WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
Umatilla moves on without mayor
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Umatilla City Coun-
cil addressed city business
without a mayor March 7
after David Trott resigned
from the position the previ-
ous week.
Council president Mary
Dedrick will preside over
the council until a new
mayor can be elected in
November. Both she and
councilor David Lougee
voted against accepting
Trott’s letter of resignation.
The letter came after
Trott called a special ex-
ecutive session meeting
that he stated beforehand
was to address several con-
cerns that had been brought
to him about city manager
Russ Pelleberg. The council
emerged from that meeting
without taking any action,
and later councilor Mel Ray
asked for a second closed-
door meeting to discuss
Trott’s behavior.
After Trott’s request that
the meeting be conducted
in open session was met
with resistance from some
councilors, Trott resigned,
writing that “a majority of
the council appears unwill-
ing to discuss recent issues
in an open public forum and
would rather conduct their
discussions behind closed
doors ... attitudes like this
show a disdain and lack of
respect for the public that
the mayor and council rep-
resent.”
Councilors were split in
their assessment of Trott’s
resignation. Lougee stated
that while he did not always
agree with Trott, he thought
as mayor he had provided
experience and a balance
to the council that was im-
portant.
“I believe him to be an
honorable man who was
trying to do what was best
for the city,” Lougee said.
He said that while he
would presume Pelleberg
was innocent of any allega-
tions against him until prov-
en otherwise, Lougee did
believe that there should be
a third-party investigation
when there were claims
against city staff.
Lougee also stated that
he, too, felt that too much
city business was dis-
cussed outside of open
public meetings. He said
when it was publicly stated
that “the council” wanted
former city manager Bob
Ward to retire early, it was
the first he had heard of it,
suggesting that it had been
discussed beforehand by
certain councilors instead
of going through appropri-
ate channels such as a com-
mittee meeting or council
work session.
“We need to do things
openly,” he said.
Roak TenEyck took a
different view of Trott’s
resignation. He called
Umatilla his “own personal
paradise” he loves coming
home to. He said he can’t
stand idly by, then, as a
“self-serving person” with
an agenda tries to publicly
destroy the career of a city
manager who “has done
more in a year than some
people have done in total”
for Umatilla.
“Mr. Trott most defi-
nitely needed to resign and
that’s about the only thing
he and I agreed on,” Ten-
Eyck said.
He said the information
that had been made public
was only one side of the
story and he stood by the
council’s decision to pro-
mote Pelleberg to city man-
ager.
“I thought then and still
do now that he is the right
person for the job,” he said,
all students and families,
and is at Hermiston High
School, 600 S. 1st St.,
Hermiston.
production are today and
Thursday at 7 p.m. in
Bob Clapp Theatre, lo-
cated in Pioneer Hall at
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College, 2411 N.W.
Carden Ave., Pendleton.
The auditions are open to
all community members.
The
story
centers
around two friends — one
a total slob, the other an
obsessive neat freak —
who unexpectedly find
themselves as room-
mates. Between the two
versions, the casts call for
eight men and eight wom-
en. No advance prepara-
tion is needed for the au-
ditions.
The performance dates
are May 11-14 and 18-21.
For more information,
contact 541-278-5928 or
cct@bluecc.edu.
Students to perform
Hawaii concert
IN BRIEF
Teen hit by car
near high school
A 13-year-old boy sus-
tained minor injuries but
declined medical treat-
ment after he was hit by
a vehicle near Hermiston
High School.
The incident occurred
about 4:18 p.m. Tuesday
at the intersection of South
First Street and Highland
Avenue.
The boy, a Hermiston
resident, was crossing
north on West Highland
Avenue at the crosswalk,
when he was struck by a
vehicle driven by Rebecca
Kruse, also of Hermiston,
who was driving west on
West Highland.
Kruse was issued a ci-
tation by the Hermiston
Police Department for
careless driving.
Hermiston Police did
not release the name of the
teen who was struck.
College Night
Oregon is tonight
Hermiston High School
will host its College Night
Oregon event tonight,
Wednesday, March 15. at
5:30 p.m..
Students and parents
can learn more about
choosing a college, nav-
igating financial aid and
scholarships.
Pizza will be provid-
ed at the event, and stu-
dents can enter a drawing
to win one of three $500
scholarships, which will
be announced at the end
of the night.
The event is open to
Hospital auxiliary
offers scholarships
Students pursuing high-
er education in the field
of medicine are eligible
to apply for $1,500 schol-
arships for the 2017-18
school year.
To be eligible for the
Good Shepherd Medical
Center Auxiliary schol-
arships, a student’s home
residence must be within
the areas served by Good
Shepherd Health Care
System.
