REGION
Saturday, January 23, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Kevin Hale speaks after being presented as the Man of the Year on
Friday at the Pendleton First Citizens Banquet and Business Excel-
lence Awards in Mission.
Chamber banquet
honors citizens,
business leaders
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce First Citizens Banquet is
a night where leaders in politics, the
community and business celebrate
their own.
People from the latter category
claimed the top prizes at the banquet
Friday night, concluding the 60th
year of the event.
Referred to as a “peacemaker,”
Coldwell Banker Whitney & Asso-
ciates broker Kevin Hale won the
Man of the Year award.
While real estate is his profes-
sion, the introductory speech
instead focused on civic achieve-
ments, which includes serving
on the Pendleton School District
Budget Committee, Round-Up City
Development Corp., Happy Canyon
Board of Directors, St. Anthony
Hospital Foundation Board and
Pendleton Foundation Trust.
Winning Woman of the Year was
Pendleton Sanitary Services owner
Susan McHenry, who was choked
up as she gave a short acceptance
speech.
“This is a remarkable surprise,”
she said.
Her introductory speech noted
her resilience as a woman in
male-dominated ¿eld and her
advocacy for abused children.
Earlier in the evening, Wheatland
Insurance Center was named the
Business of the Year.
Headquartered in Pendleton,
the 33-year-old company operates
10 of¿ces across Eastern Oregon
and encourages their employees to
participate in community organiza-
tions like the Kiwanis Club, Rotary
Club and Altrusa.
The chamber usually awards a
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Susan McHenry laughs while accepting the award for Woman of the Year on Friday at the Pendleton
First Citizens Banquet and Business Excellence Awards in Mission.
Boss of the Year award, but there
will be no winner this year because
of a dearth of nominations.
The master of ceremonies,
InterMountain Education Service
District Superintendent Mark
Mulvihill, mused that either there
were no good bosses, no employees
liked their bosses or the previous
year’s winner had set the bar too
low. Mulvihill himself is the reining
titleholder.
The rest of the banquet winners
are listed below.
Tourism Excellence Award:
Happy Canyon Co.
Employee of the Year: Stacie
Cummings, Capps Broadcast Group
Customer Service Excellence
Award: Virgil’s at Cimmiyotti’s
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0836.
HERMISTON
Boardman gets ready for awards banquet
City moving forward on water system update
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Hermiston City
Council will consider a
contract amendment with
C&E Trenching on Monday
that would allow for an
update to the Regional Water
System.
The company is currently
under contract with the city
for a $1.1 million project to
extend the Regional Water
System to the Hermiston
Agricultural Research and
Extension Center and change
the water going to Simplot
from potable to non-potable.
The contract amendment
under consideration on
Monday would pay C&E
Trenching an additional
$664,000 in grant funds to
install an additional pump at
the Regional Water System’s
river intake station and create
a Àush system.
The project falls under
the Northeast Oregon Water
Association’s overall effort
to bring more water from
the Columbia River into the
region’s irrigation system
and increase crop production.
The additional pump and new
Àushing system will assist
the group in certifying the
Port of Umatilla’s water right
that supplies the Regional
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Russ Heimark with Wheatland Insurance accepts the award for
Business of the Year as some of his staff looks on Friday at the
Pendleton First Citizens Banquet and Business Excellence Awards
in Mission.
Water System.
On Monday the city
council will also hold an exec-
utive session on a possible
real estate transaction. After
reconvening into the regular
session the council will
“consider purchasing prop-
erty as discussed in Execu-
tive Session,” according to
the agenda.
The council’s regular
meeting at 7 p.m. will be
preceded by a work session
at 6 p.m. The topic is “City
Budgeting 101.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
BOARDMAN — Love is in the air as the Boardman Chamber of Commerce is using a
French romantic theme for its annual awards banquet.
The event is Friday, Feb. 12 with the social hour beginning at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m.
and the awards and a live auction following. The event is at the Port of Morrow Riverfront
Center, 2 Marine Drive, Boardman. Tickets are $35 each. In addition, sponsorships are still
available for the event, which provides an opportunity to be included in advertising and
marketing. For more information, call 541-481-3014.
2016 CAMRY
FWD
%
0
FRONT WHEEL DRIVE
APR for
60 Mo.
BRIEFLY
Business
luncheon includes
networking
HERMISTON — Carl
Sohn of Northwest Farm
Credit Services Business
Management Center, will
share about management
succession planning
during the upcoming B2B
luncheon.
The event begins with
business networking
Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at
the Hermiston Conference
Center, 415 S. Highway
395. Catered by Pudding
on the Ritz, the cost is $10
for members and $13 for
non-members.
For more information
or to RSVP, contact
541-567-6151 or kelly@
hermistonchamber.com.
including the NRA and
4-H have since used the
meeting space in the
building, which the city has
decided to let civic groups
use free of charge.
The city is also using
the space for its library
craft time and story time
activities, and to store
the books that are part of
its program to sell books
online on Amazon.com.
Berry said the city also
recently ¿nished a renova-
tion of the ground Àoor of
the Masonic Lodge, which
OR
Special Low Payment Leases
the city leases. The project
was paid for by grant
funds and the city hopes to
get similar grant funds to
update the VFW building.
———
Briefs are compiled
from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email
press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
D
W
A
%
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2015 RAV4
2
2016 TUNDRA
— S U N D AY —
&
Excludes TRD PRO
S aloon
%
1.9
APR for 60 Mo.
COURT & MAIN, PENDLETON • 541.278.1100
OR
VFW Hall donated
to city of Echo
ECHO — Echo civic
groups have a new meeting
space available to them
after the Veterans of
Foreign Wars donated its
building to the city.
City manager Diane
Berry said the Echo chapter
of the VFW dissolved over
the summer, leaving the
building to the Pendleton
VFW chapter in the
process. The title was
missing, Berry said, and
the Pendleton VFW said if
a civic group was willing
to do a title search they
could have the building for
community use.
In the end, the city
decided to do so and
purchased the building
from the VFW for $1.
Berry said groups
OR
Special Low Payment Leases
PRIME RIB
H AMLEY S TEAK H OUSE
ALL WHEEL DRIVE
APR for
60 Mo.
Special Low Payment Leases
4WD
AGAPE HOUSE PRESENTS:
FOUR WHEEL DRIVE
Every new Toyota comes with
Murder
of
e
Handsom
Jack
PRIME RIB DINNER
Where: 500 Harper Rd. • Altrusa Room
When: January 30th @ 5:30pm
Cost: $35 per person ($20 deductible)
For tickets, call Dave @ 541-567-8774
(541) 567-6461 or 800-522-2308
ToyotaOfHermiston.com
Mon-Fri 8:30a-6:30p • Sat 9:00a-6:00p • Sun 10:30a - 5:30p
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