REGION
Thursday, May 20, 2021
East Oregonian
A7
New faces to join Hermiston school board Hermiston, Stanfi eld
Newcomers Sally
voters pass fi re bond
Anderson Hansell,
Dain Gardner hold
sizable leads for
school board seats
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Two
new faces will be joining the
Hermiston Board of Education
and two incumbents kept their
seats in the May 18 election.
According to results posted
by the Umatilla County Elec-
tions Division after 10 p.m.
on May 18, incumbent Brent
Pitney was defeated by Sally
Anderson Hansell.
Pitney, who works for
Knerr Construction, was
appointed to the board in
2018. He garnered 36.7% of
the 2,843 votes cast. Anderson
Hansell, an attorney at Ander-
son Hansell PC, received 63%.
She described herself as
“deeply humbled” by the
Anderson
Hansell
Gardner
results, and said she looks
forward to learning more about
what is going on in Hermiston
schools.
“I think the election tells
me that the community is
looking forward to more and
better communication from
the board and administrators,
as well as enhanced transpar-
ency as far as decisions go,
and the reasons for those deci-
sions,” she said.
After board member Mark
Gomolski decided not to run
again, in order to focus on
his new job as director of the
Agape House, newcomers
Dain Gardner and Lili Gomez
stepped up to vie for Position 3.
According to results posted
Medelez
Sherman
late May 18, Gardner held a
large lead at 61.2% of the vote.
Both Gardner and Anderson
Hansell had emphasized in
their campaigns that students
should have returned to
in-person learning during the
pandemic sooner.
Gardner, a senior trooper
for the Oregon State Police’s
Fish and Wildlife Division,
expressed his thanks to voters
and said he would work to stay
in touch with them and help the
board be more transparent.
“I’m just excited to get to
work,” he said.
The other two current
board members up for another
term will retain their seats.
Karen Sherman, who has
served on the board for 20
years, is in the lead for her
seat, with 63.1% of the vote.
The other person on the ballot
for Sherman’s seat, Caitlin
Melhorn, told the East Orego-
nian prior to the election that
she had decided she did not
want to run after all due to
previous time commitments,
but the deadline had passed to
withdraw her name from the
ballot.
Sherman said she looked
forward to working with the
new board, and to planning for
a more “normal” school year
next year.
“I appreciate the support
and hope I can continue to
make the Hermiston School
District a strong and eff ective
district,” she said.
Incumbent Bryan Medelez,
operations manager for
Medelez, Inc., was appointed
to the board in 2019. He was
running unopposed to retain
his seat, and had 2,111 votes
in his favor, with 52 write-in
votes.
Incumbents keep their seats on the POM Commission
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — All
three incumbents on the Port
of Morrow Commission
will be retaining their seats,
according to unoffi cial elec-
tion results released on Tues-
day, May 18.
Rick Stokoe, who currently
holds Position 1 on the
commission, had 46.9% of
the vote.
Stokoe has worked in law
enforcement for more than 31
years and has been Boardman
Police Department chief since
2011. He was appointed as a
port commissioner in 2015
and reelected in 2017.
He had two challengers.
John Kilkenny, an area farmer,
had 38% of the vote, while
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign marks the entrance to the Port of Morrow’s East Beach
Industrial Park on July 17, 2020.
Jonathan Tallman, whose
family owns The Farmer’s
Cup, had the remaining 16%.
Jerry Healy is set to return
for another term at Position 3
with 62.2% of the vote.
Healy was born and raised
in Morrow County and lived
there most of his life, other
than college and a stint in the
Peace Corps. He has served on
the Port of Morrow Commis-
sion for about 27 years and
said he keeps running because
the position is a worthwhile,
exciting one that helps accom-
plish a lot for the community.
Of his two challengers for
the seat, Rick Weiss, pastor
of First Baptist Church in
Boardman, had 30.9% of the
vote and Chandler Schaak,
an insurance agent, had the
remaining 6.7%.
Joe Taylor, a farmer
who has served on the port
commission for 16 years, was
running unopposed, with six
write-in votes cast against him
out of 1,632 votes total.
Before the results were
in, Taylor said he would
have welcomed a challenger,
because he likes to see people
involved and interested in
what the Port of Morrow is
doing. But he was happy to
serve again to see projects
through that the board has
already started.
$13.1M bond
passes with 57%
of the vote
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
H ER M ISTON —
Umatilla County Fire
District 1 Chief Scott Stan-
ton was feeling a sense of
relief on Tuesday, May 18,
after voters supported a
$13.1 million bond that will
pay for new safety equip-
ment, vehicles and facil-
ity upgrades for the fire
district.
As of results posted after
10 p.m. Tuesday night, the
bond had 57.2% of the vote
out of 3,150 votes cast.
“We’ve got a lot of work
ahead of us, but we’re
excited to do it,” Stanton
said.
The bond will assess up
to 23 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value on proper-
ties for the next 20 years,
which would cost the
owner of a home valued at
$250,000 about $57.50 per
year.
The district plans to
spend the money on a wide
range of upgrades meant
to better protect the health
and safety of fi re district
personnel, and improve
their ability to respond to
fires, crashes and medi-
cal emergencies. Once the
district has access to the
fi rst funds in July, Stanton
said one top priority will be
purchasing new turnouts
for fi refi ghters. The protec-
tive suits are supposed to be
used for up to fi ve years, but
some suits still in use by the
district have been in use for
as long as nine years.
“We’ve got a lot of plan-
ning to do, but there is also
a lot of stuff we can get on
fast, including personal
protective equipment,” he
said.
Some of the other items
on the list for the next few
years includes replacing or
refurbishing old fi re trucks,
adding equipment to ambu-
lances to make it easier to
load patients, replacing the
aging rescue equipment
used to remove patients
trapped in crashed vehicles,
replacing communications
equipment and purchasing
new cardiac heart monitors.
The district also plans to
upgrade its facilities. Stan-
ton said the board felt that
upgrading current stations
was a more eff ective use
of taxpayer dollars than
building new ones. Proj-
ects include new roofs on
two stations that are leak-
ing, additional bays for the
Westland station, adding
living quarters to the Stan-
field station and adding
separate living quarters for
women at the main station
in downtown Hermiston.
The district also plans to
upgrade systems to reduce
the engine exhaust fumes
staff are breathing in while
in the bays.
Stanton said it will
take time to put together
requests for proposals and
work with the contractors
selected, but the district
already has a bond over-
sight committee made up
of citizens tasked with
making sure the money is
being spent wisely.
He said district person-
nel were texting him as the
results came in and talking
to him at the station the next
morning about how excited
they were to have better
equipment.
“We’re so thankful for
the community support,”
he said.
OFFER ENDS May 25, 2021
Don't Wait! Call and make your
appointment now!
Hermlston: 955 SE 4th St. Ste. B Hermiston, OR 97838
(541) 716-5092
Pendleton: 29 SW Dorian Ave. Ste. #6 Pendleton, OR 97801
(541) 224-8661