REGION
Thursday, January 18, 2018
East Oregonian
Commissioners vote down
livestock district annexation
HERMISTON
Veteran presented with honorable discharge
be a livestock district,
she told the board, “we
need to address the fence
problem.”
Commissioner
Larry
Givens said landowners
need to be responsible
and take care of their
property. Commissioner
George Murdock said
taking the action without a
viable fence did not seem
workable. They voted 2-0
against the petition.
In other county busi-
ness, the board approved
the audit report for the
period July 1, 2016,
through June 30, 2017.
The
accounting
firm
Barnett & Moro, Herm-
iston, conducted the audit.
Accountant
Cameron
Anderson told the board
there were no findings and
no adjustments.
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
A Subaru crashed into the front window of Hermiston’s Big Lots store Wednesday
around noon.
SUV crashes through
Big Lots front window
The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
denied an annexation
of about 100 acres into
the Dry Creek Livestock
District in Weston.
Roselee Gannaway filed
the request in November
2017, but according to
county records she did not
attend the public hearing
on the matter Wednesday
morning at the county
courthouse, Pendleton.
Cheryl Cosner told the
board her family lives
on Upper Dry Creek and
has about 2,220 acres of
open range they use to run
cattle and sheep. The fence
around the annexation
property, she said, was not
adequate.
If there is going to
And during a special
presentation,
Jennifer
Olson from the county’s
Veteran’s
Department
introduced David “Spud”
Cook Sr., a veteran of the
Korean War. She said she
met Cook not long after
taking on the job in October
2016 and the military
“unjustly dismissed him.”
Cook asked her to change
that discharge.
She presented him with
a new, honorable discharge.
His family cheered and
applauded.
“I thought I was just
coming down here to sign
a paper,” the long-bearded
Cook said.
Along
with
the
discharge, Cook also
received the medal he
earned for his service, and
Murdock gave Cook a
coin commemorating the
Korean War.
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East Oregonian
A 78-year-old Hermiston
woman crashed her SUV
through the front window
of the Big Lots store in the
Hermiston Plaza at about
noon Wednesday.
Christina Kennedy of
Hermiston was the driver
and sole occupant of a black
2015 Subaru Forester.
She told police that as
she approached the store
on South Highway 395, she
accidentally hit the gas pedal
instead of the brake. The
vehicle went through the
front window, coming to rest
near the checkout counters.
No one was hurt, but
damage to the store was
estimated between $60,000-
$90,000,
according
to
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Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
A car went through the window of Hermiston’s Big
Lots store, 930 S. Highway 95, on Wednesday.
police, and Kennedy was
issued a citation for careless
driving.
Store employees imme-
diately started cleaning up
pieces of debris, and Herm-
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iston Police blocked off the
entrance of the store with
caution tape.
Police will add extra
patrols to the area until the
window is repaired.
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HERMISTON
Two candidates file for council seats FH106* 06'4'56 4'' +0#0%+0)^
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
With a month and a half
left before the deadline to file
for one of four Hermiston city
council seats, two candidates
are in the running so far.
Incumbent Doug Smith
will run again, and Shean
Fitzgerald has filed to run for
his wife Clara Beas Fitzger-
ald’s seat after she decided not
to run for another term.
Fitzgerald, running for
Ward II, said one of his
biggest reasons for running is
to see if he can have an effect
on lowering the property
tax burden for Hermiston
residents. Hermiston has the
highest property taxes in the
county, thanks in large part to
the bonds that voters continue
to pass.
He said he would also like
to see the city do more to help
the elderly, the lonely and the
homeless.
“We need to take care of
those people,” he said.
Fitzgerald
described
himself as “semi-retired” from
the construction industry and
said he still takes jobs as an
operating engineer from time
to time. He moved to Herm-
iston in 1978 after getting out
of the Marine Corps.
Page 3A
“It’s a nice place to live,
and a nice place to raise your
kids,” he said.
His wife Beas Fitzgerald
has taken on several new
tasks since being elected to
the city council three years
ago, including pursuing an
advanced degree, chairing
the nonprofit that puts on
the city’s annual Cinco de
Mayo festival and serving on
the Oregon Commission on
Women. She has decided not
to run again in order to focus
on other endeavors.
Doug Smith, who hopes to
maintain his seat representing
Ward IV, is a former officer
with the Hermiston Police
Department. He is three years
into his first four-year term on
the city council.
“This is my home, this is
the city I love and I want to
do what I can to further it,” he
said.
He said serving on the
council was intimidating at
first, but he has learned a
lot and had opportunities to
serve the community that he
wouldn’t have otherwise had.
Lori Davis and Jackie
Myers, the other two incum-
bents who would be up for
re-election, said they aren’t
ready yet to announce whether
they have chosen to run again.
The deadline to file is
March 6 at 5 p.m.
Hermiston operates on an
eight-person council system,
with four at-large seats
and four seats representing
geographical areas known
as wards. It is the four ward
seats that are up for election in
2018. If two or fewer people
run for a seat during the May
15 election, the winner of that
race will take their seat for a
four-year term on the council
in Jan. 2019. If more than two
people run for a seat, the May
election will be considered
a primary and the top two
vote-getters will have a
run-off in the general election
in November.
Candidates must live in
the ward they are running for,
must be a “qualified voter”
in the state of Oregon and
must have lived in Hermiston
for at least one year prior to
declaring their candidacy. A
map of the four wards can
be found at city hall or online
at
www.hermiston.or.us/
government/city-council.
Filing forms and manuals can
be found at city hall or online
at sos.oregon.gov/elections/
Pages/manuals-tutorials.aspx
and must be returned to the
city recorder by no later than
March 6, 2018 at 5 p.m.
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