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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015
Voters to decide
whether judge
is appointed
Council opts to
make changes to
ensure charter is
approved
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
Hermiston residents will
get to decide whether the
municipal judge should be
elected or appointed by the
City Council.
At the regular City
Council meeting Monday,
council members directed
city staff to prepare the doc-
uments necessary to place a
revised city charter on the
May 2015 ballot after they
agreed to make changes to
the initial proposal.
The charter serves as
the city’s founding docu-
ment, and the last charter
approved in 1954 contained
outdated language, so the
council spent months last
year updating it based on
a model charter from the
League of Oregon Cities.
Most of the changes
were basic and made the
document more legally
tenable, such as removing
the requirement that coun-
cilors be property own-
SEE CHARTER/A10
TODAY’S WEATHER
YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER
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Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston attend-
ed the Hermiston School
Board work session Mon-
day night to report that,
according to the depart-
ment’s annual report, ju-
venile arrests had dropped
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
by 32 percent in 2014 from
HERMISTON HERALD
the previous year. This has
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venile crimes in 2014 has head as to why.
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“It was a little scary
both worried and optimis- when you start seeing de-
tic about what is contrib- clines like that and trying
uting to those lower num- to explain what is going
bers.
on,” he said. “It is a good
Police both
optimistic and
nervous about drop
problem to have, but, over
the course of three years
(there has been) a 37 per-
cent drop, 17 percent drop
and a 32 percent drop last
year.”
Edmiston said one thing
he must consider is if the
police department has been
turning a blind eye to juve-
nile crime.
While he doesn’t be-
lieve that is happening, he
said it is a factor that needs
to be discussed.
Edmiston reported that,
in 2014, 181 juveniles
were detained, and there
were 354 offenses from
that population. Of those,
52 were from drugs and
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related, 25 were theft-re-
lated crimes and four were
weapons crimes. In addi-
tion, 171 offenses stemmed
from charges involving
curfew violation, disor-
derly/harassment, criminal
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assault/menacing, detain-
ment warrants, providing
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misuse of the 9-1-1 system
and conspiracy to commit
a crime.
Edmiston said, at the
county level, 519 cases
were referred to the Juve-
nile Department in 2014,
which is a slight increase
from 2013, which had 512
referrals. Those numbers,
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lower from 2009, which
had 1,013 referred cases.
The number of juveniles
referred to and taking part
in Hermiston’s Commu-
SEE CRIME/A10
SOLACE IN PAINTING
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Hermiston artist Michelle Hopper used those she met in treatment for anorexia and bipolar disorder this summer as inspiration for a new art piece that will be
hung at TM Counseling in Pendleton.
Hermiston resident
uses art to cope
with anorexia and
bipolar disorder
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
HERMISTON HERALD
Hermiston resident Mi-
chelle Hopper was at her
lowest weight since high
school last summer and
was frequently told she
“looked like a cancer pa-
tient.”
Hopper said she has bat-
tled anorexia since she was
12. She also struggles with
bipolar disorder, and, last
summer, she found herself
in a dangerous place after
she lost control of both.
While seeking treatment
at a mental health facility,
she turned to an art that has
always given her solace —
painting. This month, she
left her job as a teacher to
focus solely on herself and
her art.
Hopper said she has
painted since she was
young. In the last several
years, she has had a suc-
cessful clothing line that
features screen-printed im-
ages and drawings of her
own creation, in addition to
hand-printed clothing and
accessories. When she was
seeking treatment for her
mental struggles, however,
she said she decided take a
new path with her art.
Hopper used some of
her peers in treatment as
inspiration for a colorful
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tures a row of horses all
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MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Hermiston artist Michelle Hopper works on a painting called ‘The Drive’ Monday afternoon at her home studio in Hermiston.
Hopper uses painting as a means to cope with anorexia and bipolar disorder.
coming together and star-
ing straight out of the im-
age. She calls it “The Gath-
ering.”
“I tried to feature all of
those personalities who re-
ally helped me get through
that hard time as we went
through it together,” she
said.
Now that Hopper is sta-
ble, she said she uses the
craft as an emotional re-
lease on a day-to-day basis
to make sure she doesn’t
slip back to where she was
just a few months ago.
Hopper said what she
believes is so therapeutic
about painting is that she
doesn’t have to be such a
perfectionist. She said, in
her everyday life, she can
get so focused on perfect-
ing herself and her work
that it can cause her to
reach emotional levels that
are unhealthy for herself
both mentally and phys-
ically. With drawing and
her clothing line, she said
her work is much more de-
tailed, and the perfectionist
side of her shines through.
With painting, however,
she said she can let loose a
bit, blare music in her stu-
dio at her house in Herm-
iston and zone out with a
few strokes of the brush
and lots of wild color.
“When I’m painting,
it doesn’t have to be per-
fect,” she said. “There is
a pretty big difference be-
tween what I paint and my
drawings. With drawing, it
is a lot of concise lines and
detail. With my painting, it
is looser and there isn’t as
much detail.”
Since she has start-
ed painting by tradition-
al means using a canvas,
Hopper said she didn’t ex-
pect her hobby would blos-
som into something that
could potentially turn into
a full-time career. She said,
since she started painting
on canvas, many people
have wanted to buy items
in her collection, which
sell for anywhere between
$300 to $1,500. This
month, she has or is work-
SEE HOPPER/A8
GSMC: Flu numbers this year no worse than in previous years
stable in Hermiston.
“It’s not necessarily higher than
normal,” Pam Schulz, infection
control employee health coordina-
tor, said Tuesday. “If you look at
the Oregon state numbers on the
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
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HERMISTON HERALD
normal.”
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As of Jan. 26, Schulz said that
vaccine administered this year is 38 percent of people admitted to
not as effective in preventing the Good Shepherd Medical Cen-
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People still encouraged
to get vaccinated
Hermiston Herald $1.00
© 2014 EO Media Group
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Schulz said she doesn’t have any
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known as H3N2, because many
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symptoms won’t test positive. The
number of people being treated for
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year, she said.
Even though the numbers are
no higher than normal, Schulz said
she still recommends that people
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According to the Center for
Disease Control, a vaccine’s ef-
fectiveness is based on how sim-
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actually circulating. The vaccine
is designed to protect against three
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SEE INFLUENZA/A10
