REGION
Saturday, March 18, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Former Umatilla
City to discuss EOTEC, senior center bid chamber director
“The city is committed to making
pleads guilty to theft
sure the project is completed in
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Hermiston City
Council will be asked to
award G2 Construction the
contract for construction
of the Harkenrider Center
during
Monday’s
city
council meeting at the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center.
The facility will primarily
serve as Hermiston’s senior
center but after five years will
also be able to host programs
for all ages after 3 p.m.
Groundbreaking will begin
mid-April and the building
will be on Ridgeway Avenue
north of the Hermiston
Public Library.
The Kennewick-based G2
Construction beat out Griffin
Construction and Wellens
Farwell as the low bidder
at $2,189,000 plus $80,000
for an elevator. The city
has also set aside $250,000
for parking improvements
around the center.
The first $2 million for
the project came from a
a professional manner.”
— Mark Morgan, assistant city manager,
speaking about the Harkenrider Center
federal Community Devel-
opment Block Grant, which
has been in the news recently
as one of the programs that
President Donald Trump’s
proposed budget would
eliminate. The city council
later voted to add $550,000
for an unfinished basement,
and funds as needed for
parking improvements and
other elements that end up
not being covered by the $2
million.
“The city is committed
to making sure the project is
completed in a professional
manner,” assistant city
manager Mark Morgan said.
The council’s regular
meeting will be preceded
by a joint work session at
6 p.m. between the council
and the Umatilla County
commissioners to discuss
the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center. Recently
both partners in the project
have discussed possible
adjustments to management
of the project, including
having the city council take
over management from the
EOTEC authority board or
having the county withdraw
its authority over the project
completely.
After the work session,
during the regular city
council meeting, the council
will be asked to approve
leases between EOTEC and
the Umatilla County Fair and
Farm-City Pro Rodeo.
The council will also be
asked to approve an ordi-
nance amending the Tran-
sient Room Tax language
to acknowledge that federal
employees are exempt from
paying such local and state
taxes while acting on official
federal business.
A resolution also on the
agenda would update the
employee handbook to a
consistent policy across
departments
allowing
employees required to use
a cell phone for work to
choose between a city-issued
phone to only be used for
work purposes or a $40
per month reimbursement
in return for using their
personal cell phone for
work. The policy is expected
to cost the city an extra $500
per month but brings them in
line with guidelines issued
by the State of Oregon Ethics
Commission.
The meeting will be held
at the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center, 1705 E
Airport Road, instead of city
hall.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Majority of seats draw only one candidate
East Oregonian
In line with years past,
candidates
in
Umatilla
County won’t face much
competition in the upcoming
May elections.
After the Thursday filing
deadline, a list of candidates
published by the Umatilla
County Elections Division
revealed that 70 percent of
the 124 seats up for election
had only one candidate
running while 18 percent had
no candidate at all.
Held in May during odd
numbered years, the “special
election” is used to vote on
candidates for school boards,
fire protection districts and
other service districts.
Despite the low number
of participants, there are
still a handful of contested
elections local residents will
see on their ballots.
The Umatilla Morrow
Data & Radio District, a
taxing district that provides
communications
system
support for almost every law
enforcement and emergency
services agency in Umatilla
and Morrow counties, has
two contested races that
could significantly change
the composition of its board.
Position 1 incumbent
Mike Roxbury, the former
chief of the Umatilla Rural
Fire Protection District, is
being challenged by Loren
Dieter, a lieutenant with the
Boardman Police Depart-
ment.
Dieter’s chief at the
Boardman PD, Rick Stokoe,
is also mounting a challenge
against Position 2 incumbent
Kathy Lieuallen, Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Office
communications manager.
If both Dieter and Stokoe
are elected, four out of
the five seats on the board
would belong to people from
Morrow County.
Position 4 incumbent
Ken Matlack, the Morrow
County sheriff, is running
unopposed.
The Pendleton School
Board also has a contested
race, its first since 2005.
Chris Roop will try to
unseat board chairwoman
Debbie McBee, who is
seeking her third term.
Although board member
Gary George was one of 10
people who sought appoint-
ment to the Position 4 seat
when it was vacated, he will
face no challengers as he runs
for his first full term. Neither
will Position 1 board member
Steve Umbarger, who is
running for a third term.
Other boards that feature
contested races include the
Athena-Weston
School
District, the Stanfield School
District, the Pilot Rock
School District, the Riverside
Fire District, the Rieth Water
Supply District, the Echo
Cemetery District and the
Umatilla County Library
District.
Some seats drew no filed
candidates, including the
Blue Mountain Community
College Board of Educa-
tion Zone 5 seat, which is
currently vacant, and Herm-
iston School Board Position
3 seat, which will be vacated
by Don Rankin.
Umatilla County elections
manager Kim Lindell said
the elections division will
accept write-in votes for all
the seats without a declared
candidates.
Once the write-in votes
have been counted, the
winner will be asked to
accept the position. If they
decline, then the local board
is given the authority to
declare the seat vacant and
appoint someone to fill the
seat for the next two years.
The election will be held
May 16.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
FLOODING: Umatilla’s baseball field is flooded
Continued from 1A
we’ll go out and restore it —
it washes out the chip mate-
rial we use for playground,
and leaves a lot of mud,” he
said. “It’s really messy and
there’s a lot of cleanup.”
