Rostov
went on administrative
leave.
“The agreement is
open-ended,” Critchley
said. “We’re good neigh-
bors. We’ve been part of
the investigation and want
to help them until their per-
sonnel issues have settled
down.”
Ninburg provided no
information to back up the
sexual harassment claim.
Critchley said he could
not provide informa-
tion about Hemphill’s ser-
vice and record because
the matter is under
investigation.
Weinke did not reply to
a phone message and an
email requesting his com-
ments on the situation. Pilot
Rock Fire Capt. Craig Beers
also did not respond to a
message left on the station
phone.
Ninburg also noted
Hemphill is listed as inac-
tive with the Oregon
Department of Public
Safety Standards and
Training.
“It is not only irrespon-
sible, but it’s gross negli-
gence on your part to over-
look these violations and
egregious acts and allow
him to continue to work for
the (Pilot Rock Rural Fire
Protection District),” she
asserted, and keeping him
on violates the district’s pol-
icies and procedures.
Ninburg charged that
members of the community
have been denied the oppor-
tunity to work as a volun-
teer for Pilot Rock Fire for
lesser charges than those on
Hemphill’s legal record.
Besides her service
on the Los Angeles fi re
commission, Ninburg
co-founded the LA Derby
Dolls, a volunteer-run
Roller Derby league team,
and the Good Deed Corps,
a nonpartisan, nonprofi t
“committed to building a
strong, engaged civil society
that embodies a diversity of
voice and perspective.”
Convoy of military vehicles to stop in Baker City
going up over hills. These
McCluskey said people
old military vehicles are
usually show their support
defi nitely not doing 60
when they see the convoy.
privately owned by the
miles per hour going over
“Along the way, we’ll
people participating in the
the grades.”
have people out at the end
convoy, who are all MVPA
Three units make up
of their driveways, waving
members.
the convoy during travel:
fl ags, waiting for the
Founded in 1976,
The “heavies,” 1.5- through convoy to go by,” he said.
MVPA is a nonprofi t with
5-ton vehicles, lead the
The convoy will leave
more than 100 affi liates
charge, followed by 3/4-ton
the Baker County Fair-
worldwide “dedicated to
Dodge cargo trucks, fol-
grounds at 7 a.m. Aug. 25
providing an international
lowed by the jeep unit.
and stop in Oxbow, at the
organization for military
McCluskey said they
Oregon/Idaho border, for
vehicle enthusiasts, his-
travel anywhere from 85 to
lunch. It will then head
torians, preservationists
170 miles per day.
north for an afternoon dis-
and collectors interested
This 1,600-mile trip
play in Joseph and spend
in the acquisition, resto-
isn’t the longest McClusky
the night at the Eagle Cap
ration, preservation, safe
and the MVPA have com-
Shooters Association in
operation and public edu-
pleted. They traveled the
Enterprise.
cation of historic military
Lincoln military highway,
transport,” according to its which spans from Wash-
mission.
ington, D.C., to San Fran-
McCluskey estimated
cisco, in 2009, and com-
that about 30%, and maybe
pleted the Bankhead Route
more, of the participants in
from D.C. to Seattle in
this year’s convoy are mili-
2015. They also drove from
10304 A 1st St.
tary veterans.
Seattle to Plymouth Rock
When the convoy
last
year.
Island City, OR
1x1EOMediaFiller - Page 1 - Composite
reaches Baker City it will
be the 11th day of a 15-day,
cstewartpc@gmail.com
1,600-mile historical loop
taking the convoy through
Idaho, Washington and
Pay cash or
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Parts of the loop overlap
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with a longer, 6,350-mile
highway the National
Parks Service established
in 1924 — the National
Park-to-Park Highway —
that encompasses all the
national parks in the 11
western states.
Occasionally, McClusky
said, members from MVPA
affi liations along the route
Before earning her medical degree, Dr. Epperson devoted
join in for segments of the
more than 20 years to working as a sign language interpreter.
journey. MVPA has affi liate
clubs in Woodland, Wash-
Working with the deaf community to help address their unique
ington, and in Wilsonville.
mental health needs is a professional passion of hers.
McClusky said the vehi-
cles — from World War
Another professional focus is nutritional psychiatry,
II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert
Storm and current eras —
and teaching people how strongly diet and lifestyle
can’t travel faster than 35
miles per hour.
influence mental health.
“That’s our max speed,”
he said. “A lot of times it’s
Dr. Epperson’s broad list of personal interests include hiking,
a lot less because we are
Trip will continue on to Wallowa County
By CLAYTON FRANKE
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Dan
McCluskey is heading
for Baker City in his
three-quarter-ton Viet-
nam-era M37 cargo truck.
But his rig — along with
the 32 other military vehi-
cles he’s traveling with —
won’t be delivering any
cargo.
Instead, McCluskey
describes the convoy as a
moving museum.
“Our goal is to show
everybody how the military
used their vehicles. They
see military vehicles in
museums on static display,
but we’re out there to show
them how they used them
in motion,” McCluskey
said. “We’re putting hun-
dreds of miles on them,
day in, day out. This is how
they moved them in convoy
order.”
McCluskey, a member of
the Military Vehicle Pres-
ervation Association, is the
convoy commander for the
2022 MVPA Northwest
Parks Motor Convoy, which
is scheduled to arrive in
Baker City on Wednesday,
Aug. 24, and spend the
night at the Baker County
Fairgrounds north of Camp-
bell Street between Grove
and East streets.
McCluskey said the
convoy is “fully on track for
all of the scheduled stops.”
“We encourage the
public to come out and
visit,” McCluskey said.
“We’ll be camping right
there on the fairgrounds, so
we’re gonna have about 33
military vehicles there for
them to walk around, talk
to our people, look at the
vehicles.”
All the vehicles are
Charles & Eileen
Stewart
541.910.5435
Grande Ronde Hospital & Clinics proudly welcomes
Tracy Epperson, MD—Psychiatrist
kayaking, reading, photography, crocheting, and gardening.
La GRANDE AUTO REPAIR
975-2000
Joe Horst
Please help us welcome Dr. Epperson
and her family to our Community!!
www.lagrandeautorepair.com
GRH Behavioral Clinic
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AVAILABLE
GRH.org — 506 4th Street — 541.962.1101
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