Those communities in-
clude Hermiston, Board-
man, Echo, Irrigon, Stan-
field and Umatilla.
Also, applicants must
have successfully com-
pleted at least one year of
study in the field of med-
icine at a college or uni-
versity.
The deadline to apply
is Friday, April 28. Ap-
plication forms are avail-
able at the hospital gift
shop, 610 N.W. 11th St.,
Hermiston, or by calling
the director of volunteer
services at 541-667-3690.
BMCC sets auditions
for ‘Odd Couple’
A “male” and “female”
version of the popular
Neil Simon comedy “The
Odd Couple” will be
staged by BMCC’s Col-
lege Community Theatre.
Auditions for the May
Spray Rodeo
seeks queen
Tryouts for the 2017
Spray Rodeo queen will
be held Saturday, March
25, at 1 p.m. at the Spray
Rodeo Grounds.
Contestants are wel-
come from throughout the
region, they do not have
to be Wheeler County res-
idents.
Those applying must
be at least 15 years old
and never have been mar-
ried or had children.
In its 70th year, the ro-
deo, which is held in con-
junction with the Eastern
Oregon Half Marathon, is
May 27-28 in Spray.
For more information
or to request an applica-
tion, call 541-468-2442.
Students traveling to
Hawaii over Spring Break
to perform a concert are
presenting the music to
local audiences Friday.
Musicians from high
schools in Stanfield,
Ione, Irrigon and Echo
will present the concert
at 6:30 p.m. in the Stan-
field High School cafete-
ria. The event is open to
the public and admission
is free.
For more information,
contact Ione music direc-
tor Bryan Bates at bryan.
bates@ionesd.org.
Program targets
diabetes risk
If you are 45 or older,
are overweight, have a
family history of type 2
diabetes, or had diabetes
while you were pregnant,
you may be at risk for pre-
diabetes and type 2 diabe-
tes.
PreventT2, a program
proven to prevent or delay
type 2 diabetes, is being
offered at Good Shep-
herd Wellness Center in
Hermiston, located behind
Good Shepherd Medical
Center, 610 N.W. 11th St.
The year-long program,
led by a lifestyle coach, is
free.
Classes begin March
20 and run each Monday
from 4-5 p.m.
For more information
and to sign up, contact
Helena Wolfe at 541-561-
5443 or hwolfe@cape-
co-works.org.
stating that Umatilla was
on the cusp of growth and
deserved a chance to grow.
His speech was met
with applause from several
members of the audience.
Despite the conster-
nation caused by Trott’s
resignation, the rest of the
meeting moved through
typical city business with-
out disruption. The coun-
cil authorized Pelleberg to
sign a lease renewal with
the U.S. Army Corps of En-
gineers for portions of the
Lewis and Clark Trail, au-
thorized Dedrick to sign an
intergovernmental agree-
ment with the Department
of Energy, passed an ordi-
nance officially adopting
the Youth Advisory Coun-
cil as a city committee and
approved a contract with
Portland State University
graduate students who are
helping Umatilla create a
downtown
revitalization
plan as a class project. The
students hosted an open
house Friday at Umatilla
High School from 3-7 p.m.
to solicit feedback from the
community on what resi-
dents want Umatilla to look
like.
Pelleberg reported he is
working with cities from
the west side of the county
to pursue funding for a trail
along the Umatilla River
stretching from the Colum-
bia River to Stanfield or
possibly Echo. He said he
was delaying creation of a
Community Development
department for a month or
two until he could give the
council a detailed presenta-
tion about his plans for the
department and how duties
across city departments
would be reorganized.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Local classified
staff honored
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
Staff Writer
The Hermiston School
District honored several
people on Monday who
make the schools run —
even though they some-
times go unrecognized.
The school board
handed out awards to its
Classified Employees of
the year from all eight
schools, as well as at the
district level.
The award winners are
as follows:
Hermiston
High
School: Lindy Thomp-
son, athletics and activi-
ties secretary
Joyce Wright, campus
monitor
Armand Larive: Delia
Lopez, custodian
Sandstone: Shou Yun
Foun, special education
assistant
Desert View: Serena
Barker, special education
assistant
Highland Hills: Sharla
McDonald, special edu-
cation assistant
Rocky Heights: Nicole
Malmberg, special educa-
tion assistant
Sunset: Jennifer Mor-
rell, special education as-
sistant
West Park: Gaby Cho-
ra, special education as-
sistant
District office: Nancy
Coria, home liaison.
The classified staff
members were honored
at this week’s school
board meeting, with com-
mendations from each
school’s principal, the
school board and Super-
intendent Fred Maiocco.
“Our support staff are
second to none,” Maioc-
co said. The honors come
on the heels of Classified
Employee Appreciation
Week, which was March
6 to 10.
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