Fetter said floods like
this aren’t all that common
in Hermiston, but seem to
occur once every four or five
years, and has more to do
with the temperature in the
mountains.
“People love that park, so
they’re impacted,” he said.
Most
other
areas
surrounding
Hermiston
appeared to be largely
unaffected by the flooding,
with some minor overflows,
but some have had issues
in the past. City staff in
Stanfield said a levee was
built 15 years ago to prevent
flooding.
Staff at the city of
Umatilla said they weren’t
aware of any flooding Friday,
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Umatilla River floods Riverfront Park on Friday in Hermiston.
but Umatilla High School
had one area affected.
“Our baseball field got
flooded out, we played in
Irrigon yesterday,” said
office manager Debbie
Tesch. But after flooding
several years ago on some
March 4-5-6, 2016 | Spokane Fair & Expo Center | Spokane, WA
of their other athletic fields,
Tesch said a dike was built to
alleviate flooding problems
on school fields.
lost the job and her teaching
license after stealing around
$9,000 from the district.
She avoided jail that
Karen Diane Hutchin-
son-Talaski of Hermiston time as well, and served two
must pay back more than years of probation.
Hutchinson-Talaski in
$8,000 she stole from
the Umatilla Chamber of 2008 worked as a reporter
for the Hermiston Herald.
Commerce.
Ribich, a recent addition
Umatilla city councilor
Mark Ribich is the cham- to the chamber board, said
as far has he knew
ber’s
interim
the board was not
president. He said
aware of Hutchin-
the amount is
s o n - Ta l a s k i ’s
what the chamber
previous
theft
could prove with
before hiring her.
receipts
while
The
theft
the actual total
marred the cham-
remains unknown.
ber’s reputation,
Hutchin-
he said, and the
son-Talaski, 60,
lack of funds
stole from the
chamber in 2014 Hutchinson-Talaski affected chamber
activities,
and 2015 while
working as its director, including the movies in
according to court docu- the park program and the
ments. She pleaded guilty annual Landing Days.
“We learned some
Monday to two counts of
first-degree theft, felonies, lessons though,” he said,
and one of second-degree and the chamber has tighten
theft, a misdemeanor. up its financial reporting
Umatilla County Circuit and now conducts “100
Court documents show percent background checks”
Judge Eva Temple sentenced on employees.
Ribich said Jennifer
Hutchinson-Talaski
to
three years of probation, Wylie resigned as the
including completing a theft board president, and he is
counseling program and 80 filling in until the board
hours of community service can hold a proper election.
work. Hutchinson-Talaski The chamber is focused on
also must pay restitution of rebuilding, he said, and last
$8,057.91 and fines and fees week hired Lori Kimbel of
Elgin as the chamber’s new
of $720.
This is Hutchinson-Ta- director.
She owns and operates
laski’s second conviction for
embezzlement. She taught the bi-monthly Northeast
for the Morrow County Oregon Business News and
School District from August was active in the restoration
1992 until October 1998. of the Elgin Opera House,
Records from the Oregon Ribich said, and is the
Teacher Standards and Prac- “ball of fire” the Umatilla
tices Commission show she chamber needs.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Sentence of child rapist
shorter than original
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Edward Joseph Pergande,
39, was sentenced Thursday
in Heppner to nearly 23 years
in prison, the mandatory
minimum sentence under
Measure 11, after pleading
guilty to two counts each of
first degree sex abuse and
sodomy.
The new sentence, 275
months, is nearly one-third
the length of his original
sentence.
The sentencing concludes
a long and complicated case
that began in 2008 in which
Pergande initially pleaded
not guilty to all charges.
A Morrow County jury
in 2011 convicted Pergande,
who lived in Irrigon, of
sexually abusing two girls
between December 2005 and
September 2007. The victims
were his then-girlfriend’s
children and at the time were
between the ages of 4 and 7.
He was convicted of first-de-
gree rape, unlawful sexual
penetration,
first-degree
sexual abuse and coercion.
Pergande was sentenced
to 62 years, but he appealed
the case and won.
The Oregon Court of
Appeals ruled in April 2015
that a judge made an error in
allowing a certain testimony.
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In addition to the victims,
a clinical social worker who
treated them testified at the
trial and denied the children
showed any indications of
someone coaching them for
their testimony. The Court of
Appeals ruled Circuit Judge
Eva Temple should not have
allowed the statement, as it
was “plain error for a trial
court not to strike testimony
of a witness that is an explicit
comment on the credibility
of another witness.”
The appeals court found
the judge’s allowing of that
testimony to be a “grave
error,” because the case
had no physical evidence
of abuse, and the social
worker “was presented as
an expert in treating sexual
abuse victims with signifi-
cant experience in spotting
indications of suggestion or
coaching.”
Since
July
2015,
Pergande has been in the
Umatilla County Jail, and
has had several proceedings.
Pergande’s team and the state
finally negotiated a plea,
which he entered Thursday.
Pergande’s
attorney,
Dean Gushwa, said he
will be taken to Coffee
Creek Correctional Facility,
Wilsonville, for processing,
and then begin serving his
term at another state prison.
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