WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
Sheriff’s candidates face criticism for mistakes
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla County Sheriff
Terry Rowan apologized
Friday for ignoring a Helix
man’s calls for help more
than a year ago
Yet moments before,
Rowan told that man and
30 other audience members:
“I’m your sheriff 24/7, 365.”
Rowan and challenger
Ryan Lehnert spoke at the
Milton-Freewater Repub-
lican Women’s Club can-
didates forum at the Mil-
ton-Freewater Community
Center. Club president Suni
Danforth was the host and
read questions from the
audience, which included
undersheriff Jim Little-
ield, sheriff’s Capt. Kathy
Lieuallen, two sheriff’s de-
tectives and Athena Mayor
Jon Shafer, who also works
for the sheriff’s ofice.
The irst shot landed on
Lehnert, a corporal with the
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment and a former Oregon
National Guard platoon ser-
geant who served in 2004
in Iraq. He was asked why
Pendleton police demoted
him seven years ago from
sergeant to oficer.
Lehnert explained he
worked night shift and spent
too much time hanging out
at the county’s dispatch cen-
ter. He said he was not doing
anything different from oth-
er Pendleton cops. Howev-
er, he admitted, he also sent
another oficer to answer
a call for service that he
should have taken. That led
Pendleton Police Chief Stu-
art Roberts to strip Lehnert
of his rank for not fulilling
his duties as a supervisor.
His boss was right for
taking the action, Lehnert
told the crowd, and the
demotion allowed him to
acquire new police skills.
Roberts now endorses him
for sheriff, he said, and so
too does Umatilla Tribal
Police Chief Tim Addleman
and Pilot Rock Chief Bill
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Umatilla County Sheriff’s candidate Ryan Lehnert answers a
question during a forum sponsored by the Milton-Freewater
Republican Women’s Club on Friday as current sheriff Terry
Rowan looks on.
Caldera, who until early this
summer was the Pendleton
police lieutenant.
Lehnert also said no lo-
cal chiefs have signed on
to support Rowan in his
re-election effort.
Rowan also took a shot
when Jim Williams of He-
lix said that what happened
to his daughter about a year
ago eroded any trust he had
in Rowan and his ofice.
Williams recalled his
daughter called him one
night after someone chased
her down a county road. She
is smart and tough, he said,
and volunteered in some of
the nation’s poorest commu-
Umatilla County Sheriff
Terry Rowan addresses an
concern from a member of
the audience.
nities and taught in foreign
counties, yet what she expe-
rienced here frightened her
more than anything.
“I waited for three days
for a response from an ofi-
cer,” he told Rowan. “I went
to your ofice and asked to
speak with you.”
But even that proved
fruitless, Williams said, and
after waiting 45 minutes a
deputy came out and said he
could not help.
“I tried to call you on
your cellphone, I left mes-
sages ... and no response
back,” Williams said. “I’ve
lost full conidence in your
ofice.”
Rowan offered an apol-
ogy for his failure and his
department’s.
“There is no excuse for
my not calling you back,” he
said, then pivoted to talking
points on the improvements
he made in the sheriff’s of-
ice, including keeping more
offenders in the county jail
and increasing the patrol di-
vision from seven deputies
to 14.
Rowan touted his expe-
rience and the work he has
done as sheriff as reasons
why voters should send him
back for a second term. Leh-
nert expressed his passion
for helping others and desire
to hold the sheriff’s ofice
more accountable to the citi-
zens of the county.
Walden to visit
County cuts fair local employees as
Eastern Oregon
EOTEC construction moves forward
veterans this week
By PHIL WRIGHT AND
JADE MCDOWELL
Rep. Greg Walden will
meet with veterans and
their advocates in East-
ern Oregon this week to
discuss challenges facing
veterans in the region and
his work with Congress to
address veterans’ issues.
His agenda includes
stops in Hermiston, Pend-
leton and Milton-Freewa-
ter.
On Thursday, Walden
will attend a Hermiston
Rotary meeting at noon
before meeting with
Hermiston Veterans of
Foreign Wars and Ameri-
can Legion chapters at the
VFW, 45 W. Cherry Ave.
in Hermiston at 2:30 p.m.
There he plans to hear
from local veterans about
their experiences access-
ing care at the VA and dis-
cuss current efforts in the
House of Representatives
to improve VA programs.
On Saturday Walden
will visit Pendleton to
meet with the Backcoun-
try Horsemen of Oregon at
11 a.m. at Shari’s, 319 SE
Nye Ave. in Pendleton, and
attend the demobilization
of Pendleton’s National
Guard unit (1st Battalion,
168th Aviation Regiment)
at the Army Aviation Sup-
port Facility Hanger, 2110
NW 56th Drive in Pendle-
ton at 2 p.m.
HSD students offered
dental health screenings
Students in the Herm-
iston School District will
be given dental health
screenings over the course
of the next month.
Advantage Dental has
been contracted to provide
the service, according to
a news release from the
school district, through
the Oregon Communi-
ty Foundation. Students
with parent permission
can receive an oral health
screening, luoride coat-
ings, sealants and silver
luoride.
