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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2017)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 LOCAL NEWS Former Umatilla chamber director under indictment Hutchinson-Talaski pleaded not guilty at an The former executive arraignment Monday in director of the Umatilla Hermiston circuit court. The chamber is a chari- Chamber of Commerce has been indicted on charges she table nonprofit, and its tax stole thousands of dollars returns are available from Guidestar.org, which spe- from the organization. Karen Hutchinson-Ta- cializes in gathering and laski, 60, of Hermiston, did providing data on non- not immediately return calls profits. The chamber’s tax Wednesday. She left the forms shows it lost $25,221 chamber post sometime in in 2012, lost $27,677 in 2016. According to public 2013 and lost $40,139 in records, this is the second 2014. Hutchinson-Talaski was embezzlement case involv- a reporter in 2008 ing Hutchinson-Ta- for the Hermiston laski. Herald. Umatilla Coun- And from Au- ty Circuit Court gust 1992 until documents show October 1998 a grand jury she taught for the handed up the in- Morrow County dictment Dec. 6, School District. 2016, charging Hutchinson-Talas- Hutchinson- Records from the Oregon Teach- ki with one count of Talaski er Standards and third-degree theft, Commission one count of second-degree Practices theft, both misdemeanors, show she lost the job after and four felony charges of embezzling approximately first-degree theft. The thefts $9,000 from the district. Hutchinson-Talaski span early July 2014 to late November 2015 and include signed an order from the taking $1,000 or more on commission in May 1999 in two occasions from bank which she agreed to surren- cash machine withdrawals der her Oregon teaching li- as well as making unautho- cense and admit to the theft. rized purchases on a cham- The order also states a Mor- row County grand jury in- ber account. According to Oregon dited her on Dec. 14, 1998, law, third-degree theft ap- on multiple counts of theft, plies to values of less than and she pleaded guilty to $100, second-degree theft is first-degree theft. She avoid- for $100-$999, and first-de- ed jail, had to pay back the gree theft covers values of at $9,000 and served two years of probation. least $1,000. By PHIL WRIGHT Staff Writer Parks director plans summer projects as winter lingers on Disc golf course, Sunset Park addition in planning phase By JADE MCDOWELL Staff Writer Snowy weather has put a damper on park use this winter, but Hermiston parks and recreation direc- tor Larry Fetter is still ex- cited about projects com- ing up when the weather thaws. One of those projects is a disc golf course. Fetter said he is discussing agreements right now with Good Shep- herd Health Care System and Hermiston Irrigation District that would allow the city to place a course across from the hospital near the corner of North- west 11th Street and Elm Avenue. “We’ve already started seeking funding,” he said. Fetter said the parks and recreation committee has also looked into what will be needed to get the course officially ranked by profes- sional disc golf associations for tournament play. The 18-hole course would likely be utilized by a mix of seri- ous disc golfers and people who just wanted to “go out STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL Discarded Christmas trees at Butte Park that the city hasn’t fed through a wood chipper yet are one thing the parks department has delayed due to snow. and have a good time,” Fet- ter said. As for parks projects already underway, Fetter said the snow and the pro- longed freezing weather did halt some concrete work at Sunset Park, which the city has been working to expand and renovate. “We would have made some winter progress on Sunset Park, but that’s re- ally ground down to zero,” he said. However, when the weather gets better the de- partment will continue to work on concrete borders, landscaping, basketball hoops and a new set of playground equipment that will arrive in the spring. Fetter said the backstop screen at Newport Park will also be installed “as soon as the weather breaks.” Newport Park’s soft- ball field was lowered by a couple of feet to help catch water that was flooding neighboring homes during rainstorms, but Fetter said when a portion of the snow melted last week it did so slowly enough that it didn’t turn the park into a lake. In the spring or sum- mer the parks department will also begin work on a planned overhaul of Green- wood Park, the half-acre neighborhood park tucked away on Beech Street. Fetter noted that the de- partment has had to delay its annual wood-chipping of all the Christmas trees people drop off at Butte Park each January. The chips are used as mulch at parks around Hermiston, but Fetter said the snow keeps delaying use of the wood chipper. He said the extra snow this year shouldn’t cause too many extra mainte- nance problems in the spring, unless a rapid thaw causes the Umatilla Riv- er to overflow its banks at Riverfront Park. “If it’s like it was four years ago (when the park flooded), we would have to go in and do some resto- ration work,” he said. On the recreation side of things, Hermiston is cur- rently missing its recreation director after Dan Earp left for a job at a larger parks department in Carson City, Nevada. 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