Oregon
Community
Foundation’s Comprehen-
sive School-Based Dental
Health Program targets
students in kindergarten
through eighth grade. It is
an effort to help meet the
requirements set forth by
Oregon House Bill 2972
to collect dental screening
information for students
under the age of 8 who
are starting an educational
program for the irst time.
New students are required
to have certiication of a
dental health screening
from a qualiied provider
in the past 12 months.
For questions about the
screenings, contact Jon
Mishra, the school dis-
trict’s director of special
programs, at 541-667-
6020 or via email at jon.
mishra@hermiston.k12.
or.us.
Staff Writers
Don Slone’s job as Uma-
tilla County Fair manager
came to an end Saturday,
along with maintenance
manager Ed Peterson, as
work on the Eastern Ore-
gon Trade and Event Center
continues.
Construction of the ro-
deo arena began last week,
and a contract for purchase
of the barns to host the
Umatilla County Fair in
2017 should be ready for
approval during the EO-
TEC board’s Oct. 21 meet-
ing.
County Commissioner
Larry Givens said moving
the fair to EOTEC means
the county no longer needs
to fund the positions.
“We don’t have a fair-
grounds any more,” Givens
said. “And a lot of the fair
manager position was over-
seeing the grounds.”
The county hired Slone
and Peterson in February.
County counsel Doug Ol-
sen said the fair manag-
er made $5,181 a month
and the maintenance lead
made $2,934. Givens said
there have been no deci-
sions on who will manage
the 2017 fair and who will
pay for that work. The city
of Hermiston and Umatilla
County are co-owners of
EOTEC.
The fair’s ofice assis-
tant, Angie McNalley, will
keep her job. Olsen said she
is the lone county employee
working at EOTEC
The county planned to
extend its lease for the old
fair site, which the Herm-
CONTRIBUTED BY THE CITY OF HERMISTON
Ground was broken on the rodeo grounds at the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event Center last week.
iston School District now ning to hold events there
owns, from its current end and is working to make
date of Dec. 31 to June, in sure those events continue
order to accommodate a to stay in Hermiston. The
horse sale and collegiate Hermiston Senior Center
rodeo. But Givens said the has extended its lease to
school district, which
June.
bought the property,
Kay
said
the
decided not to extend
school board would
the lease.
be discussing the
Not being able to
district’s post-lease
extend the lease has
plans for the property
some cost advantag-
during its next meet-
es.
ing.
“ E c o n o m i c a l l y, Slone
Randy Hull of
it makes more sense
the Hermiston Horse
for us to put our efforts into Sale Extravaganza said he
getting the fair moved,” he still planned to hold the
said.
February and May sales at
Mike Kay, executive di- the old fairgrounds, in co-
rector of operations for the operation with the school
school district, said the dis- district, before moving
trict did offer to extend the to EOTEC as soon as it is
county’s lease through June ready.
1, 2017, using the same
“I have every intention
terms as the current lease, to stay in Hermiston,” he
but that was “not accept- said.
able” to the county.
The county, meanwhile,
However, he said that the has until Dec. 31 to move
district has reached out to all of the fair’s equip-
the groups that were plan- ment over to the EOTEC
grounds. The county com-
mission recently approved
$30,000 to build a secure
storage site there.
Despite some delays,
members of the EOTEC
board and of Hendon Con-
struction have said they
feel conident the arena will
be done in time to host the
Farm-City Pro Rodeo in
August 2017.
As construction of the
rodeo arena begins, Kay
(who volunteers as a mem-
ber of the rodeo board in
addition to his job at the
school district) said the
rodeo board is grateful to
Hendon Construction for
stepping up and making it
possible to inish the arena
in time for the 2017 Farm-
City Pro Rodeo.
“We’re very excited to
be able to put these plans in
motion,” he said.
Smith said the EO-
TEC project in its entire-
ty will result in a facility
that can meet the region’s
needs while not asking the
community’s taxpayers to
shoulder “crippling debt”
to pay for it.
“Too often with the de-
velopment of large pub-
lic facilities like this, the
stakeholders get too anx-
ious and end up making
poor business decisions
which end up saddling the
public with major long-
term property tax debt,”
he said. “The community
should be very proud that
their patience and gen-
erosity has allowed the
EOTEC Board to develop
this project in a logical
and fiscally responsible
manner.”
For more information, call 1-800-962-2819
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Celebrate your loved ones in our
We are so
proud of you
for serving
your country.
VETERANS DAY TRIBUTE
Love
Evelyn,
We are
so
Joe
proud and
of you
Cheryl
for
serving
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and those who are currently serving
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courage and honor. They’ve left
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and ideals. They make us proud to
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Staff Sergeant
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This special section will print in the Hermiston Herald on Nov. 9 and
in the East Oregonian on Nov. 11, 2016. There is NO CHARGE to
be included. Bring us or send in photos of servicemen, servicewomen
or veterans, along with the information in the form to the right, by
November 1.
Thank you for
your service!
Love Evelyn,
Joe and
Cheryl
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include a special message, border, lags, or stars
and stripes, rates are $40 for a 1x4” space or $55
for a 2x3” space. Private party only.
Please call 1-800-962-2819.
Love always
Marcy, Julie &
Emily
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